Advantages and Disadvantages of Holding a Registered Education Savings Plan, RESP, Through a Bank or Credit Union

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We started our first family plan RESP at the local branch of our bank where we have one of our chequing accounts. It’s very common for parents to open an education savings plan where they bank. There are pros and cons to keeping the RESP at a bank branch, especially as the amount of money it holds grows larger: here are some of these advantages and disadvantages.

Common advantages of Holding a RESP at a Bank or Credit Union

You can speak with someone who already knows (or should know) a bit about your personal financial situation.

If there are any hiccups or delays in creating your plan or receiving any grants, your branch staff will usually want to help sort it out to keep you as a happy client for other additional services.

You can start and stop contributing depending on your budget. There is no penalty for stopping contributions.

There is usually no fee to have this type of an RESP account although always check before signing anything.

Most bank-hosted RESPs are eligible for all of the various federal and provincial matching education grants. Always check, though, before opening a plan!

You can invest easily within the RESP in

  • a daily interest savings account
  • guaranteed investment certificates, GICs
  • mutual funds offered by that bank or credit union

You can usually buy small GICs, for example a $500 one; Some brokerages require you to buy at least a $5000 certificate.

If you choose to invest only in savings accounts and GICs, you will not pay any annual “management” fees or MERs. The amount you are told you will receive, such as 2% per year for a GIC, is the amount you will get.

You can often buy the mutual funds with no initial fees or fees that have to be paid if you cash them out before some pre-set time. All mutual funds, though, have an annual management expense fee. That fee comes out of the amount you are paid each year from the fund, or from the value of the individual units of the fund. You don’t have to write a cheque to pay it.

You can often set up a steady purchase plan where an agreed amount is contributed to your plan each month and invested as you have requested.

You can get some advice about which products to invest in. The advice, however, may be biased if the representative has been told to try to sell more of a certain mutual fund than of another.

Some Disadvantages to Holding a RESP at a Bank or Credit Union

You can’t always choose a mutual fund that has a low management expense ratio and that holds the type of assets that you would like. For example, you might not be able to buy a mutual fund that replicates the performance of the TSX with a low MER.

You may have to update your risk profile and investing profile if you wish to change the nature of your investments. For example, if you have only invested in GICs in the past, you may have to fill out another form to begin investing in equity mutual funds. (Big Cajun Man even experienced this problem with his regular mutual fund savings account.)

You usually cannot buy mutual funds or GICs offered by a large number of institutions. Most often you can only buy the types of these products which have been issued directly by your bank or credit union.

You often cannot buy Exchange Traded Funds, ETFs. Or if you can, you may be limited to those offered by the bank and not those you want with low MERs.

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Did you open your first RESP at a bank? Have you been happy with the experience or have you switched to another type of RESP? I’m sure there are more advantages and disadvantages that I have over-looked. Please share your views with a comment.

How to Download Your Transaction History from a BMO Online Bank Account

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If you like to keep an eye on your budget or if you just want a simple electronic record of your banking transactions for future reference, you may want to download your information and save it on a disk or stick. You’ll notice I don’t recommend you keep the data on your hard drive or handheld and I’ll mention why in this article. Here’s how you can download what’s been going in and out of your BMO online bank account.

Downloading Your BMO Bank Account Data to Use in a Spreadsheet or Financial Program

You can download your data directly in the format needed for

  • Quickbooks
  • Quicken, or
  • Simply Accounting

You can also download it in comma separated values format to use in most spreadsheets including Excel.

  1. Sign in to your BMO online banking account.
  2. Under the My Accounts section on the list of links on the left side of the screen, click on the bank account for which you wish to download the transactions.
  3. Under the name of the account, click on the link: Download Account Details

The Download Your Bank Account Details Page

  1. Confirm that the box is checked beside the account for which you wish to download the transactions. If not, click to select the box.
  2. In the Download: section, click to select the radio button beside
    * Activity since last download
    * Transactions in the following date range
  3. If you select the date range option, you must also enter the From: and To: dates.
    You can click on the Calendar icon to select the From: and To: dates, or you can type them in MM/DD/YYYY format.
  4. In the Format: section from the drop-down select the software in which you intend to use the information. Choices include:
    * Quickbooks
    * Quicken
    * Simply Accounting
    * Spreadsheet (CSV format)
  5. NOTE CSV format means “comma separated values.” Each column of information will be separated from the next by a comma. This is the format that can be opened by Microsoft Office Excel and many other spreadsheet programs.
  6. Click on the Continue button.
  7. If you chose to download for a spreadsheet, the Opening statement.csv popup window will open.

The Opening Statment.CSV Page

  1. Click to select the radio button beside
    • Open with Microsoft Office Excel
      (or choose another program from the drop-down list); or
    • Save File

    then click on the OK button.

  2. If selected, a spreadsheet will open with your transaction history. You may need to widen some columns to see the values properly formatted.
  3. The data reported includes:
    • Your debit card number
    • The Transaction type;For example: Credit or Debit
    • the date posted
    • the transaction amount
    • a description
  4. So for example, it will show that you used your debit card on a certain date to make a purchase at Victoria’s Secret.
  5. If you are finished with online banking, sign out of your account.
  6. For increased security, clear your browser cache and close your browser session.

You can sort your spending by description which may be useful if you use Debit to pay for certain purchases regularly such as groceries

Drawbacks of the Transaction History for a BMO Bank Account

Unfortunately, the history does not differentiate between various types of transactions. For example, a pre-authorized bill payment is reported as a DEBIT just like an in-store purchase.

Keep Your Financial Information Safe and Secure

You may want to keep your downloaded banking transaction history on a separate device rather than on the hard drive of your computer, laptop or handheld.

For sure, I would recommend deleting your bank card number from the file. Why make it easier for someone to know how to sign in to your account?

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Have you found any quirks when downloading your BMO bank account history? Do you download it regularly or only when you’re hunting for some anomaly? Please share your views with a comment.