Ever since I moved to Canada, I was not happy with the norm of a monthly banking fee in every bank. I have been to many countries and none of the banks charged a monthly fee. I just don’t get the concept of paying the bank every month to keep your money. I know they get paid any way through other fees etc so why pay an extra monthly banking fee?
I was pretty rigid that I DO NOT wish to pay it. So for the first year I banked with BMO (Bank of Montreal) who gave me one year free banking for new immigrants.
Before the year was over, I decided to shift to RBC who gave me one-year free banking again. Now that the year is ending, I booked an appointment with Mamatha Koppa at RBC Lacewood Drive, Halifax and told her that I would love a solution as I don’t wish to pay a monthly fee.
She was kind enough to offer a great solution. She said if you have a basic account and have 2 products with RBC, then your banking becomes free. I already have a visa credit card with them. So she suggested that I open a TFSA (Tax-Free Savings Account for no fee) and once that’s opened, I won’t be charged any monthly fee with RBC. This is exactly what I’ve done now and I’m super excited to bank with them for free for life now. She was also sweet enough to reimburse the first monthly fee charged to me this month.
Mamatha is super sweet and reached out to me at the bank, she spoke to us in Urdu/Hindi and asked me if I want to open a free bank account for NYRA. She also told me that she’ll get $25 free from the bank as a gift (for being born.. hehe).
When Nyra was born, I was charged a lot of overlimit fee as I wasn’t able to get online and pay off my credit card payments in time. I was very unwell (and completely forgot). So once I felt better, I was shocked to see what I had done and how much I was charged.
So I went to the branch and talked to their assistant branch manager Lionel about how bad I feel about missing payments on time and I’m upset about being charged fees.
He was kind enough to reply: ‘We completely understand that you were unwell and doing a big service by bringing this beautiful girl into the world, so we will reimburse all fees charged to you during that time’. I was ecstatic.
On top of that, they also helped me set up monthly payments so my credit card payments are automatically paid off every month. It saves me so much time, hassle and stress of going online and manually doing it every time. I love it as I looove automation!
I’m really happy with the banking service at RBC so far. It’s far better than competition. Their coffee is great and customer service is even greater. I would fully recommend this bank esp to immigrants.
