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Email this9:25 pm
February 22, 2013
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YES!! For those not following our story carefully - October 15th I pulled my cash out of PCFin in anticipation of a new rate sale. This evening I logged in to record my interest and was rewarded with this:
2.25%
It’s a good day to start saving.Hi MR GS,
Everyone knows it’s important to save money. But let’s face it: it’s not easy. Especially when you have a low interest rate that doesn’t seem to earn you much.That’s why we’re† making it easier to save by offering you 2.25% interest* until January 31, 2014 on new deposits combined across any of these accounts:
Interest Plus™ savings account
no fee bank accountYou’ll earn more on new deposits in a no fee bank account or Interest Plus savings account between November 1, 2013 and January 31, 2014. To sign up for this special offer, click Accept, and start making new deposits today
Needless to say I pushed the button and started a transfer from where I had stashed the cash Oct 15th.
GS
9:29 pm
February 22, 2013
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Full terms and conditions follow:
Confirmation:Your new interest rate is now in effect
Congratulations! You’re now earning 2.25% interest* until January 31, 2014 on new deposits combined across any of these accounts:
Interest Plus™ savings account
no fee bank accountSimply deposit new money into any of these accounts and start earning more interest today.
*2.25% Non Registered Rate Promo Offer Terms and Conditions (November 1st, 2013 – January 31st, 2014)
1. The President’s Choice Financial® promotional interest offer (the “Offer”) begins on November 1, 2013 and continues until January 31, 2014 (the “Offer Period”) for all Eligible Accounts. “Eligible Account” means an existing President’s Choice Financial no fee bank account, Interest PlusTM savings account and/or Interest First® savings account and any President’s Choice Financial no fee bank account, and/or Interest Plus savings account that is opened during the Offer Period.
2. To participate in the Offer, an Eligible Account holder must enroll or accept the Offer at any time during the Offer Period by accepting the online banking invitation, calling 1-888-723-8881 or visiting an in-store President’s Choice Financial pavilion and hub to speak with a customer service representative.
3. The special interest rate of 2.25% (“Promotional Rate”) is a combination of the regular annual interest rate paid on Eligible Account balances, plus promotional interest (“Promotional Interest”) paid during the Offer Period.
4.The Promotional Rate will be calculated during the Offer Period on the portion of aggregate average daily closing balances across all of an account holder’s Eligible Accounts which exceeds the account holder’s aggregate Eligible Accounts’ closing balance, if any, on October 31, 2013 (the “Additional Balance”). The daily closing balance in any Eligible Account opened during the Offer Period will be deemed to be $0.00 until the date that a deposit is made in the Eligible Account. Promotional Interest will be calculated on any Additional Balance across all of a primary account holder’s Eligible Accounts. Any Additional Balance will earn the Promotional Rate of 2.25% annually during the Offer Period. If any Eligible Account is overdrawn as at October 31, 2013, the October 31, 2013 closing balance will be deemed to be $0.00. For greater certainty, Promotional Interest will not be paid on funds that are transferred from an existing Eligible Account to another existing or new Eligible Account.
5.Only primary account holders are eligible for the Offer. The Offer applies to Eligible Accounts only; it does not apply to registered accounts or other banking products.
6. The Promotional Interest will be paid in February 2014 into a single Eligible Account held by a primary account holder. Promotional Interest will not be paid unless at least one of the primary account holder’s Eligible Accounts is active and in good standing as at January 31, 2014. If a primary account holder holds more than one Eligible Account, Promotional Interest will be paid to an Eligible Account in the following priority sequence:
a. To the primary account holder’s Interest Plus savings account, if it is active and in good standing; otherwise
b. To the primary account holder’s Interest First savings account, if it is active and in good standing; otherwise
c. To the primary account holder’s no fee bank account, if it is active and in good standing7. Promotional Interest will not be earned on any Additional Balances on a primary account holder’s Eligible Account(s) in excess of $1,000,000 in the aggregate, across all of an account holder’s Eligible Accounts, during the Offer Period.
8. Offer is non-transferable and cannot be combined with other promotional rate offers. The provider of President’s Choice Financial personal banking services (the direct banking division of CIBC), reserves the right to cancel or change the terms of the Offer at any time, and revoke the Offer for any customer who appears to be manipulating or abusing the Offer, or is engaged in any suspicious/fraudulent activity.
9. PLEASE NOTE: Promotional Interest as well as regular rates are subject to change at any time; please speak to a President’s Choice Financial personal banking representative for current rates.
®/™PC, President's Choice, PC Financial, President's Choice Financial,Interest Plus and Interest First are trademarks of Loblaws Inc. CIBC is a licensee of the marks.
President’s Choice Financial personal banking services are provided by the direct banking division of CIBC.
2:30 am
September 30, 2013
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Yes, but what will the rate be on Feb 1, 2014?
6:46 am
February 22, 2013
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I don't care what the rate is on Feb 1st. I am on a series of three month bonus interest rates. I move my money to where ever I can get the best rate. I am an interest rate whore willing to go where I am paid the best.
For the record PC Financial has been having bonus rate "sales" every three months for the past 15 months (or more). It just means one needs to move funds out and back in at the appropriate times. Many people are not willing to "play the game". No one cares about my money as much as I do and so I do play the game.
GS
9:44 am
May 28, 2013
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GS, thanks for posting about this. When I logged into PCF, not knowing this was available, I skipped right past the invitation and went to my account summary. Then when I saw your post here, I tried to get the invitation back, but it did not reappear. So, I had to call the number and wait nearly 10 minutes to speak to a human. Anyway, I got 'enrolled' so all is now well - my money is now enroute from Hubert to PCF -an extra 0.4% interest is worthwhile.
So will you leave your cash in PCF until January 31, or will you pull it out again before Jan. 15 so that you have a lower balance to begin with should they repeat this offer starting Feb. 1?
9:52 am
December 12, 2009
Online
Glad you found somewhere to "park" your money for three months, Greg. The timing of the non-registered "new money" promo offer surprised me somewhat as these institutions generally don't do a "fall" offer, but maybe with the "official" relaunch of the PC Financial website and new PC Financial logo and ad campaign, they felt it was an attractive time to make the offer not only to existing clients but to onboard new clients, which I see are also included in the offer. Where did you have your money from July thru October, was it with PC Financial or ING Direct, if you don't mind me asking? 
As for the offer itself, isn't the "new money" promo interest automatically calculated based on every day/month that a person's balance exceeds their Oct. 31st, 2013, balance? I'm a bit surprised by the second bullet point that one has to "enroll" in the offer. That really cheapens it, in my opinion. It should be effective for all, just as ING DIRECT Canada does when they make these promo offers.
As for being a "rate whore", hey I say go for it. That said, I don't generally rush to open a new account with a new FI for a two- or three-month "rate promo", but if I have an existing account with them, I'll definitely transfer, as I did in the spring when I transferred out of Hubert/Implicity and into ING DIRECT.
Cheers,
Doug
10:12 am
February 22, 2013
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rhvic said
[snip]
So will you leave your cash in PCF until January 31, or will you pull it out again before Jan. 15 so that you have a lower balance to begin with should they repeat this offer starting Feb. 1?
I currently plan to leave my money there till January 25th (or so) to ensure my January 31st balance is ZERO in anticipation of a Feb 1 rate sale.
They have been running month end to month end all of 2013 with one exception where they actually had two offers on the go at the same time. I was lucky that time as my balance was ZERO during the crucial times.
I don't always get every single day of the rate sale but do have it "invested" in some form of HISA all the time. (See following response to Doug for more details).
GS
10:28 am
February 22, 2013
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Doug said
Glad you found somewhere to "park" your money for three months, Greg. The timing of the non-registered "new money" promo offer surprised me somewhat as these institutions generally don't do a "fall" offer, but maybe with the "official" relaunch of the PC Financial website and new PC Financial logo and ad campaign, they felt it was an attractive time to make the offer not only to existing clients but to onboard new clients, which I see are also included in the offer. Where did you have your money from July thru October, was it with PC Financial or ING Direct, if you don't mind me asking?
The timing surprised me a little but I did get a clue from one of the call centre people a few months back when she said they had no advanced notice but that they had been running "rate sales" for 15 months and so she would have been surprised if they didn't continue.
I just looked up my records in Quicken:
Mar 8 - $92k in to PCF
Apr 3 - $92k out
Jul 2 - $85k in
Oct 15 - $85k out
Nov 4 - $85k in
During the "out" times the money was either at CTFS at 1.5% or in RBC at 1.2%.
Doug said
As for the offer itself, isn't the "new money" promo interest automatically calculated based on every day/month that a person's balance exceeds their Oct. 31st, 2013, balance? I'm a bit surprised by the second bullet point that one has to "enroll" in the offer. That really cheapens it, in my opinion. It should be effective for all, just as ING DIRECT Canada does when they make these promo offers.
As for being a "rate whore", hey I say go for it. That said, I don't generally rush to open a new account with a new FI for a two- or three-month "rate promo", but if I have an existing account with them, I'll definitely transfer, as I did in the spring when I transferred out of Hubert/Implicity and into ING DIRECT.
Cheers,
Doug
I have HISA accounts at Implicity (but waiting for them to get their act together), BMO (seldom used), RBC (main banking), ING (has been comparatively poor rates recently, CTFS (1.5% for the longest time) and PCFin (love those rate sales). I have previously discussed my dislike for PCFin with their "you cannot move money tomorrow but have to post date it to the next business day" policy but for an extra 0.4% will live with it.
I did find a way to beat one other annoyance. The April 3 move had to be done by the call centre as there is a limit ($50k) on how much you can move (seemingly for security but also so they can ask "why are you moving the money?" which I resent in a big way. I should have told them I was buying a lot of crack!)
October 15 I set up a transfer for day after tomorrow for $50k and then a second one for $35k and all was well.
GS
4:01 pm
October 13, 2011
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GS thanks for posting this.
Phoned in and enrolled just now.
This being a friday night, I guess I'll wait til monday to push the money over to PCF.
No point having it sit in limbo over the weekend.
I was hoping for another promo, awesome!
Now I have a place to park it until I can put some more in People's Trust TFSA at 3%.. until the chinese hackers get it ofc 
6:08 pm
August 28, 2013
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Great news.
Could somebody explain me - if I move let say 30K from Peoples Trust to PCF and then move back $11K around Christmas to top up TFSA, will I still get 2.25% on the 30K until Dec and then 2.25% on 19K until end of promotion?
9:02 pm
February 22, 2013
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mr P. Pincer said
[snip]
This being a friday night, I guess I'll wait til monday to push the money over to PCF.
No point having it sit in limbo over the weekend.[snip]
If you had tried to setup the transfer Friday November 1 you would have been told it has to be postdated one day - to November 2. That transfer likely won't start till November 4 and so likely won't leave your other bank till Tuesday, November 5.
Ah, on re-reading your original message I suspect you are doing a push from your other bank to PCF whereas I am doing a pull from PFC from my other bank.
GS
9:07 pm
February 22, 2013
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JustMe said
Great news.
Could somebody explain me - if I move let say 30K from Peoples Trust to PCF and then move back $11K around Christmas to top up TFSA, will I still get 2.25% on the 30K until Dec and then 2.25% on 19K until end of promotion?
Yes -- it is still a daily interest savings account.
From the original terms and conditions - term 3 and 4 are the salient ones:
3. The special interest rate of 2.25% (“Promotional Rate”) is a combination of the regular annual interest rate paid on Eligible Account balances, plus promotional interest (“Promotional Interest”) paid during the Offer Period.
4.The Promotional Rate will be calculated during the Offer Period on the portion of aggregate average daily closing balances across all of an account holder’s Eligible Accounts which exceeds the account holder’s aggregate Eligible Accounts’ closing balance, if any, on October 31, 2013 (the “Additional Balance”). The daily closing balance in any Eligible Account opened during the Offer Period will be deemed to be $0.00 until the date that a deposit is made in the Eligible Account. Promotional Interest will be calculated on any Additional Balance across all of a primary account holder’s Eligible Accounts. Any Additional Balance will earn the Promotional Rate of 2.25% annually during the Offer Period. If any Eligible Account is overdrawn as at October 31, 2013, the October 31, 2013 closing balance will be deemed to be $0.00. For greater certainty, Promotional Interest will not be paid on funds that are transferred from an existing Eligible Account to another existing or new Eligible Account.
GS
8:26 pm
November 6, 2013
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So I don't get it how does this work? Interest is paid daily and then whenever you see a better interest rate you pull the money out and put it to the better interest rate?
Sorry for what may seem like a silly question
, I'm new here and just trying to learn!
11:29 pm
December 12, 2009
Online
Short answer: yes.
If you had no funds with PCF as of Oct. 31st, and have called in to "activate" the bonus "new money" promo rate offer if an existing client, you would earn 2.25% (assuming their regular rate doesn't go down before the end of the promo, since the rate is the regular rate + the promo rate which is currently 2.25%) on all funds until such time as you transfer out. If you transfer partial out, you would earn, 2.25% on the remaining balance.
Hope that clarifies,
Doug
8:32 am
October 27, 2013
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jnino said
So I don't get it how does this work? Interest is paid daily and then whenever you see a better interest rate you pull the money out and put it to the better interest rate?
Sorry for what may seem like a silly question
What Doug said, but also be aware: 1) the bonus interest is not paid until Feb 2014, and 2) it is only paid if the account is active and in good standing. IOW, always maintain a minimum balance of some value of your choosing to keep the account active.
10:20 am
December 12, 2009
Online
Eek, that's kind of weird that they don't pay the bonus interest until mid-February 2014 based on the daily closing balances between Nov 2013 and end of January 2014. When Tangerine, the bank formerly known as ING DIRECT Canada, ran a campaign in the spring, and whenever HSBC would run similar campaigns, the bonus interest was always paid on the next business day after the regular interest was paid based on the previous month's balances.
AltaRed is correct, if that's how the promo "new money" interest is paid, I'd keep the PC Financial account(s) with at least $50 in each one just to keep them "in good standing" (i.e., a positive/credit balance).
Cheers,
Doug
8:21 am
February 22, 2013
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"Active" seems to mean "not dormant". Most recently, I pull ALL my money from PC Fin on October 15th. On October 31st they paid the "regular interest" on October's money and the bonus interest for the most recent promotion is yet to come.
I suspect that legalese is there to protect them should someone close their account and go off the grid.
I have had PC Fin accounts since January 8, 2001. Those accounts have had zero balances for long periods of time. At one point they closed my chequeing account due to dormancy and I re-opened it. Over the past few years I have made it a point to transfer $5.00 from RBC to PC Fin chequeing. Once it settled I moved it to PC Fin HISA and then moved it back to RBC. I did this once a year to preclude dormancy. Now, they have had the best promotions for the past 15 months or so.
GS
4:09 pm
October 27, 2013
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Perhaps zero balance is acceptable but I wouldn't take the chance of the account being closed due to some employee zeal. It costs nothing to keep $1 or even $10 in any account.
10:13 am
December 12, 2009
Online
Exactly, AltaRed. While keeping an account "active" by initiating a manual debit or credit transaction once per year will generally prevent an account from going "dormant", to keep an account in "good standing", it is recommended that you do keep a positive balance and not just a "zero balance". Keeping a "zero balance" will sometimes mean, depending on the financial institution, it can still be closed either by automated or human means as "zero balance" accounts cost an institution money to maintain.
My "rule of thumb" is to leave at least $50 in an account (if you leave less than $20 to $25 in account, sometimes it can be closed when it goes "dormant" and the institution transfers the remaining balance to its general revenues).
Cheers,
Doug
1:45 pm
November 17, 2013
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Hi There,
I transferred some money to PCF and I asked them how I can get it out. The response was a costly wire, a bank draft requested by phone and mailed to your home for $7.50 (so you are losing money for a week) or a bank draft picked up at CIBC two business days after the request for $27.50. All of these seem like time consuming and costly options. How are you moving funds to RBC/CTFS, etc?
Thanks very much!
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