Keep money in the bank or at home?

[bronto18]

Hi, I'm new here.

I just want to know what you think about, should we keep our money in the bank or at home? What do you guys do?

[Jason]

Why would you want to keep money at home? Are you concerned that there might be bank runs in Canada?

[bullish]

I don't keep any money at home except spare cash, and all my money are either in bank accounts or are invested in the stock markets.

[Zephyr]

I wouldn't keep my money at home, this is foolish. And what if there is a burglary? What are you going do then? Your insurance will not cover the stolen cash. I don't think there will be bank runs and the money in the bank are much safer than at home.

[Canadian]

The banks in Canada are yet to feel the pain from the slumping Canadian housing market, but I too don't think that there will be bank runs. The government will bail them out in a heartbeat if there is a problem. You can keep a couple of hundreds in cash at home, just in case of emergency. If you remember the power crisis in Toronto one summer a few years ago, the ATMs and banks didn't work, so the only way to pay for something was cash.

[trent]

The possibility that the Canadian government will bailout one or more Canadian banks doesn't mean that bank runs are not possible. Look at the Northern Rock bank run from last year, the bank run stopped only after the British authorities stepped to bail them out.

[Jason]

Another thing to consider is that if you keep your money at home or in a deposit box, they won't be working for you and they will actually lose purchasing power over time due to inflation. That said, preservation of a capital is the order of the day, so staying in cash right now seems like not a bad idea.

[trent]

I think it's wise to keep small amounts of cash at hand in case of emergencies.

[Steven]

The banks in Canada are yet to feel the pain from the slumping Canadian housing market, but I too don't think that there will be bank runs. The government will bail them out in a heartbeat if there is a problem. You can keep a couple of hundreds in cash at home, just in case of emergency. If you remember the power crisis in Toronto one summer a few years ago, the ATMs and banks didn't work, so the only way to pay for something was cash.

Yes, I remeber the power problem we had that summer. I actually went to work the day after the power outage, and my company sent me home, because none of the servers were working :).

[Ranana_veitty]

if the bank holds a deposit and you have checks come in while they are holding that deposit, what happens?? Do they cover the checks and charge you overdraft fees???

[BankAdmin]

Is somebody cashing cheques you wrote? Do you have enough funds deposited in the bank to cover all cheques you wrote?

[Steven]

It looks like Canadian banks are largely unaffected by the financial crisis worldwide, so for me it's safe to keep my money in the bank for now.