3% until November 30, 2015 on new Tangerine Savings Account deposits made between July 2 and September 30 | Page 4 | Tangerine Bank | Discussion forum

Brian, maybe the banks are in better shape than in 1929, but there are other factors too - e.g. the entire western world is getting deeper into debt every minute, debt that no-one can figure out how it will ever be paid off, sort of like Germany after WW I with its reparation payments (and we know what that led to). Depressions likely never happen exactly for the same reasons as last time.
dentgal, you mention ZAG but it's at .8%, not 2.5%. And Oaken is paying 1.75 too.
In general, I guess the new tactic for Tangerine, etc is to be random, unpredictable and not uniform (i.e. treat some customers differently than others). As I've said before, we are disloyal, so they can play the game too. Plus probably only a small % of their clients are like folks on this forum - I know a number of people who just put their money in Tangerine or PCF and leave it there, I'm not even sure they know about the promotions unless one is directed right at them. I'm not sure what the average balance is but I'm guessing a large % of their clients don't have enough on deposit to worry about a percent here or there.

During almost the entirety of 2015, Tangerine did not offer a credit card, yet they offered 3% to a lot of people for about 5 months.

I find it sad to think that some poor fellow who has not been able to get out of credit card hell is funding my 3%. On the other hand, when said debtor requires gov't subsidies in his old age, it'll be people like me who are paying for it, so perhaps I don't feel so sad after all!

Do you sometimes get the feeling that you are talking to a machine, Rick?

So, I am sure you will be moving your money out of Tangerine, at least for now. Let us know if they come back with any carrots for you.

Can you think of any reason why you might not have been one of their favoured customers right now? It's really hard to read how their minds work. I am getting curiouser and curiouser as to what they will do with those of us who have the other 3% offer which ends later this month. Ah, the suspense of it all!...

FYI, I was just doing some year-end calculations and discovered that, overall, in the course of the year, with various promo offers, my return from Tang savings was not much different than accounts at other institutions which consistently offered highest rates, although I did miss one of Tang's promos. Tang made me work harder for it though: trying to figure out what offers really meant, negotiating with people on the phone etc.

I'm coming off the 180-day 3% promo in a week, I've received no messages from them, nothing when I sign on to my account, so I was getting ready to start a series of transfers to empty the account but I thought I'd try a call first. I told them I noticed new accounts are getting 2.4% for 6 months per their website, do they have anything for folks like me who are coming to the end of a promo? He said call back a day after my promo period ends and they'll see what they can do at that point.

Just called Tang and requested the 2.4% rate, but they offered me the 2% for 6 months, no minimum balance required. Hard to beat for me here in QC as we cannot access Zag or PC. Was perviously a loyal ING investor but pulled out in favour of Oaken when their rates started dropping badly. They have not emailed me any offers, both I got only upon request, and not the highest rate (ie, they declined me the 3% this summer but allowed me 2.4%). Wonder why this new trend to promos...lacking funds due to bad rates? And why targeting only certain people? The rep told me it was random.

I can't believe Tang's decisions are "random", but the rep may not know how they choose, or may have been told to say it's random so as to stop people asking questions!

Oh, yes, Tom, that's a tried-and-true marketing strategy. I'm sure it figures somewhere in their thinking, but unclear how it is being applied. I'm sure they're tracking the outcomes.

I would assume that their goal is to keep as much money consistently on deposit as possible without paying any more for it than necessary. So, for them, it ought to be a question of figuring out which offers are most likely to meet that need and to what extent they need to make them. Perhaps 'new money" from new customers is not coming in as fast as they'd like so they must work with us "old money" people..

I may have mentioned this earlier but I have calculated that the interest I received for year 2015 from Tangerine, including promos, compares favourably to other high-interest accounts and 1-yr GICs.

If it's truly random, then it's essentially a contest. You put in your name, and hope for a prize. If that's what it turns out to be for me, then I can't be bothered. So far, they have always given me the promo, but if that changes, then I am not interested in a contest or lottery.

We may be a minority, but we are very noisy, especially when not satisfied. "Buzz" also matters, very much, in the marketing world. I would go so far as to say that we are trend-setters. So, they would be foolish to ignore us. We were giving them very negative reviews for a while, then the promos became more intense - and the competition.

I make a point of not giving them all my cash, so they have no idea how much money I have. They only think they know - or may think they know.
They might be smart to allow more than 3 external links, because then they would know more about where their competition is and client's behaviour.