Sunday, April 19, 2009

A Brief Public Service Announcement...

From blogger Hunter of "Climbing Out of the Darkness...":
If you want to successfully protest, make sure hits home with the silent majority, and is easy for everyone to participate in, without having to go out and march in the streets. Try these two protests.

Bank fees - pick one day for everyone to stop using their credit and debit cards. If you need money, actually go into the bank to get it. Using an ATM machine is a big no no. Can you imagine how our banking system would react? It's not illegal to not use your debit card, nor is it illegal to walk into a branch of your bank and ask for the cash from your account. Every Canadian could participate without having to take time off work.

Now, aside from his comment that the "TEA parties worked", of which there is no evidence, he seems to suffer under bank fees. So I thought I'd do my good deed for today and provide solutions.

Now, neither Royal Bank nor CIBC offers no-strings attached fee waiving for a monthly balance, so I'm not including them in the list, but there's one other service I thought I'd mention:

So there you are, Hunter. Adopt any one of the above and you can never pay a bank fee again. How's that for a protest, hmmm?

(H/T to CC for Hunter's idiocy.)

Afterthought: Hunter also uses the redundant phrase "ATM Machine". Doubtless, when using the "ATM Machine", Hunter also uses a "PIN Number". It's not an uncommon mistake to make, linguistically, but it's still painful.

2 comments:

  1. I'm just a little confused about Hunter's request

    "It's not illegal to not use your debit card, nor is it illegal to walk into a branch of your bank and ask for the cash from your account"

    Now I'm no expert on banking, but is it not safe to say that EVERY bank requires the usage of a debit card when one attempts to take out cash, regardless of whether the transaction occurs at an ATM or with a teller? ;)

    To add onto the choices, TD also has a good student plan as well, same 25 free transactions per month as the value plus account, except that the minimum balance is $1500 instead of $2000, for us poor students with no money ;).

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with the ATM machine and PIN number references, I hear it a lot with NIC cards. Here in Wisconsin we still call ATMs TYME machines. (Take Your Money Everywhere). You should see the looks you get for saying that outside of the state.

    ReplyDelete