Canadian banks 'earn' $6.55 billion

[Gilchy]

Yeah CPP, right. Pay into it for life and get what back? 40% Most pensioners cannot survive on CPP. or OAP. Most Canadians will receive squat from a bank or credit union, the writing is on the wall. Profits are increasing monumentally but people go broke and loose their homes just the same. A 'dividend"!? Thats a joke right?

You don't know how defined benefit pensions work, do you?

[rideforever]

If banks weren't sleazy, you would have argued my examples of their sleazy risky moves... 0 down mortgages and credit cards with automatically increasing limits.

Geezlouise .. I feel so left out, abandoned even. My bank has never hogtied me, twisted my arm painfully, threatened me or offered me a 0-down mortgage or a credit card.

Your ire is such that it sure makes one wonder how deeply in debt you managed to drown yourself - but want to lay the blame for that on the lender, not the borrower/debtor.

While we're wondering things... I wonder how self centered and illogical you are.

Doesn't matter if they scam me or someone else, I'm still going to call them scammers and point out that 'earn' isn't the right term for how they make money. On top of that, when they scam other people, that hurts our economy and that hurts all of us... well... most of us. You still ignore that fact and instead focus on making assumptions about a bias behind my arguement... just shows that you have no real arguement. It's like talking to a wall, you need a time out.

For the record, I'm pretty well off, my wonderful parents gave me a pretty good head start with free post-secondary and I've been working since I was 12. I don't waste money, use credit cards... etc, I'm happy with a small home and an old car which I can easily afford.

[Homeownertoo]

How does going to a credit union or not going into debt stop them from making money off our CPP?

More importantly, how do we stop them from making risky investments with our CPP? They seem happy to invest our money in things that are too risky for essential savings. I guess that's what happens when they reap the benefits of these risks without suffereing the consequences when their risks come back to bite us. Their risks caused a recession and lost a bunch of our money while they took enormous bonuses.

Would you be happy if I gambled your money and lost some of it and then took profits for all the hard work and 'smart' moves I made with your money?

Wow. Do you not even think before you type? Do you not think you should learn about an issue before venturing an opinion? Cause you have no idea what you are talking about. I hope you're just trolling.

[grammafreddy]

While we're wondering things... I wonder how self centered and illogical you are.

Doesn't matter if they scam me or someone else, I'm still going to call them scammers and point out that 'earn' isn't the right term for how they make money. On top of that, when they scam other people, that hurts our economy and that hurts all of us... well... most of us. You still ignore that fact and instead focus on making assumptions about a bias behind my arguement... just shows that you have no real arguement. It's like talking to a wall, you need a time out.

For the record, I'm pretty well off, my wonderful parents gave me a pretty good head start with free post-secondary and I've been working since I was 12. I don't waste money, use credit cards... etc, I'm happy with a small home and an old car which I can easily afford.

That's wonderful! I am so pleased for you. Way to go!!!

But you still don't get the part about "just say no" to the banks and the credit card companies. That part is not rocket science and Canadians really do need to watch their spending and work at getting their personal debt down to manageable limits. We have been warned over and over, but still people keep racking up their debt balances and buying too much home for their incomes to manage.

Trouble is, people don't want to save and wait for anything. They want everything now and they go into debt to get it. Folks used to save up until they could afford to buy things but that doesn't happen nearly enough these days. They don't want to go without in order to save - they blow their whole paycheques keeping up with the Jones' and save nothing for the future.

As far as me being self-centered and illogical ... of course I am. Logic these days is measured in me-me-me and me first. Since I have never worked that way, I guess that makes me illogical. I always knew how to say no to banks, merchants, advertisers and scammers. My cash is precious. My debt load is zero.

I also consider myself greedy - the more I saved the more I wanted to save. When my bank balance was looking healthy, I wanted it overly healthy. I wanted more, more more ... in my savings wealth, not my material wealth. It's a game I play with myself. "Can I cut $10 off my spending this month?" If I did that, then the next month it became "Can I cut $15 off my spending?". Everything I cut became savings. Every frugal move I made became more frugal moves. My spending went down. My bank balance went up. I win.

[steven lloyd]

Every frugal move I made became more frugal moves. My spending went down. My bank balance went up. I win.

And here I was thinking you were stuffing all that cash into your matress.

[OnTheRoadAgain]

whatcha gonna do with all that money you won?

[grammafreddy]

Every frugal move I made became more frugal moves. My spending went down. My bank balance went up. I win.

And here I was thinking you were stuffing all that cash into your matress.

Shhhh ... it's really in the ice cream bucket in the freezer. I still win :sunshine:

[grammafreddy]

whatcha gonna do with all that money you won?

Me?
Am doing it now. I have retired. My home is paid for. My monthly cost of living is now about $200 not including food or property taxes. Am planning to fix this house up to make it more liveable and then do some traveling. Maybe I'll be a snowbird.

I didn't win any money - I earned it and saved it.

But here's a big hint ... make sure your mortgage is life insured.

[sooperphreek]

at the end of the day the banks earned the money by using your cash in your accounts. and also by service charging you as well. they take your money and they give it to a warren buffett and then he gets them a relatively large interest return for using your money to make more. then if you invest the way the banks want you to they pay you at best 2 percent and then make cream re-investing that same money. question is.....why dont banks make that option available to all of us? and then if you are dum enough to get rrsp's and get the measly return you get from the government and banks you actually lose money when you factor in inflation and taxes on money that you were already taxed on. ahhhh aint life grand?? you provide the cash......banks make all the money. ever notice how a bank never ever has a loss? and yet we all do when there is a recession.

[French Castanut]

you provide the cash......banks make all the money. ever notice how a bank never ever has a loss? and yet we all do when there is a recession.

They do have losses! For them, a loss is when they do less money than expected :dyinglaughing: .

Example: For the first quarter, a bank expected doing 2.5 billion$ profit... instead... they did just a little bit over 2.1. They then claim high and loud they made a 400,000,000$ loss.

Euh.. sorry.. what did you lose here? You just made a profit of 2,100,000,000$ Who's the banker here hey?

[Captain Awesome]

Who's the banker here hey?

Judging by superb extensive knowledge of accounting practices it's you.

[The Green Barbarian]

But here's a big hint ... make sure your mortgage is life insured.

GF - good advice - but I wouldn't use the bank's/credit union's insurance scheme they offer as part of their mortgage package to insure it - I'd get term insurance via a decent insurer that matches your mortgage balance - ie $300K worth - usually you can get a much better rate via a private insurer than what you can get via the bank/cu. At least that was my experience anyway. Perhaps for others, with different circumstances, it may be different.

[sooperphreek]

this should open some eyes about how crooked the banks are with mortgage insurance......and they get away with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe61HVGIwUo&ob=av3e

[Gilchy]

at the end of the day the banks earned the money by using your cash in your accounts. and also by service charging you as well. they take your money and they give it to a warren buffett and then he gets them a relatively large interest return for using your money to make more. then if you invest the way the banks want you to they pay you at best 2 percent and then make cream re-investing that same money. question is.....why dont banks make that option available to all of us? and then if you are dum enough to get rrsp's and get the measly return you get from the government and banks you actually lose money when you factor in inflation and taxes on money that you were already taxed on. ahhhh aint life grand?? you provide the cash......banks make all the money. ever notice how a bank never ever has a loss? and yet we all do when there is a recession.

Intentional irony?

RRSPs are tax deferred, so you aren't taxed on tax. The only way you only make 2% is if you are willing to hold everything in GICs, which do have a low rate, in return for security.

And has been stated many times, get an account that doesn't have service charges.

[Homeownertoo]

But here's a big hint ... make sure your mortgage is life insured.

No, but with an explanation (reminds me of a plea I once made: "Guilty, your honor, but with an explanation." It worked then!).

If you need life insurance, you need to insure your mortgage. But don't do it through the bank; just make sure your term life insurance reflects the amount owing on the mortgage (in addition to its other needs). If you have no need for life insurance, you likely have no need to insure your mortgage, unless you have dependents or really, really want to leave an inheritance. In that case, get term life to cover the need.