EQ Bank "Joint Gic's" | GIC discussions | Discussion forum

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What Pixieglo said ⬆ ... time to go shopping, eh.

I've seen/heard CSRs telling little white lies like that before, at other FIs as well. I'm guessing they are instructed to do so, to help retain customers and their $.

Who knows, it may even be an Industry Standard (i.e. tell them what they want to hear ... whether it's true, or not).

'As The Stomach Turns',

Dean

Steve Leduc said
Hi Everyone,
About five years ago, I considered opening an account with EQ Bank, with the purpose of buying Jont Gic's with my spouse. (We are seniors and need the protection from probate when the inevitable occurs for one of us).

The CSR assured me then, joint Gic's are coming shortly!

As of this morning, no progress. "Crickets"
When you query their "Chat Box", it replies "I do not understand the Question?"

Is there any hope in this matter? Do I even bother with this Bank? EQ are you listening? Do you even care?  

No, it's hopeless. I've been after them to add that for years, for the very same reason as you, and get the same phony reply. EQ is a "leader" at failing to see the obvious. They would rather give away money for a referral than get hundreds of thousands of new GIC money free, for doing what almost all other banks do!

The ironies are, (1) you can have an EQ TFSA GIC and have your spouse as a successor holder or beneficiary - for all intents and purposes the same estate effect as a non reg joint GIC, (2) you can have a joint HISA with funds destined for a GIC, and when buying that GIC in one name, the GIC proceeds can ONLY go back into that same joint HISA and are solely under EQ's control throughout, and (3) standing apart from other banks in a negative way, EQ refuses to take advance instructions to renew any GICs regardless of type. So if your GIC happens to expire on a weekend, or any other time you are away, cancel your trip as you have work to do, or you get HISA rates! 😀 .

Steve Leduc said

Another aspect of EQ Bank, is that apparently money sent to them is put "on hold" so that even a GIC cannot be taken out with it. If rates go down you are stuck with the lower rate. Not sure if calling them in this instance would help? As with any bank, its up to them.
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Best they've done for me in that situtation is a goodwill cash payment for the difference.

There are issues with their banking system. The hold on the funds cannot be overridden. The GIC rate cannot be adjusted after purchase. Funds cannot be transferred into a GIC directly, without going through a savings account.

Steve Leduc said
Hi Everyone,
About five years ago, I considered opening an account with EQ Bank, with the purpose of buying Jont Gic's with my spouse. (We are seniors and need the protection from probate when the inevitable occurs for one of us).

The CSR assured me then, joint Gic's are coming shortly!

As of this morning, no progress. "Crickets"
When you query their "Chat Box", it replies "I do not understand the Question?"

Is there any hope in this matter? Do I even bother with this Bank? EQ are you listening? Do you even care?  

A work in progress apparently.

We opened our individual and joint EQB HISA's Jan 2022. We transferred $ in to open some joint GIC's only to discover no such thing. I don't know why. They do have joint HISA's. We haven't had a mortgage for almost 30 years but I assume they have joint mortgages. I just assume they don't want to do joint GIC's and don't want to tell us that.

We moved our $ back out to greener HISA pastures and all we've had in those HISA's since then is $1.11 in each HISA. Every 6 months or so, I move $1 around to keep the accounts alive in the hope one day they'll complete that intense 5 year project and implement joint GIC's.

@ cgouimet

Yes, one must plan for death. At CDIC FIs our limit is:
Principal + interest $96,000 for joint funds (or registered funds if we each use a separate financial institution.)
Principal + interest $48,000 for registered funds and if we each use the SAME bank.

I have developed a program that summarizes all of our investments and also highlights how close we are to our preferred limits.

Norman1 said

cgouimet said

Why <= $50k in Registered funds? So that one relocates below the grass line, the survivor remains <= $100k?

That won't be the case.

When its holder dies, the TFSA becomes a TFSA of the successor and shares the $100,000 CDIC coverage with any TFSA's the successor already holds at that CDIC member.

When its annuitant dies, the RRSP nneds to be transferred to an RRSP/RRIF of the beneficiary spouse if one doesn't wish the RRSP funds to be taxable on death to the annuitant's estate. There is no separate $100,000 CDIC coverage for such amounts transferred into the spouse's RRSP/RRIF.  

Perhaps not with sufficient clarity but that is what I meant. $50k for each combine to within single FI CDIC $100k limit for survivor ...

Loonie said
It took quite a few years for EQ to be willing to offer joint HISAs, so I'm not holding my breath for GICs. A very annoying bank. They even send out T5s for a few pennies of interest. We got one once for 12 cents, so we no longer even keep a dollar there. If they ever get around to joint GICs, we may reconsider.
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Our EQB T5's for 2023 and 2024 were for $0.06 and $0.01 respectively.

T5 slip doesn't need to be issued if total paid is under $50. But, recipient still needs to report the interest or dividends received. Some banks and companies will issue the T5 anyways, especially if it is dividends paid. It isn't obvious if a dividend is an eligible dividend or other-than-eligible dividend.

T3 slip doesn't need to be issued if total paid to beneficiary is under $100. However, the trust is required to notify the beneficiary in such cases so that the beneficiary can report the amounts. Might as well issue the T3 slip anyways instead of sending some non-standard notice and fielding queries about how to report.

T5008 slip for securities transactions don't have a minimum. Dealer has to issue a T5008 if an individual taxpayer sells just one $10 share.

I described the difference between eligible and other-than-eligible dividends in this earlier post.

Further details are in this post about the corporation GRIP and LRIP that the two kinds of dividends are paid out of.