money sitting at Simplii doing nothing | Simplii Financial | Discussion forum

Luminous Financial (credit union) has 2.5% on new deposits until the end of February. They also have a 2-year 2.3% GIC that I'd bet will still be available in March. If not, then you can always ask, since you said that it's a significant amount of money.

Luminous is a relatively small CU, but as long as you're under the new DICO limit of $250,000 then you should have no concerns at all (especially since long before DICO would enter the picture, some other CU would come in and scoop them up).

Moving money into Luminous is easy -- they will take care of it for you. Moving money out is also easy; but not as easy as me-to-me transfers (which they don't offer). They'll mail you a draft for $7, or transfer you funds to another FI for $20. You can also open up a free chequing account, buy a bunch of cheques, and then just write yourself one (or several) when you want to move money out.

Lastly, my experience is that trying to play the "what will Tang or PCF offer" game is frustrating. Unless I'm missing something, there is no standard method: some people get a premium offer, some people don't. And while ING might (might) have cared about losing a customer in the past, Tang doesn't. So threatening to leave is only going to make the CSR give you the finger over the web or phone. They just don't care.

We deal with Luminus but have not even bothered with the current offer and may close down the account. It is simply a pain to deal with them. They are really only suitable for people living or working in downtown Toronto, IMO.
There is really no way to avoid some fees there. They have recently started actually charging their annual membership fee. As stated, you have to pay to get your money out, either by paying for a draft, a transfer, or buying cheques. Perhaps it's their way of dealing with fly-by-night investors who are only interested in promos. I can't blame them for that, really, but neither do I find it attractive.
We have also been annoyed by their inability to retrieve documents related to an investment, after many months of waiting (document was not provided to us in the first place).
On the plus side, they do have some good social policies, for those who wish to support that initiative. I would like to like them better than I do! Certainly, the higher DICO insurance limits will make Ontario CUs more attractive than they used to be.