Hubert Rates up, 19 Jan 2018 | Page 2 | Hubert Financial | Discussion forum

If Hubert's rates go DOWN, instead of up, in the quarters corresponding to his/her start date, no investor would be happy. You buy a GIC because you are satisfied with the terms. So if you are already in the middle of your quarter, you might as well wait until your next quarter. Interest rates may go up again and you'll do better. Of course, if you need that money at a specific date, that may change your reasoning.

User230 said
GICS are a risk. Under rising rate conditions GICs aren't such a good choice. Under lowering rate conditions GICs are a better idea.

All GICs I know of are fixed to the initial market the deposit occurred in and it doesn't need to be stated.

Even if the rates within the GIC are variable, the GIC as a whole is fixed and is completely dependent on the initial market it was purchased in.

The current market has no bearing whatsoever on a GIC purchased in the past.  

This is why, if you have enough to invest, laddering is important. The highs and lows tend to even out.

Sometimes we think rates will continue to rise, but then some possibly foreseen, but often unforeseen, event occurs which affects the economy and puts a halt to the trend. If, like right now, rates are trending up, one may wish to try a shorter term GIC or just keep funds in a high interest savings account. Problem is, you will never know when the rates will peak. The economy can be doing really well, then NAFTA could fall apart or a nuclear threat occurs that screws everything up.

Laddering can take advantage of the highest long term rate at that point in time, knowing you will have other investments coming due in the not too distant future to reinvest. Obviously, if we could predict the markets, we'd all be very rich. We can only invest based on what we know about the current market, what our own personal risk tolerances are and what we have available to invest at any point in time. There is no perfect solution to this problem of fluctuating rates.

The laddering philosophy works for me at this point in my life. I am pretty much into risk avoidance. Having said that, I do sometimes go a bit short term with extra money if the rates are trending up, hoping to go to a longer term a bit later. Again, I do this with a "laddering" mindset.

To me, GICs are minimal risk because of the CDIC, DICO and other provincial insurances, as long as you stay within the investment limits.

Hope this helps a bit.

Guys can I just throw 2 cents out there.

Is anyone noticing that moving between different banks in regular savings and TFSA, RRSP accounts through introductory offers... IE simplii at 3%, theyre actually getting a substantially better return than the any GICs right now

There are now numerous GICs available at 3% to 3.15% for 5 years right now. Granted, there is a short term benefit of parking your money in a 3% savings account instead of locking in for 5 years when rates are expected to increase, and hopefully they will.

The downside is that these special saving account rates last only a few months, (to attract new business) drop, to much lower levels, and then you have to go through the process of moving the funds around again. This in itself can be quite annoying after a while, especially if you have to keep opening and closing accounts. I have tried to park my spare cash in a few institutions which have a history of giving decent savings account rates, without having to go through the above opening and closing process too much. Then, when enough funds are available to me, I generally go long term in a GIC while keeping to my laddering philosophy.

I agree with both above statements in regards to the effort delivered. Gics at 5yr 3%+ seems risky given the latest increases, and the potential for 4+% even by the end of this year alone, given the latest BOC curve and likely hood rates will increase more this year.

I don't think bouncing between promo rates is a good long term solution, but given the BOCs latest history and media announcement, I think holding out to sign anything more than a 1 year GIC is going to hurt financially

That being said, I suppose I should have said for members 350k plus I believe that little bit if work is well worth the time. In reality it's about 10 minutes on hold and 10 minutes to make transfers, 10 minutes for paperwork, and maybe 1$ in letter mailing. I keep a full log of account numbers and information so I have become quite efficient at transfers. Especially when I can check this forum and see new posted rates once a week.

gicjunkie said
There is no right or wrong way to do this. A lot depends on how much money you have to invest, your current income level, where you are in your life, your risk tolerance, and how much effort you want to put into this. Just do what you feel comfortable doing.  

Couldn't agree more.

Can someone remind me if Hubert has transfer fees?

christinad said
Can someone remind me if Hubert has transfer fees?  

From Hubert FAQ's:

Are there any fees?
Hubert has zero transaction fees. Whether you’re making a deposit, transferring funds, setting up a registered account, or making a withdrawal, you won’t be charged a fee!

However, Hubert does charge fees for two things:

Wire transfers (incoming fee is $8.72 CDN for Canadian wires or $11.31 USD for US wire transfers).
$25 fee for accounts that are inactive for six months with a balance under $1,000.
Since inactive accounts are not being monitored by the account owner they pose a higher risk for fraudulent activity and have to be dealt with in a timely manner. If you don’t process a transaction semi-annually we’ll mail you a letter notifying you your account has become inactive and will request you to log into your account and process a transaction. Once this is complete we’ll remove your inactive status.

Hubert does not charge exit transfer fees for TFSA's

Stephen