No More Sunday Support | Page 4 | Hubert Financial | Discussion forum

Briguy said
I seem to get Kaylie about half the time when I call Hubert, who is great. I've also phoned Manulife Bank and EQ lately, and gotten good support really quickly.

The worse support I've ever gotten has to be Scotiabank ITrade brokerage, where you need the patience of Job to get through. I have never called WealthSimple brokerage, maybe someone here can comment if they answer the phone quickly.  

Worst for me are:

iTrade is a was or me.......I agree....they suck. They are very low rated as well for online.
Peoples is horrible to wait for a connection. People are so so...last call the guy continued to interject (Ian). But most are good.
Oaken....is bad....lousy people.....make promises and don't follow up.

Seems to be post Covid and I guess it's true....you can't get the right person for the job....even though they get to work from home.

You have to be patient with this online investing, I guess, because the rates are good. Patience is not good with me....but I was trained to have more of a strategy and negotiate for what I expect (with patience).

Doug said

The best support with Scotia iTRADE is during business hours, via Scotia OnLine, access the "trade" tab, and open a chat session with a representative. You should get someone within a minute or two. 🙂  

I'll have to try the chat session with ITrade one time, thanks. That will be a disaster for me if Hubert makes me re-link all my banks as I have about 10 of them linked, although some of them I barely use anymore.

Doug said

Yeah, I agree, since they didn't seem to have a limit on the number of accounts that can be linked, though Hubert did tell me the limit was 30 accounts and when you unlink an account, it doesn't free up a spot. It's a cumulative limit.

That's why I'm now recommending folks just use Tangerine or Simplii Financial + EQ Bank. And really, Hubert offered nothing better than EQ Bank (which allows 10 linked accounts) as neither offers immediate access to funds.

Definitely encourage you to 'prune' your accounts, by closing unused ones, and consider consolidating your hub account with EQ Bank. Hubert/AcceleRate's days are numbered; they'll continue in spirit only in the sense of Access Credit Union continuing to source deposits virtually with non-face-to-face account openings.

Cheers,
Doug  

I don't think there's any need to prune accounts, I'll just keep a few dollars in most of them, since they are no fee accounts anyways. eg. Achieva, Access, Steinbach, Motive, Alterna are some of the accounts I have. I'll mainly use Scotiabank Ultimate Package chequing account with 5K in it at all times and ITrade, EQ Bank, Manulife Bank, and Wealthsimple Cash and Trade.

Briguy said

I don't think there's any need to prune accounts, I'll just keep a few dollars in most of them, since they are no fee accounts anyways. eg. Achieva, Access, Steinbach, Motive, Alterna are some of the accounts I have. I'll mainly use Scotiabank Ultimate Package chequing account with 5K in it at all times and ITrade, EQ Bank, Manulife Bank, and Wealthsimple Cash and Trade.  

To simplify your life and free up time? Unless you're the type of person who doesn't care about downloading local copies of bank e-Statements and/or transaction histories, of course. 🙂

Also, when you pass away, if I were your executor and you had, say, 10 different accounts with 10 different FIs, each with between $2-10.00 in them, I would honestly say it's not worth my time and energy, not to mention costs to your estate (i.e., extra copies of death certificates, wills, etc.), to send to each financial institution. I'd just say, "Well, Briguy had $80-100 spread across ten other financial institutions, which the estate will just write off, essentially, and let each financial institution eventually send the funds to provincial unclaimed deposit funds and/or the Bank of Canada or just close them to one of their revenue accounts, in accordance with prescribed time limits . "

Cheers,
Doug

Hubert 1 year GICs are fantastic and they allow them in a RIF Account. I am putting more $ in them vs a HISA. And you can realign your maturity dates using them as well.

I am pruning FI’s and being very selective in what I invest at the FI**. Crappy service, rates or no associated savings accounts is my criteria along with bringing more back to BC with face to face contact if needed....Ie People's and Oaken.

** Ie.
Oaken only gets non registered. I will immediately upon maturity transfer out, free, all TFSA $ and have learned a “ go around” with RRIF withdrawals. RRIF will stay temporarily.
Accelerate will only have non registered cash. I have to move all TFSA out using the Dec Jan method.
Hubert only gets non registered GICs and registered RRIF. All TFSA gets transferred out, free, at maturity.
People’s gets all TFSA for the time being and non registered cash and GICS.

My dilemma is to get Hubert cash to People’s.
Step 1. From Hubert push money to Accelerate
Step 2. From People’s pull money from Accelerate

Doug said

Why not link your Hubert account to Peoples on the Peoples side, or link Peoples on the Hubert side? You can ask them for a bank stamped Direct Deposit Form if Peoples Group requires it. Otherwise, your two-step strategy looks good to me.

Cheers,
Doug  

You can create an unsigned direct deposit form in Hubert by going to :
Documents>Create deposit form

Briguy said

You can create an unsigned direct deposit form in Hubert by going to :
Documents>Create deposit form  

Yeah, I knew that. I just meant if they needed a bank-stamped, signed Direct Deposit Form.

The whole process is likely to be revamped in a major way, though, once the integration into Access Credit Union online banking (scheduled for between July and October of this year) is complete. That's not to say they won't eventually offer something similar, but may disappear temporarily. For a preview of what your Hubert online banking experience is likely to be likely, have a look at AcceleRate Financial, which merely loads up Access Credit Union's online banking platform in a new window. 🙂

When the technology merge happens, we need to have a conversation about removing Hubert Financial and AcceleRate Financial from the comparison chart because essentially they will just be two branch transits of the same institution. (Technically, they're already that now, but we're likely being charitable in listing them both, since Hubert Financial still technically has a separate online banking platform, even if the rates for both websites are set centrally by the Access Credit Union treasury department.) We don't even list Peoples Bank and Peoples Trust in the comparison chart. So essentially, the separate websites will maintained by Access Credit Union in name online and serve as Search Engine Optimization/Lead Generation customer acquisition funnels for a single institution, which I'm sure Peter does not want to encourage. So we'll either need to list them as Access Credit Union, Hubert Financial, or AcceleRate Financial. I'd probably prefer Access Credit Union, and then link to the historical Hubert and AcceleRate profile pages for historical rate information.

Cheers,
Doug

Briguy said

Why would Hubert adopt the Access Credit union website technology which is far inferior, offering about the same functionality as a big 6 bank, ie. etransfer only, no linked accounts, and no push or pull funds.  

They're no longer in control. Access Credit Union, which is technically a new Access Credit Union, incorporated in 2021 following a merger between old Access Credit Union and Crosstown Civic Credit Union (AcceleRate Financial), then proceeded to merge/take over Noventis Credit Union and Sunova Credit Union. Regulatory pressures, new FINTRAC requirements, and technology requirements are adding significant new costs to smaller credit unions, and Sunova likely could no longer afford to go it alone. They spun it as "business as usual" and no changes were planned, but it's been far from that.

It would cost them too much to maintain two core banking systems and two online banking platforms. They could've adopted Sunova's, yes, but it's an in-house system requiring their own software developers. They've already transferred most of the Selkirk contact centre staff to Winnipeg and Winkler, too. They merged in Crosstown Civic/AcceleRate and Noventis in November last year and said Sunova/Hubert would be merged in in the next twelve months.

Also, a new payments clearing system is nearing the final stages towards implementation, with Interac Corporation set to be the back-end service provider/operator for the new real-time payments system on behalf of Payments Canada, so that push/pull process you may be used to with the EFT system is on its way out, once that system is phased out. Paper-based cheques are also likely on their way out, too.

Cheers,
Doug

Briguy said
I still remember when Access decided not to merge with Assiniboine Credit Union because of their Islamic mortgages back in 2015. They've come a long way since then. They're now the largest credit union in Manitoba and the sixth in Canada, excluding Quebec.  

Yes, but keep in mind they're Access Credit Union in name only. It's largely Crosstown Civic Credit Union, and they are unlikely to remain in that position for more than a year. I suspect you will see Assiniboine do a large merger, possibly with Steinbach. Cambrian, too, will likely get acquisitive. A lot of the smaller credit unions are likely seeing Access's botched post-acquisition implementation and likely to do a deal with the lesser of two larger devils, if you will. 😉

That said, Access is currently finalizing the merger with Carpathia Credit Union (https://cusuccess.ca/2022/12/08/carpathia-credit-union-members-approve-recommended-merger-with-access-credit-union/), effective July 1, 2023. Expect about 6-12 months to implement those banking systems together onto the Access platform. Once that happens, Ideal Savings is also likely to disappear.

Loonie said

Not sure what you mean. They have almost no branches Scale doesn't mean much if you don't have very many custoers.

Perhaps you are thinking of Alterna CU, which does have more branches, but the two are run separately. The CU does not serve the bank's customers.  

You're right, they're mostly a GTA and Ottawa bank, with 12 branches total, all in Ontario.
https://www.alternabank.ca/en/find-us/

That compares to Meridian Credit Union with about 98 branches in Ontario.