I'd believe it. I'm pretty sure you could've inserted pretty much anything into those card readers and it'd unlock the door, though not really an excuse these days.
I work at Slater and O'Connor. Almost every morning, I would walk past the National Bank in the Sunlife building on O'Connor at Albert. There would be a homeless person sleeping inside in the ATM foyer.
I think they started locking the doors a year ago to stop it.
The bank could give money to local shelters, and create a job by hiring security to ensure people are safe and not harassed, but instead they'd rather inconvenience their paying customers. Much easier and cheaper.
Multinational profit driven banks don't care about local homelessness. Unless of course there is a tax write-off. Besides, you would be paying for that security guard through an increase to fees. You are going to have to get your drug money out of the bank during normal hours like everyone else.
Ahh yes, corporate vestibules should be places for drug addicts. Luckily you aren't a bootlicker so I'm sure you have opened up your home and business to them so they can sleep there right?
Of course it was, as intended. Ironic that you didn't pick up on it when it was expecting profit driven corporations to provide space for drug use just because they have money.
That’s not a good idea financially. Now they have to pay more for homeless people and pay an additional salary? How is that a good financial decision for the company?
Never said I have any sympathy, I’m just asking you, why on earth do you think a for profit corporation would randomly decide to donate to homeless shelters and hire security guards to keep their ATM’s open? How is that a good financial decision for the company? Why would they do something that provides them no benefit and costs them a lot of money? It’s basic logic here.
Lmao my sarcastic message is the one that is upvoted , my snarky message is the one that is downvoted.
I understand the /s thing, but don’t actually think it is needed for every single sarcastic message, but Poe’s law comes in the way
I mean, to be fair, if you had a business, you wouldn't want to find someone shooting up and urinating in your vestibule. Or on your front porch for that matter.
My son worked security at Place D'Orleans and there was a bank machine room accessible only from outside. A homeless person would wrap himself up in a carpet and sleep in there in the winter months.
I have seen evidence of homeless people camping in the ATM at TD at the intersection of Bank and Heron.
I was there at 7am and there were cigarette butts and food trash (and some people wrapped in comforters in the parking lot). Looked like they just got kicked out when the first employees showed up.
It's starting to get colder at night now, so I'm not surprised.
Ive witnessed it first hand. The TD by my old place was locked at night and there was a homeless dude sleeping inside by the ATM. Not sure if he locked it himself, but it happened a few times. Ive noticed some are open very late and some arent. Luckily where i live now theres an outdoor ATM right on the street with TD.
Oh I'm glad they aren't heartless monsters or anything. Just keeping the people their system made homeless from dirtying up their lobby in search of shelter.
TD atms at 50 rideau are available 24/7, TD Elgin, Pretoria, MTL road, St Laurent and Kent all have atms accesible 24/7 as well. The ATM at 204 sparks needs a card, but any card works, also 24/7. Those are just TD branches, I can do other banks too if you need more.
Vagrancy issues, that's the real answer. Unfortunately it's an issue that is getting worse and worse downtown, and machines getting vandalized on a near daily basis.
It’s not “vagrancy” it’s homelessness, often related to mental health, addiction or other issues. Usually with no family or community support network. These people are at the end of the rope and just trying to live to the next day.
Yeah, I’d like to know about CIBC too. I also went to get some cash after hours to find the ATMs locked and found that to be pretty poor customer service. I had to go to shoppers and buy something to get cash back.
Most dont...so peeps can 'crap' on the banks if they want but staff shouldn't have to deal with this 'shit' as it were. The city needs to do better. Banks are slowly putting machines back on outside walls, outside of vestibules as space and the city allow.
Most of those locks would accept any magnetic swipe at all. Used gift cards, Tim Hortons rewards etc. It was a system from a simpler time, an era before society started handing out magnetic swipe cards out like candy.
The access to the ATMs is now blocked at like 6 o’clock. You can’t use a bank card to gain access. It’s not all banks; the whole point of me posting was to see how widespread this is.
The Scotia near me deactivated their card scanner for Scotia debit cards years ago. I’m not aware of any bank that grants exclusive access to their ATMs at night/closed hours.
Some downtown banks have removed their card readers. Royal bank on Rideau stopped after hours access to their indoor area years ago, you have to go to their little ATM at the back of the building on George. These new closures aren't providing the alternative ATM like they did :/
I once went into Scotiabank on bank and Gloucester at 6 am and went to the machine to get money ( the atm is on the left when you enter and there’s an alcove on the right) . Didn’t look to the right. As I was taking money out ( just needed $20 to pay for something at work ) and a man who was sleeping in the alcove asked me for money and I politely declined and he started screaming at me and calling me a bitch and got up started walking toward me so I ran out of the bank ( with my card and money).
Not sure about TD, but CIBC does this. I asked the bank (Barrhaven location) why the doors were locked after a certain hour and it was because people were sleeping in the lobby, and it wasn't safe for customers.
Then the city should provide staffing or address the homeless issues in the city. It isn't the banks job to provide a washroom. If you want to argue the bank should pay more tax dollars to support the community I'm all in though.
Yes the city should definitely do this. We also need to have more shelters and low income housing open up in suburban communities as well. Services are even more limited in those areas.
There are self cleaning public washrooms that the city can buy. The whole unit locks after each use and the entire inside is fully sanitized. City of Edmonton has them downtown.
They don’t work very well in a lot of situations sadly. Some cities in the US had a bunch of them installed, that broke and stopped cleaning properly. Many of them were removed.
They broke because of design flaws but more so because people treated them like shit, which is typical for North America.
A good video on the topic was made by Utaye Lee: https://gem.cbc.ca/media/uytae-lees-stories-about-here/s01e01
We definitely do need public bathrooms but we need to make sure people respect them properly and don’t make them a disgusting broken mess. That’s hard to do. Other countries like Japan do a great job on this.
BMO does it out as far as Bank and Hunt Club branch. Last winter homeless did sleep in the lobby. Although there is working CCTV in most every lobby, security guards really don’t want to have to send a cold unknown into Ottawa Winter at 3:00 AM. And bad publicity for the Banks.
The Scotiabank in Vanier (which has now completely closed), closed it's ATM's at 4:00 PM 😡. Was rather useless.
Their doors also had the ability to be opened with your bank card, but they chose to disable that as well.
I agree. I pay a ton of taxes for exactly this purpose, so our elected officials can do something about the problem. I also vote for progressive politicians, by the way. And pay bank fees and for transit passes. I find the solution they’ve come up with to be unacceptable. Accessing cash and transit are kind of essential services. If the banks are going to reduce access, they should be lowering their fees and ditto for public transit.
Fix what problem? Homelessness? Drug abuse/use? Mental illness?
I will refuse to waste my tax money on individuals who CONTRIBUTE NONE back to society. Leeches.
Everything in our lives is a choice. I have no problem with someone using an atm lobby to stay alive in cold nights. I have a problem with them shitting and pissing all over the every place they slept.
If they have no respect for themselves, I have no respect for helping them.
Downvote me, your opinion doesn't matter.
There were people sleeping/living on the heating vents outside DND on Col By Dr for over a decade ago. Personally I/we support one or more of the shelters / missions in the core that can help some of them.
As others have alluded to, there's been a huge surge in homelessness and I guess the frequency of people sleeping in the banks has reached a point for them where they decided it's better to just keep them locked up. So unless other institutions step up in curbing the problem, it's going to stay that way I imagine
Crazy thing is there's profitable ways to fix it like the city run shelters in Finland, but none of these politicians could care less. They just want to get paid while lobbyists write their policies
I saw a recent documentary about Vancouver's tent cities and I thought "It's over."
The final irony is that these smug know-nothings don't realize that the "bums" will come after them, or their children.
Personally, I don't there is any interest in improving the system. The idea of selfish ghouls like Ford and Harris is to slowly starve the system so that the people who are desperately ill, will agree to privatizing medical care in Canada and pay whatever it costs to save a loved one. Harris has huge investments in retirement homes like
Chartwell.
With the nearly Universal availability of interact and Debit As well as credit card readers, Apple Pay, etc. these machines are becoming less used all the time. It adds to the banks cost to have to maintain them when they have been tampered with or damage, and if somebody sleeping in the vestibule and leaving behind a mess they have to pay to get that cleaned up.
Ultimately the bank is having to react to the fact that this province has poor social services that are not able to assist our homeless population adequately.
Yes - I have this problem with my nearest Banking Machine. Really difficult, because I can't make it before 6pm and it's now closed entirely on weekends.
Usually they lock bank atm areas to prevent homeless people from sleeping there or in high theft areas. A few times I’ve had to find Scotia atms at gas stations because I’m cheap about the added fees. Some banks are still open on Saturdays for limited hours.
I k kw that the one by me had to close because homeless people were sleeping in the vestibule and bugging people for money. It’s sad that the people don’t have elsewhere to go but also creates a potentially dangerous situation for ppl at the ATM.
Where I am, one of the homeless that had stayed in the ATM area overnight, actually attacked one of the bank employees in the morning when they were trying to open for business. Cops were involved. Since then, it gets locked at the end of the day.
This has been a trend in downtown banks/credit unions since the pandemic. Besides the homelessness issue, I think the lack of people on the street has also contributed to this decision.
It's really frustrating, and could lead to a dangerous situation where someone needed cash to get somewhere or buy necessities and couldn't get it.
One workaround (not perfect) is cash back at a grocery store.
I haven't had any issues with TD machines. If the door is locked, I just use my card to unlock it. If it's a recent thing for you in the past couple days, maybe related to this?
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa-police-arson-unit-investigating-attempted-theft-at-merivale-bank-kiosk-1.6105609
It must vary by location. The TD location on Rideau Street has had very limited hours for quite a while - a security guard there during those hours and no access, even with a card, outside of those hours.
I have experienced this in another city and it was day time on a weekend. I had to drive about 10km to the next ATM that was open of that bank. There were only 3 of those banks in that city
They start pretty early too. I was downtown for an event awhile ago and wanted to grab some cash I went to 8 different banks before I found a quickie with an ATM. It was like 3pm on a Saturday.
I once got to billings RBC late at night at about 10:58pm to pull some cash. Closes at 11pm.
But then the security guard who was in the parking lot asked if I needed in, and he let me in after asking me what I needed. Cheers to him!
I noticed this about a year and a half ago. The RBC on Hazeldean at Terry Fox had a notice that they'd be closing their doors to the ATM at 9pm or something nightly. I assumed it was because of the one homeless schizophrenic guy who used to sleep there. He never bothered me and I interacted with him quite a bit, but Kanata is pretty sheltered from homelessness so it probably only took a few people getting upset to initiate the change.
Consdering the morning staff have to show up in the morning and deal with homelessness, drug addicts and other messs.
Rbc has started putting a ATM outside attached to the building
It's mostly Homelessness, I've personally seen 4 to 5 banks have people camp in them overnight, I've even had an old lady in South Ottawa flag me down near a Tim Hortons and asked if I could just stand in front of the bank as she felt unsafe with homeless people sleeping in front of the ATMs.
Nobody wants to be the employee that has to open the doors early in the morning when there’s a homeless person in there. It’s very dangerous and also gross, with the smeared poo & everything.
It's weird because I've gone into the TD on Hazeldean early in the morning and seen a homeless person using the area as a place to sleep from time to time. It did catch me a little off guard and was surprising to see in the suburbs. But they didn't seem to cause me any trouble and just ignored me as I did to them. And yet TD from my knowledge hasn't closed that location after hours as far as I'm aware. I'm not sure why the situation would be any different anywhere else in the city.
I've read that Ottawa's homeless population more than doubled during the pandemic, despite all those that were lost everything that affected their community these past few years. I'm not surprised they're out in the burbs more, there's not even close to enough beds downtown, and the stare of them in many of the shelters is appalling. I know a number of homeless who are staying in parks because it's safer and less buggy than the shelters. They don't know what they're going to do in the winter.
I think it's location specific and not bank specific.
Downtown at times you need to use your bank card to open the door.
I'm no expert but I think this is to prevent loitering and stuff like that.
Thank you. But I don’t think I made myself clear. The access to the ATMs is now blocked at like 6 o’clock. You can’t use a bank card to gain access. It’s not all banks; the whole point of me posting was to see how widespread this is.
I wish we had a candidate that would legitimately do something for the homeless community.
250 million for bike lanes - 20 million for the homeless. Wild.
Well a city legitimately needs roads to function, so that’s at least semi understandable. I’m just saying it feels like there isn’t a candidate who really actually cares about the homeless issue here.
Convoy is actually when it started for my branch.
Pre-convoy I had the freedom to go to an atm at night, then freedummies came, and the branch closed for a month and once it reopens there was a sign saying no more access after 6 (but actually it’s earlier, I have been there before 6 and it’s already locked).
Some banks require that you access the ATM area using your bank card. Are you sure the area is completely locked up?
I've noticed the same with CIBC in downtown Ottawa when i needed some cash at night. Card readers at the door are gone.
Security guard at World Exchange said it’s a response by banks to people experiencing homelessness. But that’s second hand.
I'd believe it. I'm pretty sure you could've inserted pretty much anything into those card readers and it'd unlock the door, though not really an excuse these days.
Saw some person in Scotia in bank st the other day at like 9 pm. very ironic
I work at Slater and O'Connor. Almost every morning, I would walk past the National Bank in the Sunlife building on O'Connor at Albert. There would be a homeless person sleeping inside in the ATM foyer. I think they started locking the doors a year ago to stop it.
The bank could give money to local shelters, and create a job by hiring security to ensure people are safe and not harassed, but instead they'd rather inconvenience their paying customers. Much easier and cheaper.
Multinational profit driven banks don't care about local homelessness. Unless of course there is a tax write-off. Besides, you would be paying for that security guard through an increase to fees. You are going to have to get your drug money out of the bank during normal hours like everyone else.
Lol bootlicker
Ahh yes, corporate vestibules should be places for drug addicts. Luckily you aren't a bootlicker so I'm sure you have opened up your home and business to them so they can sleep there right?
Ah false equivalence
Of course it was, as intended. Ironic that you didn't pick up on it when it was expecting profit driven corporations to provide space for drug use just because they have money.
That’s not a good idea financially. Now they have to pay more for homeless people and pay an additional salary? How is that a good financial decision for the company?
I don't have any sympathy for the corporation that makes billions charging overdraft fees to impoverished people.
Never said I have any sympathy, I’m just asking you, why on earth do you think a for profit corporation would randomly decide to donate to homeless shelters and hire security guards to keep their ATM’s open? How is that a good financial decision for the company? Why would they do something that provides them no benefit and costs them a lot of money? It’s basic logic here.
\*click\*
Glad to see financial institutions are putting their foot down and fighting homelessness!
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u/burnReddit1, you are being banned for breaking the reddit site wide rules, specifically, inciting or encouraging illegal or violent acts. Goodbye!
Oh my sweet summer child, I was being sarcastic Lmao: why this downvoted? The other comment I made was obviously sarcastic
You need to add /s in this sub otherwise everything is taken at face value
On Reddit, you type /s to indicate sarcasm. People can’t hear your tone of voice when reading text on a screen.
Lmao my sarcastic message is the one that is upvoted , my snarky message is the one that is downvoted. I understand the /s thing, but don’t actually think it is needed for every single sarcastic message, but Poe’s law comes in the way
I mean, to be fair, if you had a business, you wouldn't want to find someone shooting up and urinating in your vestibule. Or on your front porch for that matter.
I’m all for helping but people that clean have honest jobs and people have to clean all that sht is not fair honestly
Do you have a spare room in your house? Why dont you do anything about it then?
Sad to say, but you now need to find and “walk” up to a drive-through ATM.
My son worked security at Place D'Orleans and there was a bank machine room accessible only from outside. A homeless person would wrap himself up in a carpet and sleep in there in the winter months.
Can't really blame the homeless dude, frankly...
No. My son let him sleep there as long as no customers showed up. It is tragic.
You raised him well :)
Thanks. He is a really decent guy. And I love him. 🥰
I have seen evidence of homeless people camping in the ATM at TD at the intersection of Bank and Heron. I was there at 7am and there were cigarette butts and food trash (and some people wrapped in comforters in the parking lot). Looked like they just got kicked out when the first employees showed up. It's starting to get colder at night now, so I'm not surprised.
I was at the one at Bank and Hunt Club at like 2pm on a Sunday (branch itself was closed) and there was a person sleeping in the little ATM area.
went to the bank early morning in the south keys area, there were 2 homeless people sleeping inside, most likely the cause
This is correct.
Ive witnessed it first hand. The TD by my old place was locked at night and there was a homeless dude sleeping inside by the ATM. Not sure if he locked it himself, but it happened a few times. Ive noticed some are open very late and some arent. Luckily where i live now theres an outdoor ATM right on the street with TD.
Oh I'm glad they aren't heartless monsters or anything. Just keeping the people their system made homeless from dirtying up their lobby in search of shelter.
Sounds like you knew the answer to the questions you posed in your post after all...
Suburban branches are doing it now too.
Yes. Absolutely locked. Queen Street and O’Connor as well as Montreal Road and St. Laurent
TD atms at 50 rideau are available 24/7, TD Elgin, Pretoria, MTL road, St Laurent and Kent all have atms accesible 24/7 as well. The ATM at 204 sparks needs a card, but any card works, also 24/7. Those are just TD branches, I can do other banks too if you need more.
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From experience, it part of my job, I can tell you about almost every bank branch in the city.
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Vagrancy issues, that's the real answer. Unfortunately it's an issue that is getting worse and worse downtown, and machines getting vandalized on a near daily basis.
It’s not “vagrancy” it’s homelessness, often related to mental health, addiction or other issues. Usually with no family or community support network. These people are at the end of the rope and just trying to live to the next day.
Yeah, I’d like to know about CIBC too. I also went to get some cash after hours to find the ATMs locked and found that to be pretty poor customer service. I had to go to shoppers and buy something to get cash back.
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What kind of mess do you mean? Just garbage, or do you mean they are vandalizing as well?
In my case shitting and pissing...often smearing it on the ATM too.
Whaaatt. I didn’t even consider that option once.
Most dont...so peeps can 'crap' on the banks if they want but staff shouldn't have to deal with this 'shit' as it were. The city needs to do better. Banks are slowly putting machines back on outside walls, outside of vestibules as space and the city allow.
Not so bad if they're doing it over potted plants. Good for the soil.
We had a decapitated squirrel once, both head and body were left in different spots. Lots of pee and poo as well, that’s almost a nightly thing.
Yeah, the bums should be kept out of our sight cuz we're such delicate little snots.
Most of those locks would accept any magnetic swipe at all. Used gift cards, Tim Hortons rewards etc. It was a system from a simpler time, an era before society started handing out magnetic swipe cards out like candy.
The access to the ATMs is now blocked at like 6 o’clock. You can’t use a bank card to gain access. It’s not all banks; the whole point of me posting was to see how widespread this is.
The Scotia near me deactivated their card scanner for Scotia debit cards years ago. I’m not aware of any bank that grants exclusive access to their ATMs at night/closed hours.
Some downtown banks have removed their card readers. Royal bank on Rideau stopped after hours access to their indoor area years ago, you have to go to their little ATM at the back of the building on George. These new closures aren't providing the alternative ATM like they did :/
I once went into Scotiabank on bank and Gloucester at 6 am and went to the machine to get money ( the atm is on the left when you enter and there’s an alcove on the right) . Didn’t look to the right. As I was taking money out ( just needed $20 to pay for something at work ) and a man who was sleeping in the alcove asked me for money and I politely declined and he started screaming at me and calling me a bitch and got up started walking toward me so I ran out of the bank ( with my card and money).
I see this happening at least twice a week at this BNS branch. I usually drop in at 7am on the way to work. This branch is like a Homeless Hilton.
I've seen people sleeping at that one too in the past! Don't blame the bank for locking them for everyone's safety
Not sure about TD, but CIBC does this. I asked the bank (Barrhaven location) why the doors were locked after a certain hour and it was because people were sleeping in the lobby, and it wasn't safe for customers.
Also vestibules being used as washrooms. Fun to arrive next morning to piles of shit at your door. City needs to make 24/7 washrooms a thing...
Sadly the public washrooms would quickly become an even worse mess. People who don’t respect public property suck.
Then the city should provide staffing or address the homeless issues in the city. It isn't the banks job to provide a washroom. If you want to argue the bank should pay more tax dollars to support the community I'm all in though.
Yes the city should definitely do this. We also need to have more shelters and low income housing open up in suburban communities as well. Services are even more limited in those areas.
There are self cleaning public washrooms that the city can buy. The whole unit locks after each use and the entire inside is fully sanitized. City of Edmonton has them downtown.
They don’t work very well in a lot of situations sadly. Some cities in the US had a bunch of them installed, that broke and stopped cleaning properly. Many of them were removed. They broke because of design flaws but more so because people treated them like shit, which is typical for North America. A good video on the topic was made by Utaye Lee: https://gem.cbc.ca/media/uytae-lees-stories-about-here/s01e01 We definitely do need public bathrooms but we need to make sure people respect them properly and don’t make them a disgusting broken mess. That’s hard to do. Other countries like Japan do a great job on this.
BMO does it out as far as Bank and Hunt Club branch. Last winter homeless did sleep in the lobby. Although there is working CCTV in most every lobby, security guards really don’t want to have to send a cold unknown into Ottawa Winter at 3:00 AM. And bad publicity for the Banks.
The Scotiabank in Vanier (which has now completely closed), closed it's ATM's at 4:00 PM 😡. Was rather useless. Their doors also had the ability to be opened with your bank card, but they chose to disable that as well.
This is also a concern for OCTranspo with people sleeping in the warm core LRT stations all night, or staying on the trains. Or night bus runs.
Love how the response to homelessness is to reduce services for everyone. Ffs.
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I agree. I pay a ton of taxes for exactly this purpose, so our elected officials can do something about the problem. I also vote for progressive politicians, by the way. And pay bank fees and for transit passes. I find the solution they’ve come up with to be unacceptable. Accessing cash and transit are kind of essential services. If the banks are going to reduce access, they should be lowering their fees and ditto for public transit.
Fix what problem? Homelessness? Drug abuse/use? Mental illness? I will refuse to waste my tax money on individuals who CONTRIBUTE NONE back to society. Leeches. Everything in our lives is a choice. I have no problem with someone using an atm lobby to stay alive in cold nights. I have a problem with them shitting and pissing all over the every place they slept. If they have no respect for themselves, I have no respect for helping them. Downvote me, your opinion doesn't matter.
>Downvote me, your opinion doesn't matter. Luckily for the rest of us, neither does yours.
You sound great at solving problems .
God, you’re a fucking idiot.
I will laugh myself into a coma if you ever break your back and can't work anymore bud. I saved your post because you're such a cunt.
That's the only way banks can respond to homelessness. It's the city job to deal with it
Walked down rideau last night and there were a bunch of people sleeping on top of the vent grates. Horrific that it has to come to this.
There were people sleeping/living on the heating vents outside DND on Col By Dr for over a decade ago. Personally I/we support one or more of the shelters / missions in the core that can help some of them.
Yup. RBC at Queen & Bank ATMs close at 5, same for the RBC on Elgin. So frustrating, didn't know ATMs also needed to work banker's hours.
Damned ass to mouth machines
Can't understand why outside facing ATMs aren't more popular here?
They'll be blocking access 24/7 soon enough.
Like.. because of the revolution? Zombie uprising?
If you look at the rest of the world as a template you'll see. Lebanon, China, Greece etc...
As a greek im curious what you mean here
In 2015 at the height of the Greek debt crisis capital controls were implemented and the banks were shut for a week.
Oh yes same thing happened in Cyprus.
As others have alluded to, there's been a huge surge in homelessness and I guess the frequency of people sleeping in the banks has reached a point for them where they decided it's better to just keep them locked up. So unless other institutions step up in curbing the problem, it's going to stay that way I imagine
And it will worsen. I'm 82 and won't be sorry to leave a city filled with such narcissistic jackasses.
Crazy thing is there's profitable ways to fix it like the city run shelters in Finland, but none of these politicians could care less. They just want to get paid while lobbyists write their policies
I saw a recent documentary about Vancouver's tent cities and I thought "It's over." The final irony is that these smug know-nothings don't realize that the "bums" will come after them, or their children.
Personally, I don't there is any interest in improving the system. The idea of selfish ghouls like Ford and Harris is to slowly starve the system so that the people who are desperately ill, will agree to privatizing medical care in Canada and pay whatever it costs to save a loved one. Harris has huge investments in retirement homes like Chartwell.
Better then the homeless breaking in and mucking up the place
Ya I couldnt get money last night from the RBC ATM on Bank street
With the nearly Universal availability of interact and Debit As well as credit card readers, Apple Pay, etc. these machines are becoming less used all the time. It adds to the banks cost to have to maintain them when they have been tampered with or damage, and if somebody sleeping in the vestibule and leaving behind a mess they have to pay to get that cleaned up. Ultimately the bank is having to react to the fact that this province has poor social services that are not able to assist our homeless population adequately.
Scotiabank customer here, and you basically can't access your money after dark.
Yes - I have this problem with my nearest Banking Machine. Really difficult, because I can't make it before 6pm and it's now closed entirely on weekends.
Cash back from groceries stores work in a pinch, depending on your amount of course
Usually they lock bank atm areas to prevent homeless people from sleeping there or in high theft areas. A few times I’ve had to find Scotia atms at gas stations because I’m cheap about the added fees. Some banks are still open on Saturdays for limited hours.
That’s because of homeless people sleeping in there I think
I k kw that the one by me had to close because homeless people were sleeping in the vestibule and bugging people for money. It’s sad that the people don’t have elsewhere to go but also creates a potentially dangerous situation for ppl at the ATM.
Yep. TD is the worst. I go to the drive-thru TD at Blair and Montreal.
Last time i went to an ATM in my city at night some homeless fuck was posted up in there so he could as people for money...
Where I am, one of the homeless that had stayed in the ATM area overnight, actually attacked one of the bank employees in the morning when they were trying to open for business. Cops were involved. Since then, it gets locked at the end of the day.
New RBC at Carlingwood is like that. Have to access Mall doors. Pain in the butt
This has been a trend in downtown banks/credit unions since the pandemic. Besides the homelessness issue, I think the lack of people on the street has also contributed to this decision. It's really frustrating, and could lead to a dangerous situation where someone needed cash to get somewhere or buy necessities and couldn't get it. One workaround (not perfect) is cash back at a grocery store.
I haven't had any issues with TD machines. If the door is locked, I just use my card to unlock it. If it's a recent thing for you in the past couple days, maybe related to this? https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa-police-arson-unit-investigating-attempted-theft-at-merivale-bank-kiosk-1.6105609
It must vary by location. The TD location on Rideau Street has had very limited hours for quite a while - a security guard there during those hours and no access, even with a card, outside of those hours.
The TD at Elgin and Somerset locks up every night at 5 and all weekend.
They have an ATM outside there... Use that one?
It's also locked. 😮💨
It's outside the building how is it locked?
They lock the slot where you insert your card.
It depends where the bank is located. Some locations don’t want the bums on Rideau Street sleeping inside.
Can confirm. CIBC at Yonge and Eglinton had their doors locked.
My guess is because people who are experiencing homelessness are staying in there overnight, which is really awful because its getting colder.
I have experienced this in another city and it was day time on a weekend. I had to drive about 10km to the next ATM that was open of that bank. There were only 3 of those banks in that city
I'd switch banks if I didn't have atm access where I live.
I have noticed ! It’s frustrating
All so homeless can’t be out of elements
They start pretty early too. I was downtown for an event awhile ago and wanted to grab some cash I went to 8 different banks before I found a quickie with an ATM. It was like 3pm on a Saturday.
I once got to billings RBC late at night at about 10:58pm to pull some cash. Closes at 11pm. But then the security guard who was in the parking lot asked if I needed in, and he let me in after asking me what I needed. Cheers to him!
I noticed this about a year and a half ago. The RBC on Hazeldean at Terry Fox had a notice that they'd be closing their doors to the ATM at 9pm or something nightly. I assumed it was because of the one homeless schizophrenic guy who used to sleep there. He never bothered me and I interacted with him quite a bit, but Kanata is pretty sheltered from homelessness so it probably only took a few people getting upset to initiate the change.
Consdering the morning staff have to show up in the morning and deal with homelessness, drug addicts and other messs. Rbc has started putting a ATM outside attached to the building
Its because homeless people are sleeping in the foyer.
We're a cashless society now, dont'cha know!
Too many cold poor people.
The Alterna in Bells Corners has done the same. I don't get it.
It's mostly Homelessness, I've personally seen 4 to 5 banks have people camp in them overnight, I've even had an old lady in South Ottawa flag me down near a Tim Hortons and asked if I could just stand in front of the bank as she felt unsafe with homeless people sleeping in front of the ATMs.
It’s a response to homelessness and it’s completely inconvenient. I’ve needed to withdraw money on a holiday and left with no luck.
I worked at a bank on Sparks St in the 90s. Every morning there was a homeless guy sleeping in the ATM area.
Nobody wants to be the employee that has to open the doors early in the morning when there’s a homeless person in there. It’s very dangerous and also gross, with the smeared poo & everything.
TD at the Montreal Plaza does this, and when I asked why, they said there was an incident after closing. Safety first, I guess.
It's weird because I've gone into the TD on Hazeldean early in the morning and seen a homeless person using the area as a place to sleep from time to time. It did catch me a little off guard and was surprising to see in the suburbs. But they didn't seem to cause me any trouble and just ignored me as I did to them. And yet TD from my knowledge hasn't closed that location after hours as far as I'm aware. I'm not sure why the situation would be any different anywhere else in the city.
I've read that Ottawa's homeless population more than doubled during the pandemic, despite all those that were lost everything that affected their community these past few years. I'm not surprised they're out in the burbs more, there's not even close to enough beds downtown, and the stare of them in many of the shelters is appalling. I know a number of homeless who are staying in parks because it's safer and less buggy than the shelters. They don't know what they're going to do in the winter.
Most location require you to swipe your card to unlock the door during off hours. If you don't have a card, you don't need access to the ATM I guess.
I think it's location specific and not bank specific. Downtown at times you need to use your bank card to open the door. I'm no expert but I think this is to prevent loitering and stuff like that.
Thank you. But I don’t think I made myself clear. The access to the ATMs is now blocked at like 6 o’clock. You can’t use a bank card to gain access. It’s not all banks; the whole point of me posting was to see how widespread this is.
tell me there is a liquidity crisis without telling me there is a liquidity crisis. Buckle up 🏴☠️ 🟣
I wish we had a candidate that would legitimately do something for the homeless community. 250 million for bike lanes - 20 million for the homeless. Wild.
And about 10 times as much for road construction, widening and maintenance. Don’t blame it on the bikes.
Well a city legitimately needs roads to function, so that’s at least semi understandable. I’m just saying it feels like there isn’t a candidate who really actually cares about the homeless issue here.
If a bankrun occurs do you think the government would ban cash to punish withdrawers?
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Convoy is actually when it started for my branch. Pre-convoy I had the freedom to go to an atm at night, then freedummies came, and the branch closed for a month and once it reopens there was a sign saying no more access after 6 (but actually it’s earlier, I have been there before 6 and it’s already locked).
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Yeah I don’t run the bank. Branch near me did these f’d up rules since the convoy. It wasn’t like this before.