Guess which country has NOT had a single bank failure?

"Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors. Yup, it's Canada. In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada's banking system the healthiest in the world. America's ranked 40th, Britain's 44th"  (snip)

Fareed Zakaria - Newsweek - The Canadian Solution 

Very interesting!  If I'd known then what I know now, I would have put my money in a Canadian Bank!

The banking system in Canada is regulated fairly heavily by the government from what I am aware of, with calls for further regulation given the current economic conditions.

hmmm. Canadian Internet Banking - here I come. ;)

You go Canada!

O Canada!

Terre de nos aïeux,

Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux!

Car ton bras sait porter l'épée,

Il sait porter la croix!

Ton histoire est une épopée

Des plus brillants exploits.

Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,

Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.

Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

O Canada!

Terre de nos aïeux,

Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux!

Car ton bras sait porter l'épée,

Il sait porter la croix!

Ton histoire est une épopée

Des plus brillants exploits.

Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,

Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.

Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.

all these years I've been singing "deux fois"

oooh, I feel embarrassed!

Canada Rawks.

About a year ago, I hosted a workshop on exporting to the U.S., and one of the speakers was a banker from the states.  She was very candid in her opening remarks: Canadian banks offer better products, better service, better security and better support than American banks.  American banks offer better interest rates than Canadian banks.

One thing I couldn't get over - Americans have to wait for a cheque to clear before funds become available?  Sometimes a couple of days - sometimes up to a week?  I can deposit a cheque into my account at an ATM, and withdraw the funds immediately. 

but...but...socialism! 

Split, we can withdraw before the check clears.  We can't withdraw the total amount.  I think at my bank it was 80% of the amount of the check.  Got the rest of the money when it cleared.

Canadian banks are not afraid to say, Sir or Ma'am, I am sorry but you can not afford this loan or to buy that house.

I was under the impression that it's because Canadian banks don't loan money for mortgages without down payments? I remember hearing something to that effect- say in contrast, U.S. banks allowing people to get mortgages for the entire cost of their home and they therein being unable to pay the banks back and declaring bankruptcy. Does that really have anything to do with it?

I REALLY don't understand how the western world has gotten itself into this state.

I guess if there is progress in one area, we must expect the inevitable degradation of others.

If you don't have 20% downpayment you need to have insurance on the blance of your mortgage.

I had a little over 30% down when I bought my house and I got the insurance just in case.  If I die before it is paid off, my kids get the house and the bank gets their money from the insurance.

It's mostly due to the fact that during the huge deregulatory frenzy of the 90s, Paul Martin said "Nope, not gonna do it". Fought back against a LOT of pressure to allow Canadian banks to follow in the same path of excess as US investment banks.

Match that with the BoC's expressly stated purpose of the last however many decades of setting monetary policy primarily to control inflation, and we've got some pretty stable banks and, correspondingly, less woes when it comes to getting bridge loans, mortgages and the like.

For what it's worth, they may be singing our praises, but a decade ago or less they were decrying how "backward" Canadian fiscal policy was and how we were "missing out" on the enormous gains everyone else was enjoying and blah de blah, all the way up to the single north american currency wingnuts.

Ironically, in a land of pretty liberal social ideas, this area of actual, real fiscal conservative thought was able to take form and save us some substantial amount of pain... I say fiscally conservative as in regulation that enforced a more prudent and cautious handling of the economy, as opposed to the neoliberal version of fiscal conservatism that says all government regulation is bad and always leads to the worst outcome possible every time, but somehow always manages to make a handful of rich people richer and f**k everyone else in the sphincter.

Original Post by jewelsmcblah:

Split, we can withdraw before the check clears.  We can't withdraw the total amount.  I think at my bank it was 80% of the amount of the check.  Got the rest of the money when it cleared.

 Thanks Jewels - my bad - I went back and checked my notes - she was actually talking about business accounts, specifically Canadian businesses depositing into American accounts.

At TD Canada Trust you definitely can't deposit a cheque to an ATM and expect to be able to use it right away. Whenever I deposit at an ATM, I'm allowed to use a maximum of $200. If I actually go to a teller to deposit it though, no problem. I don't know about the other banks though.

More banks won't release more than a little bit of an ATM deposit because there's no way to confirm the deposit is for the amount specified. For all the machine knows you wrote "ONE MEEEELION DOLLARS" on a peice of paper, stuffed it in an envelope and fed it into the machine.

Which would be amusing as hell, but banks take a dim view on that sort of humor. ;)

They'd probably be ok with the you withdrawing the one MEEElion  as long as you didn't stick your pinky to your lips while you waited for your receipt. Darn video surveillance. ;)

Original Post by lynners:

At TD Canada Trust you definitely can't deposit a cheque to an ATM and expect to be able to use it right away. Whenever I deposit at an ATM, I'm allowed to use a maximum of $200. If I actually go to a teller to deposit it though, no problem. I don't know about the other banks though.

 BMO (Bank of Montreal) ~ We can deposit and withdraw only to a maximum of $1000.00 /per day.

So if I depost $2500.00 I can withdraw $1000.00 today and then tomorrow etc.

However, some banks and I beleive RBC - Royal Bank of Canada.  Will only allow $100.00 withdrawl from ATM deposits.  However you can ask your bank to increase the withdrawl limit and in most cases they will do a credit check and then increase the daily allowance.

and each persons atm withdrawal can be different as well depending on their own financial situation and what they are depositing into their accts.

Im with CIBC and I have a daily withdrawal amount of $600.

Im happy we have so few banks.  Much easier to control as everyone pretty much offers the same thing regarding mortgages.  That being said my current variable mortgage rate is

2.15%.  .85% lower then prime!!

Dayyum!

I need to re-fi. :D

However, some banks and I beleive RBC - Royal Bank of Canada.  Will only allow $100.00 withdrawl from ATM deposits.  However you can ask your bank to increase the withdrawl limit and in most cases they will do a credit check and then increase the daily allowance.

 

 U.S. Banks allow $100 from ATM and branch deposits, as well.  US Guidlines are

local under 5000 all must be available after 2 business days

local over 5000 all must be available after 7 business days

local under 5000 all must be available after 5 business days

non- local local over 5000 all must be available after 11 business days

The checks can go through 4 or more clearing houses/banks before funds are verified, and I've seen them return as NSF more than 90 days after they were deposited.  Plus, the rate of ATM deposit fraud is surprisingly high.  Credit card checks that are deposited can even be rejected up to 6months after they were deposited and the funds utilized. 

Of course, if you have good credit and good deposit history with a bank, they will allow you a lot more wiggle room.  Except in ATMs...because people suck.

And there are honest American lenders, by the way...I was a lender and was very honest with my clients, as were many other people I know in the field.  There were many times when I told people that it was not a good idea to take out all of their equity, or buy a house when the payments were more than their debt toincome would allow them to afford.   There are also a lot of people that like to live beyond their means, and/or have an idealized dream house and are unwilling to compromise.  Not to say that there arent greedy dishonest brokers out there, but there are also greedy debtors that make bad decisions no matter what advice they receive.

Original Post by hatamoto:

Dayyum!

I need to re-fi. :D

 Our mortgage is up for renewal in September - but we can renegotiate the mortgage without penalty as early as May.  (Otherwise, we might decide to go to another bank in September!)