Wow. You guys have it hard. In Canada it's totally different. They basically beg you to take a card. Even if you say you have bad credit history...They'll give you one, or ten if you ask, re-paint your house and send a kid to mow the lawn every sunday. No seriously.. not if you have bad credits, but if you have no history...they're on you like flies on {bleep} the minute you get out of highschool.
Banks don't perform credit history check to open an account as credit and banking are two seperate things. And all accounts come with a debit card. You simply cannot open an account without getting the debit card. I went to the bank the other day.. I mean, at the counter. I rarely do that cause they charge you fees for using this service but this one time I had to talk to someone. So I take my little bank-statement-book-thing with me... wait an hour in line because only one of the 15, count'em FIFTEEN counters is opened. I get to the counter, give the fatso my booklet and go on about what I need. Then she goes
-"Ok I will need your debit card".
-"errr.. why?"
-"well, to process this transaction sir"
-"I have my booklet here..."
-"It won't do"
-"I left the card at home"
-"You will need to get it then"
-"You'll be close by the time I come back" (banks are open from 12:00 to 12:05 here in Canada)
and this went on for a couple minutes.. They would not give me service *at the counter* *with my booklet* because I did not have the card.
As for credit cards.... I picked up one once I had a stable job. I asked for 500$, they wouldn't give me a card under 1000$. I said look, I *WANT* a 500$ limit. Well sure enough, I got out of there with a 1000$ card because they wouldn't let me have only 500$. Then a mere month or two later I receive an half-assed letter "Because of your outstanding credit history...." (at that point I stopped reading and laughed for about a week, the resumed readin) "...we have upgraded your credit limit to 2500$. So I call them right up.. yo wtf? stop that! They wouldn't. Seriously.. THEY WOULD NOT. Six months later, they pulled that off again and upgraded it to 5000$.
Then I lost my job and go through *very* hard times financially, had to use up a lot of credit. Which admitedly is not the right thing to do.. but when you're choices are to either use the card, or die of hunger.....
At the first payment where I could not meet at least the minimum requirement, they blocked the account. I call them, I explain the situation in all honesty, explaining that I have all the good intentions in the world to repay this once I get my mojo working again. The #$^#$@$^ morons closed off the account right away and gave the file over to a collection agency.
Now I can't get any credit anywhere. I've disappeared from their radar when I moved. I *want* to pay it back but after asking many questions to knowledgeable people, I will still not be able to get another credit card even if I pay them back. PLus, I'll need to pay it all in a single shot.
So that's Canada for you... They practically shove the damn card down your throat whether you want it or not, and at the first problem, your credit is dead pretty much forever.
Argh just writing things make my blood boil.
On a related note. I had the rent money +5$ in my account. I send my cheque to the landlord for the rent. In the meantime, the bank charges me 7.50$ in administration fees. So the cheque bounced and they charge me 35$ for the bounce. Plus, I had to pay my landlord's bounce fees also (standard clause on leases here). And, since this whole thing took a few days to sort out, I had to sent the cheque by express mail for another 15$. So instead of paying 595$ for the rent that month, I ended up paying 680$ because *get this*... They had to charge me 7.50 administration fees FOR HAVING USED THEIR FU*@#&*@ COUNTER SERVICE (the fatso episode.. I did come back the next day) instead of the ATM, which in any case COULD NOT perform the things I needed done.
I hate banks and money.
