National Bank of Canada

Ive personally had some what good experiences at this branch. Every time I go in, Im attentively helped with what ever I need from the tellers. And I like that when I go in there isnt a big line up to get a teller.

Aside from that I want to touch on somethings that are more of a national bank in general type of issues then would this be directed at the North York branch. I feel like in comparison to other banks, National is very up tight about things like loans criteria or releasing funds within a reasonable amount of time. They seem like a bank where a lot of their employees have just graduated from school, and are green and inflexible in regards to access of services and will quickly refer you to a more senior employee or some type of third party so that the weight of making what seems like risky decisions for them is off their shoulders.

If your reading this and are unclear about what that means. I'll give you an example of what happened yesterday. I was starting a new job and had about 60 dollars in my pocket, now I have assets with Edward Jones in mutual funds and early in the day i spoke to my advisor and told him to sell 5k worth of funds and send that over asap, and as expected the advisor told me that those funds would be sent to me later in the week Thursday at the latest ( it was Monday). If I wasn't starting this new job, I would just sit on my hands until Thursday. The last thing I want to happen is faulter by not being able to go to work because I don't have money on hand to put gas in my car or just look like I don't have my $#*! together because first impressions right. So I'm thinking, there's 5 k going to the NBC chequing account in like 72 hours, maybe national will give me a small loan or overdraft or something just to let me have some crumbs of my own cake. Oh and this wasn't the first time I sold funds and had it going to my account. Both the previous months before that I did the same transaction. So I go into national and ask the teller about applying for a small loan, explaining my new job situation and I show the statements from ej showing the value of my assets that are a lot more then 5k. The teller was fairly helpful in squeezing me into a time slot that day with a rep. I'm given a extensive list of documents to bring like letter of employment which I had received the contract offer from the new job so it was providable, but I'm thinking wtf do you even need that for when the funds to pay your loan is coming from ej? She tells me that it's standard application information, and Im going to obviously comply with their request, but this is sorta what I'm talking about in terms of rigid services, like what your not going to lend the money if I didn't have a job, but had assets? That's $#*!ing non sense.

So the appointment is in 3 hours so I go home and get them notice of assessments for 2 years, rental agreements, three months account stanments from both ej accounts and the contract offer from the employer, it's was about 40 pages probably emptyed the ink cartridge on my printer for this appointment. I neatly organize all the information so that it's easily comprehendable. I go to the bank and walk through the door 15 mins early for my appointment. When I sit down with the advisor, I explain the situation, and explain that I just want a few hundred dollars so that I'm able to start this new jobs without the added stress of being extremely strapped for money to handle living expense overhead and not wanting to look like I don't have my $#*! together in front of these new employers during their probationary period and what not. She tells me the minimum they lend is 5k. Which sounds kinda funny to me, as in that's not a very small loan. What you guys? Don't cater to clients with financial needs that are only in the hundreds? Anyone reading this whos concluding I'm some chump, my ej account assets are in the hundreds of thousands. But Banks love to give you the rope to hang yourself with. The average Canadian is around 25 k debt. These are holes a lot of these folks ain't ever coming out of, and a lot of it is someone who needs access to 2k dollars for some reason and a financial institution saying we re willing to approve you for 10k and then the person's problem is solved, and they have 8k in easy access and they squander it off on vanities and then make minimums for 10 years. And that's just the beginning. So if I want only a few hundred dollars, which fulfills my immediate financial needs, no I don't want your 5k. And if this is literally a policy of NBC and other banks to not do loaning under 5k, they ought to.
Back to the appointment with the advisor, she had kind of come to the conclusion that their "small" loan wasn't really applicable nor did I want that much. And a overdraft wasn't possible because my credit card with them was maxed. So then she starts suggesting I sign up for credit cards. Lady I'm not trying to enter into a financial contract for a c.c. Because 1 already have a credit card with you 2 because I have to agree to be responsible for something that has all kinds of fees and responsibilities that I would now be responsible for on top of the fees and responsibilities I have with the cc in my possession. Then her last resort is to have me apply to increase my credit with the cc I already have. So I'm taking a hit to my credit score because in applying for the increase, my score will have to be viewed and that negatively affects my score. And what really bothers me about this suggestion along with being advised to apply for cc is that she's dumping the situation in MasterCard's lap, because she either can't or won't help me.
I was told to apply online and that there was a good chance that if approved it would happen that night or early the next day, well it's the evening of the next day and they haven't responded back, and asked around and just as I thought, 5 business days to get a anwser, and I won't need it then. So even though, I have guaranteed 100 percent their money back in 2 or 3 days, this bank that I've been with for 10 years, managed to have me do a whole bunch of leg work, providing every single document that they asked for, and I still managed to leave the branch with no real help accomplished and forced to start this new job while deciding if I'm going to spend my last money on gas or food to eat. Yeah $#*! you very much NBC.

Ive been with national bank for almost a decade. I think back on times when I had my business account with them for my painting business and I was broke back then and I got my first cheques from subcontracting and would deposit the cheque and I swear would not see those funds for almost 2 weeks. Think about it if I worked 7 days, wrote an invoice, received the cheque in another 2 or 3 days, so 10 days from start then give it to NBC and they sit on it for 14 days, that's 24 days, that's almost a month. And would they give you access to any of that money nope. Personal feelings of resentment and frustration aside from those memories, that's not how you encourage small businesses to grow, thats how you starve it.

Or another time that was interesting, I once owed CRA money during covid times for a cheque owing, long story. But NBC went right into my chequing account and removed those funds on CRA behave, when I asked NBC about it they kinda just put it on CRA like they did it. A lot of people I asked about that said that's not even legal. That's cra would just show the owing amount in a letter to you and that the don't really forcefully extract money from people, and that even if they had wanted to, that NBC should have stopped them and protected their client who had not done anything illegal and it would be up to me when and how cra would be paid, no they went right into my chequing account and made the choice for me.

When I got my inheritance, and ej was already $#*!ting the bed charging huge amounts of fees for little to no return. I had a sit down with some advisors at NBC to discuss switching over to them and have their people handle my investments. And let me tell you, NBC when you have more then 250k NBC rolls out the red carpet for you and gives to access to all kinds of services that the average guy like who I was financially before mom died, has never even heard of. I bet those clients can show up to a branch and get 300 dollars put in their chequing account to start a new job without sacrificing their credit score or signing up for credit cards or having to accept responsibility for unwanted sums of money.

All in all I really can't say that my loyalty to NBC as my main financial institution has come with any perks or favors granted over the years. Through either employees that are so new that they cling to upholding policies that aren't practical out of a fear of making a mistake and being held responsible, for john vanishing and going off the grid to get away with taking NBC for a couple hundred bucks, or actual policies that only seems to give any significant accommodation to people who are very rich or just irresponsible with money. Aside from very basic banking functions, you could say that NBC is completely $#*!ing usless. There is no confidence in clients, regardless of what you show them and the "help" they are willing to give, in all likelihood is more about helping themselves. This isn't directed at any single employee as these people follow orders from up above but that's what I think about how NBC does business.