Steve_

I know we have these threads about banks on here, but I was wondering if there was anyone out west who has their own business or is responsible for the business' bank accounts because I'm getting really narked off with my local bank, they're utterly hopeless. They were never great but in the last year or so they've become pathetic.

Anyone have any really good experiences with banks?

Auld Yin

What is the bank doing/not doing to mark you off?

R I C H

I use RBC.

Generally they are ok, they've screwed up several times and recompensed reasonably generously (flowers, fruit basket, restaurant vouchers).

I think smooth business banking is more to do with the quality and relationship you have with your account manager than the institution itself. The service I got improved noticeably when there was a personnel change.

Steve_

Many, many things, no one thing, just general incompetence in routine banking functions, missing statements, ballsing up cheques, etc. I complained and the guy just phoned me up to deal with the complaint and he was just as bad if not worse so my patience has run out with them.

Steve_

I agree, this is what has just irked me because the business manager is downtown, not at the local branch and was completely surprised when I told him how half-soaked they are. Then I realized he was completely half-soaked as well.

JonboyE

Best experience is with a local credit union. In this case Coast Capital, but they won't have any branches in AB. There really is a different ethos with credit unions compared to the retail banks. More about service than profit.

The big banks all offer similar products and are much of a muchness in my opinion. Whether or not you get a positive experience depends mostly on the quality of people you get to deal with. I have been really impressed with HSBC, perfectly fine with Scotiabank, but I would never use CIBC again. I can easily imagine someone somewhere else having a completely different view.

Steve_

I was thinking of using ATB Financial for similar reasons.

Almost Canadian

Mine is with TD. The official branch is local to where I live but most of my day to day transactions occur in a branch that is situated in the building where my office is. No problems and have never really had an issue that wasn't resolved in 5 mins.

Before DBD posts, I am on the corner of chinatown so no big breasted women to ogle at. If I don't need to pay in cheques, I don't go in - just how it should be

burton bunch

Hey Steve

I work for ATB and I happen to like their saying that we work for Alberta making Albertans successful. My hubby's business account is also at this bank and he has had no problems with anything.

pennyhp

We have just opened a business account with Scotiabank.

Its ridiculous!

Its just a plain old checking account, BUT even though its a joint account we can only have one debit card.
This means if I want to deposit money I have to have my husbands card on me or have the account number written down or I am not able to do it.

The thing I find most annoying about it is that nobody at the bank has any idea why two debit cards cannot be issued with this accout when we can have one each for our other joint non business account.
And they don't seem to care that they don't know.
I expected at least to able to get an explanation.


It just like...."computer says no"

Almost Canadian

How can a business account be joint, is it not in the name of the business? Did they not provide you with a deposit book?

pennyhp

We do business just in our own names, and they put both names on the account name.
No we don't have a deposit book. We just operate it in the same way that we do our non business checking account. In England we had a business account in the name of the business but we still both had business debit cards.

Quinch

As far as a specific Canadian bank is concerned I have very little experience but I am learning. Generally however I am a big fan of using small banks. They actually care if you like them or not as your 50G or whatever is a larger % of their holdings, some do have higher charge but imho they are worth it.

Good place to start maybe.

If you are in the west (I'm presuming it matters) these guys are doing great right now. I am also looking at this place next week which as far as I know is a smaller bank.

JonboyE

It is a credit union, not a bank. Credit Unions are something like the building societies used to be in the UK before they all demutualized in the '90s. With a Credit Union you become a member, not a customer. Any excess of income over expenditure is returned to members as an increase in the value of their membership shares. It s not much because they don't aim to make a profit. Coast Capital offer a free-as-long-as-you-stay-in-credit chequing account. Run a free savings account along side this and they pay you to bank with them.

For mortgages the big banks post a rate way in excess of what they will actually lend at. You have to negotiate them down and, because not everyone is good at negotiating, many people pay more than they need to. Coast Capital don't. They have one, very competitive, rate and that is it. Everyone gets it.

The Credit Unions may not have all the electronic whistles and bangs you are used to in the UK. Internet banking is fine for everyday use and you can use any Credit Union ATM for free. However, for some transactions you may still need to go to a branch. It is not much of a hardship. They employ very nice people.

Edited to add: for a business account I guess one thing you need to think about is that for commercial lending they do tend to be quite conservative. No problem borrowing against real estate but they don't like losing their members' money in speculative business ventures.

dbd33

I haven't seen Lauren for ages, I suppose the TD have shipped her off to boost business at some other branch.

I'm a bit perplexed to see how one bank can be better for, small or medium, business than another. It's not like personal banking where there might be a mortgage, a credit card, a car loan, lots of products. A business receives cheques or cash and writes cheques, so long as the teller can count cash reasonably quickly, the bank's providing all the service its competitors might.

I find that, with the TD, there's a problem with a cheque once a year or so, the wrong amount deposited or withdrawn, they're reasonably quick to sort these things out. I think that, in a business context, that's as good as it's going to get. Banks just don't do very much for businesses so there's not much scope for them to differentiate themselves.