Month: May 2026

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You gotta fight… to protect your money

As a child of the 80s I love the Beastie Boys- Sabotage, No Sleep Til Brooklyn, and of course the classic You Gotta Fight for Your Right (to party) are anthems for me.

With apologies to the Beastie Boys, a situation the other day reminded me that you also gotta fight to protect your money. My family works hard to earn our money- I assume you do too- and so we need to watch it doesn’t get nibbled away by companies looking to pad their bottom line.

I was surprised at a recent bill from Rogers. We’re on a promo for $70/month internet, but our bill came in at $140. I checked our paperwork, the promo was supposed to run until next year so clearly something had gone wrong. I called to find out what had happened- it turns out that they ran the payment on an old credit card and unsurprisingly the payment was declined. We had updated the card info and ensured a payment was made before the due date and had figured everything was ok.

Wrong! Rogers decided to charge us a $70 NSF fee even though the payment was made on-time and it was their choice to run a card payment well in advance of the due date. I was shocked that a company would charge such a high NSF fee, especially as they don’t incur any actual costs for a non-payment.

While I didn’t want to take it out on the lovely lady helping me on the phone, there was also no way I was going to accept this- time to fight for my money. I pointed out we had made the payment before the due date, that we were a client in good standing, and then asked them to reverse the charge. No drama, it took 30 seconds for Rogers to agree to credit the amount against our next bill.

Rogers isn’t alone in playing these kinds of games. Hidden fees, billing errors, and charges that only get resolved when you push back — it’s more common than it should be. One area I see often: bank fees. Over the course of a year, these can quietly add up to $200 or more. Keeping that money in your pocket is as simple as switching to no-fee banking. We use Cambrian here in Manitoba, but many credit unions offer fee-free accounts, and some banks will also waive fees if you hold a few products with them.

If you want to protect your money, with a view to building your savings rather than hand it over to a large company, here’s what I’d suggest:

  1. Review your statements monthly. Are bills processing at the right amount, or have extras snuck in? Fee increases can slide by with barely a notice and quietly turn a good deal into a bad one. Make sure refunds have come through, and for the right amount.If you see anything that is wrong, contact the company in question.
  2. If something looks wrong, contact the company. Sometimes it’s a simple mistake that gets fixed in minutes. Sometimes the error is on our side, we’re all human. If the amount is incorrect, ask for it to be corrected- ideally refunded or at least credited to your account.
  3. Escalate calmly if needed. Ask to speak with a manager, but stay composed. The people in call centres are doing their jobs within a script — they’re not the enemy. I like to ask them to explain things clearly, then repeat my understanding back in my own words. I’ll point out where their explanation doesn’t quite add up and ask them to walk me through it again. More often than not, this gets things resolved.
  4. Go to your bank or credit card if you hit a wall. I’ve had situations where a company dragged its feet on a refund — until I started a dispute with my credit card. Things moved quickly after that. Disputing a charge with your credit card is fairly straightforward; going through your bank can be trickier. And if you’re confident in your position and haven’t had luck either way, small claims court is always an option. Many companies won’t even show up, since the legal costs typically exceed the claim. Just make sure you’ve kept any correspondence and can present a clear, logical case for why you’re owed the money.

Most of the time, it really is fairly simple- just a matter of spotting an error and pointing it out. I prefer calling, since I can get resolution quickly and it’s easier to work through the nuances in real time. That said, email works well for many situations, and for anything substantial you’ll want written confirmation anyway.

Whether it’s an unjustified fee or something that hasn’t been billed correctly, keep an eye on your accounts and push back when you need to. If you wanna party, you gotta fight for your money!

-James

About James

James is the Managing Director of Creditaid, a credit counselling firm based in Winnipeg. He serves clients across western Canada, providing debt management plans and budgeting and money management advice. He enjoys going to bat for his clients against banks and lawyers alike. Growing up, money was tight so he understands the challenges many of his clients face and is passionate about helping people understand their options.

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Budget basics- Part 1: Spending Analysis

Want to get a better handle on your finances, but don’t know where to start? There are tons of apps and tools to help you budget and manage your money, though I find many of these are complex and need a lot of effort to maintain. My view is that we’re trying to manage our personal spending, not prepare an audit-proof analysis for review by CRA. Keep it simple- the goal is clarity, not perfection.

In this series we’ll explore the basics of budgeting and money management, including:

  • Spending analysis and how to reset
  • Building a budget
  • How to set up and use an emergency fund

We’ll start with a spending analysis as it’s the foundational step.

What is a spending analysis?

 A spending analysis is simply a breakdown of how much you actually spend per month across different areas of your life. To do one, take your past 3 months of bank and credit card statements and note what you spent each month in each category. A few things to keep in mind before you start:

  • Avoid holiday months. December and January tend to be distorted by seasonal spending, so if possible, pick three months that reflect a more typical stretch of your year.
  • Don’t forget cash. Bank and card statements won’t capture everything — think about what you regularly spend in cash, like parking, farmers markets, or the occasional garage sale find.
  • If you share finances with a partner, do this together. You’ll need a complete picture of household spending, and you’ll want to be on the same page when decisions come up later.

A typical set of spending categories might look like this:

  • Housing — rent or mortgage, utilities, property tax, repairs, condo fees
  • Food — groceries, eating out, takeout, coffee
  • Personal — haircuts, clothing, personal care, medications
  • Connectivity — cellphone, internet, cable, subscriptions
  • Kids — daycare, clothing, activities, birthdays
  • Pets — grooming, food, other
  • Transport — transit, car payments, insurance, gas, repairs
  • Debt repayments — if applicable

You’ll also want to track:

  • Annual or occasional costs — gym memberships, seasonal expenses, anything that doesn’t hit every month
  • Savings and dedicated accounts — holiday fund, home repairs, etc.

Making sense of what you find

Many categories will be relatively fixed — mortgage payments, bus passes, a monthly haircut. Others, especially food, will fluctuate week to week. By looking at three months together, you can average things out to get a picture of a “normal” month.

The point is to end up with a realistic picture of what you actually spend. Spoiler: it will likely be more than you expect, especially in areas like food (those takeout coffees really add up!) and connectivity. That’s okay — and it’s the whole point of doing this. You can’t change what you can’t see.

The reset: right-sizing your spending

If you’re not happy with where things stand, or if you’re looking to free up money to tackle debt or build savings, let’s talk about a reset. This isn’t about depriving yourself — it’s about getting honest about which expenses are genuinely adding value to your life and which ones have just quietly accumulated over time.

A lot of people find their budgets undone by small expenses that build up over the course of a month: daily coffees, multiple streaming services they barely use, subscriptions they signed up for and forgot about. A reset helps you see which of those things you actually miss.

The idea is straightforward: for one month, strip back all non-essential spending. Unsubscribe from streaming services. Cook at home instead of ordering in. Skip the extras. At the end of the month, add back only the things you genuinely missed. The ones you didn’t notice being gone? Let them stay gone.

Why a full month? Because new habits take three to four weeks to form. A shorter stretch doesn’t give you enough time to adjust and actually feel the difference. February works well for this — it’s short, it’s after the holidays, and there’s not a lot going on — but any four-week period will do.

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing

One thing worth saying: a reset doesn’t mean going cold turkey on everything. Maybe you normally grab a coffee every day and find that cutting it out entirely is just too much. Could having it once or twice a week — say, as a Friday treat — satisfy that need? There’s no judgement here about what fits for you. The goal is to find a level of spending that genuinely adds value to your life (or “sparks joy,” if you watched Marie Kondo) and let go of the expenses that don’t.

What to do with the savings

If you’ve done a reset for a month, you should find yourself with some extra cash at the end of it. If you’re carrying debt, put that money toward accelerating your repayments. If you’re debt-free, move it into savings — short-term first, then long-term.

You’ve taken the hardest step

Looking honestly at your own spending takes more courage than most people expect. It’s easy to have a vague sense that things could be tighter — it’s another thing to actually sit down and see the numbers. If you’ve done this, congratulations! You now have a clear, realistic picture of where your money goes, and that’s the foundation managing your money is built on.

Next up: building a budget — which will flow naturally from everything you’ve just done here.