Special 2%** HISA Offer | Page 3 | Canadian Tire | Discussion forum

It's really confusing. I called yesterday and was told rate is 2% until September 30 and could change after.

Adam1 said
Hello. Does anyone know if CT does a credit check/inquiry when you apply for their savings account?

Once my 2.8% promo at Tangerine expires on August 31, I'm either opening a 3 month 1.8% GIC with EQ and keeping the rest of my money at Motive...or everything at 2% with CT once I've applied for it.  

They will definitely do a credit check to verify your financial identity, but maybe not a hard pull -- it's difficult to know.

For example, if they do a soft pull and discover that you have sterling credentials, that may be good enough to get an account opened. OTOH if your credit profile is "on the bubble" so to speak, they may take it to the next level and do a hard check.

The CT CC operation is well-known for being liberal with approvals but I can't speak for how picky CT is on the banking side these days. I used to have an account there 10 years ago but that's useless information now

I have been working on opening a Canadian Tire Bank joint account since early August. My application was submitted and very soon after I got a phone call from CTB and a nice lady explained that we would have to individually apply for account status before the joint account can be set up. This is quite normal at other FIs so I agreed. I received a confirmation of the application via email on August 19. I waited for mailed material to be sent to us. It never arrived.

On Aug 29 I called the contact number and spoke to another nice lady. She could not find any reference to the confirmation number I received. In order to work around this, she volunteered to complete the applications during the call. We got through that and we received customer id numbers for our accounts. We mailed a covering letter and a cheque from our linking FI. The cheque was cashed Sep 4.

I was still expecting mailed material to be delivered to me. It never arrived so I called today, Sep 8, to find out what the status was. It was explained to me that two accounts had been set up. I had no information about the accounts or how to log onto them. That information was provided during the phone call and the CSR was very patient while I logged in to access my new account.

Two accounts had been set up. One showed the small deposit from the cheque we sent. The other, under my spouse's ID showed another account with a zero balance.

There was no indication what type of accounts they were. As it turned out, the two accounts I could see were 1) my personal account, and 2) a joint account. There is no designation to tell me that. It finally dawned on me that the second account that was set up for my spouse must be a joint account by virtue of the fact I could see it.

I closed my account and we went through the same process with my spouse's account. Only one account was visible - the joint account. There is no designation what type of account this is in the online information. The CSR explained that future statements will indicate the status by showing both account holder names.

We then logged back into my account and moved the small deposit there to the joint account. That worked well.

I am about to move money to the limit of CDIC into this joint account. I would have liked to be able to print information that this account is indeed a JWRS account. There are some time constraints to move this money to take advantage of bonus interest rate.

I have been very impressed with the people I have spoken with at CTB. They have all been helpful and patient to resolve my issues. Still, I am somewhat leery about the difficulty I have had during this process and the lack of information about the type of accounts we have.

What is the consensus of the members here about Canadian Tire Bank? Is it a good FI to deal with? We will use this account for savings only. Thanks for any information you care to share.

rodeworthy said
I have been working on opening a Canadian Tire Bank joint account since early August. My application was submitted and very soon after I got a phone call from CTB and a nice lady explained that we would have to individually apply for account status before the joint account can be set up. This is quite normal at other FIs so I agreed. I received a confirmation of the application via email on August 19. I waited for mailed material to be sent to us. It never arrived.

On Aug 29 I called the contact number and spoke to another nice lady. She could not find any reference to the confirmation number I received. In order to work around this, she volunteered to complete the applications during the call. We got through that and we received customer id numbers for our accounts. We mailed a covering letter and a cheque from our linking FI. The cheque was cashed Sep 4.

I was still expecting mailed material to be delivered to me. It never arrived so I called today, Sep 8, to find out what the status was. It was explained to me that two accounts had been set up. I had no information about the accounts or how to log onto them. That information was provided during the phone call and the CSR was very patient while I logged in to access my new account.

Two accounts had been set up. One showed the small deposit from the cheque we sent. The other, under my spouse's ID showed another account with a zero balance.

There was no indication what type of accounts they were. As it turned out, the two accounts I could see were 1) my personal account, and 2) a joint account. There is no designation to tell me that. It finally dawned on me that the second account that was set up for my spouse must be a joint account by virtue of the fact I could see it.

I closed my account and we went through the same process with my spouse's account. Only one account was visible - the joint account. There is no designation what type of account this is in the online information. The CSR explained that future statements will indicate the status by showing both account holder names.

We then logged back into my account and moved the small deposit there to the joint account. That worked well.

I am about to move money to the limit of CDIC into this joint account. I would have liked to be able to print information that this account is indeed a JWRS account. There are some time constraints to move this money to take advantage of bonus interest rate.

I have been very impressed with the people I have spoken with at CTB. They have all been helpful and patient to resolve my issues. Still, I am somewhat leery about the difficulty I have had during this process and the lack of information about the type of accounts we have.

What is the consensus of the members here about Canadian Tire Bank? Is it a good FI to deal with? We will use this account for savings only. Thanks for any information you care to share.  

Thanks for sharing your experience with CTB. Have you had a chance to confirm when the anounced interest rate of 2% would take effect? or any hint from the nice ladies on when the rate would be changed?

rodeworthy, I use TD as my hub account and I've never had a problem pulling it into another online bank account, even Cdn Tire as far as I recall, as soon as the money hits my TD account. I wouldn't accept that 48-hour comment at face value, give it a shot anyway. But it's possible, maybe it's a new thing, though I don't get how the auto-transfer machine-thing would even know, or care, when CIBC had previously freed up the money.

Bill said
rodeworthy, I use TD as my hub account and I've never had a problem pulling it into another online bank account, even Cdn Tire as far as I recall, as soon as the money hits my TD account. I wouldn't accept that 48-hour comment at face value, give it a shot anyway. But it's possible, maybe it's a new thing, though I don't get how the auto-transfer machine-thing would even know, or care, when CIBC had previously freed up the money.  

HISAhopper said

Could you please elaborate on the above? I thought $1 deposit would be the requirement, how much money and how long it takes to bring into the account are for the account owner to decide, correct me if I am wrong. My money is at CIBC with 2.4% and ends at the end of Nov.
Just want to get information to see if it is worth to open an account with them.
Thanks for the feed back.  

Bill, good advice. I actually did that this morning when I discovered that the money for the transfer had arrived at CIBC. Everything went well and the transfer is now showing in our new joint account at CTB. Thanks for the tip.

HISAhopper, I hope I didn't mislead you on the transfer-in requirements. You are correct. To qualify for the 1.8% + 0.2% bonus you need only to have a CTC credit card in good standing and a balance in your CTB HISA greater than $0.00 by September 30, 2020. What I referenced earlier was the information provided by CTB on their Move My Money - Step 1 page (see below). Bill and I have surmised that could probably be circumvented knowing that the money in the other FI does not have any holds on it. Seems to have worked.

I followed up on your previous enquiry about how the 2% works. It will show up in your month-end statement in two lines - 1) the regular 1.8% rate, and 2) the bonus 0.2% rate. The CSR verified that I was qualified and there was no other action required on my part to receive the bonus rate. Hope that clarifies it. You should be OK provided the rates hold through November.

From Canadian Tire Bank webpage:

On my account it shows both 1.8 to the left as well as 2.0 below balance....

I have a CTFS MC, the black one, which I got for 3 reasons: (1) roadside assistance, (2) CTM back for bill payments, (3) the free $1 every month*.

I've ignored the HISA offer because it sounded complicated, perhaps that was a mistake (now that I look at it, it's just a 0.2% bump for having the MC?). Given it's now the highest rate in the chart I'm thinking it's worth it.

Is there any chance I'll qualify for the 0.2% bonus if I start the process today? And even if not, is there any downside to applying to get 1.8% for now (e.g. missing an offer for new HISA customers down the road)?

[* If your CTFS MC balance is $1 or less, they apply a credit and make the payable $0. In months when I don't have bills to pay with the CTFS MC, I buy a $1 Amazon Gift Card top-up, or I pay $1 on my hydro bill. This might be worth a separate thread though it technically doesn't apply to CTFS HISA.]

Thank you, I'll take a run at it. Worst case I'll get a savings account without the bonus (though I have Motive and that's almost as good).

miro said
On my account it shows both 1.8 to the left as well as 2.0 below balance....  

Followed up with CTB today after determining our deposit was no longer on hold. The interest rate for the account still shows 1.80% contrary to Milo's 2.000%.

The CSR explained the calculations are made at the end of the month and these indicators are updated at that time. Was advised there should be no problem since we have qualified for the 0.2% bonus by having a CTC CC and a deposit in our HISA. I will report further if this does not pan out and requires further action.