# Do you ever get frustrated with your bank?



## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

I am probably at the end of my rope with TD Waterhouse after this week events.I manage my sister's TFSA as a result of some money our brother gave her last year and we invested it until she could pay her house off.
So last week I sold 2 US stocks for her worth $13,000 and seen the cash balance there but I also called them and told them this money has to be de-registered and moved to a td chequing account.I spoke to the girl on the phone and she told me in plain English this money will be in the account yesterday.
I checked last night and i see no cash but a stock TDB166 for the $13,000 so I call them and find out the girl took the money from what I sold and washed it with TDB166 but did not do the withdraw.
I am losing it because now they said the funds wont be available until Friday morning and my sister already has her appointment to pay out the mortgage tomorrow morning.
It is even more amazing that TD Waterhouse cannot fix this up once they realized their staff mistake.They had 6 hours to do this this morning and process the funds but nothing seems to be that simple ,wish I just kept it in HISA!


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

I can't imagine it would be a big deal for your sister to move her appointment to a later date?

That doesn't solve the frustration factor, but the time deadline stress can be eliminated.


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## OptsyEagle (Nov 29, 2009)

and that is why I am a "If you want it done right you should do it yourself" kind of guy. It can get frustrating when you need to rely on others to get something important done. In my experience only about half of the people out there are truly competent.

I really wonder at times how we ever made it to the moon.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

Four Pillars said:


> I can't imagine it would be a big deal for your sister to move her appointment to a later date?
> 
> That doesn't solve the frustration factor, but the time deadline stress can be eliminated.


My sister lives in a small town has to drive an hour each way so it is a big deal when you make all your appointments for one day to go to the big city lol


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## cjk2 (Sep 19, 2012)

Yeah, I had a similar "2-step process" go wrong with TD Waterhouse. I asked them to set up an account and transfer my current funds to the new account. The new account got set up very fast, but nothing ever got transferred. I wasn't in a hurry so I let it sit there for 2 weeks before calling them again. Sounded like they put a note on the file to complete the transfer in 48-72 hours (I guess the amount of time it took to set up the new account), but no one ever followed-up on the transfer. On the same phone call they asked me to set up that voice recognition thing--which I have already been using for the past few years, but somehow on their end it said I was never enrolled. Go figure. So yes, a bit annoying but I'm not going to transfer out because I think these things happen at any bank.

Anyhow, usually I leave a comfortable "buffer" of time for these things to get done. If I were in a hurry, I would probably call them every day to make sure nothing is missed.

Unfortunately I'm not sure how to help you in this situation...maybe if you call and yell at them some more, ask for the manager, they can speed up the process? I'm not sure about the logistics of it all though.



OptsyEagle said:


> and that is why I am a "If you want it done right you should do it yourself" kind of guy. It can get frustrating when you need to rely on others to get something important done. In my experience only about half of the people out there are truly competent.
> 
> I really wonder at times how we ever made it to the moon.


Haha that is kind of sad but so, _so_ true...maybe even less than half the people...


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

I just wanted to vent , I transferred the funds from my HISA to my sister so she can keep her appointment tomorrow but I still want to hang somebody .Closing an account and moving ?Can't imagine that bullshit lol.I suppose the silver lining is the TDB166 has gone up 3.12% and the 13,179.13 is now worth 13,589.66


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

Yes. I told them three times (another bank-not TD) that I was not happy and gave them a chance to fix my issue.

They did not, so I fired them. It was quite straightforward.


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## wendi1 (Oct 2, 2013)

I've fired TD Waterhouse, too. 

My current broker, BMO Investorline, has better trained phone staff, and is not nearly as hard on my blood pressure. In fact, they have only ticked me off once, and both fixed it and refunded the money it cost me.


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

I think we Canadians are too nice and too complacent when it comes to bad service. We really notice it when we are in the US. The line ups for the cash always seem to be much longer in Canada than in the US. And it is not because our economy is booming. We were in Safeway on Sunday-late afternoon. It was busy.
Only half of the cashes were open, and 2 of the six self serve terminals were down-the line ups were four and five deep. I wanted to walk out but DW wanted to wait. I won't be going back. Same story at Walmart. 

I am a big believer in voting with your feet. No wonder on line sales are increasing so steadily.


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## chantl01 (Mar 17, 2011)

Yes, I'm currently extremely frustrated with RBC Direct Investing. I have literally been trying to open an account with them since 19 February, and it was just when I called in last night that they finally told me it has been opened and activated. A couple weeks ago, I was missing an identification verification form, because I didn't have a pre-existing account with them. Something I only learned when I called in to check on the status of my account application. Next it took them a week to even internally process that form and start the activation of the account. At each step I have spent at least a half hour on hold with the toll-free number to even get through to a rep to make my inquiry. I've always had better service than this with TD Waterhouse. I'm only opening the RBC DI account for my mother, since she does all her banking at RBC. I would never move my own investing over to them based on this experience alone.


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## tombiosis (Dec 18, 2010)

Ha! that's nothing!
I tried to transfer $ from a wood gundy reg account to investors edge reg account so I could deploy it cheaply at my leisure. Banker screwed up and transferred ALL my IE holdings to my wood gundy account. Then when they tried to fix it they transferred ALL of my wood gundy holdings Back to IE! 2 months later I am still trying to sort out all their errors. They have given me 125 dollars for all the "incovenience" this has caused me. The staff is totally incompetant at all levels. I detailed this mess in another thread.


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## Addy (Mar 12, 2010)

When we deal with TD Canada Trust, we've had almost nothing but good to say. Years ago we had one woman insist on us buying insurance for a car loan we were applying for, I said no more than six times and she STILL checked "yes" for insurance on our car loan application. I refused to deal with her when I realized what she had done.

Other than that, we've always been refunded anything we've asked for, even when (twice now) we missed paying our Visa in full because we were out of the country. They refunded us the interest no questions asked. Same for charge backs on our TD Visa, no problem charging back when we have not received an item or service.

I do realize TD Canada Trust, TD Visa and TD Waterhouse are different entities, but surely they must be related somehow, even if it's just by brand association. I wonder why such differences in service? We by no means have tonnes of money with them, but we (both my husband and I) have been with them since they were TD Bank and Canada Trust.


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## Sherlock (Apr 18, 2010)

Can't she simply get that $13,000 from a LOC? If she repays it a few days later the interest cost will be very small.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

Mortgage was paid off as planned with my transfer to her and about 6pm tonight I checked and cash was available so I took my money back from my sister.That issue is resolved now but it took 9 days to get the money in her hands from TD Waterhouse.


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## cjk2 (Sep 19, 2012)

Addy said:


> When we deal with TD Canada Trust, we've had almost nothing but good to say.





> I do realize TD Canada Trust, TD Visa and TD Waterhouse are different entities, but surely they must be related somehow, even if it's just by brand association. I wonder why such differences in service? We by no means have tonnes of money with them, but we (both my husband and I) have been with them since they were TD Bank and Canada Trust.


I have nearly everything with TD as well (TD Canada Trust, TD Waterhouse, TD Meloche Monnex car insurance, used to have TD Visa). I have to agree that apart from a few minor incidents (which I believe were likely to have happened with any bank), I've never had an issue with them. The longer branch opening hours are great, customer service is great, and I've been really impressed by how fast their phone lines are answered. I almost never have to wait on hold--only twice was I waiting for a long time and that was understandable. (Once was in early January when I imagine everyone was trying to make transfers to their RRSP/TFSA like me, the other time was on Mar. 3 aka RRSP contribution deadline. I had mistakenly thought the deadline was Mar. 1 this year, not realizing it got pushed back due to the weekend, so I'd purposely meant to wait till after the deadline...but after half an hour on hold I realized it was my mistake. So I hung up and called a few days later instead.)

When I called to cancel my TD Visa it was also very hassle-free. In general, service in all the different TD departments has been great. To be fair, I can't really compare them to any other financial institution since I haven't used another, but there have been many times I wanted to bash my head against the wall when dealing with other companies (not banks).


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

I did an Interac email transfer to my former wife. She complained that the security question had changed. I said I made no change. TD admonished me (us) for forgetting the answer and recommended re initiating the transfer. We tried all kinds of things until finally cancelling her as a payee and restarting worked. (And TD will never know they had a corrupted system!)


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## gardner (Feb 13, 2014)

I was a Canada Trust customer back in the day and have most of my business at TD today. I am in the process of consolidating a bunch of things from other misc accounts to TD.

I still feel that the CTC --> TD caused a significant step down in service quality when TD took over. I imagine for folks coming from the TD side it was a step up.

It seems that TD is in the process of scaling back service in the past few months. I've noticed many of the branches that used to be open to 8.00 every day are now only open later on Thursday, for example. Where it used to be easy to talk to a qualified mutual fund salesbeing as a walk-in, I am finding increasingly that they have no one at all on duty, or just one person who is otherwise engaged.

For the past couple of years TD's been tacking on a $2/month "statement" fee on most of my accounts. On some there was a $2.50/month "passbook" fee -- what it costs them to never update a passbook, I have no clue. I was angry enough about this garbage that I considered firing them, but the hassle of going to a new institution is quite significant.


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## Causalien (Apr 4, 2009)

In Vancouver where lots of money slushes around. TD has only increased its working hours... I enjoy banking 7 days a week. I think they optimize based on location. You only have to look at who the banks hire to get an idea of who their target audience is. TD in my area are mainly targeting younger generations who are tech savvy so these people tend to prefer online banking and automation than personalized services. Lately, they've introduced a lot of asian staffs as we know that is what is happening. I wonder if the ban on chinese investor immigration will slowly reverse the trend.

That said, having been with most banks in Canada now, I have to say that they are all the same and TD has kept up better with technology than the other ones. So I am sticking with them and sacrificing a bit of personal services. Because nothing that any CDN banks do can compare to the services I get in USA so small incremental improvements is just as bad. If I want something done in Canada, I have to chase whoever I was in contact with everyday. If I want something done in USA, one email and it's all done. 

A Financial Advisor at TD Canada Trust made a mistake and caused a $800 fee on my account to appear. Thankfully a TD Waterhouse rep was able to reverse it for me, but not before having to call and chase the issue 3 times over a span of a week. I have more pull with the brokerage arm than the banking arm at TD, but I didn't go and change banks because the same thing would've happened in other banks. 

I agree with whoever said it above as I've repeated it to others: "And because we Canadians are too nice and never complain, people expect customers to just bend over and take it up the ***." Sometimes I want to go all American on some people's service skills and have to remind myself that I am in Canada.

Then again, USA bank is only great if you can get over the chicken and egg problem created by patriot act that was introduced after 9/11 and enforced in 2011... Not being able to get any credit card or loan because you have no credit history. Can't have any credit history because you don't have any credit cards or loans.


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

We were never a Canada Trust customer however they saved us quite a bit of mortgage interest and renewal fees over the years (prior to the merger).

They were across the street from our CIBC branch. They always seemed to have offers like a slightly lower mortgage rate, no renewal fees, no transfer or appraisal fees etc. etc. So when it came time to renew our mortgage each year or so the conversation with the bank would start out with an interest rate and a renewal fee. One mention of shopping around, Canada Trust, etc. was enough to make the renewal fee vanish and interest rate get reduced 1/4 point. Then when I asked for more, a phone call downtown to invariably come up with another quarter or half point reduction. 

We were usually done in 15 minutes, not including the follow up call to tell me that 'downtown' had approved the incremental interest rate discount. Plus, they reluctantly added some custom early payment options to the contract that were not part of the standard offering. It was simply a matter of requesting them.

So, we have always had a 'soft spot' for the pre merger Canada Trust. Those were the days of slightly higher interest rates.


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## Brian Weatherdon CFP (Jan 18, 2011)

Yes actually, very frustrated this week with a bank! Trying to help a senior couple source a low-fee low-interest income from the equity in their home. The numbers look very compelling and the family and accountant have agreed with the principles involved too. Yet this particular bank would rather the couple finish off the rest of their investments and be forced to sell their home ...rather than offer some flexibility with a line of credit. The bank would essentially push the couple into taking a reverse mortgage: makes no sense to me. <<>> If you have experience or interest in this concern, another thread expands the discussion at: House-Rich Cash-Poor. <<>> BTW we've identified an institution able to help the couple I've mentioned, but our preference was to use the bank where this couple has been loyal for >30 years. When the numbers work, it's a pity the bank was unable to repay their loyalty.

Sometimes one needs to use a "near-bank" to get the service or options you'd expect a bank to offer.


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

The bank is NOT your friend. There is a reason that the banks spend millions and millions of marketing dollars to convince you of this. It is called banking fees, MERs, investment management fees, and interest payments, etc. Great stock to own but certainly NOT your friend. 

They will grab that 'umbrella' away from you before the rain even hits the sidewalk. To think otherwise is naïve.


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## off.by.10 (Mar 16, 2014)

Yes, about a month ago. 10:20, the phone rings and the conversation goes something like this:
- Hello Mr ..., we had an appointment at 10:00 ... did you forget?
- I don't have any appointment. I never asked for one.
- Oh, that must be an error in the system. By the way, have you made your RRSP contribution for this year?
- [email protected]%^@#!!!!

Can you open an account at a major bank and tell them you don't have a phone?


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## Synergy (Mar 18, 2013)

fraser said:


> The bank is NOT your friend. There is a reason that the banks spend millions and millions of marketing dollars to convince you of this. It is called banking fees, MERs, investment management fees, and interest payments, etc. Great stock to own but certainly NOT your friend.


You just need to learn how to beat them at their own game. I pay no bank fees on either my business or personal accounts. I use credit cards but pay off my bills monthly - never paid a cent of interest in my life. Use a line of credit as a checking account so I get free overdraft - never needed it but it's there, etc. I pay no yearly investment account fees and try to keep my total portfolio costs below 0.50% (trading fees & MER).

Don't get frustrated - get even! And yes, good stocks to own.


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## OnlyMyOpinion (Sep 1, 2013)

+^ but don't get too many convinced to see it your way or they won't be so good to own any more


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## MikeHillHams (Jan 14, 2014)

I have a cash account with TD Waterhouse and they allowed me to make a purchase for more than I had in the account resulting in a negative cash balance. They sent a letter saying they were going to sell off some of my investments to cover the negative balance. It was around $200 and I didn't really care if they did because I would have sold from one holding anyways to cover it. Today I noticed I got a $16 fee because of it. Last month they had a service problem where they were down for almost a full trading day and they just simply said oops sorry, we're working on it and tons of people lost money (thankfully not me, I lost out on some though). It pisses me off knowing they can mess up and it's fine, but they'll be the first ones to hound you and charge you if you owe them money. It's not the money that's the issue, but it's the principal of it.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

off.by.10 said:


> ... Can you open an account at a major bank and tell them you don't have a phone?


 ... that and telemarketers are why I let everything to the answering machine and only pickup if I recognise the voice as family or friend. If I am not fast enough, then no one seems to mind a call back.

It's hard to gauge how many were financial institutions as a lot don't leave a message. I can only say about once a month is known to come from the bank.


Cheers


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## gardner (Feb 13, 2014)

MikeHillHams said:


> TD Waterhouse ... allowed me to make a purchase ... resulting in a negative cash balance.


Interesting. This got me thinking ... I usually sell a MMF or transfer funds to cover within a few hours of the trade -- days before settling. How long will TD DT let a negative balance ride in a cash account? What do they charge for interest in an unsecured cash account? If the trading account is linked to a primary TD bank account, will they just pay from there anyhow? If they sell something to cover, how do they pick what to sell?


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

Like others, we have never paid a cent in credit card interest. We keep our savings outside of the bank, in high interest near bank accounts that are protected by CDIC. We always had accelerated payment mortgages and never, ever paid those pesky mortgage renewal or appraisal fees.

We are over 60, so our $4. bank fee has disappeared. We use a Chase card for foreign transactions-no 2.5 percent fee on every transaction. If we need currency we go to the FX store and never to the bank.

We don't keep our investments with the bank. We don't even buy their cheques. Why pay $48. when we can order the same item from a printer for $22?

I think the only bank service that we pay for is our safety deposit box. And alas, we will not even be able to write that off on our taxes anymore.

Don't pay overdraft, only use our bank branded ATM's. And we are dumping our bank sponsored Aeroplan cards in favour or a more lucrative reward card.

But, we love, love ,love bank stock!


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## OptsyEagle (Nov 29, 2009)

MikeHillHams said:


> I have a cash account with TD Waterhouse and they allowed me to make a purchase for more than I had in the account resulting in a negative cash balance.


You do know the reason they charge such a low fee is because there really is no such thing as THEM letting you purchase more stock then you have money for. All they do is allow YOU to purchase more stock then you have money for and because you did this they charged you their low fee to correct it.

If you wanted them to pay the fee, I am sure they have a full service brokerage that might do this...for a much larger fee.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

> A Calgary man says *a bank is trying to hold him responsible for a debt owned by another man who happens to have the same the name.*
> 
> Glenn Davis, who has good credit and makes his mortgage payments, recently found out that *Capital One had issued a Writ of Enforcement against his home*. *... *


http://ca.news.yahoo.com/bank-goes-calgary-mans-house-debt-mistaken-id-135522581.html 

Now would you NOT be frustrated with your bank here?! :frown:


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Beaver101 said:


> http://ca.news.yahoo.com/bank-goes-calgary-mans-house-debt-mistaken-id-135522581.html
> 
> Now would you NOT be frustrated with your bank here?! :frown:


Obviously a case of mistaken identity. But even if there are THREE people there by the name of Glenn Davis and even if they have the same first name, would the middle initial and the address where each live be the same? I don't thinks so. Pretty sloppy of Capital Ones accounting. But even if just the first and last name was the same, a simple phone call and
some questions (month and date of birth) would have narrow it down to the actual one owing money to them..unless they all happen to be triplets with the same name, living at the same address.


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## bgc_fan (Apr 5, 2009)

Beaver101 said:


> Now would you NOT be frustrated with your bank here?! :frown:


It's not unique to banks. Department of Homeland Security has been adding the wrong people to their no-fly list ever since they established the list. Not to excuse the bank when they do it as it strikes me a bit on the lazy side not to confirm you have the right person.


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