Your opinion please : CIBC or Scotiabank

airodyssey wrote: ↑ I'm curious: any reason why you are undecided between these two only? In other words, any reason why the other banks/credit unions are out of the equation?

Altera wrote: ↑ CIBC hands down vs BNS -- BNS is a disaster for customer service.

You aren't out of luck at costco. Buy Costco Cash Cards online using Visa and then use the Cash Card at the store.

travelandshoppingwoman77 wrote: ↑ I've been with CIBC for almost a year and my thoughts:

$3K minimum in chequing account gives unlimited transactions, otherwise I'm limited to 12 for $4.95 and $1.25 for every transaction until the maximum which ends up at $14.95 in fees. (I have a smart account)
Free e-transfers although they will charge $5 if you need to cancel an e-transfer.
I don't have a USD account so I can't comment on that.

I transferred my LIRA to CIBC and so far, ok. The MER is slightly less than what I being charged with RBC.
So far, I've had pretty good customer service experiences with CIBC.
CIBC's mobile app is decent.

I do find CIBC a bit slower with posting transactions on my VISA and just not as quick as what I was used to with RBC.

For whatever reason, I'm not drawn to Scotiabank as they seem behind the times compared to other banks.

tradinghumble wrote: ↑ I heard their website goes down often. Can you confirm?

User455957 wrote: ↑ CIBC LOC acts like a chequing account. Free etransfers, unlimited transactions, direct deposit, and all that jazz. You can even have a + balance. Say your credit limit is 10k, you can have 5k on top of that so total limit 15k. You only pay interest if you go below 10k. It's free also.

titaniumtux wrote: ↑ While the CIBC LoC does act as a free chq account with a massive overdraft limit, Scotia's uLOC wins because it's packaged as a credit card. Can't beat that. Not sure whether Scotia's would give free chq's. Depends what's more important to each individual.

I have a uLOC with Simplii, same idea as CIBC, though already get free banking with Simplii. I'm happy with it though if Scotia's fees were lower, I'd take their uLOC too.

User455957 wrote: ↑ "Packaged as a credit card" What kind of advantage as that? seem limiting, especially when I can just use debit for a purchase, or better yet...pull cash out.

nmclean wrote: ↑ CIBC has a pay per use USD savings account, or a US checking account with a monthly fee / minimum deposit for up to unlimited transactions. Scotiabank only has a savings account with 2 USD transactions per month for a fee / minimum, but charges almost double CIBC's savings account for additional transactions. So there is a small range of 2-4 transactions per month where Scotia would be cheaper, but CIBC wins for anything less or more. Both the savings and checking at CIBC allow you to draw actual US checks on the account (not possible with Scotia) and the savings pays higher interest.

titaniumtux wrote: ↑ It's a low interest card that allows doing cash advances at reduced fees. Also can be used at point of sale internationally. Can also move CL between their uLOC and other CC's with Scotia (although that has to be done in branch, as Scotia is by no means a user friendly bank).

Scotia is best for CC churning and even the staff there do it

tradinghumble wrote: ↑ I was hoping to hear opinions between the brokerage integration (CIBC->IE) and (Scotia->iTrade). Simple to use, transfer money, any concerns with the brokerage side?