A friend of mine is making preparations to leave on a big European adventure, and trying to get everything ready before she leaves. One of her recent questions on Facebook was regarding how to be paid as a US-based contractor via PayPal and not lose any excessive money due to currency conversion. This is actually a tricky problem for a few reasons. First, most banks in Canada only deal in Canadian dollars. If you want to deposit USD into your CAD account you can, but the banks usually tack on an extra 2-3% to the base rates as another way to make money from you. Only a $100 it’s not a huge ...

Random Visa Card I received an automated call last week from TD Visa letting me know that my card had been deactivated due to fraud. Of course, there were no unauthorized transactions that I could tell on my VISA, nor has there been any previously when this has happened. In the past few years, I’d say this has probably happened three of four times. Each time it does, I have to head down to the bank and pick up my new card about a week later. It’s nice that they are trying to reduce fraud, but not so nice that it causes an inconvenience, first because it takes my main VISA card out of commission, ...

Photo by Ryan Hyde I did a post a while ago detailing my plans to finally give up my no-fee bank account at PC Financial and move to a full service bank in preparation for my trip. How come, you ask? First, the idea of having a no-frills bank while in another country just seems far too risky. If I hit a snag, I definitely want to be able to pick up the phone and call someone for help. While PC Financial does offer phone service, in my experience very basic things like obtaining certified cheques or doing wire transfers are often a pain. While PC Financial is a subsidiary of CIBC, it’s still ...

I won’t lie: I hate banks. Other than PC Financial (which has been my main bank since I was about 20 years old), the major banks absolutely gouge their customers. I remember once going into TD when I was in university and asking to open a savings account. Once they showed me their fee structure, I realized there was absolutely no way I’d actually be able to save money using that account, since the costs each month were greater than the interest they paid. Consequently I have been a member of PC Financial since that time, and haven’t paid a single fee. That said, I’ve been strongly considering ...

I tweeted about some rather recent banking problems I’ve been having, so I thought I’d tell the whole story. About five years ago (probably longer to be honest), I opened a business account at TD bank on Broadway in Vancouver. I was going to start doing a little consulting on the side while doing my master’s degree, so I thought having a business account would be a good idea. At the time, I also got a small mastercard as well. I never really ended up having time for the consulting, so the account kind of just sat there for a few months. Eventually I ended up cancelling that mastercard and ...