It always surprises me when a bank doesn’t want my money.
I guess it’s like going to a store, trying to shop and buy something, and the shop attendants kind of give you a look like: What, bitch?. Or they’re apathetic, and/or too busy chatting with the other attendants to give you the time of day.
It surprised me a lot, coming here to Quebec and getting that attitude.
But what surprises me even more is that a BANK doesn’t want my money, in Quebec. I’ve been hounding TD Bank for about 3 days. Friday, Monday and Tuesday. I even sent a couple of e-mails, left 3 phone messages. Nothing. Nada.
And you know what? This isn’t the first time I’ve had to deal with this in Quebec. Specifically, this province seems to REALLY take it easy.
Nothing’s open when it should be open (I wait until about 11 a.m. for most things because even though it says 10 a.m., they really meant 11 a.m.).
Nothing closes when it should. I went to go sign up for yoga, got there an hour early, and the guy said that they were closed. I gave a confused look like: How can you be closed? You said 5 p.m., it’s 4 p.m. You’re open, and they blustered, trying to give a reason, but in the end, they didn’t have any — they just didn’t want to be open for the last hour and they didn’t want to deal with customers, so they closed.
Nothing works the way it should.
And I’m slowly getting used to it, but the frustration is definitely there. I am so used to a certain way of business being conducted that being here, it’s like having to learn an awkward way of doing what I’ve done all my life.
Like having to call ahead to check to see if they are REALLY open at 9 a.m., or if that sign was just to seem like they knew how to do business. Or calling ahead to grill them about what I need to bring (in the end, I bring my massive portfolio of documents because you never know what they’re going to ask for).
And in the end, it’s exhausting.
I want to throw up my hands and say: WHY WON’T YOU TAKE MY MONEY? I WANT to give it to you. TAKE IT. PLEASE.
So anyway, back to my bank dilemma.
I want to transfer my retirement accounts from my previous employer into another account because there is no fucking way in hell that I’m paying $120/year just to have my money kept with Sunlife.
So I tried calling TD Bank to ask them to set up an appointment with me to go over the paper work and “do the deed”, so to speak.
Nothing. 3 days. And I’m trying to put money IN the account, not take it OUT.
Which brings me to the silver lining of this entire story.
I am sick of TD bank and I’m switching to ING Direct.
WOO HOO!
Then I read up on their RSP accounts, and they have the 2 main things I like:
No fees
Umm… wtf? There’s a catch somewhere. What is it, ING? How do you make your money? Tell me.
They have the S&P 500 U.S. Mutual Fund
Perfect. It’s the only one I invest in. My only concern is that it should be currency neutral and I want to know EVERYTHING about the fund before buying in to see if it matches my old TDB904 for the U.S. Index fund.
Plus, they’re open on Saturday so that I can go in and chat with them in person.
Perfect.
I don’t have to worry about whether TD Bank is open on Saturday, but closed for commercial business accounts, or whether TD Waterhouse is a totally separate entity from TD Bank and has different hours, or none at all (judging by my experience it seems to be an ad hoc “find it yourself” deal).
Done and done. Will keep you posted on how my ING Adventure fares.
(P.S. I even like their website and colour scheme better. Very Apple-ish).
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Mrs. Micah
on Sep 20th, 2008
@ 9:55 PM:
I’ve had lots of good luck with ING. I do have a brick-and-mortar checking linked to ING so that I can write real checks, but otherwise we use ING. The only real hassle is changing my name and that’s because they don’t have branches. The whole getting married thing necessitates mailing a copy of the license and whatnot.
Foxie
on Sep 20th, 2008
@ 10:20 PM:
Ohohohoh I LOVE ING.
They are seriously the best bank ever… I have a few thousand in various accounts with them. (Which seems like way more money than a 20 year old should be in charge of, when I think about it…)
I'm WAY excited to get to NYC this winter because I'm dragging my husband to the ING Cafe there… It's ridiculous, really, but hey, it's not a bad thing to get excited about savings with a specific bank, is it? (And the debit card is even cool… Lol.)
As for mutual funds… I'm still trying to wrap my head around those. :/ All of my investment money is in a few different ETF's, mostly Vanguard's and an S&P 500 ETF… I'm not sure about how the taxes compare, nor if starting to invest in a mutual fund will be better for me. (Since dollar-cost averaging works better with mutual funds than ETF's, so I've read.)
kokostiletto
on Sep 20th, 2008
@ 11:26 PM:
omg I didn’t know Quebec was like that! Interesting…. yes yes I LOVE ING!!!! I love the no fees and i love using their online options!!!!!!!!
Sharon Rose
on Sep 21st, 2008
@ 3:29 AM:
Hi there-well, it was meant to be as TD Banks indifference led you to ING!! Well done!
Eric
on Sep 21st, 2008
@ 11:57 AM:
I am a big fan of ING myself. I would be careful to only invest in one fund, however. I would put the majority in a fund like an S&P index fund. I would also diversify a bit though. Consider bond funds or other index/mutual funds in addition.
Vanessa
on Sep 21st, 2008
@ 12:32 PM:
I have the ING account and LOVE it! They are easy to deal with, efficient and as you’ve said, have a great website.
Lys
on Sep 21st, 2008
@ 8:32 PM:
I am also a card holding member of the ING fan club. I have had nothing but great experiences with them. While my primary bank is USAA, I also keep some accounts with ING and keep a local bank here only for deposits and local transactions.
I’m so happy to hear you might go with them. TD Who?
absolut_feli
on Sep 21st, 2008
@ 9:46 PM:
I have an ING account too. Its mainly for my savings. Because it does not have a physical branch, its harder for me to get the money out and THAT IS GOOD. The interest rates are much better too.
brooke
on Sep 22nd, 2008
@ 3:44 PM:
I knew Quebec seemed to good to be true
I love it when i visit! I hear that its like that in France also. Customer service is non-existent. Could it be a francophone quirk?
brandy
on Sep 29th, 2008
@ 8:32 PM:
Dealing with Quebec would give me an ulcer. ING definitely sounds much cooler and knowing they have a good looking website just gives me more confidence in their business.
I’m kidding. Weeeeell… not really.