Best Canadian Bank

[Kurt]

Hey all,

I'm currently with Scotia Bank and although I've received great inter-personal service I find that their website is atrocious.

I currently have all my bank accounts and investments with them which is great when I want to see my net worth. However, I have no idea how those investments are doing.

Scotia's lacking features:
* do not show yearly returns on investements. I have to manually divide my weighted average cost of mutual funds vs current cost. I have no idea what 12% means. I'm assuming that means I'm up 12% total. Well on a fund I started purchasing 5 years ago that is totally brutal.
* can't auto payoff credit card. You can setup an automatic transfer for a specific amount but not the entire amount. The auto amount I setup takes care of the minimum payment but I've occasionally forgotten to pay off the balance and then have to pay some interest. grr...
* and likely many other things too

So... I read somewhere that Royal Bank has a good website. Worth changing everything over to them or someone else?

Thanks,
Kurt

[Jon_Snow]

TD... and it's really no contest.

[RichMoose]

I was with TD for quite a while and found their website to be pretty good. The information on Waterhouse is top-notch. I recently switched my chequing account to Servus (I see you're from AB as well) because my wife is still hesitant to do online-only. But hopefully in a few years when she's on board I'll move over to Tangerine.

[Kurt]

Thanks for the responses.

[daverobev]

Basic banking: PCF
Investing: Questrade
Credit: Wherever gets you the best return on your spending; MBNA Rewards Travel is a good 2% card but costs $89 after the first year, SmartCash is good if you don't spend much, Scotia has a couple of 4% for gas/grocery cards

[ScienceSexSavings]

My problem with TD is that they have few physical branches, so things like withdrawls and deposits are complicated if you need to do that often. BMO and RBC both have pretty good money-management software, although I'm not sure about the annual returns bit since I'm still a student. I think PC financial has the lowest fees, but I have no idea what the service is like. And finally, I'm pretty sure you don't have to bank with TD to use Waterhouse.

[swiper]

My problem with TD is that they have few physical branches, so things like withdrawls and deposits are complicated if you need to do that often. BMO and RBC both have pretty good money-management software, although I'm not sure about the annual returns bit since I'm still a student. I think PC financial has the lowest fees, but I have no idea what the service is like. And finally, I'm pretty sure you don't have to bank with TD to use Waterhouse.

Correct, you don't have to bank with TD to use Waterhouse, but you do need to go into a branch to setup investing  accounts for access to eseries funds. (in my case, a painful and repeated process). But once accounts are setup, buying funds is pretty easy. I have my RRSP and TFSA with TD.

Second PCF for daily banking due to lots of free machines.

[cdnmustachegrower]

I use Tangerine (used to be ING) for all of my day to day banking needs and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.  No fees, app and website are pretty good.  They offer investment products but I don't use those.

I still have a Scotiabank account but really only use it a couple times a month. 

If you use my referral code we both get a $25 bonus.  :)  36115790S1 / www.tangerine.ca/referafriend

[SandyBoxx]

We switched everything over to TD about 7 years ago (business & personal accounts) and haven't looked back - see ya later RBC!!!

There is no branch where we live (closest one just shy of 2 hours away) yet we have rarely found this to be an issue.  If we need some cash, we just pop into a grocery store, buy a banana, and ask for (up to) $100 cash back.  For larger sums, we can simply write a cheque to a friend with a local account and have them withdraw it (this has only occurred once.)  Deposits - we just throw them into snail mail...usually 48 hour turnaround until it hits the account.

Their website is easy to navigate, and I just filled out the paperwork to have my CC paid in full every month.  They don't advertise this service, but it IS available. :)

[fb132]

I have an account with RBC and Tangerine, I think it's a pretty good combo. I like Tangerine for its no fee's and low MER mutual funds and I like RBC for their credit card cashback credit cards and their service. The only downside with RBC (in my case) is that I can only make 10 transactions without any fees...with Tangerine, there are no fees.

[AJDZee]

I use Tangerine (used to be ING) for all of my day to day banking needs and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.  No fees, app and website are pretty good.  They offer investment products but I don't use those.

I still have a Scotiabank account but really only use it a couple times a month. 

I'm with both Tangerine and TD... I'm about to move all my RSP accounts AWAY from Tangerine's investments because their online 'performance' summary is absolutely terrible. I chuckled when reading the OP first post about having to manually calculate the ROI at Scotia. LOL that's EXACTLY what you have to do for Tangerine! Scroll your mouse over a graph and record the overall portfolio balances and do the math yourself. It's no surprise Tangerine is owned by Scotia.

Their investment performance summary is a joke, it's like they don't want you to know how your investments are doing. They don't want you to be objective in your financial planning, they just want you to look at one graph that's sloping up, (with each deposit you make) and say, 'oohh that's pretty!' ...can you tell their user interface has actually offended me slightly? haha :)

In this day and age, it's unacceptable, too many competitors and too many options for customers.

So my advice for OP is to not go with Tangerine, as you'll find you have the same issue.

I'm going to move Tangerine RSPs to my Questrade account, and Tangerine will only be for my emergency fund within their high-interest savings account.

[smilla]

Scotia's lacking features:
* do not show yearly returns on investements. I have to manually divide my weighted average cost of mutual funds vs current cost. I have no idea what 12% means. I'm assuming that means I'm up 12% total. Well on a fund I started purchasing 5 years ago that is totally brutal.
* can't auto payoff credit card. You can setup an automatic transfer for a specific amount but not the entire amount. The auto amount I setup takes care of the minimum payment but I've occasionally forgotten to pay off the balance and then have to pay some interest. grr...
* and likely many other things too

This is pretty late for you but you can have your account advisor at Scotia set up automatic full balance payments for your credit cards - there should be a name and number you can call on your account summary page when you log in. 

I use Scotia for my mortgage, LOCs, CC and daily banking and they make it very easy to do most things I might want to do online but if I get stuck or have a question, I call the guy linked to my account and he gets back to me the same day with whatever it is done or answered.  I am super happy with their customer service and also with their mortgage prepayment terms.

I am not fond of Scotia OR RBC for investing so I have opened an account now with Questrade. 

[sieben]

I know I'm a bit late to the party but I'd like to second PC Financial.
I've used them for years, never had a problem. I don't do fancy banking though so depending on your needs you may want a more full service bank.
It's also worth noting that I have had trouble getting their debit cards to work in Europe, I usually have a debit card from another bank along just in case.

[lostamonkey]

I like TD best for a few reasons:
1. Many physical locations in my local area
2. Good All Access Bank Account if you are willing to keep the minimum balance in the account
3. Great online interface. It's easy to transfer money between accounts and pay bills online. You can also deposit money with their app but I have never tried that.
4. Good investing platform. $9.99/trade is slightly more than the online discount brokers but it's a solid platform and it is linked to your bank account and it is easy to transfer money back and forth
5. Open late and some locations are open Sundays

I personally need a B&M bank to meet my need but if you are willing to go with an online bank, I have heard good things abouts PC Financial.

[Ottawa]

Basic banking: PCF
Investing: Questrade
Credit: Wherever gets you the best return on your spending; MBNA Rewards Travel is a good 2% card but costs $89 after the first year, SmartCash is good if you don't spend much, Scotia has a couple of 4% for gas/grocery cards

This exactly!

[csr]

PCF + Tangerine + TD for me.

PCF/Tangerine for daily (free unlimited) chequing and bounce savings back and forth depending on best rate.
TD for in branch stuff eg. bank drafts, depositing large sums of cash

Even better now, you can download mobile apps to deposit cheques without visiting an ATM! Many banks have this feature.