I got a VERY interesting phone call tonight...and I'm freaked out.

[DuckHunter]

About 5:30 I get a phone call from a large polling research company asking if I could spare 7 to 8 minutes of my time to participate in a survey...so what the hell, I say yes...

Here's a sampling of some of their survey questions...

- how optimistic are you about your family's financial future?
- how optimistic are you about your community's financial future?
- how confident are you that your bank manages your assets appropriately?
- are you planning on making any major financial decisions in the next six months (mortgages, business loans, etc.)
- how optimistic are you about the economy over the next six months?
- do you have assets in a bank?
- are they protected assets?
- in the event of the BANK declaring bankruptcy, which of your assets would be protected?
- by whom would your assets be protected?
- how optimistic are you that the deposit insurers (in this case the Federal Gov't) could adequately protect all of your assets?
- which asset classes are protected?
- how knowledgeable do you consider yourself to be about the banking industry?
- how knowledgeable do you consider yourself to be about the economy?
- do you feel confident in being able to personally weather financial difficulties?

...and many more.

This was NOT a solicitation call asking me to buy bank products.  This was a legitimate survey.  Who asked the survey to be done I don't know, but I'd guess a large bank or the government.  Of course, what I gathered from the pattern of questions was that they were trying to determine the following....

ARE YOU GOING TO GO TO THE BANK AND CASH OUT IF TSHTF?

I think TPTB are very scared that a bank run is coming.  That's the only way I can explain the survey.  Needless to say, I'm freaked.

I'm interested in hearing what everyone thinks about this.  Am I just being overly paranoid?

[RMolineaux]

I am not living in the US, so I do not have contacts who could inform me about any similar surveys.  It probably was not any of the established ones like Zogby who use the internet.  Most likely it was commissioned by a banking association or the FDIC as a way of forecasting future needs for cash and transactional balances, or demand on credit cards.   The news did report on heavy withdrawals from the commercial bank subsidiary of Countrywide Financial.  There may have been others that the news has NOT told us about.   We can also expect that more people will be carrying more cash as they stop using credit cards, for whatever reason.  The banks would want to know about that to plan their own cash availability.  They have to be able to plan how much cash to put into their ATM machines, and how much to put in their tellers' cages.

[DuckHunter]

Sorry, should have stated...I live in Canada.  I should have written down the name of the survey company.  It was one I've heard of many times on the news, I just don't know how to spell it.  Does Merridge (sp?)  Research Council ring any bells?

[RMolineaux]

Sorry, can't help on that.  I don't live in Canada, but I have a bank account there.  Lately that bank has been very busy and has developed a backlog.   There are some news stories to the effect that Canadian banks have been heavily involved in the US derivatives market.  I don't doubt that you may have had some trash dumped on you.   But overall, the Canadian economy is in much better shape than the US, so you should be able to work your way out of problems more easily than the US.

[DuckHunter]

Thanks for trying to help.  Yeah, Canadian banks tried to assure everyone that they had limited exposure to the mess, then began admitting that things weren't quite as neat and tidy as they had hoped...

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/printedition/story.html?id=95b0a712-122c-4d01-a1bb-8aa44eb746ff

Nonetheless, I'm still spooked by the survey as to the tone of the questions they were asking...basically feeling me out (and I'm sure everyone else who got the same phone call), about how tuned in I was to the coming financial shitstorm and what the likelihood of my panicking was and pulling my assets out of the bank.  It was almost like the surveyor knew that the questions she was asking were likely to freak people out, so there was a tone of humor to the conversation (she laughed when I sarcastically said that I saw great things in store for the economy over the next six months and then retracted my answer with a, "no, in all seriousness, I don't feel confident in the economy". 

[great769]

 To guote Dr Jonny Fever from the show WKRP, "paranoid Is the right place to be, when everybody is out to get ya", and those pricks at the bank are out to get you and every other person, or should I say everbodies money, I would bet that whoever had that survy commsioned, has been net sellers all summer, and try are checking to see if the rest of us are still asleep, so the can sell more, without raiseing the alarm, I would bet the survey gave them the all clear.
Tom

[SaraBeth]

Sorry, should have stated...I live in Canada.  I should have written down the name of the survey company.  It was once I've heard of many times on the news, I just don't know how to spell it.  Does Merridge (sp?)  Research Council ring any bells?

*gulp*  Where in Canada? I'm in Ontario....   

[DuckHunter]

Sorry, should have stated...I live in Canada.  I should have written down the name of the survey company.  It was once I've heard of many times on the news, I just don't know how to spell it.  Does Merridge (sp?)  Research Council ring any bells?

*gulp*  Where in Canada? I'm in Ontario....   

Near Cornwall. 

[SaraBeth]

Near Cornwall. 

Oh, great. Living on a fixed income this really has me worried now...   

[Energyhog]

Man that is a scary survey.  I'd pack up everything and head for the hills. 

[coldout]

Thanks ducky now I'm freaked out. I worked in the banking industry and in BMO's marketing dept and I have never seen a survey like that before.(nothing even close) I worked in Calgary when a couple com'l banks went bust and we didn't even flinch in the banking industry just easy customers to pick-up. I was at Scotia bank yesterday doing my mother's bidding I asked to put 100k into a resource fund, they completed all the paper work and i left a few hours later i get a phone call saying the"computer" won't let them do the transaction it is to large. I tell them break it in to two 50's or 4 25's and they say we tried that it won't work. I'm thinking scotia doesn't wan't any money going into mutuals because..........they're going to rip off deposits in the near future??? They just lost a few hundred k of business come Monday.

[SabreKai]

Interesting information here. I too live in Canada. I haven't had that survey yet, maybe it will come this way.

It sure sounds like they are testing the waters to see how on the ball we are concerning the financial situation. I'd say the pucker factor just went up a few notches. Now the question becomes what to do. I'm sort of screwed, not much money in the system, living from pay check to pay check, but I think its time to take what little money I do have out of the system. Just leave enough in the bank to cover mortgage, insurance and utilities bills. Take the rest out in cash on payday and keep it at home.

Sabre

[DuckHunter]

Well, there's the rub...I had thought myself fairly knowledgeable, but the survey certainly left me wondering what exactly was insured by the CDIC...My assests certainly aren't very complicated, nor large, but which of the following are covered by the CDIC?

- Chequing account
- Savings account
- RRSP's
- RESP's

Incidentally, I bank with Royal.

[J in Canada]

freaking out just a teensy bit here, also in Ontario...

CDIC says the following:

"  What's covered:
$1 to $100,000 in...
 savings accounts
 chequing accounts
 GICs and other term deposits of 5 years or less
 money orders, certified cheques, travellers' cheques and bank drafts issued by CDIC members
 debentures issued by loan companies
 
What's not covered:   
 mutual funds and stocks
 GICs and other term deposits of more than 5 years
 money orders, certified cheques, travellers' cheques and bank drafts issued by non-CDIC members
 notes, principal protected notes,bonds and debentures issued by governments, corporations or chartered banks
 Treasury bills
 
 
CDIC insures Canadian dollar deposits only. CDIC does NOT insure U.S. dollar or other foreign currency deposits. "

What freaks me out *just a little* is that when I tried to use their "Try Me Calculator" it's not available because "a new and updated Deposit Insurance Calculator will be available soon."

 J in Canada

[DuckHunter]

"  What's covered:
$1 to $100,000 in...
 savings accounts
 chequing accounts
 GICs and other term deposits of 5 years or less
 money orders, certified cheques, travellers' cheques and bank drafts issued by CDIC members
 debentures issued by loan companies
 
What's not covered:   
 mutual funds and stocks
 GICs and other term deposits of more than 5 years
 money orders, certified cheques, travellers' cheques and bank drafts issued by non-CDIC members
 notes, principal protected notes,bonds and debentures issued by governments, corporations or chartered banks
 Treasury bills
 
 
CDIC insures Canadian dollar deposits only. CDIC does NOT insure U.S. dollar or other foreign currency deposits. "

Yep, the pollster asked me about my knowledge on all these things...so I'm wondering now if the CDIC were the one's that commissioned it.  If so, then certainly that takes the "pucker factor" up a notch as SabreKai accurately described it, because, of course, they'll be the one's on the hook if there's a run on the banks, or if the banks become insolvent.