In 1990 we were able to transfer money from one private bank account into some else's in Europe. When we moved to Canada I had to work with cheques again, simply because banks say it costs too much money to set up a system like that? It's just ridiculous how much money banks get from their customers for lousy customer service.
Not in the least .... I'm running around doing stuff and don't really need the computer to be sucking back electricity, particularly now that I'm on "time of day" billing.Originally Posted by Saniokca
Personally, I don't find it takes that long to boot but everyone is different.
Cheers
if you havent yet, then go for ING. they have a bonus for opening new a/cs. i can give you my orange code for reference if you want
I have not heard of any banks that will do this. It sounds like you want to keep your money working for you all the time, while still having it available to pay bills or write cheques. So perhaps you should look into an All-in-one account. These usually work by merging your mortgage with a chequing account, such that the balance held in the account is subtracted from the mortgage balance when calculating the daily interest (all mortgages in Canada are calculated using daily balances even though they are compounded semi-annually). So rather than producing interest, these accounts reduce the interest you would otherwise have paid on your mortgage. It's like saving 3.25% (or whatever the mortgage rate is) instead of earning a taxable 1.5% (or whatever your savings account rate is). I don't think Canadian Tire offers their "One-and-Only" account anymore, but National Bank has All-in-one and there's also the Manulife One account. The problem with National Bank's account is that they charge Prime+1% on the variable portion (you can have it part fixed-rate & part variable) and their fixed rates aren't competitive either. Manulife One appears to be Prime + 0.5%, but it has a $14/month fee. So these accounts are likely only going to save you money if your average daily balance is way up in the multiple thousands of dollars. And moving your mortgage usually incurs assessment and legal fees, not to mention costs of breaking your mortgage if it's closed and not up for renewal yet.
But there's still a way: simply apply with your current mortgage lending institution for a Home Equity Line of Credit. If you've been paying down your mortgage for a while, you should be able to get approved for some of that built-up equity. If you don't have a mortgage but have some other debts, this can still work for you as long as you can get approved for a line-of-credit with a reasonably low interest rate. Many of the major banks offer LOC/HELOCs with full chequing capabilities, including Interac debit card, cheques, ATM access, bill payments, pre-authorized debits and payroll deposits. To make this act like an all-in-one account, simply make a lump-sum payment from the LOC to your mortgage. Make it large enough that it is bigger than the highest daily balance you would normally keep in your chequing/savings accounts. If that starts getting paid down too fast (because you are saving a lot), just make another lump sum mortgage payment to keep the balance negative. You don't want to hold too much debt in the LOC though, as the interest rate on it is typically higher than your mortgage rate. One thing you need to watch out for though - the lure of spending more than you earn! As you're essentially getting free overdraft protection up to the max amount of the LOC, it can be very tempting to use some of that credit for renovations, buying a car, or other purchases. Of course if you were going to finance the renos or car at a higher interest rate anyway, then it actually makes sense to use the LOC. But I would never recommend borrowing to renovate or buy luxuries, and car financing often has very good rates (at least for the first few years).
@Elby, Thks for sharing!
PC Financial - have been a long term client...free checks...have saved hundreds of dollars at Superstore having used the PC Financial M/C
are you with TD ? If you are able to keep a $5000 balance, the TD Select Service account provides excellent value
ING charges $12.50 for a book of cheques making them, effectively $0.25 per cheque, after you've used up the first book. ("your first hit is free")
The only truly "free" chequing account in Canada is still President's Choice Financial.
Keep/use a TD Savings Account for savings. Open a free TD Waterhouse account and you can use the "Bill Payment" feature on PC Financial to transfer funds into TD online, sans-fee. (or just write yourself a cheque and go to a TD bank machine)
Once your funds are at TD/TDW, the TD Savings account becomes a "portal" that lets you use TD bank machines to withdraw funds (one free Interac tx per month, unlimited TD-to-TD account transfers)
For what it's worth, I can think of many reasons cheques are still needed.
- rent (post-dated)
- repaying friends/family for shared expenses
- "please send a void cheque" type requests
- charitable donations
- DRIP Optional Cash Purchases (monthly, quarterly)
I burn though a cheque book or two a year. Why would I pay $12.50 for the privilege when PC will give them to me for free?
Last edited by CJOttawa; 2012-04-28 at 10:26 AM.
if you don't need too many, you can just ask them to make you few temporary once at the branch, free of charge...
we used to buy from davis and henderson, but now buy from www.chequesnow.ca. were getting 25% more cheques for the same price. The quality is the same, and has that gold square hologram thing as well. Plus we got airmiles which d&h never gave us either.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote