Tangerine 3.25% 1 yr GIC | Tangerine Bank | Discussion forum

drahcira said
Promotional rate as at November 27, 2018  

Did they call you, you call them, or e-mail offer?

Well, if Tangerine is reading these posts, here's what I want you to know:

This game you play with some clients in which some get premium offers and others don't (and nobody seems to know why) may be working for you now, but I hope -- and expect -- that the long-term self-inflicted damage that you're doing to your reputation will eventually exile you to Zag Island. You are basically the Rogers and Bell of online banks. Take a bow.

It is definitely open to anyone. It is posted on their rates.

Loonie said
I would urge caution on this at this time. I was told by a Tangerine CSR recently the Dec 31 is "not a banking day". So, just be careful if you decide to move on this at this late date.  

That is odd - just checked - December 31 is a "banking day" although hours may be shortened today at some branches. January 1 is a statutory holiday.

threeoakwest, those days are long gone. Loblaws (just as one example) issues over a hundred million permutations of offers every week, targeted based on our individual behaviour. (My wife laughs at that, she says they email her an offer on hummus a few days after she's bought about a month's supply of the stuff!) We wave our phones to pay, they collect our individual data in the databases, and they use the predictability of animal behaviour to specifically target where it's easiest to profit.

Top It Up, sounds good, go crazy, eat all the hummus you want - I'll be out somewhere looking for something a little more festive to imbibe!

canadian.100 said

That is odd - just checked - December 31 is a "banking day" although hours may be shortened today at some branches. January 1 is a statutory holiday.  

I agree with you, but he told me that Dec 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 31 and Jan 1 were all "not banking days".
I questioned him on that and said that I recalled that banks were not allowed to be closed more than 3 consecutive days at a time (back in the olden days anyway). I don't know how that would apply to online banks or if it is still applicable at all, and I didn't pursue it.

The issue came up when I attempted, on Dec 23, to cash in my small remaining RIF with them. The CSR told me this would take 1-2 business days and that this meant it should be done by th 28th since 24, 25, 26 were not banking days.

To make matters worse, when I called back on 28th to confirm that it had gone through, as suggested by CSR on 23rd, I discovered absolutely nothing had been done about it and that nothing would be done until Jan 2 - i.e. 2019 tax year. At this point, I expressed myself clearly as this was totally unacceptable. The whole situation made no sense since, in previous years, RSP withdrawals requested by me had been
carried out instantaneously. I did, after he spoke twice to managers, manage to get it processed immediately on the 28th and confirmed the after-tax proceeds were in my regular savings account.

You can perhaps understand why, from my point of view, they had no business days from 22nd through 27th! They sure weren't attending to my business at least.

This is only one of the reasons why I think customer service at Tangerine has deteriorated over the last year or so. Not long ago, I was told the wrong amount for an interest payment - twice. I also had a lot of problems back in May trying to get the RSP converted to an RIF - basically they initially refused to do it when I wanted it done. Again, I had to be very assertive and persistent to get it done. I sure am glad to have the RIF closed!

To my mind, these are much more worrisome issues than their lottery-style interest rates. At least, with those, I know that's how Tang operates, so I am prepared and can decide whether or not I want to play the game. So far, despite some annoyance and time-wasting, I have done very well overall with their savings rates, now getting 3.15%.

I don't do online banking with Tang. I only do telephone banking. It's easier for me (usually) for personal reasons.

In general, and Tang is no exception, I find many financial institutions are not geared up well for dealing with RIFs. Many of them were late to even offer them - although happy to accept your RSP deposts - and some still have not (see someone's recent experience at ICICI) posted here.
There are different issues at different FIs. Hubert, for instance, doesn't offer any one-year GICs to RIFs. Oaken doesn't offer shorter terms. Many FIs offer lower rates to RIFs than to RSPs. And so on. These are all things that nobody tells you about until you find yourself stuck with dealing with RIFs. I can't wait to get rid of all mine but must do it with a view to tax structure.

I doubt very much that you could convert an RSP to an RIF online at Tang. Nor would I recommend it. You don't want to make a mistake and accidentally cash it in, because it would be your fault. You also need to be aware that opening an RIF will require a new Beneficiary Form - which they won't volunteer to give you. You have to know to ask for it. With Tang at least, these must be received and returned by snail mail - and they take their time about it and act as if it were something exotic.

My guess as to why they make RIFs so difficult is because, basically, they don't want to deal with them. They want the deposits. They want you to contribute to your RSP endlessly. What they don't want is accounts where money is going to be withdrawn regularly (by government order if nothing else) and, horror of horrors, SPENT! - as if you actually believed it was your money - never to return!
Additional reasons for problems would be that they haven't had nearly as many RIFs to deal with as they've had RSPs - yet. Older people tend to die and the RIFs aren't active as long. Also, the mandatory withdrawals may make it more difficult for them to manage GICs - yet some, such as Oaken, refuse to offer a savings version which would not incur this problem.

I have now dealt with closing down several RSPs and RIFs and a LIRA. Each one has been a completely different kind of experience. My advice is, give yourself lots of leeway. Don't leave it until the last couple of months of the year you turn 71. If you are going to leave it until 71, start in the Spring as soon as the weather is fair to make sure it all gets done the way you want, especially if you are DIY and have more than one account.
I wouldn't advise doing any transaction with tax consequences online by yourself if you can avoid it. If you make a mistake, it's your problem. Let them make the mistakes if mistakes are to be made.

Phone calls may cost them $20, but they are not averse to using them. Consider all the phone calls we've made to beg for increased interest rates or "accept" them. They set it up so that we'd have to phone in.
For any business, a phone call with an existing customer is an opportunity - to foster good will, find out more about your needs, tell you about better products or deals, get more business from you. It's a question of how they use it. My problem was not whether or not they have telephone banking I'm glad they have it. The problem is in how they use it.