WealthONE Bank | Page 2 | Site suggestions | Discussion forum

Loonie said
Just FYI, I sent a query to Wealth One several days ago, probably about a week, and still no response.  

I did eventually get a response. It took six calendar days.

daivdgeorge: No, the Peoples breach wouldn't affect your credit score because they recognize that you are not the problem per se. It's your identity that is the problem - i.e. whether you are in fact the guy who has the magnificent credit score or are you impersonating him?

If you had an account with Peoples when the breach occurred in 2013, then you are affected for the following six years. If it were me, I would pursue it with WO, just so that you don't get another black mark for being "rejected".

Nehpets said
My profile is similar to yours, but when I completed my online application with W1, I inadvertently answered one of the questions in the positive or negative, can't recall which, but it was in a way that raised a red flag.

I received the same email response, and it took a quick phone call to clarify my error on the application.

No big deal, and every encounter with W1 staff has been a positive one for me.

As has been stated by others, they may not be a slick as others but once accounts are set up, the online process for ETF's works efficiently, so in my opinion, it's worth making the little effort to set things up with them.

As I wrote earlier, for me, the experience with W1 has been a whole lot more satisfying than with EQ.  

That would do it, if it was whether the account would be either used on behalf of or for the benefit of a third party. This can trip the layman up easily as people often dutifully select "yes" even when all that's involved is adding a Power of Attorney to the account (i.e., a son or daughter) or it's a personal savings account that is designated as an informal trust for child or grandchild. These do not require answering "yes," unless in the latter you're wanting to set it up more formally to report the interest on the child or grandchild's SIN. You would answer "yes" in the case of either: (a) being asked by someone to open an account for the benefit in your name to which they would transact largely or exclusively (a big red flag); (b) an informal or formal trust account or (c) some other alternative of which I can't think of any currently.

They might still open an account with a third party determinaton; they just have to collect in-depth detailed answers to personal & financial questions from the third party(ies), likely including a credit report and/or copies of their government-issued photo ID.

Cheers,
Doug

speedwagen said
Brimley and to a lesser extent Peter have been rather cautious about them and for good reason. Maybe they know a thing or two about the Chinese banking culture, but I for one can say that HSBC and Wealth1 are 2 of the worst banks I've dealt with. I can name a few others that have nothing Chinese about them as well, but I don't want to go off topic.

I would agree with you on HSBC. I used to work for them. Worst management, worst business strategy ever. Years ago, they cut branch hours, killed off small business banking customers, pissed off tens of thousands of customers (personal & commercial), sold off their full service financial investment advisory business and now they've closed 10% of their branches. As of this month, they've expanded their branch hours again, in a desperate attempt to regain lost market share. Hopefully, the public is wise to that - they still haven't committed to even keeping branches open to which they've recently expanded hours. 🙁

I hope Peter doesn't deal with HSBC. They are awful! 🙁

That said, I think any concerns with WealthOne tend to be implementation and process-related ones, likely due, largely, to not enough and not fully trained staff levels. People expect first rate, rapid service but, when you're dealing with smaller players, problems invariably come up more frequently. Think the Peoples Trust data breach and, further back, its conversion of HISAs to a different banking platform; account opening problems with Canadian Direct Financial/Motive Financial, part of Canadian Western Bank; myriad problems with Canadian Tire Bank and ICICI Bank Canada and also problems with EQ Bank. We cannot exclude some bank just because they are new or have longer than normal hold times and account opening process issues. Also, we don't know what internal factors were involved in case-by-case customer complaints. 🙁

Cheers,
Doug

Loonie said
remembering ING fondly.
Perhaps my memory is skewed but I don't remember these problems with them. For years, they were the only players. Now, everybody wants in and most are not prepared for the challenge.  

That's true, at least in terms of staffing but we also need to question whether or not "issues" are specific to the individual. However, we also have companies like Motive Financial, which is part of Canadian Western Bank, that has had account opening issues, delays and long hold times.

Tangerine's hold times have also increased and they still don't have secure e-mail. Secure chat is OK, when it's available, but I'd love to be able to discuss account specific questions via e-mail and have them reply when they get a chance! 🙁

And then there's Brenda Rideout, Tangerine's anonymous, faceless CEO... ah, I better bite my tongue now! 😉

Cheers,
Doug

Bill said
Personally I'd like the chart to include any legally-chartered CDIC or equivalent insured fi that meets the objective criteria of falling into "high interest", not be "filtered" by subjective matters like aspersions or innuendo about some executives by a few unknown persons (who knows the veracity of their claims or what their agendas are?), reputed poor customer service, banking practices related to ethnic background of principals, and so on. Over time with the help of posts here from others' personal experience and recommendations, I can decide for myself whether or not I want to put money with a certain fi. I don't need to be protected from myself or directed to certain fi's because of exclusion of some from the chart due to inconsistent or subjective criteria. This approach would also confirm the neutrality and completeness of the info found on this site's chart, and that would be a good thing. Just my two cents.  

That is a great point Bill, I agree. And seriously just pick up the phone if you are tired of waiting. It will get resolved then and there. I would rather call, even obsessively whether it be a F.I. or a contractor, than stew about it. I had my basement finished recently and if I hadn't been a phone stalker it would have never got done! It was like herding cats.

Not really, Doug, no need to include those paying .1% as the chart's criteria already include this one: "the regular interest rate on the high interest savings account must be “competitive” (this is loosely interpreted)". I'm pretty sure we would all agree the .1% accounts already don't meet that criterion so properly don't appear on the chart. So, no, there are not too many options to reasonably list.

But it is good to know the intent of this site is to curate (love that word of the week, lately everybody wants to shape or "curate" what I'm exposed to!) the accounts we are made aware of rather than objectively list the highest rate fi accounts that are CDIC, DICO, etc covered. I had been under the impression it was the latter.

The chart now lists 17 entities. It'd be pretty easy to just show the top 10 or 20 regular highest rates and leave it at that, that would be lots of choice. And if any of the dastardly Big 5 banks make the list, so be it. Could even have 2 lists, one for credit unions and one for banks. Plus there's the Promos section so if, for example, Simplii's regular rate doesn't put it on the chart listing at any point in time there's still info about its current promo on the site.

That's great to hear. Thanks, Peter!

A point that you might use for consideration on when to include future new banks or credit unions that meet all of the posted inclusion criteria on an expedited basis:
- the new financial institution uses an established core banking platform from an external provider that many institutions already use (i.e., Temenos, Wealthview, one of the Fiserv banking system products, etc.);
- the online banking platform that they use is also based on a third-party product, such as MemberDirect (from Central 1 Credit Union) or some other product shared by others (i.e., the one Oaken Financial uses); and/or
- it has a slick account opening process whereby the account can be opened entirely virtually, either by submitted an initial deposit cheque with a mobile app or through some other electronic verification method, such as micro-credits or debits or sending an Interac e-Transfer to the new FI.

Cheers,
Doug

P.S. Can we also move this thread to the newly-created WealthOne forum?