Anyone have experience with First Calgary Financial

[mykalberta]

I am getting married and we are looking at banks

Right now I am with PC Financial and ING and she is with TD and HSBC.

She has an unlimited account with TD with $1K balance that has been grandfathered in.

I was looking around and remember hearing some crazy adds for First Calgary Financial so I checked them out and they have a free chequing account with no minimum balance but they actually have branches unlike PC.

Their negative would be using ATMs outside of Calgary. Just wondering what experience anyone has with them. Thanks.

[northcrunk]

Personally I prefer TD, we recently were looking for a mortgage and my wife has been with first calgary and it was much harder getting anywhere with first calgary and TDs rates were the same. They are pretty similar except you need to get a credit check to even get a chequing account at first calgary.

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

I am getting married and we are looking at banks

Right now I am with PC Financial and ING and she is with TD and HSBC.

She has an unlimited account with TD with $1K balance that has been grandfathered in.

I was looking around and remember hearing some crazy adds for First Calgary Financial so I checked them out and they have a free chequing account with no minimum balance but they actually have branches unlike PC.

Their negative would be using ATMs outside of Calgary. Just wondering what experience anyone has with them. Thanks.

Been with them for nearly 25 years now (with a 5 year break in there). We switched to the "No Fee" account and admittedly I thought there must be a catch; but nope, it's been all good.

If you use other credit unions' ATMs outside of Calgary there are no additional charges. We've also had a situation where some documents needed to be signed by my husband and he was working in another province. They couriered the documents to the local credit union and helped him as if he was one of their customers.

Just recently we purchased a home, we ended up going with Scotiabank due to a slightly better rate. But we won't be moving our chequin account or investments.

I find their turnover of staff is much less than the other banks; at our home branch they greet us by name.

Originally Posted by northcrunk

Personally I prefer TD, we recently were looking for a mortgage and my wife has been with first calgary and it was much harder getting anywhere with first calgary and TDs rates were the same. They are pretty similar except you need to get a credit check to even get a chequing account at first calgary.

I believe that is true of any new account with all the banks.

This older thread may be of help too:

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...ecommendations

[undercoverbrother]

nm

[Hockeyguy15]

Probably wrong thread

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Probably wrong thread

changed, cheers

[albertGQ]

If you need an unlimited transactions chequing account, you are doing it wrong

Charge it to your credit card and get rewards/points is much better IMO. I even get my cell bill, Shaw bill, etc automatically debited from my credit card.

[pylon]

I deal with every bank single bank out there with my job. And without a doubt First Calgary is tops. I deal with them personally and professionally. They are one of the few banks you can still have a first name last name relationship with. BMO is a close second, as their airmile offers are insane, and if you use their cards right, you can easily get a nice big juicy trip every year.

One bank I always recommend against, is PC financial, or any of the non brick and mortar banks. They are an absolute nightmare to deal with if you need something done NOW, or need a bank draft. It blows me away people still deal with a grocery store bank with all the no fee accounts available at the big guys.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

If you need an unlimited transactions chequing account, you are doing it wrong

Charge it to your credit card and get rewards/points is much better IMO. I even get my cell bill, Shaw bill, etc automatically debited from my credit card.

Better yet, use a Visa Avion, and double up with an airmiles card. Or use a BMO Airmiles MC and regular airmiles. I have been doing the Avion/Airmiles thing, and I cannot even use all the points I have been racking up. I like to use separate programs for the same purchase, as sometimes you can get way better flight deals with one vs the other.

[Nammer403]

First Calgary is a credit union so you can go to any credit union ATM (Servus, Chinook Credit union, Mountain view credit union, 1st choice etc. to name a few out of town) and you wont get charged service for using their machines to withdraw money.

PM if you need more info about First Calgary..might be able to help .

[Deegee]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

If you need an unlimited transactions chequing account, you are doing it wrong

Charge it to your credit card and get rewards/points is much better IMO. I even get my cell bill, Shaw bill, etc automatically debited from my credit card.

It will be interesting to see what happens when merchants start charging more for using reward cards.

Then chequing fees will become important.

EDIT: http://www.ding-free.ca/#0-video has an app there to find the closest Credit Union friendly ATM. The network is quite large across the country!

I won't plug First Calgary specifically, but being a Credit Union employee myself I will be biased and state that their service typically rates well. I know we seem to be getting a lot of business from TD and ATB right now, though I admit that could be from the management at those places in the community I work at.

[albertGQ]

ATB has been on a downward spiral since they changed their banking system about 18 months ago.

[zamler]

I have an account with First Calgary, I find their service very good actually. I used to have an active account with ATB, but in the last few years I've found their service to be atrocious. The staff there was completely unhelpful and basically wanted me to do all the work, any help with paperwork or forms, forget it. And they never did what they said they would, I would request changes to my account and they never did it, didn't return calls when they said they would either. They made the banking experience miserable.

I now have about $2 at ATB because they made it impossible to close the account, so I just drained it and walked away.

I also have an account with RBC, I don't mind the bank itself so much but I find the staff at my local branch extremely rude. They ask me all kinds of stupid questions which quite honestly are none of their business. I walked out of an appointment outright once. I would close that account but I'm sentimentally attached to it because it was my first account, I got it the day I could legally have a bank account on my own.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by pylon

One bank I always recommend against, is PC financial, or any of the non brick and mortar banks. They are an absolute nightmare to deal with if you need something done NOW, or need a bank draft. It blows me away people still deal with a grocery store bank with all the no fee accounts available at the big guys.

I have been with PC Financial for years, and I'd recommend them. The one and only time I was at the "grocery store bank" was to set up my account many years ago. The are essentially a non-branch version of CIBC, so you can use any CIBC machine for ATM banking without fees, and the rest you can do online. You make it sound like you have to stand in line at Superstore with your milk and eggs in order to make a deposit.

I guess that I don't ever find myself needing a bank draft immediately, so having them mail it to me is fine. And if I needed a money order immediately, I could always buy one at the post office.

That being said, I do hear that First Calgary is pretty good for a bricks and mortar bank. I just don't have any need to walk up to a teller and ask them to do something for me that I have already done myself at home.

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

If you need an unlimited transactions chequing account, you are doing it wrong

Charge it to your credit card and get rewards/points is much better IMO. I even get my cell bill, Shaw bill, etc automatically debited from my credit card.

There are just some things you cant pay with a CC.

TIPP, Enmax, etc.

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by pylon

I deal with every bank single bank out there with my job. And without a doubt First Calgary is tops. I deal with them personally and professionally. They are one of the few banks you can still have a first name last name relationship with. BMO is a close second, as their airmile offers are insane, and if you use their cards right, you can easily get a nice big juicy trip every year.

One bank I always recommend against, is PC financial, or any of the non brick and mortar banks. They are an absolute nightmare to deal with if you need something done NOW, or need a bank draft. It blows me away people still deal with a grocery store bank with all the no fee accounts available at the big guys.

Thats why we are looking at Brick and Mortar banks. PC and ING have served me relatively well but I am not a high demand customer. If I need foreign exchange I go to a ForEx place.

Not alot of the Banks have great banking options unless you keep alot of money on deposit. BMO does have an account I found that is linked with Sobeys which works for us as we would do most of our shopping there with the Aeroplan tie in.

[albertGQ]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

There are just some things you cant pay with a CC.

TIPP, Enmax, etc.

You don't need an unlimited transaction chequing account for that.

I have a free low transaction account and that is more than adequate for me.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

If you need an unlimited transactions chequing account, you are doing it wrong

Charge it to your credit card and get rewards/points is much better IMO. I even get my cell bill, Shaw bill, etc automatically debited from my credit card.

While that might be great for you personally; it isn't as clear as right or wrong. It's great that you handle credit well; however that isn't the case for everybody. I often use the analogy of credit with alcohol. A recovering alcoholic usually cannot become a social drinker again; and a person who is bad with credit often cannot become good with credit again.

Myself, I find I am better with not having a lot of credit easily available and deal with the balance in my chequing account. The amount of money it saves me in interest and bad purchasing decisions far outweighs any rewards I might earn.

Going back to the BMO/Sobeys plan- I looked into it and started looking at First Calgary instead. First of all I had a BMO branch jerk me around with re-scheduling appointments to finally tell me that the Sobeys plan has to be handled by mail. Then I found out that they want photocopies of your ID sent by regular mail as well to setup the account. It just didn't sit well with me.

[Addick]

My Canadian account is with FirstCalgary and they have been great. While many banks now have Credit Debit Cards, they have had their Chequing Card by MasterCard for a while now and that is very useful when travelling. In addition, my debit card works in the U.K. and that has been helpful on occasion.

In regards to using my debit card in the U.K., at most bank provided ATMs you are not charged a fee when you withdraw money from an account with a different domestic bank. Why has this yet to be copied in Canada?

[mykalberta]

I guess I should ask,

Is First Calgary CDIC insured? I dont see them on the list

http://www.cdic.ca/Pages/Members.aspx