Well, it's been fun folks but I'm done
 

Handing over ownership of back-off-bitch.net to my partner. Don't delete anything submitted from it. He'll just have to change the link codes is all.

I can't deal with banks anymore. They have ruined me. They won't touch anyhting now unless it's held for 60 days. I'm so far behind on bills and now behind on rent because of that godamn bank. All of this becuase of a 105 dollar check fuckup with extreme.


I'll still build freesite for people, but payment will have to be in money orders. I refuse to give a bank a single dime anymore. My post office can cash money orders no problem.


So if anyone needs freesites done up and are willing to pay via money order get in touch with me at ICQ 100021741 and we can work out a schedual between my burger flippin shifts. |bananna|

Damn that felt good to vent :) BOB will remain mine, but will be used for different reasons with my partner and I.. sites will remain untouched... I found a way out fo my situation by talking with different people. The need for freesite building jobs is always there though... this is where I want this all to go. Smaller checks = less hassle to me.


I told my bank to gof uck themselves and am getting a US account opened this week. Expecting a call back now. Again, That ventign felt DAAAAYUM good..... you folks shoudl try it!

Sorry to hear about your banking problems ! :(

I hope things improve for you ! :)

I think they already have, either due to this thread or one on gfy looking for more work in canadian funds, I have found enough work to keep me busy for the next 2 weeks and make myself a cool 3k if I pull it all off... in money orders and wires :) Getting a USD account setup sometime this week, when they call me back and opening up a buffer account in CDN funds to hold money in incase something goes wrong again.


If it weren't for people who liked my work and honnesty I don't think I could pull out of this one. Who ever it is out there that keeps telling people I do good work and know what I am doing, thank you! You're a life saver who ever you are!



Let this all be a lesson to everyone out there, don't rely solely on one bank. or you will be like me, having 3 checks on your desk that will take 2 months to get money out of them and no buffer account and no saved money!

BOB... good luck with what you do...

You also bring up a good point that is vitally important for NON-US webmasters..

Bouncing cheques may be a hassle for US webmasters but it can really cause severe problems for those of us that are non-US.

I have a negotiated deal with my bank for the processing of US dollar cheques... an agreed cost and clearing time... and this "deal" has been in place for >5 years now. The deal was put at risk by firstly the GloBill debacle.., and then by one bouncing cheque |sad| .

Losing that deal would have severely affected my bottom line.

DD

I have a hard time getting my bank to accept checks cause I had a few bounced ones :( The only way I can cash checks now is by mailing them to them and the money ar ein my account within 2 days if I show up I´m told they don´t accept foreign checks from me because of the past problems I´ve had :(
The only sponsors I use now are those that pay either by paypal or epassporte and a few that I send enough traffic to get a wire once in a while :)

epassporte is an option I am seriously considering for sponsors that will deal with it and that I don't quite trust financialy. I just need to get a secured credit card so I can load the setup fee.


Fuckign banks, damn they piss me off. Here is what took the cake with me today. The manager said 2 month hold. When 3 weeks ago they said 5 days and between then and today they cashed a check for me no problem. Go figure. Their excuse was that I never used the account much in the time since I had that bounced check issue with that sponsor whom I won't mention cause it was not their fault. They when Ic alled teh ehad office I was told that they wont take any us checks until i start using the account more. fuckign basterds. try telling them that I have no money to use the account unless they cash my checks... nope.. it's like talking to a wall, let alone xplain to them I have rent, bills and food and a fine to pay for like NOW. I seriously think dealing with loan sharks is an easier task.

Sorry to hear about your trouble BOB, good to hear your not leaving the biz.

Banks are fuckers!! Here in Sweden they charge me $15 per check and then hold the money for 7days, fucking unbelivable......get an sponsor acount with ARS then switch peyment method to epassporte and you will get money from them thru epassporte and you will also get the virtual and visa electron card from 1 ARS sale.......:)

|pissright|BANK|pissleft|

I'm an American webmaster so I don't have these problems, I just get taxed to death for living here.

I still like getting paid by PayPal when it is offered. Is there any advantage to epassporte? I never used it so only know bits and pieces about it from the boards.

Yeah make a couple of sale at ARS and your all setup :)
It costs $5 to get an account and $35 for the card the exchange rates for me is OK they take a little bit in the convertion from US$ and $2 per withdrawl Most places I used it online accepted it except for places that used CCBill or Ibill.

Theres several sponsors paying out to epassporte now (link and I know of a few that are going to add them in the future.

I´ve been happy with it so far haven´t had any problems with except for using it at the CCBill/IBill sites


I don´t think for American webmasters the advantages is as big as for International webmasters.
For me it saves on check fees ($8 +%1.5), I get paid faster, no checks lost and when paying for hosting, content ect. I don´t have to convert US$ to DKK to US$ again saving a bit.

i've had a few checks that have expired by the time they've been processed, but none have bounced ( i've mostly used ccbill/paycom. maybe this is why)

maybe there should be a list of companies somewhere that have had bouncing checks so that webmaster may be aware of the risk.

The bank here in australia i first delt with would charge me $10 for all the checks i deposited in that session ( 30 being the most i recall) and the money would be available for widthdrawal the moment i walked out of the bank to the ATM. This bank was then taken over by another bank and the situation changed to having to pay 7.5$/check and waiting 28days. My current bank charges %6$/check and a hold of 28 days is placed..

my solution (without getting a US account) is to get a credit card and deposit all checks into that account :-)

all the best BOB don't let those fuckers get you down.

Cleo

It depends how much money you have going into epassporte. Right now, you can't transfer funds from EP to your bank, so pay pal is prefered for larger earnings. However, if you're just talking a few hundred $s then it's quite good. You pay $35 for a card and you can then withdraw money from most ATMs. I don't make a huge amount right now, so this suits me fine. But if you're talking thousands a week, you're still better off with pay pal or checks.

Thanks for all the support guys, This makes me want to overcome this problem even more. |bananna|

Canadian banks are horrible, eh bob? |pissed| Sometimes they just have no clue about international commerce.

I went to the local branch of the smallest Canadian bank (because they WANT your business) and opened a US$ corporate account and a CDN$ corporate account. I just deposit all US$ cheques into the US$ account and pay a monthly service charge of $7.50US.

That's it. That's my total cost of processing US$ cheques. Of course, they make some foreign exchange when I transfer funds from the US$ account to the CDN$ account, but that's going to happen no matter what you do.

All the best to you, bob! Just keep sluggin'. You'll do alright. :)

Dave my Globill check that bounced caused trouble for me as well. I would have prefered if they hadn't sent the damn thing

backoffbitch
Surely there must be a solution to your banking problems. It's a terrible thing to go out of the business because you can't get a check cashed. Why not do as others have suggested and just use sponsors that use Epassporte or Paypal? You can get a card with both of them and then just go to an ATM machine and grab your money.

Or...find someone you can trust here in the Great United States of America that will deposit your checks and send you money through epassporte or paypal. At a nominal fee, of course :)

I have always had US dollar accounts at my Canadian Bank (the one with the lion and the ever changing name). US checks come in, get deposited, and STAY in US dollars. Most of my major business expenses are in US dollars, so I just write US dollar checks, so I don't get double fucked transfering to canadian and then back to US to pay bills.

My funniest one is paying off my US dollar credit card from the US account - they cannot do it automatically or directly online, I have to go to a teller to do it. They cannot handle US to US transactions in house. It takes like 10 pieces of paper to pay a visa bill with a check!

Wierd ass thing.

Alex

I found a temporary solution until I get the US account setup. Money Mart cashed my checks no problem for a 2 dollar fee each. Plus 1.9 percent.

Money Mart will cash anything. LOL

I'm with Alex. A US account at my branch but I use paypal and epassporte to pay just about everything I can online.

Good luck BOB!

Ditto mate.. I had two in and a third in hand... Mr banker didnt like those ones bouncing;(

DD

I had a Globill check in my wallet when that all went down so it would have not been a good thing had I deposited it.

Same here guys.. living in australia and had a cheque bounce. I am waiting to see if they screw us around now too. I am bginning to wonder if I should change our sponsors to safer ones. The problem is they are good.. but then another bounced cheque and we will be in big trouble. Hard choice.

This is quite interesting.
I'm also in Canada and use the bank with the "Green" logo... Fortunately I haven't had any problems cashing US checks directly into a CDN account. I've been thinking of setting up a US account, but like RawAlex sez, you can't automate anything with US accounts in CDN banks... I couldn't even deposit the US$ checks directly into the US account without going through a teller!

Maybe time to looking at another bank...


DistantD
www.distantdoor.com

Hey Natalie I love your punani site :)

My Sister works at the bank I cash where my checks, she just pulls some sort of "override" thingy and I get the money the same day :)

TD Canada Trust |raygun| |pissleft| |knockout|

Cleo - you dont know anything about taxes.! All you american webmaster dont bitch about your taxes untill you have lived in denmark or sweden. I pay 60 % taxes and I'm not even making big bucks. When I do that i'll be paying about 70 % tax.

I wouldt love to live in the us with your taxes

What banks are you Canadians dealing with that give you so much grief? (edit: nevermind, I see you are using TDCanada Trust)

I use Bank of Montreal and I have no problems whatsoever.

I set up a US savings account to deposit all my US cheques into, then I transfer them all to my checking whenever I want with no charge at all.

Checks clear instantly.

And as long as I keep $5000 in my checking account at all times I have no bank charges at all every month. (The bank charges I'm saving every month would be equivalent to having the $5000 invested at around 4%.)

I know our income tax is less, being self employed I have to pay additional taxes. Actually it is mostly property taxes that are killing me. I'm in sticker shock this year over what I am going to have to come up with for the privilege of living where I do.

I guess it is all relevant.

Geez bob .. it was TD?!? I would have thought it was Commerce or Nova Scotia. They are the worst two by far.

Anyway, as a longer term solution, set yourtself up as a company (you don't have to incorporate, it can be a sole proprietorship), then take that documentation to a bank (preferably Royal, Montreal, National) and set up a US$ current account and a CDN$ current account.

While there may be a short period of time that the US cheques are held (14 to 21 days), once you have gone through the 'probation' period they will drop the hold and the cheques will be credited to your account immediately.

When you have a US$ account, you can leave the money in there as US dollars, which you can withdraw as US cash or US travellers cheques or send out a US$ cheque or money order to pay an account. When you need to, just have the bank 'buy' some US dollars from your US$ account and deposit the CDN funds in your CDN$ account.

It took me longer to write about it than it actually takes to do the transactions ... LOL. As I said, this is a longer term solution for you, once you have gotten over the hump. This will keep you in good standing with the bank, build up your credibility with them, so that they don't treat you like a pile of dog turd next time a small problem comes up.

Just my 2¢ CDN :)

BOB: I've been using Money Mart as a temporary solution for about 2 years |jester|
You forgot to mention they're scamming at LEAST an additional 4% on the exchange rate (which is terrible for us right now). Not only that, they tend to give an even WORSE exchange rate for cheques than for cash, so you often wind up paying $2 plus 8 to 10%.

So why do I still use them? Because they don't make me wait 5 weeks for the cheque to clear.

Thanks Kevin I love hearing good feedback :) Its only new and using a very basic script, I hope to write my own soon.
I saw in your location: Just below DD, well I am just above him.

b o b - you scared me...
I am away for a few days here and then see this thread....
you better NOT go anywhere... :)

your design work is super....

your design work alone should be able to bring in the big $$ for you...
those SPONSORS out there should give you a try....

one should snag you for their TEAM and keep you in steady
work....

one of the smart one's will see this and not miss the opportunity...

~Bell

Thank you Bell! Words like that help me realize I can overcome this banking issue.