Big brother is watching you closely at this bank. If there is anything even remotely unusual about your banking habits, OR if you have nothing to hide but want to avoid problems, avoid this branch.
I'm a lawyer with a local office address. I deposited a series of cheques from an international legal services company with a Toronto address on the face of the cheque. This should have been a boring routine deposit.
The teller, who could not be older than 20, began to question what the funds were payment for (Who gave you this money?). He asked where did the cheques come from (Is this your client?), and on and on. The cheques were dated each Friday for the past few weeks so it doesn't take a genius to figure out I was being paid for services rendered.
Anyway, when I refused to answer the questions, he typed a huge note into the computer about me (I was waiting for him to finish typing for a few minutes). Who was he writing to? It was about me, but they would not tell me what the report or whatever was produced.
I complained to the manager of the tellers. She didn't even get up from her desk to speak to me. She just started shouting over the desks and past the counter to me that "HE'S JUST DOING HIS JOB". Um ok, I'm a cross border TD client, I deposited half a million dollars of business income to your bank in the past 5 months and you can't even stand up and come over to speak to me like a professional?
Then I complained to the Bank Manager. I politely explained that I was questioned about this simple transaction, and I would like to know why. She implied it was just routine "know your customer" rules (which are enacted to prevent money laundering, terrorism, extortion... thanks for implying I might be involved in THAT stuff).
Next time I went in I had to show ID to a different teller. This female teller looked at my passport, and then turned all the pages and asked me why I travel so much (I'm an immigration lawyer).
Finally I realized these people are way too interested in the customer's routine transactions, and I don't have time for whatever problems they could cause with their constant questions, and whatever reports they generate.
The last straw was the investment professional explaining, practically with glee, that her daughter bought a pre-construction home and it had already gone up in value $30,000, and isn't real estate a fabulous investment these days?? (um no its going to crash). She also suggested a purchase of Canadian money market fund that was largely commodity based, when most of my money was in USD. (that would have lost 5% immediately and who knows how much in the coming year).
I'm sorry but if I want to loose money and get the government all up in my business I would just set a big pile of my money on fire on my front lawn. read more
