Tag Archives: Royal Bank

Not a Good Week For the Royal Bank

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It hasn’t exactly been a good past week for the Royal Bank. Let me get this straight: They get a bunch of temporary foreign work permits from the government, bring in a team from India. That team is getting trained by Royal staff to take over their jobs. Then the foreign workers go back home with the jobs and the Royal team is out the door.

Nice…and then their apology, which was really a non-apology didn’t make things better before the weekend. They called it “part of normal business practices.” Ironically, that outsourcing story happened the same month as their notice of service charge increases went out. Really makes me wonder… Now, they’re not alone in outsourcing. It’s just that this story got traction. Even back last summer, a family member received a phone call within days of depositing $30,000 into his chequing account. He asked if “they were calling from Canada” because of the heavy accent. The answer was: No…

With most huge financial institutions, and other retailers for that matter, the larger they get, the more they turn into dinosaurs. They’re slow to react and tone-deaf. They’re less and less focused on customer service because you’re one customer out of millions. With those odds, what are the chances they’re really motivated to help you? Still wonder why I’m such a fan of credit unions where even the CEO and Board of Directors live within 100 km of you?

If you remember a few months ago I detailed the horror I had to go through with the Royal on the death of my father. It’s now the seventh month and they STILL send his mail to the address of a dead person – in spite of four written notices and documentation. Did I say dinosaur already?

What’s Your Bank Balance, Gift Cards & Target

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What’s the balance in your checking account? In February 2013, the finance minister of Zimbabwe admitted that the entire public accounts of the country had a balance of $217. Yikes…one of the best examples of a country becoming a basket case because of politics way more than economics.

Target is coming! Many people are pretty excited about the Target launch in Canada. If you’ve shopped at their stores in the U.S. you’ll be very disappointed. Sure, the stores will look the same, but you’re dealing with Canadian duty and prices. Don’t look for the cool US-type deals and prices. They will have the Target debit card and MasterCard. Both will give you 5% off right at the store register. The applications are on the Royal Bank site now. If you think you’ll shop there a lot, it may be worth getting. The rate is 20% like every other regular card but no annual fee.

Gift card heads up: Criminals are now able to get your code number from a gift card. Investigators don’t know how they do it, but it’s happening. You get a gift card and go to the retailer to purchase something only to find out at the register that the card has already been used up. All you’ll get told is that, sorry, nothing they can do – not their problem. Pursue it, report it, and don’t give up. If you’re giving a gift, make it cash. If you have any gift cards, use them up as soon as possible. Better safe than sorry.

A Very Personal Tale of Two Banks

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I strongly believe in a paraphrased saying that you can easily judge a business by how they treat those who can do nothing for them. In other words, how you get treated when you need help and not when they know they’ll make a profit from you.

My stepfather recently died and I became executor of his estate. After I had all the legal documents necessary, I went into the Royal Bank where he had dealt for over 50 years, but that started off badly and got worse. All I had wanted to do is to hand someone his credit cards and ATM cards to close, and a letter asking that his accounts be blocked. The receptionist asked me three times if I had an appointment. No, sorry – I didn’t, and was only in town for the funeral and to handle these basic starter issues on the estate. “Nobody has time unfortunately – we do have clients with appointments.” What I wanted to say was that my stepdad didn’t die with an appointment, but managed to simply ask to speak to a manager. Surely someone in this huge branch would have five minutes for me.

An assistant manager did come out to also ask if I had an appointment. At that point, my perception was that this question was just code for “please just go away.” She did volunteer that I could go to any Royal Bank to deal with this. What? I can’t get into the branch that has more than $1.3 million of my parents’ deposits? Did she really believe I’d have more success at a branch that hasn’t made some significant income from my dad over all these years?

After about half an hour I did get to meet with an account manager. When she took me into that wing, there were about 14 total offices. Three had their lights out, making me figure that those staff had the day off. But 11 offices did not have a single customer in any office! A half hour at reception fighting to get in, being re-educated that I really should have an appointment, and in the 10 minutes I was in the office wing there wasn’t a single customer – anywhere!

A month later, a staff member left me a phone message on some estate questions. I returned her call twice, then waited over three weeks with no reply. At that point, my only option was to start communicating with the Royal through the estate lawyer…at $375 an hour…until one of their Vice Presidents contacted me to apologize for dropping the ball. To this day, I still can’t get their cooperation in a number of areas. But I’m still getting the odd call with an apology for dropping the ball…again…and again…

There’s some good news, however. When I went to the CIBC in Montgomery for the same requests, it was as though I’d entered into a different world. Not the world of the large no-service banks. A lady named Maria, one of their Financial Services Reps immediately took me into her office and made the call to cancel his Visa card. She blocked the accounts, closed the ATM card, and even printed out his entire account listing and balances that was going to be needed by the estate lawyer. It made my day from hell a whole lot better to know someone actually cared and was helping me for no financial gain or profit.

If you’re ever going to die, remember that someone will be your executor and will need to deal with whoever you chose to trust with your business for two or three years more!

New Debit Card Fees & Some Bank Insights

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Last week the federal government announced a discussion period for some prepaid credit card changes. They’re most welcome and long overdue, but they sure don’t go far enough. What the proposed changes include are:
-No expiry for prepaid credit cards
-Fees must be prominently disclosed in advance of purchase
-No maintenance fees for at least one year.

Now help me with this? When are these things a problem when you have cash? Right – they never apply! It’s ok to charge a monthly maintenance fee after a year? What? Does cash expire in the same way? With cash, do you have to look for the traps of fees? Enough said…

There is also a bunch of news from the world of our no-service big six banks:

Scotiabank is now marketing American Express Gold cards. They’re the only Canadian big bank and it’s not the real Amex charge cards, just the Gold credit card with travel points. It’s nice to see the market expanding and they’ve sure done a lot of advertising for it!

The TD had a big announcement last week: They are buying the US credit card portfolio of Target. The total of Target credit card balances is just under $6 billion and the deal is for seven years. That likely means TD will handle the Canadian Target Visa cards when they launch in Canada in March. And, as we discussed a few months ago, the rumour is that Canada will also have the permanent 5 percent discount on any shopping with their Visa card. So skip the Amex Gold and wait for the Target Visa if that’s true.

The Royal, also last week, purchased the Canadian operations of Ally Financial. Do you remember GMAC? It was the finance division of General Motors and THE most profitable part of their portfolio. No wonder when most people finance and don’t shop around for their loan. Well, GMAC was sold when GM was in big trouble. Then they got into even bigger trouble with the US financial meltdown and the government allowed them to convert into a bank. That became Ally, which is now part of the Royal. It’s still massively profitable and the Royal outbid 15 companies and paid $3.8 billion.

Three Short Insights You Should Know

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J.D. Power Fall 2009 Credit Card Satisfaction Survey

Each fall J.D. Powers conducts a very comprehensive credit card survey. It rates overall satisfaction, along with how happy cardholders are with their rewards, payment processing, problem resolution, customer service, and fees.

This year, American Express rated five stars, head and shoulders above other national card issuers in all categories. At the bottom of the bottom, with the worst score on customer’s satisfaction with their credit cards were Capital One, along with GE Money. GE is a surprise, as they handle the Wal Mart cards, and Wal Mart prides itself on great customer service! As to Capital One – what’s in your wallet? I hope it’s not one of their cards!

But the scary response to the survey was that 53% of us did not know the interest rate on their card, even though it is printed on every statement. Not knowing that we are paying around 20% on our credit cards is not good news!

Scotiabank can’t be happy with a bunch of national press recently. But there’s a great lesson for anyone over age 59 to learn! All banks offer seniors a no charge service banking packages, or greatly reduced service charges at various ages, but for most it’s at age 59. Barry Ashpole, a 66-year old college teacher, had the TD and Royal automatically lower his fees, because all the banks have your birth date on file. But Scotia kept charging him the full service charges for seven more years! When he discovered the huge overcharges, he hit a wall of no help to get this reversed, and fought it all the way to their Ombudsman’s office. At that point, he received a six month refund of $71. They wouldn’t refund the other six and a half years! You need to make sure you know when you are entitled to a break of the huge service charges, or you’ll get taken, as Barry Ashpole found out the VERY expensive way.

And a final update on your credit cards: Time and time again, I point out how critical it is to check your credit card statement line by line. Stuff shows up that’s not yours, merchants who accidentally, or because of a kinky staff member, charge things twice, and all kinds of errors can and do happen. But less than 10% of us look at our statement items – and that number is way lower if you get your statement on-line!

There is a phrase you need to know. It’s called post transactional marketing. You buy something from a retailer on-line, or join a web site. Often you’ll get a pop-up asking you to join a loyalty program for deals, alerts, or whatever. Be careful, because in many instances, these pages look like they come from the retailer, but they’re third parties, and deeply buried in the fine print is a note that you’re actually going to have a monthly fee charged to your credit card! And it’s not small business, but the 1-800 Flowers, Barnes & Noble, airlines, Priceline and buy.com sites!

Be careful, as these marketers have scammed people out of over $1.5 billion so far, Facebook has now been hit with a class action lawsuit, alleging that they allow, promote, or profit from these post transactional marketing, and the U.S. Congress is holding hearings on the issue.