So when we moved here 18months ago we opened a Bank account with RBC and got a secured credit card with them

All was going fine ...
Until we wanted a statement for our credit card .. Its in the post they said..
after 3months of it not appearing we complained .. Its in the post they said
we waited some more .. and some more ... After alot of grief lies and hassle from RBC we cancelled the Credit card ... Its was a secured one .. for $1000 .. Do we have that money back .. nope they wont return it .. plus the $400 we over paid in payments due to having to guess what we owed .. due to never ever having any kind of statement from it .. Now they admit they owe us $1400 but just wont give it too us .. Arent banks fun .. Ok thats the first part of it ...
So due to that credit card not working we still needed a credit card .. So we went to TD bank , filled in the forms every thing good .. Its in the post no problems they said
After 2 months of asking them where it is and being told its in the post we gave up
and went to HSBC .. Now we bank with them in the UK so all should be good we were told .. We even opened a normal account as well as applied for a credit card..
all should be good they said.. we waited ...... its in the post they said .. we waited
and gave up AGAIN... And nope we still havent got the money back we opened the account up with ...
So now have gone to Capital one for a secured one as a last resort..

Anyway ... Why did the banks keep telling us lies ?? We even contacted the post office about maybe mail going missing and after an investigation on it they said are you sure people arent just telling you porkies (we had some other very important mail vanish too like Visa stuff and insurance stuff) But both those times it was finaly admitted it was never actualy sent...

So thats the Credit card problems and RBC
now theres the next part

Our current account with RBC .. At first this was fantastic , every time there was a mistake we would get a phone call and it would be sorted .. It happened alot but they were soo good about it ...
Then our card got cloned
and got cloned again
and again
and again

Ok something isnt soo good here .. can we have a new card do you think please ?
yes sure thing.. its in the post.. Guess what happed to that .. yep never arrived cos never actualy sent....
Then they keep making payments strange payments with our money .. Other day went to the ATM and oh wheres all our money .. rang the bank turned out they decided to pay for 3 yrs of car insurance !!We pay that directly in person so no idea why they would do it ... ok give back our money please .. Yes no problem sorry about that ..
week later it was something else... at least once per week we are unable to get money out of our account.. Due to one mess up or another on them..
Then our payments are going wrong .. A rent check got returned after it cleared our account and was in the landladys account .. RBC asked for it back .. Landlady contacted us we contacted bank , they couldnt explain why this happened ..
The other day got a big check off a company , it cleared , then the money vanished, the bank said it bounced , yet others got checks from same company and had no problems.. (said company is big and has lots of money so doubt it bounced)

Theres probably 101 other things they done .. but this post already gone on long enough ..

So we need a new bank account .. and after the joke with the credit cards we at a complete loss at what to do

So any ideas ....

We currently applying to BMO (been told theres a delay with that one , wont hold my breath)....

and sorry for the long post .. But needed to explain as much as poss..

You sure it's the banks? We don't have this problem with RBC, been with them 17 years. Always found them very helpful, or as helpful as banks are ever likely to be.

If they have your money and won't return it and you can prove it, why not go to small claims, they would soon pay up then.

Is your mail secure, there is a lot of mail theft going on these days. We have a padlock on our box at the end of the drive.

I am probably at the very beginning of my experience with the Canadian banking system but will share it anyway.
I opened an account with CIBC on 1st march. On the day i asked if i could be sent a bank statement quite soon as i need to provide it as a proof of address for OHP. Nothing came. After couple of weeks i visited them. They said its going to be mailed in a week. Nothing came. At the end of march i went there again. They said its in the post. Nothing came. Went there first week of april. They said it wont be coming around as i didnt have any balance in the account.

I can understand no statement being sent because of no balance. What i cannot understand is, what were the customer services ppl(girls) actually looking at in the computer when i used to ask them about the statements? For all I know they could be playing card games

check that your postal code/post office box is correct.

Ok we dont believe its the post ... Since this has been going on we have moved 3 times , and each time we triple check every thing has the right address and still in contact with old landlords. Once had a birthday card it was open and $100 was hanging out sitting in our post box in the road all day... So not all posties are bad.
but as dodgy as the post is , the banks just lied to us .. again and again ...
At the moment the Credit card problems is in the hands of a volunter lawyer legal chap .. If took him 6months to obtain a copy of our statement ... And now he has proved they broke the contract we are should get our money back .. Sadly he needs to meet the bank to do this , they have cancelled on him about 6 times now...
But on a side note , the other day our checking account got closed again , rung them up and asked them why ...they said we owed them $49 , we asked how , they said well in order for them to pay us back the $1400 they owe us , we have to pay them $49 first.
Ok paid them the $49 just so we could get at our account back .. Guess what we still havent recived the $1400. this is how frustrating this is ... And now we just want another account, so we can close the RBC one and tell them where to go .. But cant seem to get one ..

Oh yeah we know the bank has our correct addresses as once RBC decided to send us 6 checkbooks out of the blue, do believe its the only bit of post we have ever had from them....

Doesn't make sense to me. We had secured credit card and all was fine and even got back the amount we gave to the bank after the year was up.
We have 2 different credit cards and statements always arrive BUT you can check the account balance online anytime so statements are not really a necessity.
We use Scotia originally and still have money with them but do most of our banking with BMO on Bernard and they are really good. Always friendly, always helpful and never much of a wait.

Postal problems and people telling whoppers are another matter. We usually get UK mail quicker than local post and i have lost count of the times people tell me "the cheque is in the post" when it clearly wasn't.

For that reason, it is probably to get statements online these days. However, sometimes the banks ask for trouble by sending out unsolicited credit card cheques, etc. However, Canada Post can be another story.

I was going to say - why on earth are you still asking for paper statements?

Since day 1, we have always requested all of our statements electronically. We've never had a problem with a missed or lost statement, and everything stays secure. RBC definitely offers this option, since we do it.

We have been having electronic statements for about 3 years now, they are also stored for 7 years automatically.

Not had your sorts of problems with either RBC or CIBC. But I can imagine how frustrating it can be.

Banks here really do work better when you have established a working relationship with your account manager, if possible always try and deal with the same person at the Bank, that way they will get to know you and be more helpful when there are problems.

Never had a problem with my bank, and no idea who my account manager is, or even if presidents choice have such a thing!

I don't believe they do, but is not a front for another bank?

No its pretty much a separate entity to it CIBC parent. Technically it operates as one branch of CIBC as far as international transfers go, and some operations like receiving bank drafts or foreign cash are done via shipping to a CIBC office of your choice, but other than that its its own thing.

I can agree with you wholly on the crappy way banks operate here, I would expect that banks actually knew what they were doing but they so clearly don't, we have had trouble with the CIBC (with our mortgage) and colossal trouble with our credit union. I no longer trust banks AT ALL and take everything they say at face value. I need to open a new account with a new bank as I no longer wish the credit union to manage my accounts but they all seem to be crap and I just don't know where to go

The whole banking thing (on top of a few other things) has made me truly wonder why we moved to this country and had made me wonder if we should have just moved within the UK, I'm a very unhappy expat at the mo', wish we have never moved here, business practices are medieval.

Paradoxically, one of the 'quaint' things about banking here with Scotiabank is going in to see your personal banking representative and sitting down to discuss things. As a long term First Direct customer in the UK (who are great btw.) this is something I don't think I've ever done in the UK.

Canadian banks do have some service innovations over their UK counterparts though. For example if your interac card doesn't work, is lost or stolen, one can stroll into a branch and obtain a new one there and then. In the UK, it's phone the call centre and wait a week to get a new one.

Generally, I like banking in Canada.

I like being able to pick up the phone and ask for my banking representative by name, who then deals with my queries and can send out the information I require.

I like the ability to deposit a cheque and access the money imediately.

I found it amusing that my bank gave me a mortgage whitout getting me to sign any paperwork. It took them five months to finally get me in to sort it out.

I don't like the fact that I am charged when I use another banks Cash machine.

But I hate that I may check my account online on a Wednesday and then when I check it a day later, I see they have retrospectively added transactions to previous two days.