EQ rate change | Page 2 | EQ Bank | Discussion forum

CherishedCrusades said

FYI, I received an invitation email today to open an account with EQBank. I'm disappointed that the rate was dropped to 2.25% vs. Tangerine's 2.40%, I might actually open an account with the latter.

I'd consider opening an account with both. Just in case Tangerine doesn't give a competitive special offer after their new client 2.40% offer expires in six months.

dougjp said
Where to go next?

Good question. LMK if you find somewhere with free checking, overdraft or LOC, decent interest rates, TFSA accounts, Hi Interest savings, and RIFs. So far...not having much luck. CDF fits MOST of the criteria (no RIFs), but the new system is suffering from growing pains.

Winnie said

dougjp said

Tangerine is very temporary and EQ STILL doesn't have joint accounts (I'm not going to see my money trapped forever at an online bank with my spouse unable to access it if something happens to me). And its May 11 and Alterna still can't do fast EFT transfers to and from the linked A bank account? Zag has no joint accounts unless the to be two joint account holders also have a joint chequing account at an A bank with both names showing on their cheque...

Where to go next?

You can open Zag joint account without a joint chequing account at an A bank with both names showing on their cheque. In fact, there is no need for a joint chequing account at an A bank at all.
I opened 3 separate Zag joint accounts with other people.
To be able to open a joint account at Zag, two customers must have separate regular savings accounts at Zag. That is it. No need for a joint chequing account at an A bank with both names showing on their cheque.

I'm not making it up re: Zag. I went through it and spent many hours. First I opened a joint account and it failed because of not being able to give them a cheque with both names printed on it. The first contact said there was no workaround. The second attempt got someone who explained the overly complex process of each opening individual accounts and then somehow later merging. So I decided to spend even more time on it. Opened my account, then my wife tried to open her individual account, which was impossible because their database had her with the joint account which was awaiting a deposit not yet received! And, can't close the joint account caught in limbo either! Classic Catch 22. Further, they were going to get someone up the line to sort it out and promised to get in touch with me. They never did. Of course by this time the aggravation was over the top. Buyer beware.

jojo said

How is this bank to deal with

Which one? EQ or Zag?

If it's EQ, I am so frustrated dealing with them that I am about to call it quits.

You can't talk to them on the phone without them sending you an email to confirm who you are, although other banks have figured out how to do this. You then have to open the email and read off the magic number that they send you. I had to do this 4 times in the course of one conversation.

Similarly, if you are online with them, they automatically shut down the connection after a few minutes and you have to start all over again.

In addition, they won't accept the cheque I sent them. They say it's "expired". How can it be expired? It's not stale-dated. No other bank has ever rejected these cheques, and I have used them to open other accounts. The only reason they don't like them is that they were printed before the TD-Canada Trust merger. But they are valid cheques, still drawn on the entity whose name is printed on the cheque. I still have half a box of them and have no intentions of paying for new ones just to please EQ. They were supposed to be sending this problem to "the back room" (literally, that's what they called it) for reconsideration, but I have never heard a word back from them after several weeks if not longer. Not very impressed.

I expect that within the year (or less) EQ's rates will not be any better than those of the usual suspects. As I find their procedures the most annoying of any bank I have dealt with, I will probably choose not to deal with them. I have an account with no money in it at the moment. They didn't even have the courtesy to send the cheque back. Whatever you do, don't send them a cheque for a large amount in the first instance. Just make it a dollar, and see if you like the service; then decide.

Yes, that's probably what their problem is.
It doesn't make them sound very professional to me, especially considering their choice of the word "expired", which is not valid, plus the fact that they could not explain the issue. They phoned me when they didn't like the cheque, but are not phoning to tell me what they have done about the issue which they said was referred to the back room.
If I phone, I'll have to go through this runaround with the email again, which I don't look forward to. I have no reason to think that they are interested in fixing the problem.

Does anyone know if they will accept a cheque drawn on a joint account?

I don't think they care much about the customer experience. They are not doing anything to even acknowledge the problems, let alone fix them.
I have a disability which means that it takes me a bit longer than average to do things online. When I told her this, and said I might have to just quit EQ because of their inflexibility, she just agreed with me, didn't seem to care at all. Perhaps my $1 cheque did not inspire them, but I'm glad I didn't send any more, especially since they have neither returned it to me nor cashed it.
There should be an option to extend the window beyond 5 minutes. That would not compromise security. Anyone who wants to close it can do so.

For sure, EQ Bank can probably increase the validity period of their one-time e-mail tokens past the current five minutes. That's likely something their IT staff in the "backroom" has to change and not their frontline telephone agents.

EQ Bank is quite new. There's still some roughness around the edges. Reminds me of how Zag Bank was last year.

Even getting my account out of its funny state took EQ Bank a while. First agent I spoke with said a request to the IT staff was submitted. It should be fixed by noon the next day. Two days later, the problem was still there.

Second agent I spoke with apologized. It was the weekend and the IT staff doesn't normally work weekends. First agent should have told me noon, next business day. Just in case, the second agent added a note to the original request. It was another two business days before I could continue the online onboarding process.

Both agents I spoke said many others also ended up in the same state, as the result of reading the agreements before agreeing to them.

Maybe one day EQ Bank will either change their software or inform people in the invitation e-mail to read the two agreements before they click on the link to accept the invitation.

It would be good to ask EQ Bank about that old-style cheque. Maybe now they will have a workflow in place to handle them, like the big banks.

Your account could be in a funny state with the unexpected old-style cheque rejected!

I'm sure EQ Bank does have IT staff on call should something urgent come up during the weekends. I could wait until Monday to resume the online onboarding.