Monday, January 15, 2018

Why are we stuck in the financial past in Canada?



In this day of credit cards, tap-to-pay and online payments, why are we so stuck in the past for some financial transactions?

I recently sold my car in Quebec.  This is the process that we went through to transact the sale:
  • settle on a price (via email, at least)
  • the buyer went to his bank to get a bank draft
  • we went to the SAAQ together  and stood in line for 15 minutes
  • the woman accepted my registration card, tore it up and issued a new one to the buyer
  • she also issued him a new license plate (why??)
  • the buyer handed me the bank draft
  • I handed him the keys
  • I went to my bank to deposit the bank draft in my account

Why does the sale of a car depend on the physical movement of a piece of paper?? (ie: the bank draft)
Why couldn't all of this exchange be done online?  In a few minutes?


I also experienced similar frustration while leasing a new apartment.
  • traveled to the city where we were going to move
  • spent the day looking at apartments
  • unexpectedly found something we liked the first day
  • filled in all the paperwork to make an offer (there's a lot of paperwork!!)
  • realized that we needed a cheque to make an offer but didn't have our cheque book
  • drove home
  • went to UPS to overnight a cheque back
  • discovered that UPS doesn't do overnight delivery on the weekend (it was Sunday)
  • sent the cheque anyways so it would arrive Tuesday
  • the city was hit by a snow storm, so the cheque only arrived Wednesday

Why does this entire process rely on sending a physical piece of paper?? (ie: the cheque)


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