Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Friday has come again, and it has been an interesting week:

• BCE stock price continues to lower slightly and is around $35 right now, even though the sale to the teacher’s union (et al) has effectively been ok’ed. The rumors now are that the union may not be solvent enough to pull off this kind of a deal, and it may all go down the porcelain deal disposal.
• Banks and financial stock seem to be recovering for now, TD Canada Trust recovering from a near $60 price per share last Friday and now is up to around $64 per share. Does this mean banks are safe to invest in? I always thought so, but that is just my opinion too.
• Many hilarious April Fools jokes this week from various sites, and I fell for a few of them I must admit.
• I complained about the Hidden Prices of Education again. Am I expecting changes? Not really, but it feels better to complain.
• Our friends in the Pay Day Loans business are under even closer scrutiny from the Ontario government, with new regulations being proposed capping their fee structures and forcing them to show their customers where the fees are being charged. Way to go Dalton, guess even an ugly dog has the sun shine on his butt every day or two.
• Unemployment in Canada jumped 0.2% last month to move back to 6.0% year in Canada. Employment is up as well, which means there are more of us working too, which always confuses the heck out of me.
  

Enjoy your weekend, hopefully the snow is melting where you are (but not too fast).

Construction This Weekend

I will be doing a little work on the site this weekend, so if I disappear for a short period of time, don’t give up hope, I shall return with my odd view on Finances.

Yesterday most of the financial blogs took time out and had an April Fool’s post of some kind, a few caught me off guard, but then I realized what day it was, and laughed along with the authors. I don’t typically post April Fools stuff too much, because I am so gullible and might read my own posts and then believe them. John Chow had the most evil April Fool’s day gag, but I won’t link to it, because it causes nasty things to happen to your browser windows.

Pay Day Loan Fees Capped

In Ontario the provincial government did something of value, by capping the “fees” the payday loans companies have been subjecting their clients to. Along with the cap the legislation will also:

If the legislation passes all payday lenders must also:

• Be licensed by the province
• Provide customers with a total that includes all charges the consumer is required to pay when borrowing
• Contribute annually to a fund to pay for public education about payday lending.

I applaud the Provincial government for this action against these modern day loan sharks. As my regular readers know, I loath these institutions, and their trickery to steal as much money as possible from the people who can least afford it.

Be Nice to the Police Person (off topic kind of)

Sunday night I got yet another example of speaking to someone in a contrite and apologetic way when you know you were in the wrong, can sometimes help you out. I was returning from a basketball tournament very late and was in a big rush to get home.

Between Highway 407 and 401 in Toronto is a bit of a goat path (called Brock Road), which has a very low speed limit.  I came over a rise and barreling down a hill at what must have been 100 km/hr and the posted speed limit was 60 KM, and the policeman had me dead to rights. He ignited his lights and I pulled over kicking myself for being in such a rush to get home, but was very polite, contrite and apologetic to the officer. He seemed very reasonable and polite as well, but when he went back to his patrol car and was there for what felt like 15 minutes, I thought I might be getting nailed with the new Ontario “Street Racing” law (because 40 KM over is a HUGE fine, street racing is 50 KM over the speed limit).

He returned he said that the penalty for 32 KM over the speed limit was 4 demerit points and an over $200 fine (I think my jaw dropped open as he said that, because that most likely would mean a large insurance premium bump as well), BUT, that since this was a first offense (effectively), he was going to let me off with a fine for going 15 KM over the speed limit ($60 and no demerit points).

I was very thankful to the policeman for his leniency. I found out later another friend had the exact same thing happen the previous day on Highway 7, so being polite is always a good thing!

Advice for the day: Always talk nicely to the policeman or woman.

Glad to see that the Ontario Government has finally taken aim at the modern day version of Loan Sharks and Usury, the “Pay Day Loan” companies that are doing unspeakable financial damage to the working poor.

Specifically the Ontario Government has said:

As of August 1, 2007, Ontario regulations come into force that will
require payday lenders to:

• Prominently display posters that disclose the cost of borrowing for payday loans
• Use a standard form and content credit agreement disclosing the details of a borrower’s payday loan and
• Provide funds to the borrower immediately upon signing their credit agreement.

These measures will improve the consumer’s ability to compare rates prior
to borrowing, fully understand the terms of their loan, and ensure that all
charges are included in the disclosed cost of borrowing.

Good for the Ontario government for doing this, but I think the fact that these companies are allowed to charge what they charge is despicable at best. The Government is also looking for more feedback on what other measures they might need to do, to regulate this industry, maybe licensing these firms would be a good idea (you license banks don’t you)?

The CBC had an interesting article about the growing number of Americans who are Bankless. One in twelve families do not deal with banks in the U.S., but a lot of it may be the same reason folks who are on welfare in Canada can’t cash their cheques: the Banks do not want their business. In Canada one of the biggest issues is Banks refusing to open bank accounts for people with no fixed address, who usually live on government assistance, then these folks cannot cash their cheques at the bank (and maybe put some money in a bank account, or worse, cannot afford $13 a month to leave money in their account) so they have to go to Cheque Cashing places, which charge usury fees to cash the cheque! These places are the modern day equivalent of the Loan Shark (in my opinion).

Banks are a funny business, in that they can actually turn away customers, yet still have obscene profits, (remember the best way to make income from a bank is to buy their stock).

Finally, did you realize that it is now less than 6 months until Christmas? The year is more than half over? Where did it go? Maybe time to start Planning For Christmas.