Bank Account

What an exciting day...

We opened a Canadian bank account.  The beginning of a downward spiral for me and Emma, our first ever joint bank account.

The reason we took a joint account was to cut costs. In Canada banking isn't free.  You have to pay to hold even a basic account.  Various tiers of accounts are available, the cheaper the account the less free transactions you get. Yes, that's right, I said free transactions.  

Putting money in, taking money out, paying a direct debit, transferring money, it all counts as a transaction. The basic account gives you 25 free transactions, then you have to pay.  We chose to take the infinity account, costs $12 a month but gives you unlimited transactions.  So rather than pay for 2 accounts, we just got a joint account and paid for 1.

TD bank have the most cash machines in Vancouver which is why we went with them. Yeah, that's another thing... if you use your own banks ATM it's fine, but using another banks is a massive no no.  The other bank will charge you for using their facilities.  And your own bank will charge you as you offended them by using another banks machine.  Could cost up to $5 per transaction.  

There is one benefit, you get your bank card straight away.

It doesn't matter anyway, all those charges and rules and we don't have any money.