RBC tried to charge me $108 for a box of nickels.

[ZenOps]

Dang. Git yer nickels while they are still cheap.

Anyone who is from Canada knows the big five banks. RBC does state that they will charge 16 cents per roll for "non-customers", Scotia will charge $2 per $100 FV coinage.

Only TDCanadatrust, CIBC and BMO are left. And iIfind there is a higher success rate to ask for $20 or $40 instead of $100 worth of nickels. I liken it to fishing, if you put on too big a hook - you will catch less but you might get a big one - Put on a smaller hook and you will always get something.

[thedrifter]

Open an account?

[ZenOps]

No fees accounts usually start with a minimum balance of $1000. Is it worth it to get no-fee nickels? Probably.

I get ten free transactions per month from BMO with minimum $1,000 balance, which is enough to grab a few. But the fees do get ridiculous below $1,000.

Asking for nickels in that manner does count as two transactions, one $100 deposit and one $100 withdrawl. Meaning pretty much once a week for nickels.

[fansubs_ca]

I've never had RBC charge me for change though it's been a while since I'd
gotten any coin there. Of course I do have a few accounts, no minimum
balance but one one withdrawl per month on each account, not sure if it's
a type of account that still around or not. Although they don't charge me
any fee for change and it doesn't count as a transaction on my account if
I do it cash for cash, every time they will have me swipe my banking
machine card so they can track it on my profile and they know I'm a
customer. They tell me it's to prevent money laundering but I suspect
it has more to do with tracking how many transactions each teller is
doing to justify use of time. A few time when I got pennies (back when
they were still around) at the commercial wicket they didn't have me
swipe though. (The teller would always have to go over there anyways
so it just saved time for me to go over there anyways, the exception
being if I showed up between 4 and 5 after the commercial wicket was
closed.)

RBC was where I'd been doing my main banking up until about 2001
when they started making some changes to the account type I had
(1 free withdrawl instead of 2 per month and a few other things) so
I still had RRSPs and a brokerage account there so I kept the accounts
open for getting money in/out of those. I switched to a credit union
for my main "hub" bank where I usually cash /deposit my pay check,
pay bills, etc.

Recently I'd only been getting pennies from my credit union when they
happen to have someone bring some in. I'll start nickels again when
the pennies dry up too much.

[fansubs_ca]

I get ten free transactions per month from BMO with minimum $1,000 balance, which is enough to grab a few. But the fees do get ridiculous below $1,000.

With the same minimum balance my credit union gives me unlimited withdrawls/
deposits (in branch or at their machine), unlimited checks, unlimited online bill
payments. Also unlimited deposits/withdrawls at any Manitoba credit union machine.
(The in province credit unions have a more direct network and better agreement
between them that bypasses the more expensive Interac system.) I like unlimited
for the simple reason it's one less thing to keep track of. (I counted, looks like I
did less than 10 transactions at the CU last month but you never know when you'll
have need for those extra transaction.)

They also save pennies specifically for me, though that's more of a practice of the
particular branch staff than a policy. ^_^

[slvrbck]

Usually picked at least a box per month from one of my local banks. Never had a problem. Just this past week they told me they could not supply a box. Never happened before and they deal with a lot of change. Nickel days may be numbered