Trevor Dailey's Weblog

Interest rates are pretty low right now, and that makes growing money in a bank savings account difficult, but borrowing money, and getting into debt, is easier.

When I was a young boy, I remember when interest rates were higher, and every coin I had went into my savings account at the bank, and my money grew as each coin worked for me to make more coins. Compound interest is a wonderful thing.

Have you ever thought what might have happened if you had a savings account at a bank when you were a kid, and you long ago forgot about it? Decades worth of interest! Right? Well, not exactly.

After a period of inactivity, the bank places the account in a dormant state, and the bank stops paying any interest on the balance. After a longer period of time, the funds in the dormant account are transferred to the Bank of Canada; however, this does not mean your money is gone!

Unclaimed balances

An "unclaimed balance" is a Canadian-dollar deposit or negotiable instrument, issued or held by a federally regulated bank or trust company. It can be in the form of a deposit account, bank draft, certified cheque, deposit receipt, money order, GIC, term deposit, credit card balance, or traveller's cheque.

When there has been no owner activity in relation to the balance for a period of 10 years, and the owner cannot be contacted by the institution holding it, the balance is turned over to the Bank of Canada, which acts as custodian on behalf of the owner. Balances are transferred to the Bank of Canada once a year, on 31 December.

The Bank of Canada holds unclaimed balances of less than $1,000 for thirty years, once they have been inactive for ten years at the financial institutions. Balances of $1,000 or more will be held for 100 years once transferred to the Bank of Canada.

If the balance remains unclaimed until the end of the prescribed custody period, the Bank of Canada transfers the funds to the Receiver General for Canada.

Unclaimed Balance Search

Search our unclaimed balance database

At the end of December 2013, approximately 1.4 million unclaimed balances, worth some $532 million, were on the Bank's books.
Over 93% of unclaimed balances were under $1,000.00, representing 29% of the total value outstanding. In 2013, the Bank paid out $14 million to account holders. The oldest balance dates back to 1900.

Notice

Due to the passing of Bill C-37 the following rules came into effect March 29th 2007. The Bank of Canada will now hold unclaimed balances for thirty years, once they have been inactive for ten years at the financial institutions. Therefore, balances will now be held for a total of forty years prior to being prescribed.

Only balances of less than $1,000 will be prescribed after the forty-year period. Previously the limit was less than $500.

Bank accounts fall into disuse for a number of reasons like: forgotten accounts, people move, and people die. Fortunately there is a simple way to locate these accounts, and have the money returned to their rightful owners.

You won't receive that decades worth of interest, but the money in the account still belongs to you, and whatever interest you are entitled to.

Check to see if you have any money in a forgotten old bank account. It's still your money.

© Trevor Dailey

Telemarketing and scam telephone calls can be a real problem. If you have a telephone, you will get these calls that will make you angry and frustrated. These types of calls have likely been around almost as long as the telephone has been around, and that's a long time. In the 1970s, telemarketing started as a common marketing tactic.

I have a landline telephone, I do not have a mobile/cellular telephone, so perhaps there is a call block feature on some mobile/cellular phones that makes blocking unwanted callers as easy as pressing a button. There are devices for landline telephones that will block unwanted calls. One's telephone service provider might offer a service to block unwanted calls for a fee. 

These are some things I use to deal with these annoying calls.

Call Display. Like all scam artists, and telemarketing callers, these people don't want me to know they are calling before I answer the phone. They conceal their identity from the Call Display. This makes it easy to not answer the phone. My policy is, if callers are not going to identify themselves when calling me, I'm not answering the phone. I don't open my door to people I don't know, and it is the same for the telephone. Strangers are not allowed. "Unknown Name" "Unknown Number" or deceptive information isn't getting answered. The call is going to the answering machine to be screened. These scam or telemarketing calls are almost always long distance calls, so they are easy to spot.

The Hold/Mute Button. I find this very useful. I pick up the handset, I then immediately press the hold or mute button on the phone, and then hang up the reciever. The caller hears nothing on the line. It sounds like a dead line to the caller. When the caller hangs up, my phone is ready to receive the next call.

Pick Up And Hang Up. Occasionally, I will pick up the receiver, and I will immediately hang up on the caller.

The Answer Beep. Sometimes, I will pick up the handset, and I will keep one of the phone buttons pressed for a moment before hanging up.

The Pick Up And Listen. If I am unsure who the caller is, and I want to try to find out, I might pick up the handset, but not say anything. If it is someone I know, I will recognized the voice when the caller always says "Hello?". If I don't know the voice, I stay silent until the caller hangs up, or I hang up on the caller.

Listen To This. I'll play the radio into the receiver, or something from my computer, for moment or two before hanging up. My favourite is the Environment Canada Weather broadcast, espeically when it is the French part of the broadcast.  

In Canada, the National Do Not Call List is helpful when it is respected by people who don't break the rules. Criminals usually do not care about the laws they break, especially if the punishment is light or the chances of getting caught are slim. The Do Not Call List does nothing to prevent scammers from calling. Another important point is, there are exceptions to the Do Not Call rules, and I still receive unwanted calls from certain callers, or those telemarketers who do not follow the rules. The Do Not Call List may reduce unwanted phone calls, but it does not eliminate all unwanted phone calls. For more information on scams visit the Canadian Anti Fraud Centre.

I keep a growing list of scam, telemarketing, and other unwanted callers next to my telephone.

© Trevor Dailey

Carrot sticks with peanut butter. This is surprisingly good. I just spread on the peanut butter. It is easy, and it tastes good.

Apples slices with peanut butter. This is not as good as the carrot sticks and peanut butter, but it is good enough. I am still experimenting with different types of apples to get the right taste combination.

Tea sweetened with apple juice. I got this idea when I did not have any sugar left. One must get the right amount of apple juice for it to taste just the way it should. This is another one I am experimenting with. It has probably been done before.

Blender tea. I drink a lot of tea, and I have a blender. Sooner or later, the two were bound to meet. Plain regular black tea, sugar and milk to taste. I use powdered milk, and a few seconds in the blender. It makes a frothy drink that tastes different than regular made tea. It is my version of a tea drink likely already invented.

I do not have a name for this one. Rice, dry beans, and mixed vegetables. I cook rice in a rice cooker, a simply amazing invention, and add a can or two of marinaded mixed cooked dry beans. I will sometimes add more canned cooked dry beans. I add some cooked frozen mixed vegetables, beans (green, Lima), carrots, corn, peas, and mix it all up. This is great because I can add different things to it to create different versions. I might add a can of diced tomatoes, some chopped meat, for example. I have made this so many times, it really does not have a standard way of making it, but I always have rice and beans in it. Mixing what ingredients one has to create something is nothing new, people have been doing it for centuries.

Bread Machine Bread. The home bread machine is another amazing invention. A simple white bread 1½ loaf that I have been experimenting with by adding cocoa and or Ovaltine® to the recipe mix. So far, it is pretty good. I am having a problem of late getting the loaf to rise fully. I am not certain what is going wrong. The loaf should rise higher. It still needs some more experimenting. A few more tests.

Slow Cooker Concoction. The slow cooker is another amazing invention. It is so easy to use, and versatile. I can't burn the food, or set anything on fire while cooking. It is ironic that something that cooks food so slowly can save so much of one's time. Put in the ingredients, turn it on, come back in a few hours, and the meal is ready to eat. Potatoes, pork side strips, and rice. Pork side strips look like bacon strips, but they are thicker, and they don't become crisp and smaller when cooked. I put the pork and potatoes in the slow cooker, and I cook them for about 8 to 9 hours. Meat in a slow cooker produces lots of juice and that is what I want. At the end of the slow cooker cooking, I remove the potatoes, add the rice and mix it up. The rice adsorbs all that juice. I cut up the potatoes before adding them back in. It needs more ingredients, but it is a start.

© Trevor Dailey

***OPEN***

Morning. Man shown sitting on edge of bed wearing bed clothes. Small austere room. Man shown in despair. Reaches and opens nightstand drawer. Removes revolver. Breaks gun open. Retrieves single cartridge from drawer. Loads cartridge into gun. Closes gun. Holds empty palm face up, and with a sweeping motion, spins the cylinder down his palm and off his finger tips.

Nightstand shown. Rhyme, 'Solomon Grundy' is seen, but only title is clear. Calendar is seen, but date is not.

Man purposely places end of the barrel of revolver to rest against his temple. Pauses, closes eyes. Trigger is slowly squeeezed. Hammer slowly draws back. Pause. Hammer falls with a click sound. Opens eyes. Man showing no relief from despair, breaks open gun, removes cartridge, and replaces both gun and cartridge into drawer. Closes drawer. Stands up, and walks out of scene shot.

Full text of rhyme shown. Calender date shown as 'Friday'.

**CLOSE***

© Trevor Dailey