Poll: Asking for better credit card terms pays off + MORE Sep 24th

In about a month, Ed Clark, the CEO of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, will retire, bidding adieu to the company’s familiar green armchair for the last time. He’s had an impressive run. As the one-time head of Canada Trust, Clark engineered what was essentially a reverse takeover of the much larger TD Bank after it bought Canada Trust in 2000. And, under his watch, TD recently catapulted past the Royal Bank of Canada to become the largest financial institution in the country by total assets, which, as of last quarter, stood at a staggering $922 billion. So the man knows banking. And, this being Canada, where a handful of Goliaths dominate the industry, thanks to government-decreed oligopoly, he’s acutely familiar with the unseemly tango bankers and politicians are forever locked into.
Which is why it was so informative when Clark voiced concerns recently about the fragility of household finances in light of ultra-low interest rates and the easy access to mortgage credit. “Where these issues have been dealt with successfully is governments who lay out a framework for an industry,” he told the Canadian Press last week…

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Middle-class squeeze: From day care to health care
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three years ago, Jason Prosser was stunned to discover the cost of child care for his newborn son — so much so that he and his wife postponed having a second child.
The day care centre they found near their Seattle home tops $10,000 a year. Next year, their son, now 3, can attend a Catholic preschool less than half as costly.
He and his wife are among legions of middle-class families who are straining under the weight of accelerating costs for a range of essential services from day care to health care. And now a study by the Center for American Progress shows just how heavy the burden has grown: For a typical married couple with two children, the combined cost of child care, housing, health care and savings for college and retirement jumped 32 per cent from 2000 to 2012 — and that’s after adjusting for inflation.
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Wal-Mart’s mobile checking account nixes fees
NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart is the latest company to get rid of fees that traditional banks charge customers who don’t have enough money in their accounts to cover purchases…

A CreditCards.com survey finds few credit card customers ask for a lower interest rate or late fee waiver, but those who ask usually succeed

In about a month, Ed Clark, the CEO of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, will retire, bidding adieu to the company’s familiar green armchair for the last time. He’s had an impressive run. As the one-time head of Canada Trust, Clark engineered what was essentially a reverse takeover of the much larger TD Bank after it bought Canada Trust in 2000. And, under his watch, TD recently catapulted past the Royal Bank of Canada to become the largest financial institution in the country by total assets, which, as of last quarter, stood at a staggering $922 billion. So the man knows banking. And, this being Canada, where a handful of Goliaths dominate the industry, thanks to government-decreed oligopoly, he’s acutely familiar with the unseemly tango bankers and politicians are forever locked into.
Which is why it was so informative when Clark voiced concerns recently about the fragility of household finances in light of ultra-low interest rates and the easy access to mortgage credit. “Where these issues have been dealt with successfully is governments who lay out a framework for an industry,” he told the Canadian Press last week…

The province of Saskatchewan’s reputation for strong financial management got another boost when bond rating firm Moody’s assigned the province its highest credit rating.