Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Past little while I have been ranting about the poor service I get from the Toronto Dominion bank and their various parts, but if I feel it is my right to write that kind of article, I must also point out when they do an excellent job as well.

Victim of Debit Card Fraud

Yup, Mrs. Big Cajun Man’s debit card was compromised some time in the past 3 months, and on Tuesday my bank account was almost cleaned out before the TD security tap turned off the fraudulent withdrawals.

How did this happen? I have no idea, because my wife has her debit card (which is now void and unusable) still in her wallet, so my guess is she was a victim of one of the many “bogus debit machine” frauds that have been happening lately. My limited understanding is that the machine or the connection to the machine is compromised in some way, so that the ID number from the debit card and the PIN number can be taken, and then this information is used to create a fraudulent version of the card complete with PIN, which the criminals then use at debit machines to remove money from the unsuspecting folks bank accounts.

The TD security bureau called my wife to ask if she was in fact in Montreal, taking money out at an alarming rate? Since my wife answered the phone, the answer was “No”, and thus the TD security group leaped into action and has shut off the access point and has referred this to the authorities for their action.

This does leave me with a massive whole in my finances, as the culprits got the money out before they could be stopped, and TD will only reimburse me (once it is proven to be a fraud) in 7-10 business days, so I am now living on my credit until I get my money back.

This disturbs me, because I kept thinking this only happened when you weren’t diligent with your card security, but I know my wife is diligent and this still happened, so now I am going to have to rethink security for my finances, because if this can happen once, it can easily happen again.

Financial Security Measures

A few ideas have come to mind, however, any other ideas from my intelligent and diligent readers would be appreciated as well:

1. Make sure that only necessary accounts are available from my bank card.
2. Set up daily limits on withdrawals which is much lower so when this happens again (and it will) the damage will not be as bad.
3. Be more diligent watching my bank balances on line
4. Be more diligent with my on line banking passwords as well.
5. Use CASH more often! That was a suggestion from Michael James on Money as well.

Thanks Toronto Dominion, good job catching this and hopefully good job refunding me the defrauded funds.

I would ask, “What else could go wrong?”, but I have asked that question once too often and, far too often, I found out the answer is, “Much more and worse things!”.

As my regular readers know, I complain about TD very often, since they are my bank of choice (for now), and I am also a shareholder, and I must again pull out this topic.

Today I received confirmation from TD Waterhouse that my new RRSP account had in fact been created (I actually did this last week in a TD Branch). The documentation included with the confirmation package said, I needed to send in proof of identification, if I hadn’t already  to activate the account (I had to re-read that to figure it out), which annoyed me, but I let that one slide (I had my license copied enough times in the branch). So I am assuming my account has been set up (this might bite me later).

I then had an epipheny that I had not seen the account appear on my TD Web Access page, but figured, maybe I hadn’t noticed, so I logged in, but NO the account was not on my account list, and that is when the bottom dropped out of my patience.

I had spent over an hour setting up accounts and now they don’t show up on the web access page? I had actually asked to ensure I had access to the E-Funds (that the Canadian Capitalist uses in his Sleepy Portfolio) that are ONLY available through the web, yet no sign of the account, on the Web Portal.

I then had to call into TD Waterhouse and spend another 25 minutes getting this 1 account added to my web access. At the end of it I was livid that I had to spend that much more time to get access to an account that was obviously set up to be web viewable.

The problem seems to be that TD’s “computer systems” for building accounts between their various “parts” (TD, TD Waterhouse, TD Mutual Funds, TD Credit, TD Visa, etc.,) don’t seem to talk much, and they all use their own darn forms and ways to build new vehicles for their clients. In this day and age, this is ludicrous, but I have heard that TD is looking at revamping this in the next 10 years. 

If anyone from TD is reading this, please feel free to pass on to your leaders that as a Shareholder I am appauled at this cavalier attitude toward your account holders and worse still it is bad business, so as a shareholder I am even more sickened.

A more streamlined system that allows for customers with all of the various TD vehicles integrated create new vehicles and services, needs LESS human help to do things and the more automated it is, the less you have employees that must interface with IRATE customers like me! Less employees, means more profits. Ease of use is simply good business practices.

TD please clean up this mess, soon!

No wonder I don’t like paying bank fees.

Bank of Canada, today announced no changes in their overnight rates, which stands to reason. The exact reason given was:

OTTAWA - The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 3 per cent. The operating band for the overnight rate is unchanged, and the Bank Rate remains at 3 1/4 per cent.

The three global developments highlighted in the July Monetary Policy Report Update continue to have a major influence on the Canadian economy. Two of them - the course of the U.S. economy and the ongoing turbulence in global financial markets - have evolved broadly in line with the Bank’s expectations. However, there is an increased risk of a more pronounced interplay between weakness in the U.S. economy and tightness in credit conditions that could affect the U.S. outlook for 2009.

Good to know my debt payments aren’t going up in the near future.
 

Gas Prices

An analyst yesterday predicted Gasoline prices in Canada hovering near $1.00 per liter by Christmas, this would make for a very interesting change of events. Would other prices drop? Would deflation kick in? I doubt it, everyone will simply build that into their profit margins again, but still, not having to spend $160 to pick up my daughter from Waterloo would be nice.

Try Chrome

Yes, I am a google Chrome convert as well. I am writing this post using Chrome, it seems to work just fine and runs relatively quickly as well. Haven’t tried all of it’s bells or whistles, but I like it and it does not seem to be as big a PIG for memory as Firefox.

Carnivals

My article Sunday Thought: Debt is Bad in the Bible Too? posted at Canadian Personal Finance Blog was mentioned at Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering in the Catholic Carnival #188: Journey of Faith

Fruitful Bank Trip

My visit to the bank was quite fruitful.  I arranged to get money out of an RESP (evidently there are two ways of doing it):

• EAP which takes out the CESG portion of the RESP
• The other thing that takes out the other part, which I did

Tax implications? No bloody idea, I’ll figure that one out in February.

Opened a self-directed RRSP with TD, and ensured I could get at their E-Series index funds (another point well made by the Canadian Capitalist).

Opened a Locked In Retirement Account, well sort of did, filled in the forms, yet another system in TD which is all paper based. Found out from our service rep there are 5 different systems she deals with (at least) and none of them talk nicely to each other and many are still mostly paper based. Maybe TD can use their HUGE profits to fix that?

Finally, I got free banking for a while too. This time I phrased it in a way that made our rep happy to give it to us, and thus I don’t have to pay for banking for a while longer.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Owe for 3 on Stocks

After bad mouthing Scotiabank, BMO and Nortel yesterday, on Wednesday they all rebound back…

• Nortel up 5%
• BMO up 3.6%
• Scotiabank up 2.26%

I can sure pick them, can’t I? I have pointed out this is NOT where to get your hot stock tips, have I not? One day does not a trend make, and given most stocks were up, could be just a “follow the leaders rally”, but again, don’t take my advise on that one.

Humor

Here is a rhetorical question for the lady readers, would you go to LaSenza to a “Sports Bra Blow Out” sale? Something about that advertising doesn’t sound right to me.