Paying it forward

A big fat karma dividend cheque should go to Canadian Dream for the good turn he did me last week.

In a comment on my post on switching over to PC Financial, CD wondered why I was still paying bank fees with RBC since the bank has a fee rebate program for people with multiple accounts within the same bank, such as he and I do.

A 20-minute call to RBC later, I'm now the proud owner of a free chequing account. I have a chequing account, a Visa card, an unregistered investment account with RBC Direct Investing and a registered one there too. Strictly speaking, the latter two don't qualify me for the rebate since apparently they're from a "different division" within RBC.

But I ended up qualifying for the rebate after I explained two things: No. 1, I actually have four accounts with the Royal Bank of Canada -- one more than the required three. And No. 2, not counting online investment accounts is asinine, since they all put money into RBC's pocket at one point, even if it is a different division than the commercial banking one that's launched he promotion

The best part? The woman I was bumped up to who ended up helping me actually listened to reason. I explained my views about why I deserve the credit, and she agreed. I didn't even have to play the "this is ridiculous, I'm closing my account" card.

So the $48 a year I'm saving on bank fees makes me feel a lot better about the extra cash I spend by investing with RBC.

The lesson? As always, free money = good.

Thanks again, CD