Meridian New First Savings Account Promo 3% p.a. For 5 Months | Page 3 | Meridian Credit Union | Discussion forum

Loonie said
Yes, there are other options, but this one filled a particular niche if you didn't get a targeted offer and Tangerine won't play ball with you.

Meridian sent us what looked like a good offer, only we're barred from using it.

As for chequing accounts, there are a whole raft of them at Meridian. Most of them have monthly fees or a $1000 minimum, which doesn't make them very attractive. The exceptions appear to be an account for people under 30 and another one for seniors. Why are they dinging everyone else? I think most people here would not sign up for a chequing account with fees etc on spec that they might be able to qualify for a good rate later.
https://www.meridiancu.ca/Meridian/media/images/PDFs/Personal_Accounts_and_Services.pdf

Yes, for those under 60-65, a chequing account may be non-viable, unless Meridian has a pay as you go chequing account with no monthly fees and 1 free debit transaction per month. For those 60-65 or more, though, a chequing option could be a good option, so long as the fee is fully waived.

It could be sneakiness on Meridian's part, trying to get new members, or it could be technical incompetence. By this, I mean their system is such that it's not set up to automatically calculate a member's account balances, by deposit type(s), as at a separate date, so as to calculate promotional interest on net new money so they structure the offer as to apply to new accounts opened of a certain type. The problem with that, though, is that their wording, from the sounds of it, is such that it's confusing as to whether the Advantage account is included for the purposes of being a pre-existing account. And, if it is, which seems likely, why? If it weren't for that, I'd be inclined to favour technical incompetence as opposed to sneakiness. What do you think, Loon?

Meridian is behaving more and more like a big bank, complete with the misleading advertising.  

Indeed. Like so many of the uber-large credit unions (i.e., Coast Capital Savings, First West, Servus, DUCA, etc.). Vancity and Desjardins, notwithstanding, and which appear to be at least more transparent in their advertising. As well, Alterna Savings and its smaller Alterna Bank subsidiary seems to be holding true to its small credit union roots. Their CEO has quite a folksy charm on Twitter!

Cheers,
Doug

Meridian has free chequing for seniors over 60, free plus many other bonuses. Duplicate cheques are free up to 50 per year.

Have a look at their break down of account services. The 4 free interac shown will change soon and will not require a $1000.00 monthly balance for the free ones.

Oscar said
Hey Doug , I noticed that you included Duca in this link. I haven't noticed that but wouldn't mind knowing what to look out for as I deal with them. Below is copied from post #46

Meridian is behaving more and more like a big bank, complete with the misleading advertising.

Indeed. Like so many of the uber-large credit unions (i.e., Coast Capital Savings, First West, Servus, DUCA, etc.). Vancity and Desjardins, notwithstanding, and which appear to be at least more transparent in their advertising. As well, Alterna Savings and its smaller Alterna Bank subsidiary seems to be holding true to its small credit union roots. Their CEO has quite a folksy charm on Twitter! sf-cool

Cheers,
Doug

  

@Oscar, with DUCA, it's much more minor than the others. Nothing to worry about and I'd still deal with them, if I were able to, but in the past, they'd previously allowed non-Ontario residents to join then they changed that yet on their GIC pages, they didn't indicate Ontario was required if you "joined" via that page. Likely was more an unintentional oversight. Similarly, in the past, they used to charge an annual membership fee, but now they don't. As well, as a final point, I recall other forum members noting they'd retroactively changed the terms of a 3% HISA promo they'd offered at some point in the last 12 months.

Hope that helps,
Doug

I joined DUCA during last year's HISA promo and am getting to like it. I didn't like the woman I dealt with at the branch, but I don't go in there so it doesn't matter. At this point, I'm a lot more fond of DUCA (where I'm getting 3% until 31 Jan 2020) than I am of Meridian where I'm getting nada. Pretty well every time I go to Meridian, they want me to sit down with their wealth manager person so that I can supposedly get my money to "work harder" - a favourite phrase. I've told them every time that I'm not interested, but this person comes and sits in anyway.

If "large" = fees, then there is something wrong with this picture!

Generally, we are told that bigger is better, more efficient etc., and it should therefore lead to LESS fees! It must have cost Meridian a lot to get Motus off the ground, but the jury is out on whether that was a good idea.

Decided to rescue my funds sitting in Simplii, since expired 3.15% promo ended June 30th, and will move it all to Meridian, which involves opening a New 'joint' G2G HISA.

Today, I confirmed with FSA that we're eligible for the 3.00%, 5 Mth rate ... we currently both have only TFSAs, and the Advantage HISA setup originally earlier this year to receive incoming funds, and serve as destination, for the 18mth promo GICs, once they mature. Still eligible for the non registered G2G promo rate, it seems.

The FSA I talked to is new to us, but what a breath of fresh air ... very knowledgeable, and get this ... she actually initiated a discussion on helping us setup a Money Transfer mechanism with our regular bank, suggesting we bring in a void cheque for our upcoming meeting. Now That's a first, for me !!

Loonie said
Thanks for the report, Jim.
Are you saying that, prior to your conversation with this person, you and/or your wife did or did not have individual Online Advantage Account(s) in place? If not, did you have them in the past, and when did you close them?
And am I correct that you do already have a joint Online Advantage account?
(The answers will help us understand how this promo is actually working.)  

Sorry for not being more clear in my initial comments ....
* Prior to my conversation, both my wife and I do have TFSA Online Advantage Accounts in place; opened at the time we each transferred over TFSAs from TD, to take advantage of the 3.25% 18mth GIA promo plus transfer bonus.
Purpose: accounts for each of us were setup to receive the GIAs + interest, upon maturity. Currently zero balance in those accounts.

* We do not have a joint Online Advantage account- just individual ones within our respective TFSAs, per above comments; we're meeting with a branch FSR tomorrow with the sole purpose of opening a non-registered joint Good To Grow HISA, which, we've been told qualifies us for the current 3% promo for 5 months. Hopefully, the US Feds decision today to drop the Central Bank rate by 25 basis pts. won't have reduced the Reg 1.3% or promo 1.7% rates?.
Guess we'll find out soon 😉

Does this address your questions, Loonie ?

Loonie, everything went as expected; opened a 'Joint' Online Advantage Savings, wrote a cheque to myself for funds being transferred, the FSR deposited it, and we immediately started earning 3.0% interest.

We each still have 'Individual' Online Advantage Savings accounts, open within our respective TFSAs, which are zero balance, and exist only to receive the 18 month GIC's upon maturity. The fact they are open accounts with the same name did not impede our ability to enjoy the new promo rate in our new Unregistered OAS acct.

We also setup a Money Mover mechanism while there, linked to our main TD chequing account. Only positive things to say about the FSR, and everyone we've talked to at the branch. We could have done all this online obviously, but sometimes its nice to have a face to face, if a branch office is readily available. 😉