Canablog

On our second day (Saturday) we had an appointment with our bank. We opened a savings account here last year, while on holiday. We wanted to convert this account to a checkings account so that we could use it to pay in shops and write cheques to other people.

Since we are completely unfamiliar with how banking works here we got a nice explanation on many of the basics:
1) There is no mentionable amount of interest on either savings or checking accounts. So we got rid of the savings account. We don't have much many here anyway at the moment. But I will need to check later if other banks offer better rates (I think ING Direct has a better offer)
2) You pay the bank for using many things. For example, for $3.95 per month you can do 10 self-serve transactions. A selve-serve transaction is getting money from an ATM (pinautomaat) or paying in a shop, 4 full-serve transactions. A full-serve is when you go to a teller (an employee behinf the counter).
When you want to use your card to pay in shop you can if they support Interac (big relief for me, I'm so used to that)... but... every transaction costs $1.50!!!

And several other things, if you want more things to be free, you get a bigger package. A package that is unlimited for everything will cost us $24.95 a month.. But this fee is waived if you keep $5.000 on the account.. As soon as it drops below $5.000 you will pay the fee..

All clear, then we got the question about what design our cheques should be... Huhhhhhhh... How do you mean... It turns out the cheques come in a zillion different layouts. And you can choose one :-) Amazing...
I'm thirty years old and don't recall to ever have used a cheque in the Netherlands. So a personalized cheque was something I had never thought off..
We choose a cheque with an photo of mountains in Banff National Park on it.. I'll scan one if we get the scanner..

At this point we had been with her for more then an hour, but where finished. We decided to try if we could get money from the ATM from our ABN-AMRO account and deposit it in the Canadian account.
If you transfer money between the banks (using internet banking) you pay 11 Euro's cost per transaction. I wanted to see if withdrawing money from the Dutch account directly was cheaper..
We were able to get 2x $1200 using both cards and deposited that on the Canadian account.. Sounds simple.. But the depositing was the really fun part.
In The Netherlands I can also deposit cash money atABN-AMRO. I go to the machine, put in my card, a cover opens and I can place in my money.. the machine makes a funny noise while counting the money and tells me how much it was..
This is what I was expecting here, and it was, up to the point where you have to feed it the money.. here you enter the amount you want to deposit, get an envelope, put the money in, and feed the envelope to the machine... Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... Somebody is taking these envelopes out, counting the money and then comparing it with what we told the machine??? Wowwww :-) It seems that after the machine has accepted the envelope the money is already in your account. Will be interesting to see how they change it when you make a mistake with counting..
Ge-an deposited also a few years old cheque that so got from a travel agency as a refund.. Same story, enter the amount, put the cheque in an envelope and feed it to the machine..

That was our banking experience up to now, we have still have to use the Interac system for the first time.. But that is probably OK..
Fortunately for us Canada is also moving more towards what we are used to in The Netherlands.. There is a good change that after I have found a job, I will not be given a cheque to deposit.. But they will Direct Deposit the money to my account... :-)))

The rest of the day we spent looking for a car...pffffff... what an ordeal.. The car sales people here apparently work on a comission basis and will do anything to get you to buy a car.. that doesn't work to well with us..
We started of looking for a Toyota Corolla. but there are not to many available and since they are import cars they are relatively expensive.
Our list now constists of two widely different cars:
1) Dodge Neon, 2000, 70.000km, $9.488
2) Chevrolet Tracker, 2001, 86.000km, $12.500

Since they are both fairly recent american cars reliability is OK.. The tracker is really a Suzuki.. The Neon is a family car, the Tracker a real 4x4.. Gas mileage is obviously better for the Neon.. But not to bad on the Tracker since it's just a 2.0L 4cyl..

Neon is cheaper, the Tracker the car that would like to have in the end anyway..

Pffffffffffffffff, not easy

Misc things of yesterday.. People are so super friendly. We went for a walk around the appartment area.. Robin saw a dog and started talking to it, the owner came to us and we have a really nice chat with them..
There is a small forrested area behind the appartments, she told us that a bear had walked down to there three weeks ago :-) They follow the creek bed :)
We found that there are many Garage sales over the weekend, a good way for us to find cheap furniture and other items.. So we will start today (Sunday) by checking some of them out...

After that it's time for the first hike in the Lynn Headwaters park.. Weather is absolutely amazing, so will try to get an early start..