It's no secret most Canadian's hate their banks. They may like their banker (if they stick around for more than a couple weeks) but they definitely hate their banks. And I am no exception. (Disclaimer: I used to work for RBC Royal Bank a few careers ago. )
Here's the skinny. I went to my local branch of BNS where I wanted to pay a bill for my parents. I had the remittance portion of the bill and was going to have the bank debit my account. It has been nearly 2 decades since my banking days, but back then, this is something the bank did. I would have people come in with their stack of bills and we would take the remittance portion and then send them off for payment. I digress. The teller looks at me and says she can't do that and they need the card number to process the payment. I told her that I didn't have the card but surely the remittance portion I had should be sufficient as this is what I would mail in or put in the bank machine.
Admittedly, I was a little hangry at the time and as I get older, my patience level for stupidity gets less and less..daily. As I was trying to advise the teller that this is something that shouldn't be this complicated, and that this was done years ago, some other teller walks by and says to me "well that was then and this is now." WHAT?????? So let me get this straight, banking is getting less convenient with time? And you are charging me more for the priviledge of getting to do less for me?
So then I decide I am done with the conversation and feel that I am down a few IQ points and need to leave. I also notice that the bank up'ed my service charge packages and asked why they did that and what did the add to the package as surely processing 1's and 0's in the computer didn't increase 25% from the previous month? No answer. I didn't think to ask about what the draft cost as I thought it may be included in the $13.95 package I pay monthly. It was not and I left BNS $9.50 poorer.
Banks are clearly blind to the continued nickle and diming of customers while profits soar into the billions. But let me tell you the dirty truth to banking which is the real reason you should hate banks:
Banks don't need your deposits to make loans to customers. No, my friends, banks are for all intents and purposes licensed to create money out of thin air. That's right. That loan or mortgage you were approved for at your bank was just created by their computers and 1's and 0's were deposited into your bank account. And for the right to effectively create money out of nothing, they get to charge you interest. So put that in your pipe and smoke it!
It's time for Canadian banks to have some real competition by a true public bank. Whether this is a retail bank owned by the government, having an account at the Bank of Canada or post office banking, this would help Canadians by reigning in excessive fees charged by existing banks and ensure those who are unbanked or underbanked have a place where they can receive deposits form the government or wherever.
In fact, the Post Office Act did allow for limited banking services. However large banks are afraid of the competition as a public bank can provide the services at lesser cost and probably more efficiently than our big 5 can.
We can currently choose to bank with a credit union which is what I looked at. The fees were just as high or someties higher so what's the point? The term Big Credit Union should apply to some of these institutions as well.
Time to write you MP and let them know that you are tired of being ripped off by your financial institutions and that Canadians should be offered a true public alternative. If the Banks invite competition like they say, they should have no objections.....in some other universe.
And that's my rant for today. Thanks for reading.
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