jimf

Email Interac is $1.50 for the sender nothing for the recipient.

TD said the payment collection had no charge for either party. I was suprised at that so asked them again too make sure and they said definately no charge.

jimf

I suppose you could write "POST DATED CHEQUE" in the memo field on each cheque and use a highlighter on the date - it can't get more obvious than that. It all seems like a crude effort though.

Helen Parnell

As a property manager with over 70 different tenants. I have all post dated cheques. It saves me and the tenant from having to collect/send it each month. When I have used the last cheque (some times people give me 6 some 12) i just phone them and they mail me some more.

I personally keep all the cheques in the safe and only take them to the bank on the 1st of each bank. BUT i know that if i wanted to leave them all at the bank i can and they will pay them in on the 1st of each month. The reason I do not do this is because tenants may leave and occasionally i have tenants who need me to hold the cheque for a day or two extra whilst they get the money in the bank. I photocopy all cheques and keep them on file.


i would love to have tenants pay the money into the bank by direct deposit (and i do have one person who does) but generally the banking systems do not support this due to privacy/security/ old systems what ever. Some of my tenants would not necessary know how/trust/mental ability to pay on line.

Someone mentioned that there is a more of a renting attitude here in canada. I don't think there is. It is just in the uk we have social and council housing so there is not the same scope for cheap housing with private landlords. In Calgary (and i am sure it is similar all over) there is no council housing as such and low income housing is very few and far between and are charity based, so there is more private landlords providing basement suites etc.

northeast canuck

I am a returning Canadian expat, having spent over a decade in the UK, and as such I feel I can say the following:

The Canadian banking system sucks.

I am renting and have had to hand over 12 post-dated cheques. I'm not bothered about that, but I just feel it is such an inefficient way of doing things. I mean, cheques? Come on? The only time we ever used cheques in the UK was to for kids' school activities.

I recently wanted to send some money to my sister in Toronto and when I asked about how to do it electronically I was told I could do an "email cheque". Which apparently carries a $1000 limit and a charge of some sort as well (they charge for everything here, don't they?), and also a security question. WTF? In the UK I would have just put in her account details and off it goes! OK it would have taken 3 days to arrive in her account (although even that is changing), at least it can be done! And you know what - it can be done here too. The internet is worldwide after all! If I was able to transfer huge amounts of capital between the UK and Canada electronically and see that money appear in my account within seconds on another continent, then it is definitely possible to send money straight into a landlords account every month.

We are all be ripped off by the banks in this country. Why is it that in Britain, with a BOE rate of .5% I can get 3.3% on a basic savings account but in Canada, with BOC rate at .25% you can only get at best a 1% return on a savings account? The only banks offering more are not Canadian based banks (ie Ally, ING etc).

The Canadian banks are not even remotely interested in dragging themselves into the modern world. Why would they be? They are mollycoddled and protected by the government - being held up as poster boys for "responsibility" and "regulation". What a load of rubbish!

Yes, it is what it is. But you know what? That's not good enough for me. There are a lot of cages that need rattling in this country!

Almost Canadian

Gee you are so correct, of course, the banks in Canada did not require anything like the bailout that their English counterparts did and the most homeowners in Canada have not suffered from the housing crisis anything like as much as their English counterparts - but I am sure that you will not let facts like that get in the way of your rant - good for you

By the way, what rate of interest does the Bank of England offer savers? Surely this is the only English based bank, the other being owned by shareholders from all over the world

northeast canuck

Actually the government here has done quite a bit to prop up the banks, it just doesn't get publicised quite as much. Like, for example, the government taking on $70 billion in mortgage liabilities off the banks balance sheets. Just like that! CMHC underwriting $600 billion worth of mortgages given to people who have less than 20% to put down (ie the riskiest ones) - and who is on the hook for that? The taxpayer. It's all built into the system here. Nice cosy little club.

I also find it amusing that the banks here are quite happy to lend with 5% down over 35 years. On person I know recently got a mortgage and they don't even have a job! Now, I'm not one to support the banks in the UK, believe me they have been grossly negligent, but what I am saying is that it is no different here. In the UK it is near impossible to get a mortage with less than 20% down. The banks consider it too risky. But here in Vancouver - you want to borrow 8-10x your salary with 5% down? The banks will do it! Why? Because the CMHC will guarantee it. Unbelievable.

I can't believe how naive people are here when they say they think that Canada has better regulation and hasn't been hit by any of this economic stuff. It has, but your government is hiding it from you! Just wait, you'll see.

Almost Canadian

Do you actually understand how the CMHC works?

How is the Canadian government hiding this from the taxpayers ? - I gotta see how you explain this one.

Simon Legree

I'd like to see that too. The original post was mostly ill informed "beau lochs".

By the way, you can transfer funds instantly by internet banking and also by making a simple deposit at any branch of her bank if you know her account number.

I sure hope that you know more about your own profession than you do about this. I'd hate to be a punter on one of your flights if you don't.

Aviator

Who you working for and on what?

Alan2005

If you can't see that 0.25% interest rates are a bank bailout then you should open your eyes. I know it's been done to death, but Canadian banks do rip off their customers - saying 'we didn't need a bailout' is no justification. If Canadian banks lent sensibly then they would be able to make a profit on the interest differential between deposits and loans; there really is no need for effectively negative interest rates.

Lets face it, banking and bankers are systematically bad for every country they exist in. The socially useful function of extending capital to people and businesses that will use it productively has been forgotten. Right now with low interest rates people are borrowing high amounts to fund real estate purchases because the repayments are 'affordable' - however what this really means is that a large amount of the money we earn is just going directly into bank profits rather than the economy as a whole (hence the need for 'stimulus'). It amazes me that people don't get this. If I was in charge I'd enforce full reserve banking, none of this debt backed crap.

jimf

There was a good interview on the BBC website earlier this week where Evan Davis was speaking to Warren Buffet. WB put it very well but basically said that companies and individuals in the finance sector have been taking a cut out of the wealth generated by the economy out of all proportion to the value they add. He made a joke about say if a group of people were stranded on an island and grow their own food etc would they all decide it would be a good idea if 15% of them went off and started trading in what the rest were working to produce?

northeast canuck

That's a little judgemental of you. I'm afraid I do know a little about what I am talking about, perhaps you'd better check your facts.

Here are some of mine:

The CMHC basically underwrites 100% of the mortage if the deposit is around 20% or less. This means the bank carries NO RISK for low deposit mortgages because the CMHC will pay in full if the mortgage holder defaults. There is more incentive for banks to issue higher ratio mortgages because of this (after all, their money is not at risk!). Nice one. The CMHC currently only has around $8 billion in the bank. So, what happens if property prices fall? But no one likes to think about that particular eventuality here. But who underwrites the CMHC? Hmmm....

As far as the huge liability Canadians have taken on in their name by the largely unregulated CHMC, try this recent article in the Globe:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...rticle1327491/

And as far as the government buying "assets" from the banks (ie read sub-prime), go no further than the following two press releases from the CMHC itself. Notice the first one was four days before the election. It refers to the initial $25 billion. Interesting timing.

http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/corp/n...10-10-1700.cfm

The second press release relating to the next $50 billion is here. Sorry, you were right, my facts were wrong - I was $5 billion low:

http://www.fin.gc.ca/news08/08-090e.html

Just because you don't necessarily like what I have to say about the banks does not mean that I am wrong. And it certainly doesn't reflect on what I do professionally no matter who is right.

northeast canuck

Agree 100%.

Alan2005

I quite like Evan Davis's style (laid back and easy to understand) so I might check out that interview (assume it will be on iPlayer). I agree with what WB said, or at least your paraphrasing of it - put much better than I could as I tend to go off into rants (apologies to AC)

Almost Canadian

OK, but surely you are aware that such borrowers pay a rather large premium to CMHC, I would imagine that actuaries have worked out what the premuims need to be on the based of likely defaults so, in essence, it is a glorified insurance scheme. Can you point to a situation when Canadian taxpayers had to bail out CMHC?