new 1y GIC promotion 2.65% | EQ Bank | Discussion forum

Same here.

Loonie said
no take!  

No take? What do you mean by that, Loonie?

Cheers,
Doug

My take is a prudent lender in times of likely decreasing rates. Not that I am buying. 5 year rates are now 2.65% at discount brokerages.

AltaRed said
My take is a prudent lender in times of likely decreasing rates. Not that I am buying. 5 year rates are now 2.65% at discount brokerages.  

Agreed.

I've been using EQ for a few years now and they are a top notch online only bank with a solid if unspectacular daily rate and CDIC coverage.

They obviously feel this rate is all they need to capture the amount of 1 year money that their mix currently needs.

Lots of other fish (lenders) in the sea.

Top It Up said

Not that RBCDS has ever set the world on fire through their broker channel - currently their highest offering is Home Trust - 5 years @ 2.71% (which is exactly what Home Trust is offering on their website ... hmmm.)  

I assume by Home Trust's website, you mean their Home Trust brokered deposits website, not the Oaken direct-to-consumer website, right? Oaken will likely still be higher than Home Trust.

That said, I've noticed that Scotia iTRADE's GIC rates match those of the deposit broker channel websites of the respective issuers, so perhaps that's one advantage of just using your discount brokerage: you're not giving up a few basis points to a deposit broker for pushing a bit of paperwork. 😉

You'll still get slightly lower rates than you could get dealing directly, but for the sake of convenience, it makes a lot of sense. I just wish Scotia iTRADE offered their no trailer fee Series F version of Scotia's HISAs so that I could get 1.85% on the HISA.

Cheers,
Doug

Loonie said
Of the rates that I personally track, 9 are higher and 2 are lower than EQ's offering. I see no point in even looking at the rates of the large banks. So, in my view, this is a low rate.

What FIs' GIC rates do you, personally, track, Loonie? And, do you have them a Excel or Google spreadsheet that you could possibly upload to your "Shared" documents folder and share a link here? I'd be interested in bookmarking it and following your personally tracked GIC rates.

EQ's rate immediately before this was, I believe, 2.55%. I guess they didn't get enough takers at that rate, as it was one of the worst, so they increased it.
Don't take it! They'll have to increase it again if we don't. As long as I can get more somewhere else, why would I even look at this? It's not as if they offer joint accounts or RIFs, which I need.
I removed all my remaining funds from EQ a few weeks ago.  

Yeah, other than their "no frills, plain Jane" e-Statements and innovative, super simple online banking interface, the lack of joint accounts (suspect that is more crucial for you, since you're aggressively trying to draw down your RIF balances, at least into non-registered accounts) and RIFs likely removed them from contention.

Although EQ is building out their online, direct-to-consumer platform, the mortgage business has been challenged thanks to regulatory changes. Consequently, I suspect they - like all the banks - are seeing much, much slower lending growth. As a result, they have less of a need to build their deposit base even further. If lending starts to pick up, I do expect EQ and the virtual banks to move their GIC rates up much more quickly than the "Big 5".

Cheers,
Doug

Loonie said
No, I am not able to accommodate your request. And I have no spreadsheets.
The chart this site provides will have to do, although it doesn't accommodate promo rates, which I consider a major weakness. That would be the main diff between it and my own records. I include best offers from brokers if they are competitive. I don't include the BigBanks unless they happen to have an offer I consider good enough to include, which hasn't happened in the several years I've been doing this.

I always include at least one rate per term from a FI where I already have an account and one which is in my province. I eliminate FIs I won't deal with. So, it's very personal, according to criteria relevant to me, and not suitable for general use.  

Thanks, Loonie, and that sounds like a very methodical approach. I do something similar. I can consider, overall, how happy I am with the service from my existing FIs and the relative difference I can achieve elsewhere. I consider for how long I can afford to lock up my funds, but never go longer than 4 years, and consider term specials offered by my existing FI. If I can get 3.10% for 3 years from my existing FI versus opening up a brand new account to get 3.10% for 1 year, and I can afford to lock up the funds, then I'll go with that existing FI, if that makes sense.

My best GIC is that 42-month term special from Coast that pays me 4% per year. Very happy with that one!

Cheers,
Doug