Banks make a big profit every year. Royal Bank made a $4.7 Billion dollar profit in 2006
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2006/11/30/rbc.html only to see it tumpble in 2007
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazett...6-78f5e867d4f9 but they still made a profit. Most Canadian banks were hurt last year due to the banking issues in the USA.
If you have a mortgage with you bank, tell them you are not paying the monthly fee or you will move your mortgage, presto they drop it.
Banks do nickle and dime you and they tell us they do it so that they can protect our money yet how many people have had their pin numbers and cards copied? It happened to my wife and she had to get a new card. Lucky we did not lose any money but the fact is the banking industry said it is cheaper to pay out what people lost vs. fixing the problem.
When dealing with the banks you need to be as ruthless as they are, when shopping your mortgage ask for all the extras, money back, no fees and the best interest rate.
They will say no at first but when you come back that bank #2 will do it and your bank must match or your gone, they will usually match.
Lastly if you need to deal with a bank and you pay a per transaction fee then you need to look at one of their packages. I currently pay $12 for unlimited transactions (only cause I have my mortgage somewhere else).