Your bank is not your buddy

So I got a statement this week from TD Canada Trust, where I keep my RRSP and my chequing account. Apparently, they're changing some fees as of May 1 of this year; needless to say, these fees aren't decreasing. For example, stop payment fees are rising from $10 and $15 to $12.50 and $17.50. And the cost of a small safety deposit box is rising from $35.00 a year to $42.50, which is an increase of 21.4%.

You can't really expect banks to behave in any way other than they do; as author Walter Stewart once put it, your bank is not your buddy. Still, I'd be happier to live in a world where bank service fees rose at a rate less than or equal to the rate of inflation. Right now, we're living in a world where money is being transferred at an increasing rate from ordinary consumers to banks (or to the owners of bank stocks). Oh well. As the old saying goes: them that has, gets.