Royal bank Avion Card - Worst ever experience of life

starchoice wrote: ↑ I wouldn’t do this without any guarantee. Your credibility will be maintained if you keep the card and fight for what is owed to you.

If you downgrade the card, you will definitely not get any more points and at best, only part of the fee back.

Not sure how the Avion card works regarding points but if you do anything drastic, cash in those points first.

Thanks for the excellent advise. I am not sure if they will refund pro rata fee if I downgrade the card. I have some doubt about it.
I will pay the card in full this weekend and then just close it. Points can be transferred to one of my other cards. Not sure how much 15K points are worth but hopefully I can get half the cost refunded.

efrant wrote: ↑ Yeah, it all depends how much effort you want to put in fighting for some points. In my experience, you will get an AF refund when you downgrade, so that's not an issue. And you keep your points if you downgrade to a no-AF card.

You are right about effort....that is why I feel like it is better to walk away from this episode ASAP. I have escalated the matter via a branch and online as well. I am also writing to RBC ombudsman. But I come across another offer like the one that just expired (Use points to pay for RBC DI trading fee with 20% bonus) I can easily get $150 out of it so it will still be worth something.
Not sure how many times such deals come on during the year.

Wait until you deal with Scotiabank then you will truly know what worst banking experience feels like

Cynophile wrote: ↑ Wait until you deal with Scotiabank then you will truly know what worst banking experience feels like

Thanks for sharing, good thing I stayed away from scotia. They seems to be on their way to become bankrupt.

can someone please tell me how to contact RBC social media channels? Just look for their FB twitter accounts and post a message there or is there another more effective method?
Thanks, in advance.

S5 wrote: ↑ If this is the worst experience you’ve ever experienced in your life, consider yourself very lucky, you’ve lived a charmed life.

Yep. He/she is in for a rude awakening.

Cynophile wrote: ↑ Wait until you deal with Scotiabank then you will truly know what worst banking experience feels like

I've been with Scotia for almost 20 years. I have credit cards, a loc and a bank account with them, even mortgages previously and never had any issues. YMMV.

najibs wrote: ↑ I've been with Scotia for almost 20 years. I have credit cards, a loc and a bank account with them, even mortgages previously and never had any issues. YMMV.

If everything is routine, sure you won’t have a problem. When an issue arises, you will experience their incompetence.

I just got a notification from equifax that my RBC Avion Visa "has reported your payment as deferred this month". This despite my balance being zero and me not requesting that option. ‍♂️

Edit: I called in and apparently this happened to a lot of customers. I requested and they sent me a letter stating that it was their doing and not mine.

batcave wrote: ↑ I just got a notification from equifax that my RBC Avion Visa "has reported your payment as deferred this month". This despite my balance being zero and me not requesting that option. ‍♂️

same thing for me on a different RBC credit card (zero balance - but the tradeline now reports as 'deferred'!)

Personally avoided RBC all my life, but heard all the stories too, as I started to manage my mom's financials and she's so deep in with RBC she doesn't want to put in the work to get out.

They are by far the most offensively corrupt of the big 5. The amount of unfair illegal fee's they stole from my mom is insane.

And even after they finally agree to fix there errors on the phone, they usually still don't and force you to visit a branch to do anything. And even than, goodluck if they will actually do it. Took her like 6 months of calling/visits to get $100s+ in fee's reversed (She is a senior, and has tons of RBC products, so qualified for the multiproduct rebate free account for over a year when I went to branch with her and had them switch her to it (They had her on a the top highest fee VIP account, which is BS stupid for an old lady who has plenty of credit cards, and does little banking).

Even worse they screw over seniors. They're system simply doesn't do anything automatic, even if you qualify for the waivers, they will charge you the maximum possible fee's as often and whenever they can until you demand many times they fix it.

Sure scotiabank has horrible base tier customer service too, but at least they don't demand you to go to the branch or at least you can ignore that as there email escalation system does eventually work. And technology wise, they are leaps and bounds ahead, things like seniors discounts and fee waivers on chequing/savings do work automatically (on credit card promotions, well ymmv there too, but at least it's far easier to get fixed). I've had problems with no getting sign up bonuses/promos with scotia, but other than 1 initially annoying phone call, fixing it was easy as they advertise there escalation process very plainly - include a pamphlet with every bank account/credit card you sign up with, and it's easily googleable:
ttps://www.scotiabank.com/content/dam/scotiaba ... plaint.pdf
Very easy process 1 - call once and get nowhere. 2 - email them (Easier way to provide clear proof they screwed up). Their email team is decent and empowered to help you, just took me a few replies.

RBC process:
Good bloody luck, they will force you to call many times (and the call center will tell you to visit a branch), won't let you email them no matter what:
https://www.rbc.com/customercare/how-to ... laint.html

Here's a government review of the complaint escalation process:
https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-cons ... .html#toc6

Essentially says for some banks, they do work reliably, for others, there is hardly any training or guidelines for them to follow, so it's a mess (RBC obviously in that camp).
Imo for the big 5:
1 - TD: Best overall customer service, you can resolve 99% of stuff on the phone, the supervisors/managers are empowered to compensate you well, if not they can escalate themselves and will follow up and call you back. They also have special numbers with no robots that can get you someone directly, and in my experience, hardly any wait times. Most/all? their call centers are also in canada, I think they spend the most on call centers and support by far. They also have the most advanced technology, they are the only bank of the big 5 that does not use garbage quality NCR ATMs/other tech. They use a much more advanced supplier, diebold which is far far more up to date and reliable. (And that extends to there in branch and backend, they just invest more in tech overall)
2 - CIBC: Also very good like TD, though getting a manager/supervisor on the phone is harder, and escalation generally requires more work on your behalf. Technology wise they are in the dark ages, but they do their best to work around it.
3 - Scotiabank: As I mentioned above, very poor level 1 call center, they are not empowered to do much of anything and won't escalate for you. But the next tier email escalation team is pretty good.
4 - BMO: Poor level 1 call center with long wait times. Escalation process is okay but they are still stuck in the past and may ask you to snail mail in proof. To do anything email wise, you have to call first and get a case number to send it while on the phone, so defeats the purpose of easier emails to a degree. I have had very nice service at my local branches, but i'm sure YMMV based on area (Most Kitchener-Waterloo BMOs have really nice staff that can fix most things)
5 - RBC, as talked about

efrant wrote: ↑ 4) Transfer the refund to your bank account, or even easier, just spend on your card for $100 or whatever it is;

Is there a service fee with RBC to transfer a credit balance from a RBC credit card? With BMO, its $5, regardless if its a refund. phuckers

CLOSER wrote: ↑ Is there a service fee with RBC to transfer a credit balance from a RBC credit card? With BMO, its $5, regardless if its a refund. phuckers

I don't remember if there's a fee if you do it yourself online (I don't think so), but there isn't if you call in and ask them to do it for you.