No Interest Chequing Accounts

I have a chequing account that offers me no interest, PLUS I have to pay $3.90 each month to use it. The $3.90 gives me 10 free transactions per month, and it would cost me $1.00 for each additional transaction over 10.

The $3.90 fee is waived if I maintain a minimum monthly balance of $1,000 - that's $1,000 in a NO INTEREST account. This incentive is like a thief asking you to hand over more money so he doesn't have to punch you in the face, "If you give me a little money, I'll have to punch you in the face, but if you give me more money, I won't punch you."

Here's a screen capture of the chequing accounts offered by The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) [1]. Click on this image to make it larger or go directly to CIBC's website.

When did this happen? When did banks stop paying us to keep our money? When did we start paying banks to keep our money? Sure, the bank offers other interest accounts, but I thought as a general rule banks were supposed to pay us to keep our money?

Companies justify their behaviour by saying it's the industry standard (CIBC isn't the only bank to offer no interest accounts). Thieves have an industry standard to steal from us but that doesn't make it right.

In 2013, Gerald McCaughey, the CEO of CIBC earned $10 million [2] and CIBC's profit was $3.4 billion [3]. This is in stark contrast to our no interest / fee based chequing accounts.

This kind of behaviour has to stop. We have to stop using others for our own personal profit and gain. In everything we do, we should seek to benefit others instead of ourselves.

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References:
1. Account Comparison Results. www.cibc.com. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
2. CIBC Pays CEO Gerry McCaughey $10 million for 2013. www.theglobeandmail.com. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
3. CIBC Quick Facts. www.cibc.com. Retrieved May 8, 2014.

Copyright © 2014, Carter Kagume. All Rights Reserved.