New 2.5% in saving accounts promo warning! | Tangerine Bank | Discussion forum

Can you share your experience about how did you find out about this promo of 2.5%

Joebart said

Copy of the letter to Tangerine:
I am very disappointed that your institution is misleading clients with new 2.5% promo for saving accounts.
I spoke over the phone twice with two service representatives asking for more info and was misled to think that I will earn 2.5% on whole balances.
The second representative after me pointing out, that account info on the banking site states (Special offer: Earn 2.5% interest on new deposits up to $500,000 to your Tangerine Savings Account(s), RSP Savings Account(s) and Tax-Free Savings Account(s), until Mar 31, 2016.) had to put me on hold to get clarification and after actually admitted his first claim was misleading.
That was very disappointing.
We have been clients of Tangerine and before ING Direct for years and nobody tried to trick us before till now.
We are going to move our savings somewhere else.
Yours

So that is what happened to me...beware

Can I ask you how did you find out about this promo of 2.5%? My sympathies for your experience with Tangerine.

Interesting! I was offered 2.34% from Jan 6 to Mar 31, 2016. An email was sent to me and I can see the promotion rate of 2.34% on online banking. Why did not it offer me 2.5%?

I got the 2.34% offer.

Same for me, implode, I'm guessing those of us already getting an offer won't receive a different offer - plus ours is for 6 months, so not apples to apples.

2.5 or 2.34 or even 2.08 would be nice but I am OK with my 2.0 for 6 months. Who knows what the 2.5 will turn into after 3 months?

I agree though that there is not much incentive after 100K. As has been noted before, a couple can get that up to 300K by adding a joint account. Most people won't need more than that in savings accounts anyway.

Tang has really been largely ignoring the TFSA and RSP market lately though. I guess they don't care any more about pleasing customers in those categories now that they have tied their hands with transfer fees. But 0.8% is not good enough. They will need to sweeten the pot considerably to make most of us want to consider them. Often a better deal elsewhere is worthwhile, even after fees.

Yes, as Norman1 suggested, the 2.0% deal is on all savings deposit, not just new money. Unless you were planning on depositing a large amount at this time, you will likely have an average rate well below 2.0 if you have one of these fractional promos.

As regards the complaint process, I think there is unlikely to be a satisfactory response because it's not specific enough for them to bother investigating. The possibility remains that the caller misunderstood something that was said by CS.

When I talk to any CS person, I always note the time the call began (and ended if I remember to do so) and the name of the person to whom I spoke. If I have a complaint, I will cite this information. Even then, it doesn't always get a response as it seems it's too much effort for them to go back through their recordings to listen to the actual conversation - Bell telephone being particularly negligent in this regard (which is particularly ironic considering they have all the technology in the world with which to trace the call). However, I have never had cause to complain about Tang's CS, which, in my experience, has been very good.

Their process of awarding promos, however, leaves a lot to be desired, from the customer point of view. As someone noted, it's rather like buying a used car since they seem to have a 100% need to speak to a manager before they can agree to anything. If these offers are all decided by algorithms, which they surely must be, then the rate they are offering each person should be clearly stated on the profile to which CS agents have access. The business about having to speak to a supervisor is just smoke and mirrors or an uncharacteristic inefficiency. Running your bank like a car lot does not impress.