Royal Bank of Canada

I had a brand new joint account, I didn't even use it yet. The next thing I know, I'm being called in to the branch because I'm in overdraft. Next thing I know, I have RBC collections calling me. Unauthorized! RBC took money from an account with no money in it. Not even a phone call, email or fax from RBC telling me of what they are doing. My wife, Giustina **, spent hours in the branch in regards to this mystery $250.00 fee and got absolutely nowhere with the manager. I have a dozen emails asking for some kind of fax, email, mail or anything that would say that I knew about this fee. I never got a reply. I never got a reply because there is no such information stating anything about this fee. I can forward these emails to you.

I'm now in the process of switching my RBC mortgage to another institution. RBC will lose almost $40,000.00 in interest once I leave. I can't believe RBC would not wave the mystery fee that has no backup on my knowledge of this fee, but would rather lose almost $40,000.00 of interest on my mortgage along with whatever fees the banks would have charged for the duration of the mortgage. Unfortunately, my wife paid the fee this Friday because she was afraid of ruining her credit score. I want my money back! I would like to see someone lose their job for this screw up. I can send you all the email conversations in which RBC couldn't provide proof of any kind for this fee.

Last Friday, April 13th, I went to Royal Bank of Canada with a USD certified check of $50,000.00 to be wired to China for a friend of mine. Everything seemed to go well the following week, though my bank called me to let me know that the cashier had made a mistake and took the check as Canadian and that I would have to pay the exchange rate which was almost a thousand dollars and by that afternoon, head office had taken the money from my account, leaving it in the red.

So when I noticed, I went right down to see if I would be charged for them putting me in the red, they said no, but when I asked if I could get a lower exchange rate due to the fact that this was the bank's fault in the first place, I was told no and that the rate they charged me was a mistake as it was the rate of that day, not the day the transaction was done on and that I was saving a little.

So I pushed the matter further and asked to speak to the manager. Several days later, she called me and was very rough on the phone, saying the same thing the other lady had said, only very rude, and added insult to injury by threatening to hold any check I would bring in the future which she kept on repeating herself on, never once offering an apology for error in the first place. I called RBC customer service and the woman I spoke with looked into my account and could not find any notes regarding this matter, leaving me wondering if they wanted to keep this hush hush.

I do realize that the Friday I had done the transaction on was late in the day and that the mistake was not only the cashier's fault but mine as well, for not noticing the error on paper before signing it and regardless of the USD check being mistaken for Canadian. I was unaware that when wiring a check, it must first go in your account and I do not have USD account, so if either of us had noticed these important points, this could have been avoided altogether. I have been with RBC for a long time and this is the first time I've ever been treated so unimportant, and like my business wasn't important to them.

Ever since RBC Bank closed its branches in the US (02/17/2012) and sold them to PNC, there has been nothing but trouble. They are holding deposits (where they never held before) and their remote US deposit app available on iPhone allows you to deposit a check for more than $5000 then tells you 4 days later that it is not allowed and you have to mail it for deposit. This is absolutely ridiculous. You can't get through to Customer Service as the lines are jammed, their website is not working properly and when you do finally get through, you get a moron who cannot or will not help. They have so many issues at this time they probably need to be shut down for our safety.

In January 2011, a girlfriend of mine decided to deposit checks to an account of mine that I was no longer using. I still don't know how she became aware of my pin number but I know I never gave it her or ever wrote it down on anything. She could have seen it when we went out to eat or maybe getting groceries, I don't know. I decided to switch from RBC to CIBC since I had a mortgage and line of credit through CIBC and rates were cheaper. It was not until I switched banks did this occur.

In March of 2011, I got a call from RBC collections saying you owe us $10,000.00, when can you pay it? I was shocked and dumbfounded by this and said, no, there has to be some mistake. There was no mistake; my account was debited the $10,000.00. When they called back, I told them it was in fact fraud. After several phone calls where I kept explaining the same thing over and over and months later I find out that they never investigated the fraud they just kept calling for money.

I got the checks back that were written and found out that RBC had in fact deposited 9, 3rd party checks through my account. Can you believe that they put 9, 3rd party checks through my account? 9, I still can't believe it. This all happened over a 3 week period, so that means that checks #1, #2, #3 ,#4 had all come back NSF and they still allowed checks #5, #6, #7, #8 and #9 go through my account. They debited me $8,500.00, now over $10,000.00 with service charges and interest. Also, I don't have an overdraft... they refused to give me one months before.

I have had an account with that RBC branch for 22 years without a blemish on my record. They never stopped any of them, they never froze my account, they never once questioned the 9, 3rd party checks that were deposited into my account, they never questioned the continual debiting of my account when I had no over draft, they never questioned the fact that none of the checks were even made out to me but to someone else.

After I brought in the checks they confirmed that I never signed or wrote them, they confirmed the checks were fraudulent. Here is where is gets all ** up. They said that because I knew the person who did this and she was my girlfriend, they are going to assume that I had given her my PIN code and put me on the hook for everything. Even though there is no proof I gave her the PIN, they say they find it hard to believe that I would not give her the info.

Never mind the fact that no one ever called me or notified me after the first 5 checks went through my account, or that they were not made out to me, or that I never had anything wrong in 22 years with my account. I am not in breach of the cardholder agreement. They can't assume anything. That's not the law.

I'm upset that after I notified collections that I was in fact defrauded there was no investigation; I basically had to force them to investigate. The bank manager was a total jerk to me as well. Where is the bank's responsibility in all of this? Where was my fraud protection? I am being forced to pay this all back or it will affect my credit. I'm not dumb though I'm lodging complaints with everyone and even contacted the local newspaper and a lawyer. I'm not being forced to pay anything based on an assumption of a bank manager who is trying to cover his and his employees' butts for their obvious idiocy.

I have been banking with Royal Bank since 2000 in Ottawa. I did well professionally and had excellent bank account. I started having problems with my accounts a few years ago culminating in my problems in meeting with my financial obligations. My total debt was in excess of 20,000 dollars in my line of credits/ Visa card accounts, but currently it stands at about 13,000 dollars. In June 2011, I decided to go back to school and registered a cleaning company which brings in about 250 dollars a month. I also had a student loan for about 17,000 dollars to pay for the program. I will finish the program in May 2012. Sometime in November/December 2011, all the money paid by the Ontario Student Loan into my account were used to pay the debts. Sometime in November/December 2011, I visited the Bank on Bank/Queen in Ottawa and explained my predicaments to one of the managers and asked if he can allow me to pay one payment for the two accounts.

It was refused. In January, I wanted to take money to pay for my cleaning supplies. I had been saving money in this account to be able to pay for my law examination coming up in August 2012, the deadline for the payments is May 2012.. The total owing for the exam is about $1,200. I later found out that the business account had been blocked by one Ms Joyce ** from the collection department of the Bank. She called me all kinds of unprintable names and accused me that I had refused to make contact with the Bank about my outstanding balance. I couldn't believe my ears. I gave her an explanation of my current economic crisis that I am going through. She would not give a hoot. She then froze the whole amount of $1900 in my account. After this, I became depressed immediately.

Then she asked me if I needed any cash. I told her that I needed this money for my business and to pay for my law examination. I also told her that I am prepared to enter into any arrangements to settle the funds. She would not have any of it. She gave back $1000 later, withholding $900.00. I spoke to her today when she said that she was going to take the 180 dollars in the business account leaving me with zero. Let me state that I take responsibility on the debt, but I cannot be choked to the point where the funds that I am using to make little life would be taken away from me. It's going to be tough. I did mention to Ms. Joyce that if she takes this money, I would have a bitter fight with Royal Bank. I want the Bank to work with me in order to find a way to settle this debt. I do wish that a lawyer contact me. It's been a nightmare within these few days.

I prematurely closed my RBC Visa credit card account, on or about Oct 10-15. I phoned them and verbally closed, it because I received a letter stating my card would be going to a collection agency. I was upset about this because my card was always up to date, and I have an excellent credit rating. My card was valid up until 2014. According to a Visa representative I spoke with on Nov 13, my account was officially closed on Oct. 18. On Nov 14/11, I asked to have my Visa card re-opened. When they asked why, I stated I have a few accounts still pending, and they needed access to that account.

I was told that I would be issued a new card, and I was put on hold. Shortly thereafter I was denied because I suddenly didn't qualify anymore. I was extremely disappointed with that decision. I have had a Visa card with RBC for about 6 years, always keeping it at the $2,000.00-limit by choice. My account may have been outstanding by a couple of days. I think the problem is they never made enough interest on my account, because I always paid on time, or put extra money on my card, before even using it.

On Nov 9 I had a balance owing of $1.32, so I put in an additional $120.00 to cover an expense, that was pending for a weekend getaway. So now that the account is closed, how can I retrieve my money. I threw away my Visa card, and have the receipt for the amount $120.00 that they owe me. I called them and they said a check is on the way. I still have not received it. I went into the local branch, and they state they can't refund the money without the card. Suggestions.

This bank thinks they are aware of my accounts. I have two other banks that I deal with. In early October 2011, my daughter and I entered the local RBC branch in our city. We asked to speak with an adviser. We were informed everybody was booked, and we could schedule an appointment for next week. After sharing we wanted to deposit $35,000.00, we were immediately whisked in. I was so disgusted with that behaviour and attitude, that we walked out of RBC and decided we would take our business elsewhere. What a great decision I'm only $118.00 out, as opposed to possibly a lot more. I'm still expecting my money to be returned to me now.

Terrible service. My family had a house fire on Thanksgiving Sunday of this year. We have been living in a hotel and only found a house to rent in the last 3 weeks. Our insurance payments come out on the 16th of each month. I had to make two payments of $100 to my phone company to keep my cell phone going (to deal with insurance etc). I made one payment of $100 the morning of October 16th and one payment of $100 the evening of October 16th (after 10 pm).

I transferred money to cover the 2 insurance payments and one $100 payment. I had to wait to deposit another $100 until after 6pm as I was waiting for it to come in. That is also why I made the second phone company payment after 10pm that night.

Have an overdraft on my checking account of $500.00. Went over the limit however they let a cheque go through when they shouldn't have. Then for a $5 overdrawn they bounced a cheque on me. Noticed thereafter on my line of credit they charge for life insurance and disability that I did not request nor sign for. Now I've discovered it I am told too bad you have 45 days to check your statement and nothing can be done. So they stole $500 + from me for services I did not ask for or want. Transferring my business back to TD Canada trust where I never had any problems. Will have family and friends stop doing business their too. Sick of paying through the nose for services and then being screwed again for their mistakes!

I have been dealing with the Royalbank for many years. I ran into financial difficulties after an auto accident. I was constantly harassed by this bank even though I had insurance that was supposed to cover my payments. By the time I was informed of this, all my accounts were behind and I was told all my accounts had to be brought current before I could apply for the insurance. Well, what good is that? Anyway, I slowly started pulling my business away from RBC because they would just go into my account and take money out without consideration of the fact that I was unable to work and I had a mortgage to pay and living expenses. Since then, I have still not obtained employment as I still suffer from the accident but I have been making regular payments to my debts. They may not be up-to-date but they are being paid.

My current complaint is this: I have a line of credit that they turned into a loan payment. I have been paying faithfully for a couple years now along with other debt. I recently (Oct 20th) was short on the payment by 20 cents and they bounced the payment. I deposited money into my account on Oct 21 but it didn't stop them from sending my payment back NSF. I have been over drawn on my account by a few cents on many occasions and they have allowed the payments to go through, I assumed it was because I deposited money right away but apparently not. So for 20 cents they charged me $42.50 NSF and extra interest on the loan payment.

To me, they did this not only to make extra money but because they are trying to punish me for not being able to pay my payments as full as they would like. This has been a night mare since my accident and has destroyed my credit rating. I understand business is business but it's not like I just refused to pay. I was in an auto accident that wiped out my whole right side and still is a problem today. I have not worked since Nov 18, 2008 because of my injuries. This bank just doesn't care and refuses to assist.

My daughter (15 year old) have an account, each with the Royal Bank. My name is on her account because she is not an adult. She and I went to the Royal Bank on Sept 8th to withdraw $150.00 from her youth account and we're told it was gone. My daughter started crying and I immediately got angry. Apparently, Visa had taken the $150.00 from my daughter's account because I had fallen behind on my Visa payments and because my name is on her account, they can do that. Now my daughter was to be going on a trip with her sister the next day and now she had no money to take with her. I want this $150.00 back but Royal Bank tells me that is not going to happen. I realize this all happened almost 3 weeks ago but upon talking to different people about this, they have encouraged me to fight for my daughter's money. And make sure everyone knows that in this bad economy, and people losing jobs and companies shutting down, that if you are behind on your Visa payments and you have your name on your child's account, and maybe have been helping them save for a special trip or anything else, that the Visa company can come and take that money at their own free will.

I got a personal BMO check from my grandparents for $1,000 and I asked the teller if my check would be held if I deposited it. She told me that if I deposit it in the bank machine, it will only be held for 1 business day and I would be able to take out 500 bucks. So I deposited the check and found out I could only take out 100, which really wasn't a 100 because I was -50.

I went back in and the teller that told me that had left and I told a new teller the problem. She called the manager and she overrode the hold and got me 200 bucks.

I decided later on that day to check my online banking and it said my password was incorrect, so I called the support and asked for a password reset. He told me my account was flagged and he couldn't access anything at all.

I was on my way back to Nanaimo the next day, so I went to the branch in Nanaimo the day after that. They told me that my account will be frozen until the check clears, which will be on a Tuesday. I have to move to Regina on the Friday before and I can't pay my bills or rent because they locked my whole account. I also start a new job on the following Monday and this has really screwed me over.

Around 2005 to 2006, I made a mistake which resulted in a $80.00 overdraft to my RBC Account. I received several phone calls at home harassing me about payment. I went down to the bank (Although the exact dates are unclear, it was within two weeks of having this overdraft) and paid the $80.00 in cash. I was told by the teller that my account had been closed but I could pay the account in cash. I paid and never received a phone call or anything.

A couple of months ago, I decided to try to begin to build my credit rating as I found a decent full-time job. I discovered that RBC sent that $80.00 charge to a collections agency. As far as a I understand, this debt has gone to three different collections agencies and I currently owe over $800.00 with the interest continuing to accumulate. I went to the bank manager, Scott ** and gave him my story. He looked up my closed account (didn't even listened to my story) and told me that it's my word against the bank's. At that point, I understood that not only did they rob me once, but they have continued to rob me through declaring my bill as unpaid and having collections agencies; just keep on rolling up the amount I owe without any effort to contact. It is really disgusting.

I recently discovered that a co-worker, who I just met, had the same thing happened to him. Paid cash and they just kept the money and continued to charge interest. It's really disgusting that this bank is allowed to do this to poor people.

Three years ago, I bounced a few cheques due to a delinquent client. For this innocent and understandable reason, RBC put a five business day hold on my deposits and has not removed it since.

Even though I have not bounced a cheque since and deposited 90% of my cheques from the same reliable client, RBC still holds my cheques for five business days. As a result, they collect NSF fees from me even though I have adequate funds, and charge overdraft fees even though I have money in the account. I believe this is an illegal strategy to charge more fees and collect interest on money I've earned.

My mother passed away on Feb. 13, 2011. She had an investment with the Royal Bank in Outlook, joint with my brother and myself, Jean **. A week after her passing, I went in to redeem the investment. We have not received the money to this date, March 18, 2011. All death certificates and wills have been given to them as requested. Why is this taking so long to process? No result as of yet, but the amount of the investment had better not have dropped when the slide occurred. We asked for redemption well before that happened. Please respond ASAP.

RBC regularly sends emails and fliers inviting customers to go paperless [i.e. request an electronic statement and discontinue mailed paper statements] and win. This is presented as a 'green' option. However, the option to paperless if the customer has a personal account does not provide an option to have all the scanned images of cheques as part of the statement. RBC does provide this for business account holders. If a customer needs a paper copy of their statement, it would take 6 additional pieces of paper to print off 7 cheque images, rather than have 1 page to print for the same number of cheques if they provided an e statement that was the same as the paper statement.

I am an RBC customer for the last 20 years. I consider myself a perfect customer. My family's income is about $120,000 a year. Other than mortgage, I am debt-free. I mean debt-free because the balance between what I owe and cash and cash equivalent (stocks) is about zero. I've never been late with any payment. My credit score is very high. I am also momentum trader of equities. Till last week, I was using RBC Direct Investing. I am using my low interest line of credits as investment loans to buy stock. Sooner or later, I sell stock and funds are going back to line of credits, till the next good moment to buy stock. I am doing this for years and I am quite successful with this.

And here is a story how I became a "suspicious" customer for RBC and what kind of nightmare I am going through. Two years ago, President Choice MasterCard had a promotion offer to use its card for a very low interest. I decided to accept this offer. I wrote a check for $17K and deposited it into my RBC account. The check was rejected. It was 100% my fault, I forgot to sign it. So I quickly wrote another check for the same amount, this time, no errors. RBC has a system to catch "suspicious" activity. This system flagged my activity as suspicious, which is OK. But the bureaucratic machine at RBC to clear it up, it is terrible! Two years ago, my checking account was locked for a week. I took vacation time and spent one and a half days in the banks and on the phone to explain how it happened. My bill payments were not processed, I had no access to cash. It was so humiliating, degrading. For RBC, you are guilty till you prove you are innocent. After a week, they unlocked my account but nobody ever apologized or explained what has happened.

Recently, the same system clicked again. This time, my two RBC line of credits are locked. The reason is the same, the system flagged me as "suspicious". I had to call RBC and beg that I would be allowed to pay back my balance, because I was not able to do it online. Like before, they "only" wanted to interview me. I explained (with details) to many people what has happened. But it is like talking to a picture. One month ago, I was told that "within a week" I will be contacted to answer some questions. Nobody called me back. I sent RBC feedback about what has happened, no response. My accounts are still locked.

Now, I am doing what I should do 2 years ago. I have closed my RBC Direct Investing account and I have started using different bank for my wages deposits and monthly bill payments. I am writing here about my experience to warn others, what can happen to them. If you care about your finances, as I do, be aware that any day your home finances can be completely sabotaged by your very own bank, in the name of the fight with "suspicious" activities. And you will be guilty till. I am sorry, I have no answer for you of how much time is needed for bullies from RBC to discover their own mistake. Do not expect any apology from them.

My auntie who is resident in Ontario made a deposit of 150 Canadian dollars (application processing fee) to Conestoga College, but the college called to inform me that the deposit made by my auntie has not reflected in their accounts. I am having the deposit slip with me here in Ghana. The payment was done in the middle of April and up until now, it has still not reflected in the college's account. I was supposed to start my post graduate program in September but because of this problem, my application has been suspended.

They're very rude, direct, and demanding. I experienced stress. They locked up our account without telling us. I couldn't use my account, except for deposits. No reasoning at all. Even when I hadn't missed a payment and was willing to keep paying the account.

I have been an RBC customer for about 30 years. Unfortunately, I fell on hard times after Christmas. So a great friend wrote me up a personal check which was postdated, but I deposited through the ATM and took out the money. I wrote him one in return later on to cover his so it wouldn't go NSF. In other words, it was check kiting and we didn't even know there was such a thing. Believe it or not, we didn't know we were doing anything wrong. Anyway, this went on for a couple of months and 2 of them ended up going NSF a week ago. There was a restriction placed on our accounts and we are only allowed deposit only. Okay, I understood this after it was explained to us. In any case, my account is back to normal because we paid them over $2400.00. With that being said, my account is paid up and my friends is still overdrawn a little over $1000.00, which he is working on getting. We had a meeting with Mrs. ** this morning at her request.

There was another person in the office with the 3 of us and we were treated like common criminals. Even after I paid the money I owe, they would still not lift the restriction on my account until they speak with the branch manager and the fraud department. What is their problem? We are repaying the money. It is not as if we are avoiding them. Because of them, my name is going to be sent to collections because I have a direct debit coming out of there every month for a bill payment and the direct debit can't go through. My friend has car insurance through them and that couldn't go through. Even if the restriction gets lifted, we are not allowed to use the ATM to withdraw our direct deposits.

My friend borrowed $1000.00 to help pay some of it back and it was sent to us through an email money transfer. I then deposited it into the account. They are going to check to see where the money came from. That is an invasion of privacy. Where do they think it came from? You can't deposit a personal check through online banking. Many years ago, my father's EI check was stolen from our mailbox and forged. They cashed it at a teller at RBC. It was reported and RBC had them on camera. My father gave them their names, but somehow, they got away with it. And here we are, made a mistake and are being treated like common criminals. I am under doctor's care and my blood pressure has been up all week because of this. We are leaving RBC, but I just don't know what I can do right now about my automatic debits for bill payments. As a matter of fact, that Mrs. ** was working as one of the tellers at RBC at the time my father's check was forged and cashed. I really hope you can look into this and help us out.

It all started because with a weak economy and a slow home based business, I was trying to make headway - most notably paying down my credit card. I obtained permission to sublet my rental space from my landlord and got some tenants in the place.The second tenant that I took in was on social assistance. The ministry gave him two checks, one for the rent and one for the damage deposit, addressed directly to me as his landlord. His case worker had spoken to me briefly to confirm the subletting arrangement so I didn't have much fear that the checks weren't good.

I deposited these two checks to my bank account via the ATM and withdrew that money as well as other room I had on my overdraft to pay my landlord. I have (or had) the RBC VIP Service account which offered free overdraft service as well as a bundle of other services for $30 per month. I had left enough room to cover my automated VISA payment. I didn't notice anything was wrong until Friday. I went to the bank machine to check if I still had a little bit of room left on my account. I entered my PIN, and before I could do a transaction, the machine would spit my card back out telling me to contact the branch or the 800 number. I figured it was something with the network, until I tried at two different machines over the course of an hour.

I called the RBC client care center to inquire what was happening. They told me that part of my VIP service was to monitor my account for nonstandard transactions and that I'd just need to go into the branch with ID and show that I had in fact made the transactions. I was guessing it was the two checks but they wouldn't say which ones over the phone. I went into the New West branch on Saturday to get it cleared up. They said they couldn't help me, because the RBC Risk Management center was closed for the weekend. A bit upset that nobody would call me to tell me, but figuring it was just for my own protection, I just came back the following Monday.

I talked with a CSR (teller) there who looked up my account. She was confused as to why they'd lock my account as with my VIP I have $999 cash back at the ATM and I had withdrawn less than that on cash back. She called Risk Management and they said they refused to unlock the accounts until the checks cleared. The helpful lady then realized that a 5 day hold should have passed by this time. She called them back to confirm if the checks had in fact cleared - and they said they had - but told me that they wanted the branch to remove the lock.

The New West branch isn't my home branch - the downtown main branch is. I switched my accounts to downtown banks since I lived in Surrey, and in Surrey they treat everyone like a criminal. I even got the treatment, and I was flagged as staff at the time. So the helpful lady called the branch for me and got this idiot on the phone, the topic of this note, Mr. Mark **. I was happy to speak to someone who could get this sorted out. Or so I thought. In 5 minutes of talking to this guy, my situation went from inconvenient to downright horrible. He said, I'm taking away your overdraft facility. I'm locking all of your accounts to deposit only, and only through the teller. I'm locking your client card, restricting your VISA. The only way you can get this lock removed is to pay off your overdraft and come into the branch and request in person to have the lock removed. I asked him, "Why are you doing this to me?! I just deposited two checks that cleared! "

He instructed me that as I had missed my most recent Visa payment I was a risk to the bank. I tried to inform him, I had a $500 overdraft facility on my account, and I left the account at -$380 so there would be enough to clear the automatic Visa payment - and the only reason it was missed was because my account was locked two days before and nobody told me. Mark ** just said, "Oh, well I guess I will remove that automatic payment then for your VISA. " I told him not to, but evidently he did anyway.

He wasn't about to listen to that, and meandered off in another direction, equally hostile. He said that I was paying credit with credit and the bank frowns upon that and therefore he was removing my overdraft and locking my accounts. I told him, Ive done this hundreds of times before. Gone into overdraft, covered the overdraft and then some, held a positive balance, that's what an overdraft is for, especially considering I get it free with my banking package, of course I'm going to use it.

He told me overdrafts are for emergencies only and short term and that he was not going to remove the lock. Even despite that I told him I intended to cycle the account within 7 days of the time I deposited the checks (I had another tenant moving in, the guy who was at the bank was about to pay me $533 - that's why he was there opening an account in the first place). The guy eventually said that was that and there was nothing further to discuss, and closed the call. I left the branch dumbfounded. My bank accounts were useless. I have dealt with this bank for 10 years; since I was staff at RBC Dominion Securities. I have rarely if ever missed an automatic Visa payment, this is why I made it automatic. Actually its been automatic since 2000 - when I worked at RBC and got paid on the 1st and 15th of the month - it was slated to come out on the 15th since then. I have the platinum VIP most expensive banking package that they offer; if I was screwing them somehow then how could I have ever paid my banking fees?

The only thing I was allowed to do at that point was make a complaint. Fearing I'd get nowhere within client care, I sent my complaint straight to the ombudsman for RBC. The Ombudsman's office forwarded it to a guy named Miles ** at RBC Client Care in Montreal. At this time I was just trying to get my banking package restored and my overdraft facility back, so I was sitting in financial limbo land.In the meantime, my Visa payment was returned as well as my phone bill payment because of this lock. $120 in NSF charges right there (the bank and Visa charged me - one NSF charge on both accounts). Plus because he removed my overdraft, I was now charged a $5.00 overdraft fee pretty well immediately.

Waiting eagerly for a response back from Miles ** in Client Care because I was in limbo land without a bank account, I called him. He was on vacation for the rest of the week. I guess he left at some point after he got my case. I left him a couple messages, one when I found out he was on vacation and one a few days after he returned. A few days later I got a call back from him (this fiasco started July 14th - it was now August 17th! ), he said he had mailed a letter in response to my complaint. I received the letter that same day.

The letter infuriated me. My main concern was to know why my accounts were locked up in the first place. My suspicion of course is that some idiot somewhere saw two welfare checks deposited to my account - and immediately assumed that I was no longer self employed, but on welfare instead, so they had to yank all my credit. I mean I know the economy is bad these days, but I still do better than being on welfare (trust me, in these times, I've considered it and done the math). Instead of addressing why my accounts were frozen in the first place, he basically made out in the letter that on the 14th when the checks were deposited they decided to do all of this at that time... even making reference to the missed visa payment (due to the lock) which didn't take place until 2 days later! (Visa takes the money on the 15th-but it comes out of my acct on the 16th).

Miles' letter was useless to me. He basically just said everything that Mark ** said, but treated it like this had all happened on the 14th. This is when I called the 800 number on the Friday the 17th and they told me it was just out-of-pattern transactions, or on the 18th when the branch said the same thing, or on the 20th when they said they wanted to wait for the checks to clear.. and so on and so on... Only way to go was up. Back to the RBC Ombudsman. I faxed in my complaint again, attaching everything previous. August 25th passed. I called to follow up. They said they would return messages within 5 business days. September 10th passed. Called again, no return phone call. September 16th, I finally receive a bland letter; "We have reviewed your complaint and feel that RBC Client Care treated you fairly. Furthermore it appears you are using your account for both business and personal purposes, and suggest that you contact someone at the branch to consider opening a business account. "

Nope. You can put it all against the overdraft or all against the VISA. That's it. I say screw this. I called VISA and told them to take it.

Of course, you see, because my accounts were locked and dip !@#$ took my automatic visa payment away, now for the first time probably ever I had missed two visa payments and was about to miss a third. With no bank account and no client card and locked accounts, there was no way for me to realistically pay it. I told Visa this; they were understanding but warning me that I may need to find another option. They said that they were about to call my Visa card because thats policy after four months. Bad, to worse, to even worse, to banking hell. I finally managed to get access to my accounts back, $145 in fees and NSF charges and interest later, before I could access any of my money they robbed me of about $650 in all; in part the overdraft being paid of and in part by forcing me to pay my Visa up to current. I mean; I had just gotten my bank accounts back... I have responsibilities other than RBC - and since they put me in this mess in the first place; I wanted to get other things sorted out first, like my phone bill and landlord.

Now that my accounts are back to current (less my overdraft), my credit rating has been trashed and I'm going to make it my mission to have that Mark guy fired one way or the other. During weak economic times, almost everyone is feeling the pinch. There are better ways of dealing with people other than unloading and destroying every banking service and package that they have in a five minute phone call. I even tried to describe to this jerk; that what started this all was that I got a bunch of tenants into the house to lower my fixed expenses in tough times so I could make faster headway on my Visa - and I had told Visa that on the 8th of July; only 7 days before this fiasco started. The fiasco cascaded and caused me all sorts of troubles over nearly three months.

I sold a trailer to a client of RBC Royal Bank who paid me by check. I went to this bank to cash the check and they would not cash it unless I paid them $5.00 for a service fee because I did not have an account there. If they think this is a good way to attract new customers to their institution, they are so wrong! In fact, I will never take a check in the future from any of their customers unless they pay me an extra $5.00 to cover what I see as a form of legal theft from people who deal with their customers. They are supposed to represent their customers, not make a profit from the individuals their customers deal with just because they can. This is just so wrong! I would never deal with this unscrupulous bank and I will tell everyone I can of their greedy business practices.

I have been an RBC USD Visa cardholder for many years and use it a lot for my business. In late February 2010, I signed the paperwork with the bank for pre-authorized monthly payment. We did the same with AmEx at about the same time. While it all went well with AmEx, RBC is a completely different story.

On March 2, I sent my wife to an RBC bank branch to find out if the pre-authorization had been set up for us and the woman behind the counter said not yet. She then suggested that my wife write a check to cover the payment due to avoid interest charge. My wife did it as the bank employee advised. Two days later, I noticed that not only did the bank cash the check but also took money from our Vancity business account for the same amount, which is over $12,000, per pre-authorized payment arrangement.

I immediately phoned RBC Visa to point it out and complained that my wife was misinformed at the branch. The Visa centre woman said she'd send a notice to the bank branch asking the manager to issue me a bank draft the next day because she could not reverse the pre-authorized payment. I showed up at the branch the next day, March 4, only to be told by the manager that he couldn't do it despite the notice from Visa centre and that I have been a customer of the bank for over 15 years. I brought with me all my IDs and RBC Visa card.

In addition, I showed him my Vancity business account online so that he could see RBC indeed charged us twice for the same statement. He first said I should call Visa centre to have the pre-authorized payment reversed and when I refused, the manager said the best he could do is to mail a check to my address on file and he'd make sure it'd be mailed in a couple of days. He said the check would be mailed in a couple of days and that was March 4 when he told me that. One week later I phoned Visa centre telling them what I went through at the branch.

The guy was sympathetic and said he'd follow up on that. And then nothing happened. Last Friday, I phoned again asking Visa centre where my check was. The lady, like her colleague, first apologized for the bank's mistake and then told me she'd put in a rush order so that the check would get sent out ASAP. Another week passed and I am still waiting. Considering it was the bank's own mistake (misinforming customer) that caused me this problem, you'd think it would work promptly to rectify this situation. But no!

This is truly disgusting and unacceptable. In case the bank has PR staff monitoring online complaints about it, they should contact the male manager at their branch on West Broadway at Granville in Vancouver to verify the validity of my complaint. The bank is abusing my trust and using my money interest-free against my will. I guess this is how it makes its millions, taking advantage of "One Customer at a Time". Having trouble paying bills to US suppliers.

My son was a third owner partner in a small business in Kelowna BC. One of the partners failed to disclose that he had got the money to open the business from a bad person, money launderer with a known history and criminal record. This person put pressure on the two good partners to pay $47,000 cash or wear cement boots.

After a trip to the RCMP who offered no help, I, as a mother, and my boyfriend who worked with City of Calgary police sought out a business loan with RBC which should be paid back by the two partners. Ray ** with RBC loans, said he was breaking rules but would do the loan. Not once was it mentioned my boyfriend and I would be personally responsible for the business loan if it failed. Well, the business failed two years later with $33,000 owing.

I have tried since July 2007 to pay the $670 a month payment, but with a job loss finally couldn't do it from November 2009. I called a person named Perry who was now in charge who said he would work with me to repay the outstanding balance. He then said we should deal with a person in Amherst NS, Heather **, as he was in Kelowna BC. We did that and she suggested we apply for a new loan, which we did.

Just before signing, I contacted a local trustee in Halifax for some advise or options. It was suggested due to my financial debt load I may consider filing for personal bankruptcy. I was honest with advising Heather I may have no choice. She advised if I were to file then I couldn't sign the loan papers. She also advised she would then be done with this problem and couldn't help us. She advised it was turned over to Thomas ** in collections.

A letter was sent on March 3 2010 advising we were in default of the loan and demanding we pay $1828.77 in arrears and we are in default of our loan obligations. This is bogus because Heather waived the January payment, proceeded with a new loan which took until March and never advised us to keep paying the monthly loan amount, even when we asked.

I can only come up with $400 per month since I just started a new job. This seems to be unacceptable to RBC and I will now have to go through with bankruptcy, because they are threatening my boyfriend by putting an order against his house, not mine. I guess I am wondering how this can happen when I have worked and requested three RCB loans people for help to just make a monthly payment over time. Please help with any advise you can on what we may be able to do.

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC Bank) is a Corporate Bully. It was a $100,000 mistake (Fisherman's Loan). I'm a commercial fisherman fighting the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC Bank) over a $100,000 loan mistake. I lost my home, fishing vessel and equipment. There was no monthly interest payment date or amount of interest payable per month on my loan agreement. The date of the first installment payment (Principal + interest) is approximately 1 year from the signing of my contract.

Demand loan agreements signed by other fishermen around the same time disclosed monthly interest payment dates and interest amounts payable per month.The lending policy for fishermen did change at RBC from one payment (principal + interest) per year for fishing loans to principal paid yearly with interest paid monthly. This lending practice was in place when I approached RBC. Only problem is the loans officer was a replacement who wasn't familiar with these type of loans. She never informed me verbally or in writing about this new criteria. Help me fight the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC Bank) by closing your account. "Fighting the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC Bank) one customer at a time."

I requested a stop payment on a cheque and got charged with it. I gave the exact amount and the payee name, but missed out the cheque number and the wrong date. But nevertheless, they accepted my stop payment as it is only the exact amount that is critical. But after 3 weeks of stopping the cheque, RBC cleared the cheque. They even had it overdrawn by more than $500 which they never did before.

So, instead of paying my actual bills that is allotted on the amount, the bills came back as NSF and I'm being charged with so many late payments and my credit has been damaged. I have asked customer service, "What happened and why did they clear my stop payment?" All they said is that stop payment is not a guarantee that they can stop the payment unless all details are given. It is contradicting to their service, because it thus allows us to stop payment on a cheque especially if you have the correct amount.

I am self employed and had many months this year with inadequate receivables to cover all my bills so I pay what I can, when I can. I have several bills that are pre-authorized coming from my bank on a monthly basis which sometimes cause my account to go into the red. In July '09, I had sufficient funds to pay the pre-authorized bills and so the RBC paid out the money and deducted the sum form my account.

The next day they deducted the service fees from my account and this put my account into the red. They then reposted the transactions as though the bank fees came in before the pre-authorized and returned the bills that had already been paid out in order for them to collect their bank fees. Two days later I made a deposit that more than covered the fees but it was too late. The bills had already been returned and I was then charged $20.00 for each item returned (total of $100.00).

It seems to me that since the RBC had already paid out the pre-authorized, it was unjust and unethical to change the posting date so that they could collect their fees and also charge me for the NSF they themselves generated. It would have been no problem to wait for the two days when they would have gotten their fees and I would have / should have been spared the excessive and unjust NSF fees they generated.

When I called my account rep, I was told, more or less, to bad for me, the bank has to be paid and they have the right to deduct and collect in whatever manner they see fit. They are only interested in their own bottom line and how they can generate greater revenue by raping the accounts of their customers.

This month, Aug 09, again the pre-authorized have come in for payment. Again the bank paid the money out. Again the next day they returned the items for non payment. This time however, there was sufficient funds to cover the payments and the bank fees. For my part, I will be closing all my accounts with RBC and moving onto another bank where I hope they have a better sense of customer care, fairness, justice and loyalty to their customers. They are guardians of our money and in my opinion are negligent in their duty. There in no fairness in dealing with the RBC.

Sorry about my copy letter to Toronto Star but trouble is the same, which I wrote to the newspaper. RBC doesn't want again to transfer my money to Poland. Last year, it took me lots of health problems to fight them before I get any help. This year, again, they are deaf on any questions. They just want to keep maximum amount of time of my money and borrows to someone else.

I'm customer of RBC for over 25 years. I'm a citizen of Canada and Poland. For family reasons, we have to stay for some time in Poland, but I can't get any help from RBC. So if there is any way, please help me. We need badly in Poland. Thank you for a help.

I'm a citizen of Canada and Poland. I wrote last year about my problems with RBC, where I reused help from the old problem. I, along with my wife and daughter, are living in Poland since November 2007 for family reasons. Last year, I wrote many letters, phones to many people and institutions in Canada asking them about helping me resolve my troubles with RBC. Finally, I was able to settle the problems positively with RBC.

I owed my money, but that's not the end of the problems associated RBC. You see a number of the remaining sum of money on our account in RBC. This time, the bank is doing the same problems and ignores me. I sent back the list required by the RBC with my wife and my signatures and the required sum of money.

I know the world is in crisis and banks are in deep problems and huge financial losses but the banks can't blame their customers for banks errors and blame someone else. I read from among the G-7 countries, Canada has the best banking system on a day. Interesting, but how many people services Canadian banks have the same or similar as I am problems.

Please help me one more time with this problem. RBC bank knows well about but looks like they did it for purpose. I just want keep maximum time our money in Canada so they can do what they want, including to borrow to others!

I am not a dishonest person. I work with the highest security for my company. Approximately two weeks ago, I tried an internet business and got sent three cheques for $2500 each from John Collins Inc. of the United Kingdom. The cheques were made out in my name, handwritten, from the Bank of Montreal in Kitchener, Ontario. I deposited the cheques, not knowing this was a scam or that they were fraudulent cheques into the Royal Bank at Ellice. The bank manager signed off one cheque and the teller gave me $500 in cash and a gift visa for $50, in addition to the remainder $2250 in cash, which I sent to John Collins Inc. I was unaware this was a scam until after the fact. Now, I owe the Royal Bank $3964 and my account is frozen.

Yesterday, my work paycheque was direct deposited into the account. I went to the Ellice branch after talking to a manager at the Westwood branch, who told me I could get my paycheque out regardless. Linda told me no, it's out of her hands and told me to call the fraud dept, which told me they will continue to take my paycheques until the entire amount is paid. They are only giving me 15 days to pay the entire amount, which is impossible as I have no other money or income. Then it will be sent to collections. They also told me no matter what bank account I deposit into, they can take it all until it is paid off. I have bad credit now, no access to credit cards as they are maxed out and now in collections as well. I told her I might have to quit my job, sell my car, get evicted out of my townhouse, all because I have no money now, thanks to them.

The whole time I had a $500 limit restriction on what I could take out, so how can they give me more than that with an unsecure cheque the same day? I will go to the local newspapers and online to tell my story and how the Royal Bank screwed me! I am a victim of fraud and I was treated like a criminal. I also made a police report and the police said there was nothing they could do since it's only a few thousand dollars. They did file the report anyways. I called the First Bank which I usually deal with on Portage avenue and he listened and then called Linda at Ellice. When he called me back, he said it's out of the branch's hands as the RBC Fraud Department now has control of my account. I have no money to get by for the next two weeks, no food and no options. I am at the end of my rope with RBC. I tried to close my account over the phone and they said I can't until this issue is dealt with, and then they will most likely close my account anyways.

I advise all people to stay far away from the Royal Bank. They have no concern for the little people, just their money. As I sat in Linda's office yesterday and cried my heart out to her, she calmly sat there and handed me Kleenex and sent me on my way. I have also reported this scam to the United Kingdom as well. I am at the point of almost declaring bankruptcy because of them. Help! What do I do now?

I was injured in an industrial accident in November of 2006 and was off work until June 2007. During this time I Tried to activate the "Balance Protector Insurance" that I had been paying on all of my accounts for over the last 15 years or so. On my Royal Bank Visa, after submitting the paperwork twice and fighting with their collectors for several months I finally got satisfaction by advising them that I wanted all of my payments returned.

Meanwhile on April first the Royal Bank locked my account again seizing $3,000.00. I battled back and forth with numerous people in customer service, none of whom could tell me what was going on until on May sixth I stumbled upon a woman named "Brenda" in Royal Bank Collections. She advised me that it was her that locked down my account because apparently she believed that I still owed $843.00 on this same line of credit issue that I have been dealing with. After threatening to go to the Ombudsman she released my account but held the $843.00.

I have just today been advised that they have not received my paperwork for my claim and I have advised them that I will be re sending it tomorrow, this time double registered. I have also been advised that as they have "no record" of my initial paperwork that I may be denied.

At this point though to add insult to injury I have applied for a mortgage and been advised that because the Royal Bank has listed me as and "R9" and "Unlocatable" that I would have to pay an additional 3% on my new Mortgage. I haven't gone anywhere or moved anywhere in the last three years, my phone number hasn't changed, my email is the same and I've been fighting with their people on a weekly basis. How can I be "Unlocatable" .

Hundreds of dollars, hundreds of hours of lost work time (my boss charges me out at $85.00 per hour and I earn $50.00 per hr). Severe damage to my credit rating which will cost me tens of thousands in interest while that rating stays on my report. This dosn't even touch the many sleepless nights and thousands of hours of frustration and stress.

I went to withdraw some money from my account the other day it was declined. I am behind on my visa and thought this was the problem. I understand the whole if you would just pay your bills, this wouldn't happen, but both my husband and I who have both worked steady from our teens, were out of work for a bit, really, hard catching up. Regardless, I called very nicely explained there was a hold on my account and I understood they were just doing there job, ok, she she went on not rudley, but just plain rotten and mean and did not ask, said I am taking over $600.00 from your account and then I will take hold off, and when I said couldn't afford that much (4 kids-one in college) sorry they come first, she said too bad it's out hold is off and than click, no bye, oh yes she did say that they could go in and take whatever they wanted out.

I want to clarify, I understand they have a job to do, she said bank was losing money because of us. So I called back later, once again very nice, had explined what happened, siad she did not have to be so mean, asked if they could empty account any time, woman responded yup, and pay your bills and she just doing her job, than asked when I would have next payment.

My mortgage and line of credit is with RBC, never have missed a payment, but it won't be much longer, and it seems to me they will lose more money by us taking those to another bank. Am I nauive cape breton girl, or do people really need to be treated like garbage, economic hard times everywhere not a secret, when you doing what you need to do with this bank, they're best friend, when your life shifts and you fall behind they are the wolf at the door. Thanks for listening!

I was shoppping in the mall and as the bank was open I thought I would stop by an buy an intenational money order. This is not my bank and I had no idea that if you are not a customer your are not welcome. The teller was pleasant until she found out I didn't bank there. The attitude changed. She didn't ask if I would like to open an account she just made me feel like a stupid jerk for having the audacity to think I could purchase an international money order. She announced in a loud voice, Well you are going to have to pay $15 because you are a NON customer. So I said Excuse me I didn't see a sign out front that said if you are not a customer you are not welcome. I left.

I got my money order at the post office for a fee of $5.50,

During this economic crisis, which I must say is unfortunate, I had my father transfer some money to my account to help with my business and bills. Prior to this, way in advance, I had called RBC Visa requesting that they would lower my interest rate by 5% so I could pay down the debt. They said that since there were some late payments they could not do this. As a client of RBC since 9 years old, now 35, I would expect such a profitable company to practice fairness. Without my knowledge and no prior warning RBC Visa took money from my RBC chequing account where the money from family was transferred.

Outraged I called to negotiate a payment plan and they said there was absolutely no way to lower the interest rate back to the original amount or to agree on a payment plan. So I calculated the amount of interest I had spent from the time I had the visa card and had an ex-RBC accountant figure out based on their investment strategy for chequing account holders and income bracket clients a median as to what they made off me...I was shocked. It was obvious they had profited far and beyond with no consideration for my position knowing that I would be able to pay down the debt if they were to lower the interest rate to its original percentage.

I was shocked even more to find out that VISA goes to collection WITHIN VISA...so you are always paying interest. There has to be some kind of civility here. We are entering an era where we need to shift our consciousness about the world around us. Needless to say I am out food because I need it for gas to go to work to be able to make money to pay my bills...yes this includes Visa. Things are slowing getting better but this sort of ruthless, inconsiderate customer service IS NOT CIVIL. What happened to the banker you could sit down and talk to and negotiate? It seems as though the people really on the pulse are those like R. Branson, The Ted Awards, Credit Unions, ING and others who look at individuality and the future of human sustainability and consciousness.

If banks continue operating on an old financial world economic structure we will see ourselves fold in on itself. I could go on and mention what the customer service rep for RBC said to me but what is the point, they are just trying to follow policies and procedures of what to say when, and how to respond if, etc. I just find that being a consumer these days has no validity to it anymore. What would you do?

I went to the Royal Bank to close the joint account I have with my husband. I was told I could not close the account as it was a joint account and he had to be with me.

About 6 days after I went to the bank My husband went to the Royal Bank and closed the account. I have 3 children with this man and he was allowed to close the account. The result of not having money for 3 children .

I am making this complaint not only on my own behalf but other customers whom I assume may also be affected. This week I received a letter from the Royal Bank stating that the interest rate on my Line of Credit would be increased as of April 15, 2009 to 10%. I had just heard this week that the Bank of Canada reduced its prime rate to .5%.

I'm no expert, but it seems that the interest rates on LOCs and other credit products should be decreasing, not increasing, if the prime rate as determined by the BofC continues to decrease. The media also informed the public last week that the Canadian banks are weathering the economic 'downturn' quite well, and continue to make money. I consider the increase in the rate of interest to my LOC to be further evidence of the banks' greedy need for profit at a time when a good portion of the public may be suffering.

I am currently looking for work and living off of social assistance. I previously had a fairly good paying work and for that reason have been able to live off of credit while I continue to look for work. I do not have a dime extra more to give to any bank. Not only will this increase my ever increasing stress level - I recently started medication for elevated blood pressure - and I am a short step away from being pushed over the top financially.

I don't know that I am the one to address this problem given the difficulty of my current situation, but some group somewhere needs to take the Canadian banks to task for continuing to raise interest rates in spite of their current and relatively solid state.

Went to the royal bank and deposited 1088.60 on a Thurs 9:30 pm and took out $100.00, the following day Friday 2:30pm. did some online banking and balance was 900 and some odd dollars, went to pay a bill on line for $50.00 and said unsiffcient funds after showing that the balance was 900 some odd dollars. Went to the branch to complain and they told me that the money was held for 5 banking days which means that i wnot have aval my money till the following Friday. This really [upset] me, my wife that has a joint account with me same account is able to put in a check regardless the amount and tak out the same amout.

To me this is dicriminating against me, this was not the first time that this happened and I will tell you IT WILL BE THE LAST, Royal bank is not a GOOD bank to deal with by NO MEANS the treat everyone like they are crooks and no trust what so ever, been a client with Royal for TEN years or better and will be the last for sure, now i am going to be behind on bills that have to be paid,

a vehicle insurance payment coming out of Royal came out ok when its telling me insf funds they can get there money when they want it but your own money forget that, again that will be the last insurance premium payment the royal bank will get from me. house and vehicle insurance going to be moved regardless the cost thru other insurance companies, Royal bank I AM NOT LEAVING ALONE HAVE ALOT OF FRIENDS LEAVING WITH ME.

I put $400 cash in an enevelope and into a RBC ATM and the transaction got cancelled due to an error. I have the receipt but RBC states that I never deposited the cash and won't give me my $400. They won't show me the tapes, won't look at my receipt, won't consider anything I'm saying.

$400 lost due to incompetence/gross negligence/software error/malfeasance on the part of RBC

The bank allowed a company to keep trying to withdraw funds over and over again over a 3 week period... There was 1 day they let the company try to take out the same amount 3 times in one day... In the three weeks, they let the company try to take out the money 11 times... I find that highly ridiculous... If the funds weren't there the first time they tried that day, they sure wouldn't be anything there the next two times... I am appauld that the banks allow this to happen...

When I brought it to there attention, the manager said, your problem is with the company, not the bank... Well I think it is the banks fault for allowing the company to do so... It also happened with another company another 4 or 5 times... That is nice, you have to pay all these fees to the bank to hold your money, but then they charge you like this... I am very angry...

with all these transactions not going through, it has cost me about 400.00 in charges... which the bank won't pay back...