10:15 am
May 28, 2013
Just logged into PC Financial and was greeted by a message asking me if I wanted to sign up for a 1.75% interest rate on new deposits. I did sign up, but doing so removed the details of the deal, so perhaps someone else can copy and paste that here for the benefit of others. I think the rate would be effective on new money only, until September (?).
10:20 am
May 28, 2013
This page
http://www.banking.pcfinancial.....nt-en.html
also describes their offer of 1.75% on newly opened accounts for six months.
12:59 pm
October 27, 2013
We have a special offer just for you. Earn 1.75% interest* on new deposits made before August 31, 2016 into your Interest Plus™ savings account.
*How it works:
The President's Choice Financial® promotional interest offer (the "Offer") is available to all Eligible Accounts between June 1, 2016 and August 31, 2016 (the "Offer Period"). "Eligible Account" means an existing President's Choice Financial, Interest Plus™ savings account and/or Interest First® savings account as of April 3, 2016. Only primary account holders are eligible for the Offer. The Offer applies to Eligible Accounts only.
To participate in the Offer, an Eligible Account holder must enroll for or accept the Offer between June 1, 2016 and August 31, 2016 (the "Enrolment Period") by calling 1 866 674 5609, visiting an in-store President's Choice Financial pavilion or hub to speak with a customer service representative or by accepting the targeted online offer through online banking.
The special annual interest rate of 1.75% is a combination of the regular annual interest rate set by President's Choice Financial payable on an Eligible Account balance, plus promotional interest ("Promotional Interest") that is calculated during the Offer Period.
The Offer applies to all net new deposits made during the Enrollment Period to Eligible Accounts, not to exceed the lesser of (i) $500,000 in the aggregate, across all of an account holder's Eligible Accounts; and (ii) the aggregate net new deposits to Eligible Accounts made during the Enrollment Period, and is calculated based on the portion of the Eligible Account's average daily closing balance during the Offer Period that exceeds the closing balance as at May 31, 2016 (the "Additional Balance"). The daily closing balance in any Eligible Account opened during the Enrollment Period will be deemed to be $0.00 until the date a deposit is made in the Eligible Account. If an Eligible Account is overdrawn as at May 31, 2016, the May 31, 2016 closing balance is deemed to be $0.00. Promotional Interest will not be paid on funds that are transferred from an existing Account to an Eligible Account.
The Promotional Interest will be paid in September 2016 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 August 31, 2016. 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. In the event the primary account holder has more than one of the same account type, promotional interest will be paid to the oldest account that is active and in good standing.
to the primary account holder's Interest Plus savings account, if it is active and in good standing; otherwise
to the primary account holder's Interest First savings account, if it is active and in good standing
Eligible Accounts will continue to earn Regular Interest on balances, calculated daily and paid monthly. 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.
7:20 pm
April 6, 2013
AltaRed said
We have a special offer just for you. Earn 1.75% interest* on new deposits made before August 31, 2016 into your Interest Plus™ savings account.
*How it works:
…The Offer applies to all net new deposits made during the Enrollment Period to Eligible Accounts, not to exceed the lesser of (i) $500,000 in the aggregate, across all of an account holder's Eligible Accounts; and (ii) the aggregate net new deposits to Eligible Accounts made during the Enrollment Period, and is calculated based on the portion of the Eligible Account's average daily closing balance during the Offer Period that exceeds the closing balance as at May 31, 2016 (the "Additional Balance"). … Promotional Interest will not be paid on funds that are transferred from an existing Account to an Eligible Account.
…
Does that sentence in yellow mean that money has to be deposited directly into the Interest Plus savings account? Money transferred from a PC Financial No Fee Bank Account (their chequing account) into a Interest Plus savings account is not eligible for the 1.75% offer?
8:09 am
February 20, 2013
Norman1 said
AltaRed said
… Promotional Interest will not be paid on funds that are transferred from an existing Account to an Eligible Account.
…
Does that sentence in yellow mean that money has to be deposited directly into the Interest Plus savings account? Money transferred from a PC Financial No Fee Bank Account (their chequing account) into a Interest Plus savings account is not eligible for the 1.75% offer?
I called PC Financial last night and was told they will compare a snap shot of all your accounts (eligible or not for the offer) on May31 to determine if you have transferred new money into the eligible account. So for example if you had $0.00 in your chequing account on May 31 and deposited $1000 on June 1 and then transferred this to an eligible account you would get the bonus interest on the $1000.
This would also seem to prevent one from transferring money out of a chequing account to another institution and then directly depositing it to the eligible account.
8:13 am
May 28, 2013
Loonie said
It seems that way.
You could, I suppose, move the money out of the chequing account into Bank B, then move it back to "Eligible" acct. Tedious.
Loonie, I do not think that would work. They appear to be using the benchmark of the total balance across accounts as of May 31 - thus moving money out now to another bank and then bringing it back in appears to be useless.
9:06 am
October 27, 2013
rhvic said
Loonie, I do not think that would work. They appear to be using the benchmark of the total balance across accounts as of May 31 - thus moving money out now to another bank and then bringing it back in appears to be useless.
Indeed, that is a non-starter. It has to be "new" money to PCF. It is a reasonable rationale to attract incremental deposits. And they are limiting this to existing account holders which is some recognition of the customers they have rather than the opportunists jumping from institution to institution.
Not that I am taking them up on this offer. It is not good enough for me to move incremental funds to PCF.
9:23 am
September 11, 2013
Based on AltaRed's excerpt above, "Eligible Account" definition appears to include only their Interest Plus and Interest First savings accounts, seems to exclude their chequing accounts (I'm not familiar with all their products). And "The Offer applies to all net new deposits made during the Enrollment Period to Eligible Accounts," and limited to $500K or "the aggregate net new deposits to Eligible Accounts made during the Enrollment Period......."
So I don't see that the May 31 "snapshot", jgclghrn, includes any chequing accounts, all the references are to "Eligible Account". So I don't see why moving from PC chequing to outside bank and then into PC savings wouldn't work, according to the wording.
9:53 am
June 29, 2013
I just phoned PCF - the agent said the money in the Chequing is not included in the eligible or existing account definition - only savings were such. He said that the money in Chequing would be considered additional deposits if one moved it to Savings. So you don't need to move to an outside account first and then back to Savings - just move the money from Chequing to Savings. (We assume of course the PCF agent gave me the correct info.)
With weak economic news out this week, from both Canada and US, this interest rate is probably as good as it will get for Daily Interest Accts. It is certainly becoming more unlikely that the Fed will raise its rate in 2016 - and with Canada's economy going nowhere, BoC could even drop its rate, if it felt that was required.
10:32 am
October 27, 2013
Brian said
I just phoned PCF - the agent said the money in the Chequing is not included in the eligible account definition. He said that the money in Chequing would be considered additional deposits if one moved it to Savings. So you don't need to move to an outside account first and then back to Savings - just move the money from Chequing to Savings. (We assume of course the PCF agent gave me the correct info.)
We know that chequing is not an Eligible Account, but it is an "existing Account".
The statement "Promotional Interest will not be paid on funds that are transferred from an existing Account to an Eligible Account." suggests that simply moving money from chequing to one of the 2 savings accounts will not earn the promotional interest. I still think the intent is 'net new money'. Better be sure to get that cleared up first.
10:45 am
August 4, 2010
PCF's extended legalese is here. There's no mention of a May 31 "snapshot" as such, which makes sense since this rate only applies to new accounts (not new money), specifically for people who haven't opened that type of account at PCF before.
What does matter is when you fund the account. The account can be opened between April 6 and July 31, but only money deposited by then end of the month following the account opening will get the promo 1.75% rate. So for people who opened in April, May 31 is indeed the deadline to get the money in you want the 1.75% on. For people who open in May, only money deposited by the end of June qualifies, and for people opening in June, the amounts must be in by the end of July. Any money coming in after your deadline will only get the basic rate, not the promo bonus. You must also maintain a $2500 minimum balance for the entirety of your 6-month promo period.
That "end of the next month" deadline isn't obvious; I'm sure there will be people who think it is a general 1.75% rate for their six months, and bring over more money later in the period that won't qualify.
11:04 am
May 28, 2013
11:33 am
June 29, 2013
AltaRed said
Brian said
I just phoned PCF - the agent said the money in the Chequing is not included in the eligible account definition. He said that the money in Chequing would be considered additional deposits if one moved it to Savings. So you don't need to move to an outside account first and then back to Savings - just move the money from Chequing to Savings. (We assume of course the PCF agent gave me the correct info.)
We know that chequing is not an Eligible Account, but it is an "existing Account".
The statement "Promotional Interest will not be paid on funds that are transferred from an existing Account to an Eligible Account." suggests that simply moving money from chequing to one of the 2 savings accounts will not earn the promotional interest. I still think the intent is 'net new money'. Better be sure to get that cleared up first.
The agent said that "existing account" refers to savings accounts, not chequing accounts. As indicated above some customers have an existing account while others need to open a Savings Acct. This certainly could be written/documented more clearly in the terms and conditions. Maybe someone else will phone PCF (rather than speculate) and see what that agent tells them.
12:52 pm
September 11, 2013
"Promotional Interest will not be paid on funds that are transferred from an existing Account to an Eligible Account." (AltaRed, where did you get your June 2 excerpt from? I can't find it on their site.) But that's pretty clear, and seems to be contradicted by the phone agent. And the promotional interest won't be paid until September for existing accounts so you won't know for sure until then. (On the other hand, who's keeping significant dough in their PC chequing account?) But if someone calls PC you might want to cite that sentence to the agent and see what she says. Also, the terms for the two offers (new accounts and existing ones), as rhvic points out, are different, so it wouldn't be surprising if there are some mix-ups with info re these brand new offers.
1:25 pm
September 17, 2014
When I logged in I was offered 2.25 %
http://www.banking.pcfinancial.....un-en.html
Seems they may be playing the same rate game Tang played last time when rates offered to individuals varied up to 3%
4:29 pm
May 28, 2013
SlowPoke said
When I logged in I was offered 2.25 %
http://www.banking.pcfinancial.....un-en.html
Seems they may be playing the same rate game Tang played last time when rates offered to individuals varied up to 3%
Well, doesn't that take the cake! How many other rates are on the table, one wonders.
I got my confirmation email from PCF re the 1.75% rate. I am now emailing them back asking them to raise it to 2.25%. If enough people do that, maybe they will listen.
9:39 pm
January 20, 2016
jgclghrn said
I called PC Financial last night and was told they will compare a snap shot of all your accounts (eligible or not for the offer) on May31 to determine if you have transferred new money into the eligible account. So for example if you had $0.00 in your chequing account on May 31 and deposited $1000 on June 1 and then transferred this to an eligible account you would get the bonus interest on the $1000.This would also seem to prevent one from transferring money out of a chequing account to another institution and then directly depositing it to the eligible account.
One can not transfer money from another institution directly to your savings account... you can not connect a savings account to another institution! It is always goes to your chequing first!
All previous PC 'sales' had this statement we are talking about but basically it was never used: I even moved money from my savings account joint with my son where I was the primary account holder to my son's savings account where he was the primary account holder and the other way around when they started a new 'sale' and every time we both got the bonus interest!
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