By Don’t Use CIBC
My fiance had his entire bank account drained by CIBC Visa to bring his 2 credit card payments up to date. He had already put over $600 toward the cards at the beginning of the month and they drained his account of over $2000.
We’ve had a hard time trying to pay bills because of my job situation and a myriad of other concerns, not the least of which was his brief stay in the hospital for 2 surgeries after a shadow was found on his lung. Fortunately, it wasn’t a recurrence of the cancer he had 4 years ago. No matter what though, we’ve always tried to pay at least something on the cards each month.
When he called about the money, they were unhelpful and said we’d have to have a manager call us tomorrow and even then they probably wouldn’t be able to refund anything. What they did should be illegal. Our mortgage payment is going to bounce (which has never happened before) and because they left us 0 dollars in the account, we have no money to buy groceries or even survive until Oct. 1. Tomorrow I’m going to have to swallow my pride and ask my parents to loan us $2000 to just take care of the major bills and have enough to buy a few meager groceries.
My fiance has been with CIBC for over 15 years and this is how they treat him when he falls behind a couple of payments. We will be closing all our accounts with CIBC and warn everyone we know what kind of thieving business practices they have. This has been a nightmare.
Sally888 says...
This has already been discussed on the forum, unfortunately they were well within their right.
M@ says...
While they are within their rights, they are not establishing very good customer relations. I really sympathize with the poster.
One thing — and I’m sorry it doesn’t help in this case, but might help others — is that if you’re going to miss a payment, you should call whoever you’re going to miss and let them know. Even banks are more reasonable when they feel they understand the situation, and can sometimes help make better arrangements while your cash is short. The main thing is to let them know you still intend to pay.
That said, I have had Visa (TD Visa in my case) tell me blatantly false information on the phone, leaving a big mess to deal with later on in the month. (This was not similar to the poster’s situation — it involved a disputed charge on my card.) I have since closed my Visa account and will not be reopening it.
kerry says...
there service fees are over the top,and they charge for everything.
Elizabeth says...
Sorry to hear about your difficulties. It always seems that when you are down banks find a way to kick you in the nads to make it worse….
In the past I’ve had various outfits wipe out my bank accounts. I’ve learned my lesson and now I never enroll in pre-authorized payment plans or anything that gives a potential creditor access to my bank account. You can almost count on it that sooner or later they will treat that access as a blank check and just help themselves to your money.
jona says...
I have to ask… Had your fiance been in constant communications with CIBC over this or did he ignore the fact that he was $2600.00 behind in his payments? If he was talking to them, what did he arrange for a repayment plan to get caught back upto date? In my dealings with financial institutions if you deal with any problems rather than ignoring it they are much more understanding. If your fiance was avoiding talking to them then I can honestly say I don’t blame CIBC for taking the money from your account.
Your fiance failed to live up to his part of the contract when he fell behind in his minimal payments by $2600 and as the CIBC visa is linked to your bank account then they have every right to access your account to make restitution.
But on the other hand, if your fiance had arranged a repayment schedule and he was following it then Shame on CIBC for not allowing you to restore your credit standing with them.
Hopefully this will be a wake up call and you can realize that its time to pay off this debt and get rid of credit card all together.
Ashley says...
I agree with Sally888. While it does put significant stress on you and your fiance, unfortunately when you open a credit card or bank account, it’s all in the fine print that they have the right to take money from your account that they are owed. Hopefully you are able to work through this, and chalk it up to a lesson learned.
itsmewhoelse says...
General rule of thumb is don’t have your assets where your liabilities are.
Yes most of the time banks want you to have all paycheques etc being deposited to their bank. That doesn’t mean that after you have the mortgage/loan etc that you can move your assets elsewhere.
ex-bank employee says...
Oh well. CIBC is not the only bank who does that. A few years ago I worked for the Royal Bank. For some reason I decided to quit and gave them a one-month notice. They were supposed to figure out all the final paper work and stuff. My bank account with them was switched to a regular account from the former employee account right after I quit, so I emptied my RBC account and switched to use a no-fee banking account with PC Financial. Two months later my RBC account has a sudden overdraft for a few hundred dollars. I made many calls to find out that it was the HR at RBC who took the money, saying that I took the two-week annual vacation but I didn’t work the full calendar year. But excuse me, I gave a one-month notice for them to sort out everything. And if they found they missed to deduct that money, fine, just give me a call or send a letter. If I didn’t make those calls I would have no clue what was going on. Advance notice is always appreciated. If you watch TV you’ll see how much RBC “cares” about people in their commercial. In reality we know they don’t.
Micheal says...
Credit cards always have this in the fine print. If you default on your contract, then they have full legal right to reclaim the ENTIRE balance if they choose to. Best thing to do is remain in contact and work out an arrangment they find acceptable in order to avoid shit like this.
Also: Always split your credit cards to a different company than you have your main accounts with. MBNA bank has no branches, so with them you dont run this risk period.
A person who pays his bills says...
I can’t believe what I have been reading… pay your bills on time and you’ll never have a problem!!! If you had lent someone money with the agreement to pay you back each month a certain amount… how many missed payments would it take before you’d worry and want to collect your full amount? And I am not talking about lending to a friend or relative…. someone you don’t know..
MortgageQueen says...
You have my sympathy. ALL OF US have at one time or another fallen behind for one reason or another. I recommend having a separate savings account at A DIFFERENT bank. Just in case something like this happens, you have a temporary fall back. Hope things work out for you. . .
Amanda says...
I can’t believe the judgements about this post by other SCers. I’ve never been behind like that on a bill but my partner hasn’t had cancer either. Shame on all the SC who are judgmental about someone else in a financial crisis.
I do think its always good to give a ring to the bank and explain the situation if you had not done that already. I also think it can be good to keep some accounts separate. I was really amazed in listening to Dave Ramsey all the things I learned that credit card companies and loan collectors do.
I think the banks are all abusive basically. Would you ever charge someone you know 2-3 x their purchase price….i.e. a 200,000 house you end up paying 450,000 -600,000 over the course of a 25 year loan? I wouldn’t charge someone that….moreover if I lent someone 200,000 and they paid me 210,000 I would not take their house back and say they’ve only given 35,000 on principle. That’s exactly what the banks do, and why we tolerate that abuse is beyond me. We should boycott the loans at the major banks until they offer us better loan terms.
Bryan says...
Amanda, banks being abusive is the stupidest thing I have heard. Do you complain about buying shoes at a store with a 30% markup. Didn’t think so. So why would you complain about someone lending you 200,000 for 25 years. They are only taking 5 or 6% (less right now). If you dont like it I suggest that you open up a savings account and save all your money to purchase the house with cash (how long would that take you and how rich are you making the slumlord you are renting from). That is the only way to boycott the big 5 banks. By the way, the smaller places are even worse to deal with. try pre-pay your mortgage with one of the smaller places. If you dont like paying 2-3 time the price for your house, then find a friend who will borrow you the money. Will you still be freinds when the housing market crashes and you give him a house that is worth 160,000 back. Also, the reason why banks have billion dollar profits is so that they can invest it back into the business sector so that we can all have jobs to pay for our mortgages/cars Yes there CEO’s also make way too much money but what CEO doesnt. You should be glad that banks dot have a 30%/year markup like retail stores do…
Realist says...
I have to shake my head in disbelief at the advice so many of these people are giving. I applaud the few suggestions to pay your bills, take financial responsibility for your debts and if you come to a point in life where financial disaster strikes, negotiate in good faith with your creditors. If you choose to ignore payment due dates, which you agreed to when you signed the contract for your credit card or loan, then expect your creditors to use completely legal means such as “Right of Offset” to collect what they can of what you owe. They want you to pay your debts, probably more than you do. Bash Banks all you want but if they weren’t there to lend you money to buy your home, you’d be saving until you’re 60, while paying rent at the same time, to pay cash for a house
Catherine says...
Wow, now I’m shaking my head with laughter. Realist is obviously a “something banker”, probably with the loan shark type of financial operation, as he so adequately explains the jargon of “right to offset”. The problem here is of course that no one should be forced into signing the contents of the documents the banks provides when opening ANY account. Please don’t be bothered saying you are not “forced”, when in fact you are if you require a bank account to have such things as your paycheque direct deposited, bills paid, etc. These documents also note that the bank can access your credit bureau report - even if you are not applying to them for credit. Shame, shame. Our legislature laws should prevent the banks from taking away the INTENDED legal liberties already in place to prevent such illegal and immoral actions, however the Banks circumvent these legal liberties by having you sign their documents stating that you are giving these legal liberties away in order to have a bank account with them. I concur that the best written advice above is to not have your credits where your debits are, i.e., even if they insist on opening an account for your mortgage payments, ensure you change the financial institution where your direct deposited paycheque goes. Watch out for CIBC - they own President’s Choice accounts so they can offset at PC too! What also is being missed here is these are terrible economic times. Those of you smug enough to have government type trough jobs where you are, so clearly evidenced by your comments, insulated from reality, can like uh duh condensendingly state “pay your bills on time” like they are stupid for not knowing this fact. I’m sure if her fiance was the beneficary of the wonderful government type disabilty programs you so enjoy, that are also paid by us the joe public, he would not voluntarily be late on his bills. You people get paid if you are sick or not - please have the compassion to know that not everyone has access to such programs, particularly since the government has allowed companies to circumvent other intended pension and disability laws. For example, many companies now employ their people for 34 hours per week, making them part time employees, rather than the necessary 35 hours to make them full time and thus entitled to benefits. We need laws that prevent such abuse of intended legislation! Good luck to you! (By the way, I only came onto this site as CIBC Visa tried to take by ex’s late Visa payment from my single account, which at one time was joint - how’s that for BS)
rachel says...
Man, who cares about paying bills on time. You aren’t a bad person! The banks are evil and conniving and try to get every cent out of you. Who cares about fine print. It’s the human aspect of everything thats been completely lost and desperately needs to be found again. Banks in the states get the bailout, but people never get the bailout when they need it and are left in positions where big companies just don’t give a @#%^. I feel for you, and at least you have parents to fall back on. Shame on banks, credit cards, the whole freaking system. THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS COMPLETELY FLAWED, and thats why the world we live in is such a SH%(@# place.
Rudolph Pi says...
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Jesse B says...
CIBC just did the exact same thing to me. Their timing was impeccable as, like you, I seriously needed that money in the very immediate future for a very real feet-on-the-ground human necessity purpose. Circumstances are different, but the idea is the same. Having been stripped of my financial resources that were saved for travel across the country to that lucrative (non-government job for, yes, all levels of government breed the same socially disconnected, policy believing zombies that I . . . don’t get along with) job. But in the meantime I was unable to make my payments and thus, they took their payment.
It is understandable that it is well within their right to, whats the phrase, “Off-set” the money to make this payment. Just as it is well within their right to increase your over-all limit, charge immense fees, throw on some payment protector insurance (that you can never qualify for) and increase your interest rate without your proper knowledge or signature. These are all things that have happened to me, and probably everyone else. Now, increasing my limit because of my good payment history is wonderful. To what end though. The cycle of good payment history and limit increase will carry on until the, I’ll call it “carrying capacity,” is reached. Except, unlike the carrying capacity as it is associated with the natural world, this predator/prey relationship does not mimic the natural world. No, the predator in this scenerio will not die, just the prey. Clearly they know what they are doing. They know that a person faced with perceived ‘easy money’ will eventually use it. The benefits to you is that you get some fast cash, for them, servitude, interest and fees. They knowingly trap you with these cards. They put in their little clauses and take what you supposedly owe at a critical time. Of course there probably aren’t any non-critical times in life if you own a credit card. You wouldn’t have one if there weren’t. So now you’re trapped into paying them that huge amount, of which very little goes back onto the principal. Then you miss one payment again, for whatever reason, and the fee from that one missed payment virtually cancels out your previous three on time payments.
So,then you don’t make your payments. You can’t. You have your balance go to collections. Don’t pay that balance. They sell your balance to another company for fifty cents on the dollar. Don’t pay them, they sell it again for three cents on the dollar. Now your balance is back to where it began, and where you intended it in the first place. Then logically conclude that over the years of use from this bank/card, they must have made more than your initial loan in fees and interest from you. So in essence you have already paid it back, they have merely played a paper trail/numbers game with you that seemingly snared you into many years of making payments to an institution you don’t give a damn about and that doesn’t give a damn about you.
It’s rude behavior. My hat goes off to the people who are seemingly in-human but understand our behavior well enough to profit quite well from it.
Sorry I’m rambling, but my opinion is this. The financial institutions were stupid enough to wave money in front of people. People take it. Then they want it back, and get really nasty about wanting it back. To heck with them. If they show any amount of understanding, they would not employ nasty ‘well within their right to offset’ tactics. Instead they would work with you.
One small example, and this is no way a positive dig for credit card companies, because I hate them all. But Capital One, upon noticing I had missed eight payments, with a previously good history and very little other information from me, offered to stop all interest and fees and I am to pay $110 on the principal until the balance is paid in full. Quite nice of them I think. CIBC VISA are a**holes, and have done nothing by way of making things easier on me.
Sorry to go on at length with disconnected thoughts. If anyone finds a good way to fight these guys let me know. For now, I’m going to hide in the bush to see how that works.
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president's choice says...
Thanks president’s choice. great doing business with you. same with you cibc. Any suggestions how to buy gas for van or feed my kids?
you’re timing was great. Thanks for the two week notice.