After some research, I found that RBC has the highest cash back reward at 1% among all the business credit cards without annual fee. That’s the one I am going with since my business credit need is very simple and small. I never expect that it took so much effort to open a business credit card with the biggest bank in Canada.
Since I didn’t have any products with RBC, I need to go to the branch in person to present some documents of my business and ID to create a customer profile. I insisted that I didn’t want to open a business bank account because I already had one with Alterna bank. Didn’t know that this will cause an issue later.
I was told that I need to call the business customer centre to apply for the business credit card after a few days for my information to be shown in the system. When I did, the Rep said he can’t pull up my information without something called a customer ID created by the bank. I need to talk to the branch to get that ID. I was a bit annoyed. If that is the case, why didn’t the rep in the branch give me that customer ID when he created my profile?
When I called the Rep in the branch and left a message, there was no reply. I followed up with an email. There was still no reply. I called the customer centre and the Rep in the call centre email the Rep in the branch and copied me. Still no reply. What the heck is this?! Am I ghosted?
I guessed that perhaps it is not an easy issue for him to fix so he just ignored me and hoped that I would go away? Suddenly I determined to have this credit card. 😊 I should win the most loyal customer award. LOL!
After two weeks, I went to the branch and talked to the branch manager. I showed her the history of the email. The manager apologized and asked the Rep to get this done. They found that they can’t open a credit card for me unless I have a business bank account due to system limitation or whatever. They asked me to cancel the bank account in one month and they will credit back the monthly fee. Since I already spent so much time and effort on this, I decided to go along and just get it over with.
In a week or two, I got my first business credit card. No annual fee, 1%! Why is it only 1%? So much lower than consumer credit card cash back? Market condition again without enough competition.
After a month, I went to the branch to cancel the bank account. I only brought my RBC credit card but not the debit card. They can’t find my bank account in the system! What? Did you just require me to open a bank account so that I can get a credit card? Now you can’t link them in your system? I was told that I can close the account online easily. When I got home, I can’t find the function anywhere online. I had to go back to the branch with my debit card and finally closed the business bank account I never wanted. I told them that every step of the so-called customer experience journey was horrific. You are the biggest bank in Canada. Why is the customer experience so bad at every turn?
Perhaps the size is the reason. When the company is big, different divisions work in silos. The processes and policies are so complicated that the front-line employees can’t remember them correctly. The systems, oh my god! The systems must be very outdated.
Is it due to lack of competition again? Simplii Financials was acquired by CIBC while Tangerine was bought by Scotia Bank. Similarly after Rogers bought Fido years ago, Fido’s offer is less attractive. I used Tangerine for my first mortgage term. When I renewed, it was already part of Scotia Bank and the rate was no longer attractive. I actually used Scotia Bank for my second term. Apparently, Scotia’s acquisition strategy worked. My mortgage experience with Scotia was also bad at every touch point. Will need another blog post for it.
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