NSF Fees

These fees are very annoying, hitting you at your worst. Typically, a bank would charge the person trying to cash a cheque on an account that didn't have enough funds for the payment. Since the bank would charge the company trying to claim payment, the company would often forward the fee to the cheque-writing customer.

Logitech MK710 Review

Confusingly, the keyboard in the MK710 package is the MK700, and the mouse is the MK705. However, there is also an older keyboard+mouse package called the MK700, which has the old big USB-stick receiver. Avoid the MK700 keyboard+mouse package. Get the MK710.

Price

WestJet Dollars Credit Card

Banks love to issue special "rewards" credit cards with points or miles as their rewards. Even MBNA's Smart Cash "cash back" Mastercard gives out MBNA Reward Dollars or something.

Bell Rolling out Network Charge to More Customers

To understand this, we need to have an educational talk about the two kinds of Bell phone service. There are two types of "local phone" service in Bell territories:

3VCash is a new product on the Canadian Market.

How 3VCash Visa Card Works

3vCash Vouchers are a bit more directed to the needs of the prepaid Visa/Mastercard market: Those that only need a card to buy online, but can't because they don't have a credit card.

Although I have a clean driving record (no accidents, no claims and no moving violations), 7 years of experience (and I drive a lot) and drive a crappy car with little value and probably even less impact force in the event of an accident, my car insurance rates suck.

My First Ontario Corporation!

ScotiaBank Problem Background

I have a Scotia "PowerChequing" Account that I don't really use as a part of my Scotia line of credit account package. It was supposed to be free during school, and for one year after I graduate.

And I've been looking to purchase a used car. Dealing with used car dealerships is hilarious.

In order to test drive any car, all they usually need is a photocopy of your driver's license ("G" only acceptable in Ontario). If they ask for your phone number, it's certainly for the purposes of trying to call you later.

My advice is that any used car should be purchasable with at least 15% off list price, and certainly no less than 10% off list price.

Did you buy something in US$ with your credit card, but your credit card only reports the total in Canadian Dollars, so you don't know what they charged you, or what their commission was?

Here is the daily US Dollar to Canadian Dollar Exchange Rates, noon-time rates. Data is from business days only. Generally, changes are minor on holidays and weekends (though it is true that the forex market is open 24/7 and rates are constantly fluctuating). 

Average Currency Exchange Rates for 2009

2008 Average Exchange Rates are available here. 

A postal money order is a lot like a bank money order, or bank draft, except it can be cashed through both a bank and any postal outlet/office.

Some banks and banking "plans" offer free/cheap bank drafts. Sometimes you can ask nicely and they won't charge them to you either.

• Firstly, please read my article about acceptance of prepaid cards at places like hotels, flights and for car rentals.
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The Visa Infinite website is created in a confusing way that is mostly inaccessible to Google and the blind (everything is an image, no text!).

Please feel free to comment on any of the benefits/features, as well as any other positive or negative elements about the Infinite cards.

aka: CIBC Dividend Infinite Visa vs Capital One Cash Back Plus Platinum

It looks like CIBC card is the successor card to the CIBC Dividend Platinum Visa card that I've written about before.

The tiers are the same, and there's still an annual fee, but as a nice plus, the card now includes:

Canadian Tire Perpaid Mastercard is no longer available. Please check out the Top 5 Canadian Prepaid Cards Article.

TFSA Contribution Limits

The limit to contribute to a TFSA for the year 2009 is $5000. Most everyone already knows this.

But how much will the Tax Free Savings Account Contribution limit go up to for the year 2010?

The TFSA Contribution limit goes up by the CPI, or the amount of inflation in a given year, but in $500 increments only.

Looking to make a trip to the USA?

Travel (cheaper) internationally from the US? Flights there are usually a lot cheaper than in Canada. 

Buy a car in the US?

Going to University/College in the USA? Or need UK Pounds to g o to school in England?

Buy a vacation home in Florida? US Stocks?

For all of these things, you'll need US Dollars/American dollars to make the purchases.

Selling Gold Scrap and Silver Coins

Canadians need to be a bit careful as to where they sell off their scrap gold and silver, or gold/silver coins.

TD E-series Low-MER (Management Expense Ratio) Mutual Fund Fees

Are you unhapy with mutual funds that are charging Management Expense Ratios (MERs) of 1% or more, sometimes upwards of 2.5%?

There's no good evidence to prove that higher MERs result in greater returns.

TD has a relatively unadvertised line of mutual funds with exceptionally low MERs. Perhaps the lowest in Canada. 

Hi Again,

Here are the September 2009 exchange rates between the US Dollar and the Canadian Dollar as per the Bank of Canada. The Bank of Canada is Canada's Central Bank, like the US' Federal Reserve Bank. 

Exchange rates are only published on weekday business days. Generally, exchange rates don't fluctuate much on weekends, but you are free to take an average of the before and after trading day to get a rough estimate of what it would be.

It looks like Cogeco, the worst cable provider in Canada (I like to call them "Cage-co") is now actually charging overage fees on their internet service.

Apparently their internet service infrastructure is so bad that they had to resort to absurd usage caps. In reality, they're just doing it to steal more of your money, there's no real shortage of bandwidth!

BMO American Dollar Credit Card Fees

I've been quite a fan of BMO Mosaik's No-Fee US$ Mastercard.

Bank of Montreal had the only fee-free US$ credit card in Canada without making you jump through any hoops.  TD Bank has a "free" one if you subscribe to their most expensive banking plan (or free with a minimum $5000 deposit, ya right!).