Banks just don't care

I guess we all know this already, but it is always fun to get a nice stark reminder when you are confronted with it face to face.

When we first came to Canada a few months ago we had a huge collection of things to do, one of which was to set up a bank account. Initially we went with Bank of Montreal, for no reason other than we knew where they were. We deposited a few thousand in there and applied for credit cards. To get credit cards we were told that we would need to put up cash collatral in lieu of our credit limit (not much of a "credit" card if you think about it). I understand the need for this as new immigrants, but it is a little aggravating when you have gold cards in other countries, but won't be given any line of credit. We were told that we would need to leave this money with the bank for a year until we had a credit history in Canada. As much as this left us $2000 out of pocket so to speak at a time when we really needed the money, what could we do. So we complied and set about living in Canada. Since then months have passed, we have opened a number of other Bank accounts and as it turns out we have now obtained a credit history in this country.

As the card has been very active and yet paid off, we actually have a good creidt rating and were offered a credit card by another bank the other day. No cash desposit, no horribly restrictive credit limit, just a normal card. At the time we turned it down, but it got me to thinking.

If we have a credit rating here and are now past the cash desposit hurdle, why are BMO still hanging on to our cash deposit. Surely they could free this up and increase our credit rating due to the fact that we

1 Have a credit rating
2 Are both employed
3 Their compeditors are willing to do this

Against these facts is the fact that we were told we would have to wait a year. To me that is pure buearacracy and not a real reason. So I called them up the day before I was due to fly out to Whitehorse and asked to have my credit limit increased and the cash freed up. They said no, as we had to wait a year. So I asked to speak to a supervisor. I was told they would call me back. I asked if they could call me back before 3 that afternoon. (They called back 3 days later). So I called back after 3 and got a little uppity with them. The woman on the other side refused to pass me on to any supervisor and when pressed, gave me the number of a car rental place just to get me off the line.

That just got me pissed and I called back to place a complaint against the person who did that. While I respect the balls it takes to be so dismissive of a customer, it was a little much. The complaint call achieved nothing as they said they would call me the next day, but never did.

So I had to call them again the next morning. I was not in the best frame of mind with them at the time as I had once again run up against my credit limit. I travel on expense a lot and often spend $1000 in a week on hotels/rentals/flights etc. Having a limit less than this means constant paying into the account and as it sometimes takes 4 days to go through I have suffered the embarressment of having my card refused, as I did at the hotel the night before.

So when they listened to my request and told be directly that they were not interested in helping me I was a little put out. No one tried to even increase my credit by a dollar. They simply said no and when I told them that other banks were more understanding, they were not interested in the least. When I told them that I would be closing my accounts if they didn't think of some way of helping out, they simply said we won't help.

Ok, so I am new to this country and they need to be careful, but consider the facts. I am employed full time. They can verify this. I have a lease that binds me to an apartment. They can verify this. I have used the card very extensively, yet never missed a payment or failed to fully clear the card. They can verify this. My wife and I are in the market for a house, and potentially we are going into debt to the order of many thousands of dollars. You would think a bank would be falling over itself to get that mortage of 2 university graduates working full time. But no, they would rather try to hang on to a mere $2000 dollars for a couple more weeks. And they will lose that too. So, as soon as the other creidt cards I have since applied for come through, I will close all my BMO accounts down and never do business with them again. From potentially having a client for life, they will have a vocal critic for life, with my little bit of money they have leaving and someone actively discouraging others from investing with them.