PC Financial 2.25% (June-August 2016) offer (to some) | Simplii Financial | Discussion forum

Right now the lowest interest rate I have with all my on-line banks is Alterna at 1.95% and moving my money back to PC for 2.25% until August 31 is not worth it.

If during that time I have a bank move its rate substantially lower I may consider it.

I am offered 1,75% and was told by the supertvisor .. they have a secret target of customer depends on their past promotion participation for 2.25% . Being a loyal customer for over 10 years and participated their promotion every time to the max $500,000! I am still being discriminated and offer me the lower rate 1.75% Just wonder what are they doing??? I just filed a complain to the Customer Care and see what they say... I used to work for CIBC before that kind of policy never happened before!!!!

Being random is an awesome tactic, I have to respect such an "adversary".
And I bet almost all their customers have no clue about the stuff we talk about here, just keep their money there and accept a promo as a nice, unexpected bonus, so PC's likely not too concerned about the few avid rate chasers who move their money around constantly even if you do give them a good promo rate for a few months.

I don't think it's random at all. I think there's a sophisticated computer programme behind it which weighs a number of factors. It might include things like age, net worth, credit rating, whether you have their credit card and how much you charge on it, how much you shop at their stores, whether you have RSP or TFSA with them, GICs, whether your deposits in various accounts are growing, whether they hold your mortgage, etc etc. They will be tweaking it over time to see what results in more business for them.

However, the consumer experiences it as arbitrary. In other words, we have no idea what to expect or what to do in order to get a better rate.

It might make sense, but what is going on is more complicated than the CS is privileged to know. CS reps are giving varying and inconclusive answers because they don't really know the ins and outs of it. They may know partial answers. They may even make them up!- anything to get us to stop asking.

Dentgal pulled her substantial bucks out when they refused her a previous promo, but now she is getting this one.

I can't imagine a bank offering a thank you in the form of an interest rate hike for several months. It's simply strategic marketing. We just don't know what the strategy is exactly, and you can be sure that nobody is going to tell us. That would spoil their game. I am sure though that they know that Bank B is paying 2.25% and Bank C is paying 1.95 etc. and that 1.75 is still a good rate compared to most.

I doubt that they are ever going to offer the same people the top rate on a consistent basis. They may come reasonably close, but there is no reason they would do this unless deposits became very scarce indeed.

I was offered 1.75, my mom got 2.25. I moved all her money to Tangerine several months ago, and I guess they're trying to get it back; whereas I've been putting my own money directly into Tangerine and making regular top-ups to my "transitional" savings account at PCF, but the majority of our new savings have been going into investments.

All in all, I'm pretty much done with the merry-go-round of savings accounts and the games these banks play. For the $40 difference in interest on the $5,000 we keep in cash savings for half of our emergency funds (the other half being in chequing at TD to keep the All-Inclusive account fee-free), it's not worth the hassle of moving it all the time. The rest gets invested because it just makes more sense (I'm young enough to recover if the market turns south, and my husband while older, has a fixed benefit pension to look forward to).

If it could all be covered by BA (a form about which I know nothing), then clearly they would do that and dispense with us entirely since, in the end, it's all about the money. But they do need to keep a certain amount of other people's money on deposit to be viable.

I do realize banks give certain perqs from time to time. It's the concept of "thanks" that bothers me. It's a strategic calculated move in my books. And if it's true, then TD owes me an avalanche of freebies and an interest rate of 5% to atone for past sins.

As Loonie correctly pointed out, they do not give a "thank you" for keeping your money with them. They usually only give "bonus" interest on NEW funds. You're screwed on your existing funds that you have with them.
Generally, I keep moving money from PC and over to Tanga and then back to PC when the 3 month promotion ends. Once or twice this scheme didn't work as I wasn't offered the promotion.
I don't have a Tanga or PC credit card--i prefer airline points for my credit cards--and i don't have mortgages or other things with these banks so I do not think that the rate offered is tied to these loyalties.
I think just like EQ and Zag, they offer high interest to entice you to move your money to them---sucker you in, if you will!. Then they hope that you will either forget that the rate dropped, or be too lazy to move it at the end of the promotion. I know that everyone on this website would never knowingly keep their money at a low interest bank, but i think that most people just don't pay attention and they get huge influxes of cash this way!!
However I do agree that their computers know your history and how much cash you have given them in the past---and particularly if it is large amount, they want it back--hence the higher offers to some!!!
Schroedinger, I definitely agree that if you have $5000 to invest, you are simply not talking about enough interest to be bothered constantly moving your money.
For every $100,000 we have to invest, an additional 1% interest=$1000 per year. I guess we all have our "magic" number of how much additional interest do we need to get to make it "worth our while" to continue with the dance!
I have locked quite a bit into ZAG and Oaken for 2 years--for the same reason--I don't want to be bothered constantly moving things--and i'm comfortable that rates won't increase sooo much in the 2 years. (i might be wrong!!). But i still have enough cash hanging around that i need to keep my dancing shoes on!
p.s. I called Tanga to see if they would match the 2.25% rate from PC. They wouldn't commit and said "just wait the few weeks and we will have some news, but i can't guarantee that we will match the rate from PC". (my 2%at Tanga ends July 4th) oyyyyyy