Makes Me Wanna Holla!

I'm at ING bank, trying to open an account. After years and years of watching those "Save Your Money!" commercials, I finally decided to have a look, after receiving a joke of a 2 cent interest deposit into an account at another bank that's holding hundreds.

So, I found an ING product online that seems to fit, and that offers a measurable interest rate, so figured - Why Not? It looked like it was going to be easy. I set up an automatic deposit schedule and - since I haven't actually written a check in years - decided I would go to their 'cafe' location to drop off an initial deposit along with my account information for the transfer.

At the ING cafe I was told that they 'don't do cash', and that I wouldn't be able to open my account with a credit or debit card payment either. And, though I know from my sales days that it would be legal, I also couldn't simply make a check by hand-printing one with my account information. No, it would have to be a bank issued cheque. And this was needed because of 'legal verification requirements'. I was assured that my own bank would give me a counter check. But I visited a large downtown branch of my regular bank, TD Canada Trust, and was told that they don't do counter checks. If I want a check, I'll have to buy an entire box of them - 200 minimum, I believe. And why would I want those around!?

So at this point I figure...Why does ING even want me dealing with my other bank? What if I walked in the door and said, "Finally, a bank I can do business with. A bank that will respect me, and respect my money, and care for it as I would myself."? What about that?

The surprising answer is that they'd tell me to get lost. In kinder words, of course. But ING won't give me an account unless I already have an account with another bank. Jason here explained it to me. It has something to do with the fact that ING isn't full service yet. And something to do with the 'legal requirements' I've already mentioned.

So the company that seems to be making its way by convincing consumers that we're abused by regular banks, requires us to deal with these other banks before it will do business with us!

And while we're on the subject of banks...Do you have a credit card? I do too. And these days, you can use a credit card almost anywhere, from fast food outlets to convenience stores, right? Guess where you absolutely CAN'T use your credit card? Try walking into any full-service bank and using it to get twenty dollars! Unless it's a credit card issued by that bank, even if you have your account and do all your financial business at that bank, they will tell you that they have no means of doing business with you via that card!

Weird, huh!? And aggravating!
And it absolutely Makes Me Wanna Holla!