Banking Changes Over 20 Years

The ways that people access and use their money has changed a lot over the past twenty years. 

Twenty years ago the standard way to do financial transactions involved: going into your local branch during banking hours, waiting in a line, doing your deposits, transfers, bill payments, withdrawing your cash, and leaving to do your other business.  Bills were often paid by mailing a cheque, which usually took a few weeks to come out of your account, and if you ever wanted to pay for something without a cheque you had to go back to your branch again to withdraw cash during banking hours.

Today consumers have a variety of ways to do their financial transactions whenever and wherever they want, faster and more accessible than 20 years ago.  Between debit cards, online banking, mobile banking (using cell phones), e-mailing money, and ATMs.

In addition to the convenience and speed of these electronic services, the decrease in cheque usage has resulted in retailers receiving far fewer NSF cheques which saves stores both time and money.  Instead of waiting for cheques to be deposited, and hopefully not bounced, debit machines allow an instant transfer of cash from the purchaser to the retailer.

New Polymer $100 Note

Used with the permission of the Bank of Canada.

Ottawa, Ontario -

The Bank of Canada unveiled a new polymer bank note series today at its head office in Ottawa. Information on the polymer material and advanced new security features was released, along with the images and designs of the soon-to-be-issued $100 and $50 bank notes, and the themes for the remaining notes in the series.

Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty and RCMP Commissioner William J. S. Elliott joined Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney for the unveiling ceremony.

Minister Flaherty spoke of the importance of cash as a means of payment in the daily lives of Canadians, adding this is why it is important Canadians see their story reflected in the designs. “These bank notes evoke the country’s spirit of innovation, and their designs celebrate Canada’s achievements at home, around the world and in space,” he said. “Bank notes are cultural touchstones that reflect and celebrate our Canadian experience.”

Sharing Banking Tips That Have Helped Me

About once a month someone asks me for a banking tip that will either make banking life easier or less expensive.  The following are a few of the things help me:

Online banking – This is a life saver.  I can pay my bills from home or the office at 7:00 in the morning or 11:00 at night.  It also lets me see all my transactions everyday, so I always know what is in my account.  The rare cheque that I write is scanned (front and back) so I can see online who it was to and for how much.  In addition to have this information readily available to me, it helps me be aware right away if any fraud is committed on my account.  By looking at my account a few times a week, I actually protect myself from fraud and would be able to spot something wrong right away.

Banking Has Changed - A Lot!

While I was growing up in the 1970/80’s, I remember my mom having to run to town (we lived on a farm) very quickly in order to pay a bill at the bank before it closed at 4:00. She did that run maybe 2 or 3 times per month.  She also withdrew some cash for small purchases, but most of our larger purchases, like groceries, were paid for by cheque.  That was the norm for a few decades for families all across Canada.

In the early 1980’s bank/debit cards and ATMs were introduced, allowing Canadians to do withdrawals from their chequing account.  This added a major convenience as consumers no longer had to worry about getting to the bank when it was open for cash withdrawals.  With the addition of deposit services through ATMs, Canadian banking habits started to change, and those habits were no longer centered on banking hours.

Text Banking is coming soon

I just wanted everyone to know that we are currently testing our banking system with a very cool new service: Text Banking!  Pretty soon you will be able to get your account balances texted to your cell phone.  You can even get the last 5 transactions sent as well!

We're pretty excited about it.  When you consider our awesome online banking system and combine it with remote (telephone) banking and text banking, I have to say that our members can do their banking from pretty much anywhere.

Keep an eye on this blog or our website for when and how you can sign up.

We're reaching out across the world.  Not bad for a Credit Union based in a small town in Alberta.
Jerrry

Welcome to RCU Speak

This is my first posting on the RCU Speak blog. My name is Jerry, and I am responsible for our main website at www.rockycreditunion.com and for this blog. Our website is the place to go for information about our products, but we figured it would be nice to have a less formal way for our members to ask us questions and hear about the latest news.

We will use this blog to warn people about scams, new technology, the best way to take money on trips, and to respond to questions about our own services and even the banking industry in general. Hopefully you can use this blog to learn more about various financial matters, making you a better consumer and investor.

For the credit union, we will try to answer questions and respond to any concerns quickly and effectively. We rely very strongly on the word of mouth of our members, so we hope this can be another way for our members to communicate with us.

To better financial management
Jerry