As the cost of living in Canada continues to grow, Canadians want more value and reward for their money.

Four of out five Canadians list value as their number one concern when making everyday decisions, according to a Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Account Habits poll conducted by Ipsos Reid. Simplicity (66 per cent) and convenience (64 per cent) rounded out the top 3.

Value was the most common concern when:

Buying a house	77%
Buying a car	71%
Investing	62%
Retirement planning	56%
Vacationing	44%

“[We] always take into account the unique characteristics of the marketplace when developing new products and services and certainly when we prepare local campaigns or marketing initiatives,” said Judi Levita Media Relations Manager for RBC.

In terms of what people want when they are banking, the responses were not surprising. Ninety-four per cent of those polled would like banks to offer more rewards for signing up and continuing to stay with them. Many banks do offer rewards with their Gold Visas, but not with personal accounts.

"We do these polls is to better understand the mindset and banking habits of consumers," says Chris Barber, senior manager Deposit Products. "We chose to focus on the principles of simplicity, convenience and value because they transcend banking and give us a sense of the tradeoffs people make when making a decision or a purchase.”

Poll Highlights

Across the country Canadians are looking to keep things simpler and they appreciate time saving tools such as online banking.

Of those polled:

• 91% would like to organize their life in simple ways;
• 77% love all of the convenience today's world offers;
• 75% felt that time is money; and
• 61% agreed with the statement ‘life is just too complicated today’.

Interestingly, Quebecers are the most likely in Canada to stop worrying about the small stuff (17%) or take a vacation (13%), but the least likely to retire or quit work (4%).

Incentive Programs

Recently, Bank of Montreal (BMO) began to offer a BMO Airmiles debit card, which allows card holder who have an Airmiles card to collect miles on purchase they make with the BMO card.

"Combining AIR MILES with debit cards - two concepts Canadians have widely embraced - will change the landscape of loyalty programs and encourage consumers to make the switch to BMO," said Lynne Kilpatrick, Senior Vice President, Personal Banking, BMO Bank of Montreal. "We are the only major financial institution that rewards debit purchases with a comprehensive choice of more than 800 redemption items."

TD Canada Trust is offering iPods to new customers who switch to their services before August 3. More information can be found at: https://www.tdcanadatrust.com/accounts/ipod/.

RBC is also introducing a new incentive program to consumers who are opening a new account.

“Qualifying individuals who open a new RBC Signature No Limit Banking or RBC VIP Banking account until August 31, 2007 receive a gift card worth $150 at HBC, Future Shop or Esso,” said Levita.

Finally, Eighty-nine per cent of those polled would like to get more value from their monthly account fees. Banks are making an effort to reduce costs for consumers.

“[RBC} recently launched a new line up of personal account products whereby clients are able to reduce or eliminate account fees depending on the number and combination of products and services they have with us,” said Levita.

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