The “overregulation” is the only thing preventing there to be fewer choices. Some time ago, four of the behemoth banks wanted to merge into two; government intervention was the only thing that prevented it. (As it was, TD gobbled up Canada Trust, further reducing choice.)
If I remember right it would’ve also opened the Canadian banking market to more foreign firms.
I like my 50! Mmm 50 on tap. Nothing makes me feel like I’m a teen and broke again like 50. Though I will admit to buying a few cases when the cool bottles came out.
As far as the banks go, they can all go fuck themselves here. I have a CIBC account. When I pull money out of a different bank’s machine, I pay a service charge of $1.50. I acccept that. This is called an Interac fee. However now, all the banks are also charging a $1.50 fee of their own in addition to the interac fee. So if I go with my CIBC card to a Royal Bank and pull out $20 (say if that machine happens to be the only one around at the time), I pay the Interac fee of $1.50, PLUS a Royal Bank fee of $1.50. Now, while $3 seems excessive, you could argue that it is my choice and the bank is within their rights to charge me for using their machine.
However, “Interac”, the “agency” that charges the other $1.50 is collectively owned by the 6 major banks here. In effect, each time I pull money out of a different machine, all the banks profit, and one of them double dips their charges. Insane.
Though I guess I could jsut go into a CIBC branch and use a teller. Oh wait… all major banking hours are 9:30 - 3pm and closed weekends. Wait, no worries, I’ll go at lunch. Hmm… all the tellers are going to lunch too, so there is one teller for the line of 75 people. Fantastic. I love the [george carlin] CUSTOMER SERVICE [/gc] that I am getting for my $20 a month in account fees, in addition to being nickel and dimed any time I want to get some of my no interest earning cash in their bank which they are investing and earning on.
Oh well, it is a good thing that with all of these fees I have overdraft on my account. Wait. I ended this last month $3.50 into my overdraft. Need to pay a fee for that. $10 for the right to be in the overdraft at the end of the month, as well as an additional $5 fee for being in overdraft at ANY TIME duing the month. Oh, and an interest charge on the money that I am over.
So, this month, because of $3.50 over my limit, y fees jumped an additional $15.00.
Great racket. I earn no money on my money, and the banks made more on me this month than I paid to fill up my car with gas at these prices.
I thought of Steeler right after my post, but I figured why scare him off. 
A fee to use your card at your banks’ own machine? Might want to shop around for a different type of acount, or a different bank or credit union.
No fee if I use CIBC. But there isnt always a CIBC machine around. Everything I said there is true
Carling! Black Ice!
Although for a cheap beer, I grudgingly admit that Laker Lager is not half bad.
Sorry, my mistake.