Canadian Personal Finance Questions & Answers

How does this actually work for people with combined bank accounts (ie, how is the interest paid)? Would you just use the shared money and put the brokerage account in the lower income spouse's name? Would paying interest be necessary or would it be considered a gift?

Another thing (from http://www.rbcfinancialplanning.com/...t-purpose.html)

Another simple but very beneficial strategy is to use the income of the higher earning spouse to pay living expenses and tax liabilities and use the income of the lower earning spouse to make investments. This way, investment income earned will be taxed at the lower earning spouses’ rate.

Again, how would this be done if you have joint accounts? Just putting the investments in the lower income spouse's name?

According to the link you posted, no interest = attribution rule applies, so yes paying interest would be necessary. I would 100% set-up separate accounts to attempt this. That way you have a paper trail to give the CRA if/when they accuse you of tax evasion (and then you can prove it was only tax avoidance, which is legal).

As mentioned by the other poster, you need to charge interest or attribution rules will apply. It is even better to have a signed contract (see a lawyer) which states loan amount, interest rate, and repayment terms so that it is a bonafide loan and cannot be challenged by CRA. The interest rate you would want to charge would be the lowest rate you can so you are not stuck including a lot of interest income on your tax return. Check the CRA website for prescribed interest rates and use these rates as the interest rate. Hope this helps.

PS. I am a Chartered Accountant and have done this for clients in the past. With the low interest rate environment that we live in, prescribed rates are really low and can be really beneficial in income splitting and loans to spouses.

you should be aware your spouse is still paying you taxable interest. so you have to declare that interest as income. if you don't then you'll get hit with the attribution rules.
and this isn't a one time thing. the loan goes on until it's fully paid back, so you'll keep earning interest from your spouse until it's paid off.

just something to consider

Hello,

Looking for some help re a joint savings account for two individuals. I gather the typical institution reports interest income on the primary owner's tax slip.

What exactly are the rules re basic investment income (interest) splitting? Are we only allowed to do a 50/50 split regardless of whose slip the amount appears?

Thanks.

Interest should be reported based on the amount of money each person deposits to the account. It doesn't really depend on the SIN number on the slip.

E.g. if one person puts in 60% of the principal in the account and the other 40%, that's how the income should be reported.

It is common practice to simply split the income 50/50.

Ideally, the lowest income earner would save 100% of their income and report the interest due to the preferable tax rates. The higher income earned should pay all the bills in order for the lower earner to invest.

I had an OSAP loan back in 1996.

This was back when the bank would take the loan and it was funded through the government (two parts to loan, federal part and provincial part).

Long story short, I defaulted on about 7k owing for the federal portion of the loan. For several years collection agencies called me. After awhile the calls stopped. I called one of the collection agencies around 98 - 99 and they said that the loan had been recalled by the bank.

Around 2005 I tried to track down who I needed to pay spending hours on the phone. Nobody could find any record of the loan. Not on my credit bureau, not through National Student Loan Centre, various government departments, I even called ScotiaBank with the loan number and they couldn't find it (I think that I got the loan in the year just before they changed the whole OSAP system to one integrated loan done through the government instead of the banks.)

Finally I gave up and figured as long as it's not hurting my credit score who cares.

Has the statute of limitations passed on this debt? I know 10 years needs to go by from when you were last in school, however I returned to college in 2005 for one year.

Just worried that one day in the future I'm going to get a call "You owe us the original 7k + god knows how much interest".

Canada Student loans granted under the Canada Student Loan Act and the Canada Student Financial Assistance Act have a six year limitation with exceptions as outlined in the Acts. Read them as they can be read online. Ontario has no limitation period for student loans. The new Limitations Act which has a basic limitation period of two years specifically notes that such limitation period does not relate to student loans. See also Interpretations Act in Ontario re crown debt.

If you have gone bankrupt prior to the expiration of the 10 year limitation period set out in s. 178 1g of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, you may apply to the bankruptcy court after the expiration of the 10 yr period for an order including the loans in your earlier bankruptcy provided you have acted in good faith regarding payment of the loan and the debt continues to be an ongoing burden. See s. 178 1,1 of the BIA. I have made over 70 such applications for clients all of which have been successful.

How much you can deduct for childcare expenses? If you paying $x per month, how much do you get back on your taxes? Which spouse should claim the deductions?

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t778/t778-10e.pdf

an excellent 4 pages in detail on the topic. if you have child care expenses every year like I do, you may want to educate yourself. it is just a quick 15 min reading but very informative knowledge.

have fun.

I was wondering what is the job of a real estate agent for a rental property?...are they suppose to check on references,credit history of the potential tenant?..if there is issues with the tenant do they assist the owner?...

The buyer agent is responsible for bringing the seller agent a client. Both agents ensure that both parties are happy with any reference checks or whatever. The value added is just a series of very minor paperwork and gathering of documentation like credit report and drafting the agreement etc. Surely advice is thrown around somewhere.

Do they assist owner? Probably not. After they collect their commission, they'll probably never want to talk to you again. This is why most people prefer to have a friend or relative as their agent.

What a real estate agent does will be highly variable. The minimum level of service is very minimum: they'll put an ad on MLS, and help you find a tenant if they've got nothing better to do.

Good agents may also take pictures of the property, put ads up on other sites and/or in the newspaper, show the property to tenants (or let a buyer's agent bring tenants by), and if you're really lucky, they may help you do a credit check or swing by staples to pick up a lease document for you.

Bad agents (and I've seen many) will put the ad up on MLS and then not even return phone calls from prospective tenants -- and if they do, they may just try to sell the tenant on buying, not owning, so they can get a buyer's agent commission, and not a month's rent from your rental ad.

I don't think any will help you out with the ongoing stuff like collecting cheques or dealing with issues down the line. For that you want a rental agent or property manager, not a real estate agent (though sometimes a rental agent who will help with that also happens to be a real estate agent).

If you're in Toronto, some people I can recommend 2nd or 3rd hand (don't own a rental myself):

http://landlordrescue.ca/service/

Hi there,

Just wondering if you anyone had experience with cancelling their wireless phone contract with Rogers...
I still have 2 years left with my 3 year contract with Rogers, and they are charging me $400 for the maximum monthly penalty and on top of that $100 for the data plan cancellation. They said the only way to avoid the penalty is to transfer the plan to someone else.

Does anyone know other ways around this hefty cancellation penalty?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks.

- If it's for the sake of iPhone 4, you will need to wait another year before you can get another subsidize phone from Rogers (and extend the contract by 3 more years).
- If it's for affordability, call retention and negotiate an affordable plan.

If you really need to get rid of it.
1. Get Rogers retention plan.. to make it attractive.
2. Post your plan in kijiji, craiglist or RFD - FS section.

2 years contract will be a hard sell. You might need to add some cash incentive... Better than paying $500 to cancel it.

if your plan is good, u can convince someone to take over your contract, and that way u'll not need to pay anything (assuming that the person is not asking for money to take over your plan).

In March, 2008 I lost my job and couldn’t been able to pay my lease every month. During one of my telephone conversation with company representative that I leased the car from, I was advised to return the car back. So I did. I returned the car with mint condition. A month later I received the letter from the same company informing that they lost all my personal information in the way of transporting to the credit burro. They also worried about as it is against the code of confidentiality and if my personal information goes to bad people they can do an Identity fraud. Another month passed I received invoice notifying that I have to pay to the company $16000 CAD as they sold the car with $14000. When I started my own research in OMVIC regulation I found out that before selling the car company should contact with me and ask my opinion about an offer that they have for the car. (Of course if I knew about the $16000 gap I would take my car back) So now collection agency is terrorizing me always motioning that they will take me to the Court. What should I do please help me with your advice. Thank you very much.

If I understand you correctly, you were going to default on your lease so you returned the car back to them. And now you are being faced with a charge you do not understand.

Allow me to explain, I may be wrong so I would advise to go over your original contract. When terminating your lease early you are responsible for any fees and penalties. This includes a very important factor called the residual value. When you obtained your lease they estimated the residual value of the car, the higher the value the lower your lease payments would have been. However there's a downside to that after voluntarily surrendering your leased vehicle, the bank or leasing company sells it. Usually, the vehicle is sent to a dealer-auto auction. Once the vehicle is sold, the net proceeds are applied to your balance at the time of surrender. This balance is not the same as your lease-end residual balance; it equals the lease-end residual plus the remaining payments on your lease contract.
In short, don't default on a car lease. Especially when car prices have dropped which means your car depreciated much faster over the years.

What you should do now depends on your current financial situation. Your credit score is probably very poor so trying to finance out of it will be difficult and it's ill advised unless you want to make 15-20% interest payments. If you have little assets i would declare bankruptcy, but please do check the rules in your province and know how you would be affected before doing so.

http://www.canadian-money-advisor.ca/threadview/4007.html

What are the investor rules for purchasing an investment single family dwelling?

Does my existing house's rental income count as part of my income qualifications? What about the potential income from the investment house?Does that count to qualify for the mortgage? I know you can't do this for your principal dwelling, but is it different for investment/rental housing?

I know I need a min. 20% down, but if I go only the min 20%, do I still need CMHC mortgage insurance as it is below the 25% level?

I know that all expenses can be written off against rental income, but if I have more expenses than rental income, can I write it off against my employment income? If so, how far (ie how long, how many years) can I do this before CRA deems it an investment not having a reasonable expectation of making a profit, or does that even come into play with real estate?

Yes, existing rental income does count, but only a percentage.
Yes, potential rental income does count, but only a percentage.

20% is the minimum that may waive you from CMHC. However, there are other consideration too. Bank may insist that you need CMHC regardless. One of my friend needs 35% down to waive the CMHC requirement.

Yes, you can write against employment income.

You can claim a loss indefinitely under certain circumstances (far too many variables to answer that the same for everyone) but of course you would not be able to use any portion as principle residence at any time.
i.e. if this is a duplex and you rent out both units and take a loss, then you can claim a loss indefinitely . If you were to live in one unit, then no.

- only part of your current and potential income will be included for qualification purposes
- if you are struggling to qualify under current conditions you probably should forget this idea
- residential real estate is one of the most risky options out there today
- current real estate costs are unsubstantiated and could fall dramatically costing you a fortune
- many other investments let you sleep at night, why get into an investment that could
wake you up with gross and trivial emergencies or have you subsidizing a
deadbeat that you can't evict?

You're willing to part with 100% of your money to gain < 50% back as a deduction?

You are hedging on asset appreciation bailing you out of negative cash flow real estate holdings... good luck with that gamble.
- unless you're prepared to do some unsavory things, big profits may be hard to come by

your deductions will not be denied for failing the 'reasonable expectation of profit' test. its pretty dumb to buy a property that is not instantly cash-flow positive especially at today's extremely low interest rates.

What your lender requires as a downpayment is between you and your lender, including the requirement of CMHC insurance. 20% is the minimum without CMHC insurance at a Canadian chartered bank.

I found this to pose a very interesting question and it ends with cra being able to deny expenses which do not have the "pursuit of profit" in mind.
To go back to the OP, it would depend on what sort of expenses he's claiming. If he's actually reinvesting money into the property and the payoff is when he sells for a large profit later, then it makes sense. As stated before he is losing cash flow in the attempt to reduce taxable income.

so we are trying to sell our condo, which is our primary residence. we will be dropping the price which will eventually lead to a loss. (buying this place has not really worked out and we really want to get out after staying here for more than 3 years)

can i write off the losses from this transaction with my income? in other words, do i get any tax benefit for the losses i will incur on account of the sale of the condo?

and if i move out into another place, make this an investment property, and sell at a loss... i can probably get the tax benefit????

No, you can not deduct the loss from your income. Because it was your principal residence you will be denied claiming a capital loss.

If you convert to an investment property, the adjusted cost base for determining gain / loss will be the fair market value as of the day you convert it.
It will technically remain a principal residence for taxation purposes until the year end.

hey guys
just got a quick question
so basically im letting my friend use my ebay account/paypal
to post stuff on ebay cause i have over 50+ feedback from 2 years of using ebay
and now hes doing about 12,000 in sales a month
and then he transfers it to my bank account via paypal
and i withdraw it for him
im worried about taxes? as im not claiming it nor is he
what are the possible outcomes as far as taxes goes?
i read that the cra now audit ebay sales
this has been going on for about a month and a half
any info would help
thannks

Yeah eventually you will attract the CRA, and will be asked to provide some sort of accounting between your cost of inputs, and the sales revenue you receive. If you sell >$30k in a year you also have an obligation to register for, and collect GST on the entirety of your sales.

You need to a) stop sharing your eBay account with others (this is a violation of your eBay agreement), and b) tell your friend to start keeping records that can be audited on his own account, or the CRA might just send him a tax assessment for the entirety of his reported eBay sales.

Hi. I'm currently on EI and stocks I've purchased with my previous company is doing well right now.

They were purchased through an employee stock purchase plan. They collected a bit from our checks for a period of time. At the end of the period, they look at the market value at the start and end of the period. We buy at the lowest of those two points.

I'm thinking about selling them (about $18k right now) and wanted to know if I had to report it as earning on EI. I called EI, they didn't know and would have a specialist call me back. But I was hoping to sell today and it's up again.

Thanks in advance.

Investment income is not considered to be employment income.
If you were on welfare then obviously it would be a different story.

If they had a matching % contribution then it would have already been a factor in your income.

I have a mortgage with TD. The last mortgage payment day is April 1st 2011.

Q1: Which day is the start day of the new mortgage term? April 1 or May 1

Q2: When do I need to shop around?

Q3: If I still stay with TD, the new mortgage will become a collateral mortgage, is that right?

Q4: If the new mortgage is a collateral one, what benefit I can get? For example the house worth 400k and have 300k mortgage balance left.

Thanks for any input.

Great questions and I hope you'll find my answers helpful. I work with TD so remember you can always give us a call at 1-866-222-3456 or come and talk to us at a branch http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/locator/index.jsp

Q1: Which day is the start day of the new mortgage term? April 1 or May 1

If April 1 2011 is your maturity date, then your new term begins on April 2 2011, and your first monthly payment on the new term will be due on May 1, 2011. TD mortgage payments are collected in arrears and not in advance, hence your payment for May 1 2011, will reflect the new term/rate.

Q2: When do I need to shop around?

You will receive a renewal notice 60 days in advance of your maturity. However, I would advise that you meet with your local TD branch, up to 120 days in advance to discuss all your available options.

Q3: If I still stay with TD, the new mortgage will become a collateral mortgage, is that right?

When you stay with TD, and opt to renew your mortgage on maturity (not refinance for additional funds), your charge will remain as is. If however, you refinance or take out additional equity (provided you are qualified/approved for the increase) your mortgage charge would be updated to the new collateral mortgage charge.

Q4: If the new mortgage is a collateral one, what benefit I can get? For example the house worth 400k and have 300k mortgage balance left.

If you refinance for additional funds, where the old charge is replaced with a new collateral charge and you choose to register your collateral charge for more than the approved principal amount of the mortgage, by up to 125% of the property value, you could then increase your future borrowings without having to re-register the charge under certain circumstances. This would save you money on your future refinance activity against the same property.

So in your example:

Your house is worth $400K today and you hold a mortgage of $300k, but you decide to set up a charge for $500K, and in 2014 your property value has increased to $450K and you would like to refinance some additional equity. Provided you qualify for the added amount and the property value supports the new request, your can refinance your mortgage and re-use the collateral charge if the following criteria still applies:
The mortgage was registered with a collateral charge.
The property value supports the new request.
The amount of the collateral charge will support the customer's new lending application request.
The borrowers on the new application match the property and the existing registration.
There has been no subsequent lending on the property.
This eliminates any Solicitor/In-House Registration fees.

And the other benefit is that you can switch between a mortgage and a Home Equity Line of Credit without having to re-register the charge – offering you more flexibility and choice

Best of luck,
Farhaneh Haque, Regional Sales Manager, TD Canada Trust

The last mortgage payment would be the day that the balance is due in full. Should be on your paperwork.

Q2: When do I need to shop around?
Sooner, the better. Preferably, you don't want to be 'under the gun' and forced to accept something that's not optimal.

Q3: If I still stay with TD, the new mortgage will become a collateral mortgage, is that right?
Maybe. The collateral mortgage change applied to all new mortgages issued by TD, but not renewals of existing ones.

TD might offer you a line of credit for $20k, secured by your house, under a collateral mortgage charge. I would be wary of really having flexibility and choice because if you refinance for 125% property value you will be tied to it because will need to pay that off fully before being able to transfer to another institution.

I have read elsewhere on the web that TD used to offer a HELOC whose limit increased concomitantly as you paid down your mortgage. Do they still offer this? My TD lady is not aware of it, but she didn't seem too sure.

What you can do is get a HELOC for 80% of your home's value and within that HELOC create what's called a Fixed Rate Advantage Option (FRAO), which is essentially a mortgage (mortgage rates, mortgage terms/ammortization, closed). As you pay it down, availability on the revolving part of the line of credit increases.

Example:
-Purchase a $300K house, $60K down, $240K on a HELOC.
-Initially the $240K will be revolving at a rate of Prime +1%.
-After the purchase you lock in that $240K to a FRAO with a 25 year ammortization for a 5 year term at a regular mortgage rate
-Each payment you make reduces the balance of that FRAO below $240K, the difference is available on the revolving credit line (just as if you didn't fix it in, if you make a payment on the HELOC, it makes credit available).

Can someone educated me how this works. Ive read http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tp.../bx52-eng.html but dont understand.. how to calculate it.

I contribute to a company group rrsp $500 and they match dollar for dollar.

If my employer contributed $500 to the DPSP (deferrred profit sharing plan), it says I will receive a "pension adjustment" and will reduce my next years rrsp contribution limit.

if my annual income is $50,000 my rrsp contribution limit should be $9000 (18% of income). because of the $500 DPSP, it will be reduced to $8500? ($9000-500) am i right?

Let's assume your income was $50,000 in 2009 and that you began participating in the program in 2010.
*
Your 2010 RRSP contribution room is $9,000. In 2010, you contributed $500 to a GRRSP and your employer matches the contribution dollar for dollar.
*
Your employer also contributes $500 to a DPSP.
*
Again your 2010 RRSP contribution room is $9,000. You contributed $500 to an RRSP and your employer contributed $1,000 ($500 as a matching contribution and $500 as a DPSP contribution).
*
Your PA is your employers contributions, or $1,000.
*
At the end of 2010, your carryforward room is $9,000 - $500 (your contribution) - $1,000 (PA) = $7,500.

Hi there...

Thanks in advance to all the experts in this forum... I've been able to take advantage of some pretty creative minds in here...

Quick question for you... I've been meaning to upgrade my current RBC Gold Visa card to the Platinum AVION and have been approached a few times by the bank to upgrade, but am concerned that I would lose all my credit history with my older Gold card (12 yr history) if I switch. I understand that it's the length of time that is important for your credit score... I'm sitting around 740 right now and don't want it to drop...

By upgrading the card, will my credit history automatically get transferred over to it, or will it start new? just wondering...

Thanks

if you upgrade your card the accounts will be linked on your report.
for sure you won't lose your history unless you request to close it and then apply for a new card.

Recently one one of my credit card companies agreed to change the R9 rating it gave to the respective account in my credit profile to a R1. Does anyone know, once it has changed to a R1 in the credit profile, how long it takes to improve my credit rating?

That's an unusual change. Generally once the trade line is rated R9 it can't be changed unless the creditor made a big mistake. Make sure you don't fall for any mambo jumbo given to you by a phone rep and that you get this in writing from your credit card company. Such changes typically take 30 to 60 days. Check your profile on Equifax and Transunion in about two months. No need to pay unless you need access to it right away. You can order your report for free by mail.

I will also say thats one of the oddest things ive ever seen or heard of.
It usually takes 4-6months for an account to go to R9 status. That means all phones calls and mailing notices have been ignored and the creditor has no choice but to deem the account uncollectable, or whats internally called a charge-off.

A R9 is much more than than just a negative mark on you the card holder. For the bank its an important process. It moves the delinquent account from accounts receivable ledgers to bad debt/uncollectable ledgers. This must be done in a timely manner (4-6mths) to prevent inflated quarterly earnings by banks as set out by the currency comptroller banking regulations.

So once the R9 is registered its pretty well impossible to have the account reversed. (almost impossible if your story is in fact true)

I would pay very close attention to who you are paying your balance to.

Below is the article and link...my questions are as follows (I can't see to get my head around it):

1) How does Mortgage and RRSP mix? (if someone can explain the idea below to me in dummy terms...would be appreciated)
2) How does RRSP contribution room come in to play?

May have follow on questions depending on answer.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...1815416/page2/

Making a return on your mortgage

Now to the question of whether it makes sense to put your mortgage in your RRSP from an investment point of view. If we take all the startup fees mentioned above, we end up with a cost of roughly $1,000 to $2,000 in the first year, assuming a $100,000 mortgage. Essentially, you could have a first-year fee of up to 2 per cent if you decide to pay your mortgage insurance upfront.

The cost looks more attractive in subsequent years, when the $225 annual admin fee works out to a fee of just 0.23 per cent.

These fees tell us that conservative investors earning 2 to 3 per cent in their retirement savings should not find it hard to get a better return from the mortgage-RRSP strategy.

“If you have fixed income in your RRSP and if it’s generating a very low yield, then this may be something worth looking at,” Mr. Tsai said. “The greater the difference, the more economic sense it might make to do this.”

Mr. Wise, the Calgary investment adviser, said the mortgage-RRSP strategy works best if you use the mortgage to replace the bonds and GICs in your portfolio while leaving your holdings in the stock market.

If putting your mortgage in your RRSP leaves you light on equities, take the mortgage payments flowing into your retirement plan and invest them in stocks, funds and so forth. In fact, investing each successive mortgage payment gives you a nice little dollar-cost averaging program.

Making mortgage payments into your retirement plan does not affect your RRSP contribution room. So you can further diversify your retirement savings using the money you annually add to your RRSP, separate from your mortgage.

One of the challenges in putting your mortgage in your RRSP is to find a trustee for the plan. In addition to TD Waterhouse, the online brokerages CIBC Investor’s Edge, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTrade and ScotiaMcLeod Direct Investing all allow this. Bank of Montreal says it no longer offers this program. If you have an investment adviser, he or she should be able to find a trust company to hold your mortgage RRSP.

Don’t forget the usual strategizing if you’re putting your mortgage into your RRSP – amortization period, biweekly versus monthly payments and so on. An interesting question arises here: Do you put the priority here on getting your mortgage paid off as quickly as possible, or on building your RRSP?

“If I can get a fixed income investment in my RRSP that will give me 5 per cent, I think I’d want to keep that as long as possible,” Mr. Wise said.

---------

HOW TO DO IT

Investing your registered retirement savings plan in the mortgage on your home is not for everyone, but it can generate steady returns that beat what bonds and term deposits offer.

Step One

Find a bank, investment dealer, trust company that offers this service; some investment advisers may also be able to help you set this up.

Step Two

Tally up fees – expect to pay a set-up fee, an annual mortgage administration fee, legal fees to set up the RRSP mortgage, mortgage insurance fees and possibly discharge fees if you're breaking your current mortgage.

Step Three

Pick mortgage terms. Expect rules guiding the rate you can use, the mortgage terms available and so forth.

Step Four

Use the money you're paying into your RRSP to diversify your RRSP investments, possibly by making regular purchases of stocks or equity funds and ETFs

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

Four things to keep in mind about investing your retirement savings in your mortgage:

1. You can invest RRIF money in your mortgage, but you must have enough cash on hand to fund the required minimum annual RRIF withdrawal.

2. Some banks will allow you to use RRSP money to buy a residential investment property, while others allow this only for an owner-occupied residence.

3. It may be possible to invest in a mortgage on someone else's property.

4. You'll need mortgage default insurance even though you're lending to yourself and even if you have a lot of equity in your home.

sounds like you're confused with all the numbers.

First thing you should know is that if you plan to buy a house with a 200k mortgage and fund it with your rrsp
u need 200k in your rrsp.

there's the hbp which will allow you to loan 20k to help your purchase but this method says forget that i'm going to hold my entire mortgage in my rrsp and pay myself back.
that's the essential the article goes on to list the pros and cons which you should know.

i would highlight in the article it says that if you have to sell your stocks/bonds/whatever yielding 5% then it's probably not a good idea.

2, it wouldn't affect your contribution room.

The basic idea is that you can loan the money you've put in your RRSP to other people to make a return (interest), i.e., loan it to the bank in a GIC, or via bonds to other companies/governments/etc.

With your mortgage, you borrow money from other people and pay them interest to buy a house.

An RRSP mortgage is a way to lend yourself the money to buy a house from your RRSP. You become both the lender and the borrower, and the interest you pay on the mortgage becomes a return for your RRSP.

If you have enough in your RRSP to lend out to cover your mortgage, then the payments you make on that mortgage are treated as, well, payments on your mortgage. They're not "contributions", so you can still contribute to your RRSP on top of the mortgage repayments. From the mortgage side, it's just like if you were paying the mortgage off to the bank -- you have to make your payments every month. On the RRSP side, it's just like if you loaned the money out to anyone else: you expect to get back a stream of interest and principal repayments.

Talking about a 1 bedroom + den around 700 sqft or more specifically http://www.studiocondos.ca/vip/

-maintenance fee
-utilities
-property tax

can anyone provide a guestimate? any other fees?

You can rent a 700 sqft condo built within the past 4 years for about 1400 in Toronto with underground subway access.

Condo fees alone at a few places run about $450-500. Add on tax, etc.. if it's eating about $600 total, you may be hard pressed to have a comparable mortgage for $800.. it may be better to rent instead.

My condo is about this size and these three items are 575 per month.
Keep in mind that the cost of property tax, water and electricity may or may not be part of the condo fees.

Make sure you factor in the cost of condo owner's insurance. Mine is about $200/yr.

Condo fees have become hard to compare. Some places include electricity in their condo fee. You've got to read carefully. For that size, I think you're looking at $400-$600 a month in condo fees and utilitiess together. Utilities is hard to gauge. When it's shared, people tend to be more wasteful and as a whole, everyone pays more.

For property tax, it's based on government's tax assessment value of your property. Not sure how much that condo's worth, but I'd expect between 2.5-3.2k a year based on just size.

Other fees to think about
-They charge an arm and some kidneys to replace keys. Take good care of them as you can't simply make a copy of them
-Some condos charge a fee for party room usage
-Public liability insurance. I totally forgot how much this was. $200 a year?

-maintenance fee with annual adjustments most likely a slight increase
-utilities
-property tax
-additional condo/content insurance
-pay-per-use fees (parking fees, party room, elevator moving rental)
-one time special assessments or charges relating to the condo
-extras: parking spot rental, key/garage fobs, lock/key replacement - has to be done by condo corp or approved by the condo corp (in most cases)

Also, if you're comparing rent versus buying a condo, you need to add an amount for interior maintenance of the condo. A landlord will replace the carpets and appliances periodically, while, if you own, you're on the hook. This is an item that is not included in a condo fee, and unfortunately, not even included in many of those rent vs. buy calculators.

Some comments,

Condo Fee: Really depends on how old your condo is and where it is located... older condos cost more to maintain... I've seen fees ranging from $550-770 per month of the same size of condo with similar amenities but varying age and location. If you're condo does not have swimming pool the fees will be slightly cheaper. If you have additional parking your condo fee will be more expensive too.

Property Tax: Can't avoid paying the tax man, but if I remember correctly new condos often quote property tax ~1% of the sales price it is slightly over budget for me but it can be use as a good proxy.

Hydro Bills: Depending on whether if you have separate meters you might have to pay this on top of your condo fee. I have not lived at my place long enough to have a stable read but I hear $50 bucks per month for average use. Make sure you time your heavy appliance use if you're in Ontario due to the recent change in time based energy billing.

Condo Insurance: This is optional, insure your contents and damages from your neighbors. Some people say it is good to get some people say it is waste of money. For me. It helps me lower my car insurance while having condo insured as added benefit so I see why not. This will depend on varying factors such as how far is your place to the nearest fire station, community safety... etc. ~350 per YEAR maybe over estimate but as good budgeting practice you want to have a decent buffer

Banks: Unlike that radio channel game show, unless you pay all your money up front to buy the place, you can't beat the bank. While you're enjoying your place, the bank is also enjoying the interest they reap off you. You can know this by getting pre-approved mortgage quoted so you know how much interest you'll be paying.

Fixes and Renovation: Light bulb goes out, kitchen sink crack... things that are not covered either by Condo Management Corp. or the insurance. Difficult to budget unless you can tell the future of when things will break. If you are willing to pick up that DIY book and learn a thing or two you can save things by doing minor adjustment yourself. Wall mounting a shelf, custom closet unit maybe, just leave the tough stuff to the pro even if you have any doubt about your ability to handle it (i.e. pipes, electric wires... etc)

Hello folks. I was wondering if any of you opened up accounts for kids.

My 11 year old sister received cheque in her name and bank teller said he can not cash it because she did not have ID (I wanted to deposit it into my own account with same last name).
She has OHIP which was not understandingbly accepted. She has no DL obviously, no SIN card and passport is expired for a long time. Is there any way to cash the cheque?

And second part ofthe question, are there any benefits to opening up kids account? Which bank would be more ideal for that? It just seems iffy to me opening up an account for a child.

Kids don't need a SIN to open a youth bank account. My GF just opened one for her son and he doesn't have a SIN yet. The way she talked, the bank would have preferred it, but it wasn't necessary. (edit. he's 12.)

To answer the OPs question. Just have her sign the back and give it to you. You give her the cash and then you can just deposit it in your bank account.

Why is it "iffy"? I had a bank account when I was like 6. It teaches kids about money. Youth accounts don't cost anything so there isn't really any reason a kid shoudl not have one. And this kid is 11??? Jebus she may be in middle school next year??? I can't believe she doesn't already have one in this day and age to be frank.

EDIT: As far as the SIN goes, banks are required by law to collect the SIN for any interest-bearing account. It is not an option. Most youth accounts are interest bearing so that they can learn about interest (even if it is next to nothing), so yes you will likely have to give her SIN. But again, she is freaking 11 - when I was that age I had a SIN, of course since I had my own paper route and was making $200 / month. 11 is not as young as you seem to think it is. Shes nearly a teenager.

My son is 10 and got a paper route just before summer. I have an account with RBC. We decided to add him to my account. He has a child's savings account and I can easily add his allowance from my chequing account into his online. I had to show 2 pieces of ID but my son only needed his birth certificate. He could've gotten his own account but the lady at RBC said since he just has a paper route this could be easier to keep track off since it's attached to my account.

My Amex Business Gold card and AMEX SPG card are both up for renewal. I don't want to pay the annual fees. I read somewhere that it wasn't worth transferring the points to Aeroplan. Any suggestions? I have over 20,000 points.

Where in the world did you hear it wasn't worth transferring the points to Aeroplan? 15,000 points gets you a free short-haul flight to a neighbouring province or state. 25,000 points gets you a free flight to anywhere in North America. (still have to play fees and taxes).

If this is mostly about the AMEX fee, AMEX SPG can't be up for renewal for a number of months (April) so you don't need to be in a rush.

Transfer your Amex MR points to Aeroplan. (I think you just missed the opportunity to get a 25% bonus)
Then cancel the Amex Business Gold
When you get closer to the AMEX SPG renewal, apply for a new Amex Business Gold (and get another 25K bonus points as long as you don't have another small business card) or an Amex small business SPG card (and get 10,000 SPG bonus points). Yes they will give you another new card this soon after cancelling.
Cancel your Amex SPG

If you provide more info on your spending, what type of rewards you'd like, how much you'd like to travel and how you like to purchase travel (with points or find your own deal), we could provide useful recommendations.

Even if you cancel the card, you still keep your SPG points. With the Gold card, transferring the points to Aeroplan is worth it if you need Aeroplan points.

I typically cancel the card if they don't provide a large incentive - assuming you have another credit card. Wait 3 months and reapply and get all of the bonuses again

My dad, who doesn't frequent RFD would like to know if he can open up a US brokerage account because the fees are more competitive. He was taken aback though when he was told he cannot even trade when visiting Canada. He is not a permanent resident nor a citizen of Canada by the way.

He only buys calls but being able to make spread bets could be a possibility for him down the road.
"The restriction is placed on the broker that if we do not have offices located in Canada we cannot offer brokerage accounts to Canadian citizens or residents, we are also restricted in allowing orders to be executed from Canada. Believe me, I wish this was not an issue. These regulations are not set by TradeStation."

What is this restriction trying to achieve?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Interactive Brokers should be able to take care of him anywhere he lives in the world. If not out of the Canadian office, then out of the US.

Brokerages that aren't approved by Canadian regulations can't take on customers in Canada.
The rule came in roughly around the year 2000. The Canadian and US security regulators both agreed to enforce this rule, so US brokerages were forced to stop taking on Canadian customers and make them transfer their accounts back to Canada.

Although, I know customers that have an IRA or 401k account and then move to Canada are allowed to continue to use their accounts. I'm unsure what the laws are about trying to use regular accounts in Canada when they were opened in the US.

IB has everything I just described, plus an uncountable number of other features I haven't checked out yet. One-click order entry is available if you want it, you can set it in the preferences. Actually there are many possibilities for order entry; for example you can enter a multi-contract combo and then submit all legs with 1 click (including spreads, obv). You can set the default order type or combination to whatever you want. You can set conditions. You can even code your own more complex decision rules in visual basic, C++, java, etc and then plug them into IB as addons. Order entry is one of many things which is customizable depending on your needs, habits or strategies. Most of the other defaults in the platform can be customized too. Or you can disable all the extra features so that the platform has only the bare minimum needed for your stuff, with no bells or whistles. It's all left up to the user.

Big5 bank brokerages in Canada (which admittedly I have only briefly looked at) appear to me as below standard at best, mickey mouse at worst, with the primary reason being lack of customizability. The things I named in my post are basics. VaR, risk ladders, major greeks, and payoffs, are fundamental; the absolute basics for any brokerage hoping to be taken seriously IMO. IB has these, and a bunch of other risk management tools.

I think if you go to the IB website there's a section where you can try out the platform yourself. Not sure if it is full featured in the test-drive version, but maybe worth a look.

If you want more nuanced discussion on brokerages from people who trade a lot of options, go on google and look up a forum called Elite Trader. They have a whole section where people just rate their brokerages on a variety of categories. Hundreds, maybe thousands of reviews on loads of brokerages including IB.

i really want one of these paypass credit cards, they look pretty cool. havent had one yet. but i have pretty bad credit, no one will give me a new credit card. which means i have to get a prepaid one. is there such a thing as a prepaid paypass? if so where do i get one from?

thanks
dan

ZoomPass (need a cell number to signup, no fee, load by paying as bill via online banking), the prepaid MC they send is PayPass enabled.

I contemplate transferring my RRSP from CIBC to PC Financial. Does anyone know if CIBC and PCF are deemed same or different financial institutions for the purpose of such transfer? Thanks.

Not free. They are like Best Buy and FS althou pcf can use cibc atm's.

Applied for one not too long ago, and the bank teller was too pushy (have made a mental note to not deal with her ever again). So say my card has 19.99% interest, it's only applied to money that as yet to be paid back, right? It's not tacked onto the payment automatically like HST is? Yes I know it's a stupid question but the teller wanted me to get the hell out...

if you make a cash advance or make a cash advance like transaction then the interest will be accumulating right away.
for your regular purchases you have a grace period so when u get your statement within that period you can pay everything off by the due due and there won't be any interest on that.
if you just make your minimum payment and there's still a balance then u could get hit with that interest once you bought it, fair enough?

the way interest works is that it's calculated daily it's not really tacked on like tax.

How does working in the USA effect CPP? If I worked for 10-20 years in Canada then 10-15 in the US am I still eligible for something in Canada. I know I get US social security for those years. FYI...I live in Canada, commute to Detroit, file taxes every year in both countries.

Working in the US is going to reduce your CPP. Your CPP benefits are calculated based on how much you pay into the plan.

But as long as you make 1 payment to the CPP, you qualify for a CPP pension. Obviously though, in this example your pension would be extremely small.

And just to add to this, you would appear to qualify for full OAS (Old Age Security). OAS just requires living in Canada. To get full OAS you need to live in Canada for 40 years between the age of 18 and 65. I'm about 99.9999% positive the fact that you work in the US won't matter. They only care about the fact that you live in Canada.

And although it doesn't appear to apply to you, I might as well add that Canada and the US have an agreement about social security plans. This could come into effect if you just barely miss qualifying for one plan.

http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/i...fa/usa-i.shtml

For example you need 10 years of work to qualify for Social Security in the US. If have only worked for 9 years in the US, you could transfer some of your Canadian years to ensure you meet the qualification for the US.

The same is true of OAS in Canada. You need to live in Canada for 10 years to qualify for the minimum. If you lived in Canada for 9 years, you could transfer 1 year of residency in the US to reach the minimum in Canada.

With that being said, if you qualify for the minimum in both countries you can't do any transfers. So if you lived in Canada for 20 years and the US for 20 years, you can't transfer the 20 US years to qualify for the maximum OAS (which requires living in Canada for 40 years). You can only transfer years to reach the minimum.

But like I said I don't expect this will effect you, since you appear you will have reached the minimum in both countries.

I am aware we are suppose to report transfer of funds to other countries over $10000. When we wire cash, does the bank automatically report it?

I am in a situation where I used Citizen Bank (used to be a subsidy of Vancity Credit Union) but they went under. I used citizen bank to wire $30K - lending my funds to my relative in Hong Kong and I did not report it.

My relative is ready to return my cash but I dont know how the records will look like. Since Citizen Bank is no longer active, I will need to use another financial institute to receive the cash. Will the CRA be up in my case since I dont have proper record of lending the money out in the 1st place?

Yes, the bank reports it. I can confirm as I work for a bank in the wire payments unit.
The reporting is not done manually. The banking system automatically identifies accounts with combined transactions of $10K or more per day. And reporting is nothing to be afraid of unless the source of your money is illegal or the money is used for sponsoring illegal activities. Combined transactions of more than $10k per day can consist of $2k withdrawal, $2k cheque deposit, $2k outgoing wire transfer, $2k internal transfer to another bank account, and $2k email transfer received into the account, all on the same day.

Even if your combined transactions per day is not more than $10k, your account may still be flagged and/or reported to the government if anyone in the bank from tellers to account internal audit people think your activities are suspicious.

Hi Guys,
I need some advice regarding putting the jewelry as collateral. Can someone let me know as to what is the best way to use jewelry as collateral for a secured line of credit or loan. Any idea as which banks offer this product or what the good offers (in terms of interest rate or % of value given) might be?

Thanks.

No bank will take Gold Jewelry as Collateral. Maybe gold ingot... but that's a long shot.
What you're looking for is a pawn shop.

Hey, so I called PC mastecard and apparently they cancelled my card because of my credit score, they never notified me about this and I only found out when I called as my Card stopped working. I never missed a payment for all of my credit accounts, I went to transunion and got a copy of my credit profile, and its green across all payents for all credit cards, my score however is not as high as expected (588) possibly because it shows a 31 000 loan from OSAP even though I am still in school. Question I had is, is PC FINANCIAL able to cancel my card just like that, and is OSAP supposed be showing up in there even though I am still in school and haven't even started making payments to it

Thanks

Yes, they can cancel your card whenever they want for whatever reason or no reason. But there is no doubt, your score would be affected by osap. It's likely they saw your credit amount and utilization just skyrocket.

It's obvious there is something there that is killing your score. Did you go on an application spree or something? Even then, a pile of hard inquiries won't drop your score to that level unless your score was pretty low to begin with. A handful of new accounts might make it drop, but once again it must have been quite low to begin with to get into the high-500s territory.

The fact they cancelled it outright tells me that PCF was quite concerned and there must be something on your report that spooked them. If they cut your limit then that's one thing, but to completely cancel your account is another thing entirely.

just wondering if i was to buy a property that is under 1000sq ft and put 20 percent down can CMHC charge me a fee because of the size of the house?

i bought a property almost 1 year ago and basically had to pay approx $1,800 more because the house was under 1,000sq ft.

That was your bank's requirement, not CMHC.
If you are putting 20% down then CMHC would not come in to picture and it would depend on the banks policy on lending on condo/houses for a lower square foot area. Some banks may have restrictions on landing on any condo below 650 sq ft. so if the area is over that you should be fine.

So we're having an interesting discussion about our benefits here at work.

The question came up about what "Evidence of Insurability" really means.

Background: our group insurance company (Sun Life) is offering Critical Illness Insurance without "evidence of insurability" up to a certain amount $25K. The disclaimer is that should a critical illness present itself within the first 12 months of coverage starting, no benefits would be paid.

This concept, we understand. Assuming the premium to buy this coverage is worth it, the debate is the following:

Say 15 months down the road, after the 12 month period has elapsed, someone get's diagnosed with a critical illness, some of my co-workers believe that the insurance company will pull all strings to show that there was some underlying condition that occurred within the first 12 months that could have caused the critical illness.

But my argument is, say someone is freshly diagnosed with a critical illness in that 15th month (like cancer or something), for which there was no medical evidence for before - should that even be an issue.

I guess they're just thinking it might be a too good to be true offer.

Any insurance experts to chime in?

THIS IS THE DISCLAIMER:

*** For any coverage that did not require evidence of insurability ($50,000 or less, and/or any
dependent child coverage), no benefit is payable for any covered condition that occurs within
12 months after the effective date of the insured person’s coverage, and that resulted from
any injury, sickness or medical condition (whether or not diagnosed) for which, during the 12
months prior to the effective date of insurance, the insured person:
• had symptoms
• consulted a physician or other health care practitioner, or
• was provided any health-related care, advice or treatment, or that a reasonably prudent
person, with such injury, sickness or medical condition, would have consulted a physician or
any other health care practitioner.

This is all pretty standard, including the 12 month waiting period, the Non-Evidence Maximum (NEM), and the requirement to fill out an Evidence of Insurability form. The idea of the Evidence of Insurability form is simply to get you to answer as many questions as possible about your history and lifestyle. The insurance company isn't really interested in what you answered on the form until you have a claim. Then they will go over it with a fine-tooth comb and look for any slight falsehood or inaccuracy as a basis for denying your claim. The more things they ask, the more difficult it is to dig up accurate answers, and the more intrusive and embarrassing they can make the questions, the greater the chance that you will fib or get something slightly wrong.

Hi There,

I've been a licensed insurance broker for a number of years now and have much experience dealing with group and individual plans.

What I'm picking up from the questions is that you want a reasonable level of certainty that if you were to claim at some point in the not-so-distant future, can the claim be denied.

The simple answer is YES! Your claim can ALWAYS be denied when you do not have an actual policy contract! The other poster is correct in regards to creditor insurance and mortgage insurance...the same is true for group insurance. You are not the policy owner and you won't have a policy contract (which is a legally binding contract, underwritten and approved prior to the commencement of coverage).

I represent insurance companies and use their products each day and they are in the business of making money and will avoid a claim however they can. That being said...Group insurance (critical illness included) is good but it should not be primary instrument for proper risk management.

That's my 2 cents. I hope that it helps.

If you ever have any other questions and want unbiased advice, feel free to submit a question to www.canadianlifequotes.com/contact

What are your thoughts on Critical Life Insurance?

We're renewing our mortgage and the bank is offering Critical Life Insurance.

We already have a 25 year term Life Insurance with RBC For a million.

thoughts on Critical?

It's been said many times at RFD that any insurance offered through the bank (at the branch level) is not a good idea. This is because of "post claim underwriting" which means that at the time of claim the insurance company will try and find a way out of paying the claim. Life Insurance (and critical illness and disability) should be obtained with the help of a trustworthy licensed professional. It's also recommend to use an "independent" advisor who is able to provide you with multiple competitive quotes. This will ensure that you get the proper insurance at the best price.

Also, for the record, any insurance offered at the bank branch is almost always more expensive than a policy obtained from an independent broker.

For more info on critical illness insurance (a "crash course") check out the link... here.

i know about their sales approach but that's not what im asking

im asking if anyone has any experience with their life insurance policy which is currently the cheapest for me and bf and have somehat more lenient rules

their prices rank "cheaper" because not many companies compete on term-30 or term-25 basis.

I've replaced a few primerica policies over the years because the polices are falsely sold as Term-to-age-95 but the client is never informed on the annually increasing insurance charges after year 30.

The real issue... All other insurance companies carry a renewal and conversion priviledge...Primerica has NOTHING of value for the consumer to renew or convert to. This will price you out of the policy and thereby stuffing the company's pockets because they rarely have to pay any claims.

p.s. they will try and get your all your business too....mortgage, investments, insurance, etc...

p.p.s most sales people at primerica are "part-time" which means that they probably won't be your advisor (using the term loosely) for long...BUT they came with a great script and presentation and they bashed the bank and they talked about a "rule of 72"...etc... lol

Plus you get features like "Terminal Illness" (same as Primerica) where if you know you are going to die within 6 months (with proof), you can take out 40% of the coverage amount.

That sounds like an AXA policy. An interesting feature but what people don't understand is that if they took the terminal illness claim, it may treated as a loan from the insurance company and interest will be payable (I know that Primerica does this for sure...any way to get something back in their pocket)

Also it's misleading because a person may now stay away from critical illness insurance thinking that they have coverage.

NOTE:

Critical Accident
Terminal Illness

If you have any of these 2, then you DO NOT have Critical Illness insurance, which protects you in the event of a diagnosis of a number of conditions. The 2 above are very difficult to claim and you pretty much have to have one foot in the grave to so so...(have fun fighting with an insurance company then).

I'm trying to get acquainted with the Canadian tax system. I might even take some courses in the next two months. What books can I read that would give me a good base? I will be taking university taxation courses in a year and I admit that as of right now, I'm not even sure how and when taxes are due. I don't know how tax refunds work. I feel so dumb in this area. I want to be an expert in this.

Any suggestions on books are very welcome. I tried going to the CRA website but it's all about how an individual files his/her own tax return as opposed to learning the basics.

Any suggestions on where to start? Book recommendations would be very awesome

KPMG's Tax Planning for You and Your Family
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/...8777-item.html

I've been using their books for years in my business and they're usually required reading for anyone doing a Financial Planning course.

Byrd and Chen - Cdn Tax principles
http://www.pearsoned.ca/highered/div...hen/index.html

Books are ok to get an idea about the principles involved, but the only way to really understand taxes is to complete a number of returns.

I also reccommend doing the returns by HAND to start, not with a computer program. Doing them by hand really hammers home the concepts and helps you remember the topics.

I have $30000 down payment for a condo. I want to buy a condo that costs about $280,000. I can rent out for about $1400/month
I want to hold the property for about 5 years, does this investment make sense? I understand I will have negative cash flows every month. Has anyone ever done this and come out ahead?

Yonge/Sheppard area.

thanks

In which universe does a cash flow negative depreciating asset make any sense at all?

You cannot buy a $280,000 investment property if you only have $30,000 cash. For investment properties you must put 20% down so the most expensive condo you can get a mortgage for is $150,000.

Secondly an investment property with negative cash flow is never a good idea. Why would you want to subsidize someone else's living expenses?

Save $60,000 and don't buy the most expensive place you can afford. Unless you have a debt ratio of under 50% (meaning you can save over 50% of your income) than try to get a smaller mortgage than will be covered by the rent (with income to spare).

So if mortgage + fees and maintenance = 1400, and you can only rent for 1400/m (MAX) this is bad.
but if total mtg is under $1100/m, than this is better.

If you don't want to wait to buy a place, you will be forced to only afford a $150k property like someone else mentioned. So I hope you live in a cheap city (not toronto, montreal, vancouver, etc)

I am currently saving up enough for rental property as well as a large emergency fund.

I just received my first utilities bill today from Ontario PUC and there was a charge for 'Home Occupancy' - $30.00 and 'Deposit' - $200.00! I'm a bit stunned by this because I wasn't expecting to pay a $200.00 deposit, and I don't even know what it's for.

I bought a new home (re-sale) about a month ago so this is all new for me especially all of these 'Administrative Charges' for changing my name to the new address. I had to pay the City of Oshawa $10.00, and another $25.00 to Hydro to change my name to the new address. I think it's a bit ridiculous to pay all these administrative fees. It's not cheap. They add up - in my case, $65.00 just to change ownership!

Does anyone know what the $200 deposit is for, and do all new owners have to pay this?

Thanks.

When I bought my house, both the gas and hydro companies required a deposit. However the gas company waived the deposit if I signed up for pre-authorized payments, and the hydro company waived the deposit if I provided a credit report.

They're not trying to screw you, they just want to protect themselves (ie: you use a lot of utilities over a period of 3 months and don't pay, they could be out a lot of money).

Ontario Hydro (Hydro One - EDIT) told me that I have to pay a $200 security deposit but I would get it back at the end of the year with interest. They just want to be sure you don't default on your payments or anything like that.

The only way I was able to get out of it was by doing pre-authorized payments and equal billing. I chose to pay the $200 bucks as I don't like the fact that Ontario Hydro could potentially have $100s of my dollars sitting in their bank account collecting interest instead of mine. I'd rather leave it at $200 and get it back next year.

Hi everyone,

I recently visited the DC website and noticed that there's no way to apply for the card right now. Strange.

I did some further digging and found out that while it says on the wesbite that the company is owned by Citibank, recently reports online suggest that BMO MC has purchased the company - so perhaps that's it -

Does anyone know if this card is being cancelled or on hold or something?

(Reason: I'm asking is that this seems to be the only non-Amex card other than CIBC that you can get free lounge access). :P

You have to buy that lounge access with the CIBC cards. so that is not free either. Try BMO elite card, get 3 free lounge visits yearly. Only other non-amex I can think of is MBNA Alaska Airline, gives 2 free passes, but I believe that is only a one time sign-up bonus thing only, so BMO elite is probably your best bet for non-amex lounge access

For at least 6 years now, Diner's Club Canada and Diner's Club USA have been closed to new applications from individuals. This is because Citi decided to focus on their Corporate clients for this card to the exclusion of individuals. If you already had a DC card as an individual you got to keep it, but they refused any new applicants that were not corporate accounts.

Diner's Club USA (which includes Diner's Club Canada, and is different from Diner's Club International) was bought by BMO specifically for the corporate card business. There is no indication whatsoever that BMO intends to offer DC cards to consumers again, and in fact they've made every indication that their goal is to continue to expand their corporate client base.

It is possible that they may open it up to consumers again, but it is more likely that they will keep the status quo, and focus solely on corporate clients.

The cards they want to compete with are these, which are the two players in Canada at the corporate level:

AmEx Canada Corporate Cards & USBank Canada Corporate Cards

Today when checking my online credit card statements I noticed 2 suspicious activities on my card (amount is less than <$200) and happened within this month. The card seemed to be used to purchase gasoline in GTA.

I reported this and they said that they are going to investigate and will send me a new card right away.

My question is: I've not used this particular card for any retail transaction for at least months (since I've used by CapOne Aspire One as my primary card) in any retail, how could this happen? My next question is, are people that *stupid* in a sense that they use it on a gas station which has surveillance camera all over the place?

Is this kind of random occurrence happens to everyone once in a while? is it common?

Finally, how long investigations will take place normally?

Thanks!

Your card probably got skimmed some months ago.
Maybe they are using the card to fill up gas for stolen cars, or they are just going in and buying gift cards, cigs, etc, without driving up to a pump?

This kind of thing thrives because

A. "Zero liability" provisions in credit card contracts insulate individuals from risks of having their credit card info stolen or misused. There is not much incentive for people to put much effort into protecting their CC information. Older people seem to have less trust in this system, while younger people tend to be much looser with their credit cards, trusting that they are protected from fraud.

B. Credit card companies largely just write off fraudulent charges that are small enough. For less than $200 bucks, its not really worth it for them to pay someone to investigate it for even a few hours. They might file a police report, but unless they can connect it to a larger group of fraudulent charges, they wont be putting much time into it.

Hi Everyone,

I am hoping someone can help me out. I recently left my company before 2 years and lost my vested "defined contribution pension plan" bastards. I now have about 7K in a non-vested "defined contribution pension plan" and have been reading I can take it as cash. Just wondering if I pay tax in this amount if I do take it out in cash. If I transfer it to a RRSP can i use it in my taxes this year?

What is my best option.
Thanks T

I think you have it backwards. Vesting means you are entitled to it. The pension amount you lost when you left your job is non-vested. So if the 7K you have now, you get if you quit, it is considered vested. In terms of cashing out, you can only do so if it is not locked in. If its locked in, you can transfer it into a LIRA.

You are correct both are non-vested. If I cash out will I have to pay taxes? If I decide to place it in a rrsp can I put that on my taxes?

Ok, I think I get what your situation is, correct me if I am wrong. You recently quit and you lost your employer contributions into the pension, the 7K that you have are your contributions. The 7K is most probably non-locked in because it was less than 2 years.

Your pension contributions are already in a tax sheltered account. If you cash out you will pay taxes on it. And if you end up putting into an RRSP you will get a deduction. Be aware that the tax credit you get from the RRSP contribution may be less than the taxes you owe on the amount, depending on what your personal income tax rate is.

How long did you have to go before you hit the two year mark? Do you know how much you lost from the employer's side of the contribution? Anyway.....

You got a tax deduction when you put your portion of the contribution in the plan. If you take your contributions out in cash, then you have to pay income tax on the withdrawal.

You should be able to transfer the funds to your RRSP on a tax free basis. Talk to your RRSP provider, they should know about the forms to use. Note - you don't get an additional deduction for the RRSP contribution, you already got the deduction when you put the money in the pension plan.

I would not suggest taking the cash, you will lose money as you will pay income tax at your marginal rate. Not only have you unfortunately lost all of your employer's contributions to the PP on your behalf, you'll also have lost tax dollars.

I reviewed my credit report today because I was having something corrected, that's all fixed, but now I'm seeing a collection agency reporting for Rogers that wasn't there when I last reviewed my report.

I had a bill go to collections from Rogers and that was paid off to the collection agency - they're reporting it paid and balance of $0, so that's fine. But now another agency, IQOR, is reporting the same amount balance that was paid at a date before the agency that I paid had reported the collection. IQOR is reporting the collection as closed and non-deliquent but reporting the full balance that was owed.

My credit report is taking this balance into account when reporting my total out-standing balances owed.

Should I call this IQOR agency to see what's up or just have TransUnion investigate it?

Anyone seen IQOR pop up on their reports?

I doubt Rogers will still have the account on file but should I take it up with them or follow up with the agency that I paid?

Thanks for the help.

Do a google search for Iqor Canada. They are about as shady and crooked a company as it gets. You will never be rid of them. I've been fighting them for a year over an unpaid Rogers bill that does not belong to me in any way shape or form since I have never been a Rogers customer. No matter how many times I've called them to have it removed, and no matter how many times they tell me that they're sorry for my inconvenience, I still get 10 phone calls from them a day. I've reported them to any and all government agencies or ministries, federal and provincial, that have anything at all to do with collection agencies, telemarketers, etc, with well documented evidence that this is not my bill and that they are harassing me illegally, but nothing ever comes of it. Once Iqor gets its claws in you, you will never be rid of them.

Ugh. I hate that company.

They showed up on my report and I wasn't aware of it until I applied for a mortgage. It was $40 or somewhere around there. And TD wouldn't budge, "get it off there or no mortgage...we need a receipt or some other proof of payment".

It wasn't mine. It was for some Bell ExpressVu bill and I didn't subscribe to them at the time. It's a wonder it doesn't happen to me more often because both my first and last names are extremely popular for a guy born in the 1960's in Canada.

Anyways, for $40 I wasn't going to fight it. I needed the mortgage. Now. So I called the number that was provided on my Tranunion credit report. I've said it before and I'll say it again - Iqor is run by a bunch of drunken frat boys. Seriously. I swear there was a college party going on in the background and the guy I spoke to always had his attention divided between my call and the party going on. He wasn't foreign or anything like that. He spoke perfect English, but was half drunk.

He gave me my reference number and a bank account and routing number. He told me to go to any CIBC branch and have them deposit the funds into that account. The receipt the teller will give me will serve as proof of payment.

For $40 I didn't care. So that's what I did. Time was critical.

I took the receipt to TD and told them the same story. They didn't look convinced at first, but I told them to call that number and verify that is how Iqor wanted it done. After talking to Iqor my TD rep just rolled her eyes and said "yeah, they're shady all right." They gave me the mortgage.

The next month when I checked my credit report the Iqor reference was completely gone. Wiped clean. No derogatory history or anything was left.

Hello,

I would like to bring to your attention something that I believe is a VERY unfair business practice by itrade, enough so I will be leaving them as a result. I recently made a US equity purchase (please see screen shot).

Just before you place your equity order you get an estimate on the "FX rate". You can clearly see a estimate rate of 1.0205, which I thought was fine, the spot rate was ~1.015. To my disgust once the trade cleared the next day the actual settlement price was way off, a whole $100 off. When I did the calculation the "FX rate" was actually ~1.04 (a whole 100% off of itrade's own estimate). I immediately called and was told that the website was only an "estimate", hello???? 100% wrong estimate??? I hope you would agree with me that this is unacceptable. I pressed them some more to show me the exchange rate and fee for currency conversions. They told me flat out that "we do not have to disclose the rate", and they don't!! Hum what could they be hiding?

You have to ask yourself why you would do business with a company that:
1) doesn't disclose its currency conversion fees
2) has a website that gives a misleading (100%) quote. I can only surmise that they are betting that people will overlook the discrepancy, very shady. I tried the quote everyday since and its always the same wrong quote. I mean how hard is it to give a more accurate picture? I suspect it's because of the next point...
3) Their conversion fee is ~2.5% (credit cards do the same). I called around and the competition is ~1.7%.

This whole experience left a very bad taste and I will be leaving as a result, the biggest of betrayal is the misleading website. I caution anyone doing a US equity trades to be aware of their practices, the costs can add up fast. This is one of the shadiest business practices I have come across in a long time and felt compelled to make the community aware.

That's why I keep two separate trading accounts. One for CAD, and one for USD. No need for conversion unless I really need the money. For what it's worth, although I sympathize with you in your rant against unfair exchange rates, my opinion is that you're way overreacting. This type of estimated conversion rate happens all the time. With RBC DI for instance, I never get an "exact" conversion before a transaction--it's always an estimate. Currency rates fluctuate.

I was curious, so I looked it up. What parts of this fee statement from them are troubling to you? Their disclosure statement explains quite clearly why their estimate might be wrong. If your answer is "but it was REALLY wrong," that's because currency exchange rates can change quite dramatically over short periods of time.

https://www.scotiaitrade.com/helpcentre/lcmmmbi3.shtml

Forgive my ignorance but just wanting to learn how RRSP works. I have understand the basics but still unsure on a few things. I am a new immigrant and has not contributed on my RRSP. I understand that it is tax deferral system and would be hit by withholding tax when you take the money out before your retirement. What would happen if let's say after 10 yrs you want to move elsewhere or move back to your home country and would like to withdraw your money? If I am going to be hit by massive withholding tax, is there a benefit in contributing to RRSP as compared to investing in a non-registered accounts? Many thanks and would appreciate your comments.

depends on where you move, you should check if there is a treaty between your home country and Canada. it gets pretty technical might be worth the effort to seek an accountant or tax expert to answer that.

general info about rrsps
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/t.../menu-eng.html

Withholding tax doesn't matter one bit. When you take money out of the RRSP you pay tax at your marginal tax rate, whatever it is at that time. Essentially money you put into your RRSP is money you would otherwise be earning and paying tax on that you are electing not to "earn" yet and put away into your RRSP to defer the taxes until later. When you take the money out of your RRSP (usually while retired) you pay the tax which you deferred in years earlier. Ideally you put money into your RRSP while you are earning high income and taxed at higher marginal tax rates, then you take money out while you have little or no income and pay taxes on that money at a lower rate than you otherwise would have.

If your plan is to move out of Canada in X number of years and withdraw the RRSP at that time, then there is no purpose in making RRSP contributions today. You'd be better off contributing that money to a TFSA instead (no tax deduction when you put the money in but no taxes when you take it out or while your investments grow).

More info is here
http://bevmoir.com/2005/11/28/leavin...-your-savings/

http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/...bout-rrsps.htm

http://blog.taxresource.ca/rrsps-and-leaving-canada/

I made a incredibly stupid mistake and forgot to pay a balance of $60 on my BMO USD mastercard for 4 months! They didn't mail me any documents but have tired calling my house (not my work or cell phone) and since I've spent a lot of the last 3 months from home travelling so I haven't received any messages. I did clear out the balance and talked to BMO's lending department but they said they couldn't do anything about reversing it from my credit rating. My question is how will this affect my rating? They said it was a major. I have other cards (a RBC platinum Visa, a AMEX, A BMO Mastercard and a BMO LOC) and have never missed a payment with any of them. I'm 28 so I have about 10 years worth of credit history.

Is this a huge mark on my credit rating? Is there anything I can do? I'm freaking out a bit and any help would be appreciated.
Such a stupid thing to do over $60!

The higher your credit score the more damage any late payment will do. It looks like you'll have a 90-day late. So yeah, that's gonna hurt. There was an article released recently of an interview with some executive who works for Fair Issac (the company that owns the FICO scoring system). They're tight lipped about how it works exactly, but he gave some hints and examples. And one example was the difference 1 single late payment makes for 1 person with good credit and 1 person with bad credit. And yeah, it hurts the good credit person worse.

Like, it might knock a 780 down to 720..or a 750 down to 710...or a 650 down to 630...or a 600 down to 590.

Did BMO cancel the account on you?

I'm really surprised they didn't try your cell and/or work number. My girlfriend didn't get her TD Visa statement a couple months ago, so she stupidly forgot to pay it (I just rolled my eyes). The day AFTER the payment was due they called the house. They left a message and then called her cell phone.

The score is just a number and often meaningless.

From my experience, a late payment such as OP's will not look that great on the CBR. I have seen applications get declined based on the fact that the individual had 90+ day late pymnt on one of the accounts and rest of it was perfect.

My wife and I received a bank draft which is made out to both our names. Problem is that we don't have any accessible joint accounts - the only one we have is ING which means we have to mail it somewhere.

Can you deposit a joint cheque into a single person account if the other person signs something or is there in person?

Someone suggested getting your spouse to sign the back of the draft and then I can deposit it.

Anyone ever done this?

If it says "or" between the names its okay.
If it says "and" theres a chance the teller will refuse to deposit it.
If both parties sign the back, you'll get away with it if you deposit it in a bank machine 90% of the time... unless there is a really picky person @ symcor (or whatever check processing 3rd party company your bank uses).

If the second party shows up @ the bank with ID to deposit it into your account... They'll most likely deposit it for you with no problems and if there is... The manager will usually let it slide if the second party shows ID.

I'm trying to figure out the superficial loss rules set by CRA...

if I'm frequently trading (or day trading) the same instruments,
what does it mean - that I cannot offset my profits with the losses?

would similar ETS's for example HNU:CA and UNG:US considered to be the identical instruments?

Any comments?
Thanks

Depends if it’s in accordance with http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/t.../menu-eng.html

Since those ETFs are on different exchanges, no, even though they are similar. I believe it’s only counted the same if they are the same or can be converted from one to another, ie convertible debentures.

let me ask you this way

I buy and completely sell the same stock - this is a transaction

thru the year I make 100 transactions like that,
and they are always not more than 30 days apart

some of them get me profit and some get me loss

total sum of of positive transactions is $1,000
total of negative is $200

what is the taxable amount $1,000 or $800?

well technically say i assume they were all within 30 days and everything was accounted for with no mistakes.
your taxable income for this stock would be a 400 at your marginal rate as you would expect.

afaik the superficial loss is mainly to stop people from easily off setting their cap gains or potential future cap gains. so say you have that 800 cap gain but at same time you bought bby and you noticed it was sucking but didn't sell it. so you sell it and buy it back thinking you can use the cap loss to offset the 800 cap gain so year end you don't pay anything. but this rule only allows you to claim a superficial loss.

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