Skip to main content

Canada Post has more access to my money than my bank does

Spagnuolo & Company Real Estate Lawyers called me today to set up an appointment for finalizing my mortgage, which is up for renewal. The final amount I needed to cough up was just over $2000. The appointment was for 9am the next day, and it wasn't even 9am when I left the house. I had it in the bank, so I figured, no problem, even though my account is with the online bank, President's Choice Financial (you know, the one that gives you free groceries).

There were two banks side-by-side: CIBC and BMO. They both indicated branch opening times of 9:30am, but at 9:30am, only BMO was open. So, I go into the Bank of Montreal. Can I get a money order or certified cheque? No. Cash, or I had to have an account with them. Huh. Looks like they don't have an Interac machine, which every two-bit vendor and their dog has to get a cash-equivalent payment from any bank. Why is it actually harder at a bank?
Can I pay with cash? Oops -- My daily ATM withdrawal limit is $1000.

So I head to CIBC, which supposedly does the actual banking stuff for President's Choice Financial. Same problem. This time, they directed me to the President's Choice Financial pavilion inside Superstore, to order the money order there, and pick it up at CIBC.

I head to Superstore and waste another half-hour waiting because they open at 10am. Finally someone arrives. How do they "help" me? They direct me to call customer service. I could've called customer service myself half an hour ago at CIBC! Duh.

Finally I get through to customer service. Money order for tomorrow? No way. Two days minimum and it'll cost just over $27. Could they release the limit on my ATM withdrawals to cover the amount I need? Apparently no, because they kept ignoring that question.
But finally, some useful information: I can go to Canada Post, which sells money orders in denominations of up to $1000 (actually, $999.99) and at about $3 a piece (actually $4.95 -- and why do I have to have three money orders totalling the amount I need when I only need one big one?). I can have it the same day and pay by debit.

I truck off to Canada Post, which was open at 8:30 am -- this could all have been done almost 2 hours ago! -- and get the money orders. I pay with Interac. No problem.

Whew.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Meet Melissa Gaines and her blurry sexy pics

Oh boy! I had no sooner finished posting about the lovely Taylor Burch responding to my personals ad on Craigslist when Melissa Gaines (e-mailing from erikmcclure858@yahoo.com) mailed me a couple more pictures of her lithe body and selling her profile on the same looks-like-a-phishing-scam site (http://craigslistsafe.net/profiles/melx3/). One of them was an NSFW naked-breasts pic which I haven't posted here (sorry -- but honestly, nothing to write home about, especially with the serious bikini tan lines). Here's the e-mail exchange: Melissa e-mail #1 Here is my picture as attached. Please e-mail me details what you are looking for along with your pictures. Thanks and waiting to hear from you soon. Melissa e-mail #2 hey thanks for getting back to me we should definitely meetup sometime... if youre interested of course :) a couple things i should set straight though: 1 we use condoms 2 you join a dating site that I belong to safedates no worries though its fr

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 3

A picture from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. I can't remember why I had this couple in the picture, but I do vaguely remember this to be in London, on the first official day of the tour group getting together. Their insistence on my helping them take a picture caused the three of us to be late getting back to the bus. The local tour guide had a "rule" about lateness, that we had to buy chocolate to share with everyone. As it turned out, later in the trip, on at least two occasions, we were stuck on the highway on either a long commute or a traffic jam, and I had chocolate and chocolate-covered marzipan to share. About the chocolate-covered marzipan -- Apparently we were in Austria just as they were celebrating Mozart's birthday with special marzipans wrapped in foil with the famous composer's picture. I'm pretty sure it was Mirabell Mozartkugeln . Anyway, there were enough to go around the en

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 10

The last of my pictures (at least the ones that survived the cheesy disposable cameras) from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. Below is the obligatory group photo. Not sure everyone's in it, actually. I'm pretty sure this one was taken by the tour director, Mike Scrimshire as I'm in the back row, on the right side.