Did I say hike? I meant hold up. Holy cow, I received a letter informing me that the safety deposit box that I was paying $42 a month a year for (price has been creeping up the past little while), will now jump to $60 a year service charge (a mere 42% service charge jump). Now that is what I call a price jump, I wish I could make my investments jump at that gradual rate.
The service charge jump was not even the best part of the letter, if I am forgetful enough to lose a key previously the cost to replace the key was $4.95 but now it will be $50 (plus HST), now that is an approximate 10.000% increase in that service charge (10 times the current rate). I think only PONZI schemes can make that kind of claim for payback on investments, so as a TD share holder I am very pleased (but as a TD customer I am very disgusted).
If you are really forgetful, and you have to have your box drilled to get opened, the previous fee was $104 now it will be $200, which is less than 100% so I guess it is not as large a jump as the others, but still an impressive jump.
What other industry could get away with this kind of price increase with little or no notice from the Government? Only the banks (in my opinion). This service fee is really only for rich folk who have things to keep safe, or shady folk who have pornographic pictures or ledgers with shady transactions logged in them (if Hollywood is to be believed), so I guess it is not something that lots of folks might notice, and the safety deposit box rental is also tax deductible, but still this is amazing.
I always end up torn in these situations. As a blogger this is astoundingly good fodder to whine about the Banks and their high service charges, but as a customer I am bloody pissed off by it, but on the third hand as a stock holder I am rubbing my hands with glee thinking of the dividends that may come from this.
Anyone else care to comment on this service fee hike? Does anybody care?
So do any banks, besides TD, offer a free or low cost safety deposit box? The usual rate is about $30 a year I think. or it used to be. I just need the smallest one. What about credit unions? Are they about the same price as the banks?
Depends, you are going to have to shop around, unfortunately.
This is not the only fee TD is jacking up. As of April 1, 2012 they will apply a new charge of $2.00 per month for a paper statement. This is outrageous as there has never been a charge for this with my account before!
I’m seriously considerly moving all my banking business to another bank. I did it before when Scotia tried to ram an unfair charge down my throat.
We can thank that crusader that got the US banks to withdraw their proposed $5 debit card fee. A win for them now means a loss for us
Mike
It’s hard to imagine why anyone over 55 would do ANY business with the TD Bank. Who’s seen those appalling TV commercials they’ve been running for years that use two ‘old codgers’ to make fun of the aging?
I got the letter and immediately decided to go with two fireproof/water proof lock boxes. All I keep in the safety deposit box is UBS flash drive on important stuff (financial, etc.) from computer, wills, and a few stock certificates. I plan on giving one box to my daughter to hold and the other I will keep with facsimiles. That is the price for the box for a year. Bye, bye TD safety deposit box which was always a bother anyway. My main concern was always computer crash and fire in any event.
As a “loyal” TD customer of 35 years, all these fee increases are a real slap,considering the thousands we’ve paid them in interest over the years. I’m going to check out my alternatives! Wish I could write a letter and increase my net income as readily! Adding to the inflationary spiral!!
Thanks for the warning, BigCajunMan! I got my letter today. 🙁 Grrrrr. I wish I had justification for asking for the fees to be waived or reduced! Let us know how that goes.
JUSTIFICATION? You never need justification to ask for FREE banking, especially if you are a good customer! Point out how much business you give them and how well you have treated them, and see what happens. The answer is always no, unless you ask!
TD will give you a FREE safety deposit box if you have the infinity account (min. $5000) in the account. So if you switch to that you would be saving all these fees which would be similar to making the money in an investment.
Instead of spending your time whining about it have a look to see what you can do to avoid the fee.
Wow, so your advice is for me to tie down $5000 in a bank account for an entire year to avoid a $60 fee? Why not just go in and ask for the fee to be waived (like I am going to do in a week or so), so I don’t have to leave $5000 in an account that pays next to nothing in interest (less than 0.5% I believe)? That would be a much more pithy comment, simply stating the Bank Policy like I might not have read it, not so much.
Oh and FYI I do have an Infinity account and I have had that balance for a while, yet TD never did give me the box for free either (evidently I had to ASK for it, they didn’t simply give it to me), what a surprise.
As for the whining comment, you don’t read me much, whining is my raison d’etre in this world.
If you pay fees to big banks, then you DESERVE to pay fees to big banks. No offence.
Try a credit union! I haven’t paid fees in years.
Buy a $50 burn-proof box and hide it in the attic (don’t tell you wife).
You can keep your wife’s jewellery, passports and even your porn pics in it – you dirty old man! (Don’t tell your wife).
You’re happy as a shareholder? – you’re just paying for a big CEO bonus next year!
I have to chuckle when you mention safety deposit boxes.
I have had a small one with one of the big five banks and have not paid a single Cent for it in 20 years.
When I banked with them part of the agreement was no fee for the safety depost box.
I switched banks 15 years ago because they were up to there old tricks and broke service fee agreements but never did break the agreement on a free safety deposit box.
I think it has slipped through there system. Yahoo for me!
I also happen to own bank stocks and love the juicy dividends but I shop around and pay no service fees to the
bank I use presently.
So if you do your homework you can have your cake and eat it too.
What the heck is “10.000%” supposed to mean and how does it relate to 10 times? I guess you were too shocked to think clearly :). How about 900%?
I was too excited… my apologies…
I believe you mean $42 a year, because there is no way I would let you pay $42 a month for a box that only holds the kids CSBs.
BCW.
I have updated the post, but have left the evidence of my non-fact checking. -bcm