no fee chequing account | Financial Crooks

My children have been back at school for two entire days now after the summer break. Already I have received 4 requests for money from their schools. As I look around the school yards and watch the teachers welcoming students new to the schools and new to Canada, I wonder how many of the parents will be surprised to root through their children’s backpacks and find these photocopied requests for money. I wonder if they came to Canada with the belief that public education is free in Ontario. If so, they are about to find it isn’t free where I live.

Elementary Public Education has Never Been Free in Ontario

I’ve never been surprised by the constant stream of requests for small amounts of money from my children’s schools. When I grew up in Ontario my parents faced a similar litter of papers asking for cash. I’m fully expecting it to increase as our children grow up and continue on to high school.

Typical requests include:

$5-10 to purchase a school-customized agenda
$3-15 to partially pay for drama, music, performance art and other creative performances hosted at the school itself requiring no bus transportation
$15-25 for one field trip per year or for one curriculum-related in-school activity
$1.87 – $8 for music for instrumental classes
$200+ for instrument rentals for music classes if you don’t provide your own instrument

Common Non-education-related requests include:

$2.50 and up to purchase a slice of pizza or a pizza lunch one or more times per month
$3 and up to purchase a sandwich or sandwich lunch one or more times per month
$1 and up to buy erasers, bookmarks, small posters and other trinkets from the in-library book sale
$1.99 and up to buy a book or books from the Scholastic book club flyer, monthly
$6+ for transportation to participate in a multi-school sports challenge such as a volleyball tournament
$12 and up to buy a photo of the child taken on the same day as the class photo

Charitable requests often include

$0.05 and up for school-made and delivered postcards to support Sleeping Children Around the World
$2 for the Terry Fox Run
$2 for a classroom charity project such as raising funds for a researched cause
$? as much as possible for the school fundraising goals for the year
$2 and up to buy items related to conservation or to sponsor projects like training a dog guide
canned and packaged goods for various food drives
mittens, gloves and hats for the Salvation Army winter clothing drive
prizes for various raffles and other fundraising events at the school

Ontario Schools Were Reminded They Cannot Charge for Required Materials

In 2011, Ontario school boards were reminded that they are not allowed to charge for materials required to complete the basic curriculum. The reminder was needed because lab fees, for example, for high school were getting punitively high. (One article about this reminder is Ontario targets unnecessary school fees on the CBC website. )

This has led to some rather humorous notes sent home from the schools. They explain that things like the in-school drama and music performances are not actually part of the curriculum, so the school is allowed to ask parents to pay for them. They are quick to point out, though, that these performances are ALMOST required and that your child will be left culturally stunted if they have to sit alone in the library while the rest of the school attends because you don’t pay the fee.

In my experience, my children have usually been asked to write (boring) multi-page reports about these performances and make “connections” between the events and other classroom teaching. I’m not sure what the children who can’t afford to attend these events are supposed to be handing in instead: Perhaps an individually researched report on Chopin completed while they were stuck in the library? Frankly, the events ARE part of the curriculum.

Be Sure to Budget for your Children’s School Costs

If your children are still preschoolers or are just a gleam in your eye, you may want to budget for future years for these unexpected school expenses. We spend several hundred dollars per child per year.

I think you could probably reduce that to about one hundred dollars per child, IF

you didn’t support any school fundraisers or
contribute to any of the charities the school urges your child to support, and
if you don’t let your child ever buy any of the food, trinkets or books sold at the school.

Be prepared, though, for the fact your child will stand apart from their classmates and friends. Your child will likely find it very embarrassing and awkward being “the only one” who doesn’t get pizza or a book or give a toonie for Terry Fox.

Despite the Ministry guideline that states “The dignity of every student and parent should be honoured in the school fee collection process….” I know that the actual practice can be quite different.

Consider Signing Up for a Bank Account with Free Cheques

After wasting many cheques on these school expenses, eventually I got wise and opened a PC Financial no fee chequing account. For now, there is no fee for additional cheques. Since the risk of backpack pilfering is greatly reduced by paying the school with a cheque rather than cash, I use cheques. A lot of them. If you want to do the same, you may want to read more about the PC Financial joint account we opened and consider opening one yourself.

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Does the number of requests for money from your child’s school bother you? Have you come up with any ways to trim these unexpected costs? Please share your experiences with a comment.

We’ve had a joint chequing account at BMO for more years than I care to admit. Let’s just say the numbers 20** are not part of the date when we opened it. This week for the first time in years, I had to make a request at BMO and their customer service was excellent.

How Do Old Chequing Accounts Differ from the New Ones?

This chequing account is so old that it pays interest. Yep, even now, when interest rates are between 1-2% for savings accounts, we have a chequing account that pays interest. Not that you’d want to go out for lunch with the amount it earns per year. But that’s proof of just how old an account it is.

For years it also had no fees. Gradually though the typical “minimum balance” requirement has slunk in. And ever so slowly the minimum daily balance required to avoid all fees has increased. I used to pay attention to those increases, but I must have missed one. The minimum required now is $1500, not $1200.

I Missed the Minimum Balance and Owed Big Fees at Month End

Due to my own mistake, I missed topping up the account by 17 hours. So for 17 hours in June, the balance slipped below the $1500 mark, though only by under $100. The next day, a typically generous infusion was made to the account.

When I updated the passbook at month end, I was shocked to see a huge list of fees charged to the account all carefully itemized by type and cost.

BMO Telephone Support Offers No Service

Because I wasn’t at my branch at the time, I called the BMO telephone banking support number. Unfortunately, although very polite, the representative was not able to waive the fees. In fact, he didn’t understand what I was talking about. He thought that the only way to avoid fees on a chequing account was to have a “plan.” He said he would enter a message asking my branch to phone me to discuss the problem.

Please Ma’am, I Messed Up

Halfway through the next business day I still hadn’t heard anything back. That didn’t particularly surprise me as “my branch” is in the last city I lived in, more than 14 years ago. The branch I bank at regularly is not the branch where my account was set up.

So I went to my regular branch, chatted nicely to the Service Agent while depositing another big cheque, and then pleaded for clemency. (We use the account as an entry point for new contributions to our InvestorLine account.)

She spoke briefly to the local manager, got approval, and reversed all of the service fees with a smile. Phew. And thanks BMO! I promise I won’t do it again.

Lessons I Learned

I did learn some valuable lessons:

Keep an eye on the minimum balance requirement for no fees if your account has this feature.
Watch your spending to avoid dropping below the minimum.
Consider whether you should move all of your banking to a no fee bank.

Is It Time to Change Banks?

While I was pleased that BMO forgave my mistake, it did make me wonder if it’s getting time for me to move all of my banking to a no fee account. I have almost-no-fee chequing accounts at both ING Direct and PC Financial. Maybe I should use them and close the BMO account.

I’m a great procrastinator, so I don’t know what I’ll decide or when. But in the meantime, I think I’ll keep a closer eye on my bank balance.

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Did you ever ask forgiveness for an unusual banking mistake? Did your bank care enough to fix the problem? Please share your experiences with a comment.

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Is Public Education Free in Ontario? Not Where I Live