So, you changed banks, because of something you read on a blog, eh? What are you crazy? Just kidding folks, but here are a few things to remember if or WHEN you take the big step:
- Watch out for auto-withdraw bills in your old bank accounts. In Ottawa the power company is the only one I had, but make sure that is swung before you make a final move of any kind.
- RRSP contributions or auto-magic savings you have set up at your old bank. I had weekly allowance moves, and a Christmas fund auto-saving thing, so it was important to remember these and re-institute them at the NEW bank.
- Mortgage payments, very important! Make sure your old bank and new bank transfer your mortgage correctly and you know when you need to make payments. Had a bank employee tell me a horror story about how one clients Credit Rating got Blitz’ed because they had been making their Mortgage payments on the 23rd of the month, but they were due on the 15th (and it kept showing their account being in arrears). Watch out for this one!
- Direct Deposits, you must time your move to make sure that when your pay cheque moves to your new bank, all of your banking goes with it.
- Safety Deposit box, you may as well move that to your new bank, why would you keep it at your old bank?
- Credit Cards, never hurts to use your bank’s credit cards, unless you have 1 that you prefer to use. Make sure you can pay that bill at your new bank as well.
It’s a treacherous dance for about a month or two when you first change banks making sure all of your bills continue to get paid and you don’t lose anything along the way. Inevitably you will miss one thing, just make sure it isn’t something BIG!!!
Once you’ve done it once, it’s much easier the next time!
