7:52 pm
June 15, 2016
theodor said
Dear Sir:
I read with interest about your new Scotiabank Momentum Plus Savings Account promotion promising an interest rate of up to 3% and would appreciate if you could explain how this rate can be achieved. I understand that the regular rate of 1.05% plus the bonus interest of 1.05% plus premium period interest for a term of 360 days of 0.9% does indeed add up to 3 percent. However the terms also stipulate that the funds must remain untouched for 360 days but that the bonus interest of 1.05% is only paid for
180 days. In other words I earn 3% for 180 days and 1.95% for the remainder of the term giving me a total return of 2.475%. On the other hand if I opt for the 180 day period and started at the beginning of the term I would earn 1.05% regular, 1.05% bonus and
0.80 % period interest for a total of 2.9%. Am I not understanding the terms correctly or am I correct that your advertisement is false and it is impossible to earn 3% and that the longer you commit your funds the less you earn? I simply refuse to believe that a major bank like Scotia would deliberately mislead clients and look forward to your explanation.Thank you!
Theodor Schmidt
What they are doing is indeed deceptive, misleading and false advertisement.
Your letter shoulde be sent to the Financial Ombusdsman or something.
The sad thing is lot of people will fall for this Ad and just assume they earned 3 %. Very few people do interest calculations at the end of the month or term to see if the right interest was paid or not. People just assume the bank calculations are right!
No matter what amount you invest ot what permutations and combinations you do - 90 days, 180 days, 270 days or 365 days or whatever, you are never going to earn the FULL 3%, which they are advertising 🙁
Maybe a class action law suit should also be there, when people realise they were shortchanged!
7:55 pm
June 15, 2016
10:07 pm
October 21, 2013
7:30 am
November 4, 2015
Hi Loonie, my letter was sent to mail.president@scotiabank.com and copied to
rcarrick@globeandmail.com. I received a phone call from the bank and a lady tried to patiently explain how 1.05% and another 1.05% plus 0.9% does indeed add up to 3%. I tried my best to point out how false her math was which in turn resulted in an offer to supply me with a calculator. I even went as far as to suggest that if Scotiabank wanted to make a real splash why not offer a return of 100% and adjust the terms to paying that rate for one week and the rest of the year pay a rate of 1 percent. That would be the talk of the industry. (Sarcasm intended) It is so frustrating to be treated like a fool and to mislead without fear of consequences. If this claim of earning 3% interest does not qualify as false and misleading advertising, what will?
3:27 pm
June 22, 2016
There are many "laddered" GICs in which the rate increases throughout the term - nobody seems to complain that the average interest earned is less than the interest earned at the end of the ladder. Just think of this as a "reverse" ladder 1 yr GIC where you get 3% to March 10 and less at the end of the term.
4:25 pm
October 21, 2013
12:49 pm
June 15, 2016
They are advertising this deceptive promo heavily in ALL their branches with banner signs.
Also their ATM machines, the screen saver and the first Ad you see is this 3 % promo.
So whenever anyone from Scotia bank or Tangerine goes to withdraw cash from their ATM, they are bombarded with this Ad at the ATM machine 🙂
6:40 am
October 22, 2015
https://www.scotiabank.com
So their "offer" just went up to 3.2% today.
I had opened the account as I have a large GIC coming due early December and figured I could make 2.85% for the three months. As I opened the account I was asking the clerk if I could request that the funds go directly into the Momentum account when they became available. She said they could. However I went home and read the fine print and was shocked to realize that the "offer" only applies to NEW money that is coming in from another bank. Not my GIC that is currently at Scotiabank, which she didn't bother to mention.
11:54 am
February 20, 2018
8:42 pm
December 25, 2018
Why isn't this on https://www.highinterestsavings.ca/chart/? I think that short-term rates ought be listed too?
10:04 pm
October 21, 2013
antinatalism said
Why isn't this on https://www.highinterestsavings.ca/chart/? I think that short-term rates ought be listed too?
Personally, I think it would be impossible to list this promo on a chart even if there were the desire to do so. It is too convoluted. There is no consistent predictable rate of return.
5:48 am
September 7, 2018
Loonie said
Personally, I think it would be impossible to list this promo on a chart even if there were the desire to do so. It is too convoluted. There is no consistent predictable rate of return.
True, one must read the detail and pick a period - I took it for the 90 day period which has just ended. Total Interest 3.05% comprised of 1.05% regular int + .75% premium int for 90 days + 1.25% bonus int. = 3.05%. I knew exactly what my rate of return was going to be. It was certainly predictable to me!
6:55 am
December 17, 2016
canadian.100 said
True, one must read the detail and pick a period - I took it for the 90 day period which has just ended. Total Interest 3.05% comprised of 1.05% regular int + .75% premium int for 90 days + 1.25% bonus int. = 3.05%. I knew exactly what my rate of return was going to be. It was certainly predictable to me!
Where so many seemingly never understood the offer, @canadian.100 figured it out right from the get go and received the advertised interest rate ... hmmm ... looks like Scotiabank mighta got gaslighted on this forum for absolutely no reason.
7:58 am
April 6, 2013
canadian.100 said
True, one must read the detail and pick a period - I took it for the 90 day period which has just ended. Total Interest 3.05% comprised of 1.05% regular int + .75% premium int for 90 days + 1.25% bonus int. = 3.05%. I knew exactly what my rate of return was going to be. It was certainly predictable to me!
That's not going to be the case for the next 90 days because the 1.25% bonus interest ends on March 10, 2019, in 74 days.
If one deposits now and withdraws the funds on March 11, one will receive 2.25%. One will lose the 0.75% portion because the withdrawal would be before the 90 days is over.
If one leaves the funds in for 90 days (December 27 to March 26), one will receive 74 days (December 27 to March 10) of 1.05% + 0.75% + 1.25% = 3.05% and 16 days (March 11 to March 26) of 1.05% + 0.75% = 1.80% for an average of 2.83%.
It is a complicated offer. The original criticism that one cannot achieve 1.05% + 0.90% + 1.25% = 3.20% is correct. That's because one needs to leave money in for 360 days to get the 0.90% part. Yet, the 1.25% part is only for 182 days from September 10, 2018 to March 10, 2019.
8:32 am
December 17, 2016
8:38 am
October 22, 2015
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