Tag Archives: Scotiabank

Banks Want to Force You to Go Paperless

Two of the banks, including Scotia have now become more aggressive in bullying you to change from mailed statements to online and paperless. That’s your choice – not theirs!

On some of my accounts I want a paper statement. It massively increases the odds that you’ll actually scan it for inaccuracies or problems and I need to keep them for seven years anyway – so I’ll have to print them no matter what.

If you deal with Scotia, here’s what’s now coming up when you log in:

You’ll see that there’s no way to “x” out of it, click a “no thanks” or type in “leave me alone.” It forces you to click it and to go there. But no worries – the 2nd screen needs you to confirm you want to change to ‘online statements.’ At that page, just click on ‘accounts’ and get off that page and you’ve left your settings.

Lots Of Financial News In Just a Week!

Canadian banks are kind of ashamed they’re Canadian. Bank of Nova Scotia is now Scotiabank, Toronto Dominion is TD, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has been CIBC for a long time, and the Bank of Montreal is BMO.

Last week, the Royal Bank went on a huge wave across the country to replace all their branch signs to read: RBC Royal Bank. The next wave will be to do away with the Royal Bank part altogether. Oh how I want to be in the sign business. In Canada it’s cool to be Canadian, but in the rest of the world, they don’t want to advertise that at all.

The RCMP in BC want to get the word out on a new phone/credit card scam. The crooks already have your stolen credit card number and give you a lot of information to put you at ease. All they’re after is the three digit security code and they can go crazy with online purchases. It’s the last and only thing they ask for, claiming they just need to “verify that you’re the cardholder.” Don’t ever talk to anyone about your credit card. Hang up the phone and dial only the number on the back of your card! Here’s the link from the RCMP:

Last week, CBC’s Marketplace did a short story on breakfast sandwiches. They’re loaded with fat, get you two-thirds of the daily sodium and a ton of calories. But here’s an alternative diet plan: Last week, New Hampshire just rolled out new scratch and win lottery tickets. They are now bacon flavoured. So grab your coffee and just sniff the lottery ticket. You’ll still lose, but you’ll win on the calories, fat, and sodium reduced breakfast!

Also last week, TD rolled out a ton more new ATM machines. These ones are optical readers. Just insert the cheque or cash you’re depositing. No more envelopes and you don’t even need to key in the amount of the cheque. Your receipt will print out a picture of the cheque you deposited. It was only last year we talked about taking a picture of a cheque with your smartphone and it’s deposited. Boy, how technology is advancing quickly.

The middle of last week, the Bank of Canada cut the bank rate by a quarter of a point. We’re a resource country and they’re seriously concerned with our economy with oil dropping by almost 50%. Within 24-hours, the banks cut most of their savings accounts interest rates by a quarter point. But they also announced that, no – they’re not cutting their lending or mortgage rates. So savers get ripped off and borrowers get hosed in order to make another few billion dollars. NOT nice and not right!

Five Steps to Mortgage Debt Freedom

Another hockey season starts today and I have two predictions: Vancouver and Edmonton won’t make the playoffs…although I’m more certain about the Oilers than the Canucks… and we’ll get another massive wave of 95,000 Scotiabank commercials…in the first week… I can’t help the Canucks and my Oilers, but I can help you with one of the main Scotia commercials.

Last year, one of the always-played commercials was a lady pulling into her driveway and a marching band came out and played.  She actually paid off her mortgage – and that’s something so few people do in a given year. The tag line was to come see Scotia to learn how to become mortgage free.

Well, you don’t actually need to do that. I’ll give you the scoop on what an appointment with them will get you in less than their 30-second commercial time.

-Shop around and get at least three quotes when your mortgage is up for renewal. They can vary by up to half a percent or more.

-If rate shopping gets you a lower rate, don’t lower the payment – shorten down the time you have left on the loan.

-Set it up for weekly payments if you can possibly afford it.

-Take advantage of your 10 or 20% prepayment privilege each year if you have a few thousand dollars.

-If you can swing it, go in and get your payment increased 10 or 20% right now. It’s not a lot, but it’ll add up to a lot.

That’s it – it really is that simple. If you do one or two of these five things you’ll be mortgage free much faster than 90% of people who are on the forever plan and a ton of people in their 50s or older who aren’t going to live long enough to pay off their home.

Getting your rate down by half a point on just a $200,000 balance will save you $1,000 a year. But, instead of dropping the payment and leaving your loan on the forever plan, just cut two or three years off the term. You’re used to paying a certain payment, so don’t think you’re saving or gaining anything if you take a lower payment.

Changing from monthly to weekly payments has the effect of paying 13 payments a year. That’ll cut the typical mortgage down by four to five years – and that’s a lot of time saving!

Lastly, almost all mortgages let you prepay up to 10 or 20% a year without penalty. If you have a bonus, a tax refund, or some money – dump it on there. It cuts the length of time by a lot. Leave the payments the same and any online calculator can show you the huge interest savings it’ll create. That’s assuming you don’t have any debt that’s at much higher rates. If so, those balances are way more of a priority.

But the best way to be mortgage debt free is still to sell your expensive home and purchase a cheaper one. Less price equals less mortgage. Unfortunately, that’s something very few people would consider…

Advertisements: What You Hear & What You Need to Know

I actually enjoy good ads. Not only do they keep all media outlets in business, they support a ton of local businesses, and can also inform, and be memorable. Who doesn’t enjoy the U.S. Superbowl ads? Even the Canadian ones are well done.

But not all ads are created equal and some of them really need you to think and ask questions before buying. Do you only see the large print and never the ‘up to’? Up to triple the reward points…1% introductory rate? No payment for six months?

The largest credit card marketing is for reward cards because they have an annual fee. When you see any ad with triple reward points, that’s not the time to apply, but to get a magnifying glass and check the fine print first. Your triple rewards will be on one or two categories such as restaurants or drug stores. It’ll likely be for places with the biggest markups where they have the “room” to give you the triple points, or restaurants where you’ll earn maybe an extra 5 or 10 points, because you’re probably going out to dinner two or three times a month, tops. On the rest of your charges, the 90% or more, the points aren’t tripled. Hear me really clearly: Nobody ever became financially successful because of their reward points. People become financially successful paying cash or debit!

One of my favourite shows is the Amazing Race. This year, Scotiabank is the main sponsor with their American Express card and they have two very cute ads in the show. This is not a real charge card that you ought to have (and the only one I use) where you have to pay the balance in full. It’s a regular Amex card that allows you to make minimum payments versus having to pay it off each month.

Scotiabank’s main slogan is that you’re richer than you think. In fact, it’s the opposite: You’re poorer than you think. 50% of us can’t live without one paycheque, 70% can’t write a cheque for a $3,000 emergency, the percentage of seniors taking debt into retirement is exploding, and a CBC report last night showed 48% of us will rely on CPP for our entire retirement income. But remember that the main business of banks is to lend money. That’s how they make a profit. If the slogan were that you’re poorer than you think, you may borrow and spend less and save more. That’s how banks would lose money. However, if you have a ton of borrowed money, you’re richer than you think…for a while…until you have to pay it back from the same income you had BEFORE the line of credit, car loan, or new credit card.

It’s the old saying of buyer beware. Enjoy the ads, get the information, and then start asking yourself the right questions before signing. It’s a jungle out there – be careful.

New Debit Card Fees & Some Bank Insights

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.

Goodbye ING

Last month, Scotiabank purchased the on line bank ING Direct Canada for $3.1 billion. This un-bank as they called themselves started in 1997 and grew to 1.8 million customers through great savings rates, which were often double that of the big banks, competitive mortgage rates, and a lot of innovation.

Around the world our six Canadian no-service big banks are knows as being rather conservative. In some ways that was a blessing in the banking meltdown, but they’re also turtles in any innovation and modernization. Recently we talked about the technology that lets you just scan a cheque on your smart phone and have it instantly show up in your account. No need to head to the bank, just scan and done. Well, two of the banks had never heard of this when I contacted them. I guess they don’t watch TV as almost every US bank now has this in place already.

ING was instrumental in getting all North American banks to focus on on-line banking, customer service and the likes, or they still wouldn’t have much of it. Two of the biggest changes caused by ING’s success are just rolling out: Paypal, which everyone under age 30 is familiar with, is teaming up with Discover to become a bank. Plus, Amex and Wal Mart are in a joint partnership and will offer banking to the 40 million Americans who do not have any bank accounts. They’ll be able to get a pre-paid debit card, actual cheques, and be able to do all their transactions at any cashier in any Wal Mart. No fees, no overdrafts, no minimum balances – and it all started with ING leading the way.

Now our Canadian banks can slow down again, because one of them took out ING. Scotia won’t be continuing their operation and ING will disappear. Hopefully, if you were one of their customers, you’ll switch over to President’s Choice. Unfortunately it’s one of the only on-line banks left, even though they’re owned by CIBC.

Competition is great for us consumers. Unfortunately, another one bites the dust, and we’re all going to be worse off as a result. Scotia is betting they can retain most of these 1.8 million customers. But with all the banks, you have to remember that your loyalty will never ever be rewarded. The longer you deal with them, the more you’ll be taken for granted.

But the last thing we do is to shop around for a better rate, much lower service charges, or a place where it doesn’t take an appointment two days from now to see someone.

Three Short Insights You Should Know

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.

Some New Insights You Should Know From the Past Week

You know I’m not a fan of the credit card business, but big credit goes to Capital One who recently had an insert with statements. No, not the usual mice print, but a colour flyer discussing over limit charges and how to avoid them. It also had an intelligent section on how to set up pre-authorized debit with your bank to make sure at least the minimum payments are made every month.

Payday lenders took a big hit last week. There are a bunch of class action lawsuits filed in a number of provinces about their interest rates. The industry went to the Supreme Court who just rejected their arguments to get these lawsuits dismissed.

Scotiabank just launched a rather interesting mortgage promotion. Now I have to confess I used to be a fan of Scotia. In fact, I’ve probably sent them millions of dollars of business over the years. But that was before I had a number of personal nightmares with them. But this one might be worth checking out: It’s a 1 year fixed rate mortgage offer at 3.25% and then the customer will have the option of a five year fixed rate at posted retail rates less 1.25%. Even if you don’t consider the Scotiabank it shows again that it’s pretty easy to haggle on rates and you should get 1 to 1.25% off the posted rates elsewhere, too!

The size of Canadian Banks: Sometimes you don’t have to grow to get bigger. As of right now, TD/Canada Trust is actually the 5th largest bank in the world and the Royal has also made the top 10. They didn’t really grow much but all those mega U.S. banks have shrunk a lot. Citibank used to be worth $270 billion two years ago, now it’s 2%, or $5 billion.
Last one: It was a great and VERY lengthy report from Wall Street Watch. If you ever want the insights of how we got to the current financial and housing mess we’re in it is well worth the read. Here’s the highlights:

$5 billion in political contributions bought Wall Street their total freedom from regulations and restraints in the last decade.
The report goes through a dozen deregulation steps that got us here.

The financial industry has almost 3,000 lobbyists in Washington. How many does Joe Average have? Right – none. So guess who has the influence on congress and the laws that are written – or not written?