Monday, January 07, 2008

Changing banks -- update

Ever since RBC made the mistake of denying me their multiproduct rebate for customers with multiple accounts, I've been working towards moving my accounts away from them, or switching to no-fee versions of the accounts I choose to keep with them -- for now.

Things are progressing nicely on all fronts. I opened a no-fee President's Choice chequing account a few weeks ago, and I've been diligently transferring paycheques and automatic bill payments over to that account for the past month or so. Once I knew everything was kosher on that end, I set about cutting the fee-taps on my existing RBC chequing account. I decided there's no point in officially closing it altogether, but I've switched it to what they call a Day-to-Day Savings account in the interim. The account will pretty much be dormant, although it is there if I ever want to fire it up again for some new promotion they're offering me. In the meantime, there's no charge to put money into it via ATMs, and I get one free debit per month (which I'll probably use to pay my Royal VISA with.)

And speaking of VISA, I went ahead and switched from the RBC Platinum Avion card (with an annual fee of $120) to a lesser card that has no annual fee and accumulates points twice as slowly. The key component here is the no annual fee part.

Add it all up, and Royal no longer gets a penny from me in bank fees or VISA charges (since I pay my balance in full every month.) I'm quite pleased with myself for following through with this. There's simply no reason to pay bank fees in this day and age, because it's such a competitive marketplace. The minute I realized this, RBC's goose was cooked.

I should also mention I'd be more than happy to switch back if they'd simply give me what I wanted in the first place -- to not have to pay monthly fees for having a basic chequing account.

My last remaining account with RBC is my investment account, which I'm currently talking myself into changing. It's the last hassle, really, but after having come this far, there's no point in stopping here.

As always, I'll keep you posted.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for you! I've also been thinking of moving to PC Financial's no fee banking account.

My only qualms of moving is I have my banking and investment portfolio with TD, and transfering funds from my banking account to my investment account is very simple.

Anonymous said...

I'm selling my RY. :)

Anonymous said...

Hooray! By the people; for the people - if enough of us walk with our feet (errr, wallets/bank accounts/bits&bytes representing currency) perhaps banks will notice? And mend their evil ways?

GIV said...

.My only qualms of moving is I have my banking and investment portfolio with TD, and transfering funds from my banking account to my investment account is very simple.

They depend on that, you know. Complacency.

Take the plunge! The water's great...

Anonymous said...

PC Master card gives 1% back in credits you can use at supermarket - so if yo happen to shop in one of those it's like cash.