I
had to go into a bank today. I hate banks. I of course left all my rights as a
human being at the door when I entered. It left me feeling very vulnerable –
like someone was going to take advantage of me somehow. My feelings were
justified.
I happen to have an
eSavings account. Which means that I get bent over any time I want to do
something. I have that type of account because it is the only thing I can get
from them without having to pay a monthly fee.
So I went up to the
teller to ask for my money and he reminded me it was going to cost me $5 to
perform what I had asked. I said, “oh, I thought I had a certain number of free
transactions per month”.
“Oh no sir. You have
an eSavings account which gives you a higher interest rate but you have to pay
for any transactions.”
Yeah, a higher
interest rate currently sitting at 0.5%. Wow! Half of one whole entire percent!
How do I not see how lucky I am with this ridiculously high interest rate?!
I must have twisted up
my face when he said that as I tried to understand the logic. I believe that is
when he took pity on me, this poor unenlightened person standing in front of
him. You see, there is bank sense and then there is common sense. They do not
mix. Bank employees are really to be applauded for their long-suffering patience
as they are asked to explain bank sense to us uncivilized heathens.
Bank sense says: “Aww,
you poor thing, I’ll try to lower myself to your level and explain it to you. We’re
actually doing you a huge favour. You gave us your money and we keep it safe
for you. This costs us a lot of money so you have to pay us billions to do this
for you. You understand right?”
Billions? That’s
right:
- CIBC 2015 Net Revenue: $3.6 Billion
- Royal Bank 2015 Net Revenue: $10.0 Billion
- Bank of Montreal 2015 Net Revenue: $4.7 Billion
- And so on…
Then there is common
sense (I’ll let you in on a secret: it is far inferior to bank sense). Common
sense says, “You’re renovating your branch again? Didn’t you just do that a
couple years ago? Why are you charging me so much money every month and then
spending it frivolously like this?” Ah, that is bank sense, us regular people
are not to understand those higher concepts.
Banks are crooked.
They don’t have to be accountable to their clients. What is your alternative?
Keep all your money in a safe in your house? Bury it somewhere? You wouldn’t be
able to operate in today’s society if you did that. Banks understand this and
they exploit it.
