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.

This just in -- banks like money

Regular readers will recall my post last month about how I finagled my way to a free chequing account at RBC. Through their multiproduct fee rebate, anyone who holds an RBC chequing account and at least two other qualifying RBC accounts has their regular bank fees on the chequing account waived.

I thought I qualified because I have an RBC Visa card and my self-directed online brokerage is RBC Direct Investing, but alas, the latter didn't qualify under the program since it was a different division of RBC. Undeterred, I sat though a 20 minute phone call with RBC, and after eventually getting transfered to the right person and pleading my case, I was assured I qualified for the rebate.

Or so I thought. It's been more than a month since that call and I recently got my monthly statement where (surprise surprise) I'm still being charged monthly fees. I've called RBC numerous times trying to get it sorted out, but the response is always the same -- "anyone who said she'd bend the rules for you to apply shouldn't have said that, because I don't qualify for this promotion. Please buy one of our crappy GICs instead."

Bad move. I haven't quite pulled the chute on RBC yet (the logistics of transfering my Visa Card with tens of thousands of RBC points, not to mention registered and unregistered investment accounts to another broker make me queasy) but I have gone out and signed up for a President's Choice No-Fee Chequing account. I already park my savings in a PC high-interest savings account, so signing up was a snap. 10 minutes at the kiosk across from my office, and I was done. Free cheques, no monthly fees. Beauty.

At the moment, it's sort of an insurance policy. I want to be 100% sure RBC isn't going to play ball before I play the "close my account" card with them, but even if they accede there's no harm done. The PC account has no fees, so I'll probably just transfer some money into it and collect points when I buy groceries, since I go to Loblaws for groceries to begin with.

I suppose there' s a slim chance this is all a misunderstanding and the RBC's recent fee was simply the last month before they'll be waived from now on, but since I don't have the name or phone number of the person at RBC who said she'd credit my account, I have no way of tracking that person down to make sure that's the case. As I said, in all my dealings since then, I've been given the distinct impression that I'm SOL.

I still shudder at the thought of having to transfer all sorts of accounts and bill payments away from RBC, but the satisfaction I'd get in the end may be worth it. There's simply no reason to pay bank fees in this day and age and there's simply no reason to put up with crappy service when others are only too happy to do business with you.

I'll keep you all posted on how this plays out. And RBC, you're on notice.

Bank Notes

In a move that clearly demonstrates they're on the cutting edge of the 19th Century, Royal Bank manned up this week and announced they were lowering their online investing commissions to a more reasonable $9.95 for users with $100,000 in their account or who make more than 30 trades in a quarter.

That's some nice window dressing, but I see this as largely a symbolic act. Cutting prices for customers who A) already have the most assets and B) are more likely to recompense your losses by using the service far more frequently is not what I'd call forward-thinking customer service. The discount for active traders is particularly irksome to me because it really looks like RBC is trying to rope people into being day-traders by offering them 'savings'. But I digress. RBC and the other big banks can get away with doing stuff like this because Canada's banking system is an oligopoly, and people like me will more often than not keep our business with them -- especially when I hear about the headaches people have have with the actual discount players like Questrade, Etrade and Credential Direct. As a Big Bank shareholder, bring on the screw-job, I say.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, PC Financial, where I keep my emergency fund/condo downpayment, has very quietly raised their rate on their savings account. It's now at 4.25% for people with more than $1,000 in the account, like me. By my count, this keeps them a full 0.5% ahead of the granddaddy of them all, ING Direct.

What can I say, besides, "I'm glad I made the switch." I'm tempted to open up a no-fee chequing account there and keeping $1,000 in it just to rack up some free grocery points, but I haven't crunched the numbers to see if the money I'd lose in interest would be replaced by the amount of free groceries that would buy me.