Tangerine Retention Rates Q4 (Oct 4) 2017 | Tangerine Bank | Discussion forum

For the first three quarters of 2017, Tangerine (“Tang”) has made Special Interest Offers on up to $500,000 in “new” deposits to an individual’s existing Tangerine Savings Account(s) (“Savings”) and Tax-Free Savings Account(s) (“TFSA”), higher than the best market high interest rates. See below on how to make your existing deposits “new”.

If you are not an existing Tang customer, you will not be able to take advantage of their offers, so if you want access to the deals, open a Tang Savings account & make a deposit by the end of Sep.

Last quarter, members reported offers ranging from 2.5% to 3.22% for Jul 5 to Sep 30.

It appears that these are “retention” offers because most people who moved their money out of Savings by the 4th of Jul received special offers, and most who left their money in Savings did not.

If the pattern continues, Tang will use Savings & TFSA balances at the end of Oct 4 to calculate what qualifies as new deposits earning additional interest once deposited on Oct 5 through Dec 31, 2017.

Tang Savings customers that withdraw money by the 4th of the new quarter will likey receive a special offer as a notice on their Tang Savings' page on the 5th, &/ via email on the 5th or 6th. Here’s the Jul 5/17 notice on my account page:
"Special offer: Earn 2.69% interest until September 30, 2017 on up to $500,000 in new deposits to your Tangerine Savings Account(s) and Tax-Free Savings Account(s) made between July 05, 2017 and September 30, 2017".

Although moving the cash to a Tang chequing on the 4th works, this pays the much lower posted Savings rate for the 1st to the 3rd and the even lower chequing rate for the 4th. To get higher rates for these 4 days, many members transfer out of Tang 5/6 business days before the 5th (depending of the other FI’s hold period), and back for the 5th, using other FI’s like EQ or Hubert. Personally, I use Hubert as:
(i) their 4 day hold on deposits expires the 5th business day after the day of deposit (e.g. deposit on Sep 27, hold 4 business days after, available 12:01 AM Central time Oct 4), versus EQ’s hold expiry on the 6th business day;
(ii) EQ pays up to the CDIC $100K limit, Hubert pays on the full balance;
(iii) By "pulling" the $'s out of Tang into Hubert after 3:31 PM Central time, the $'s are not withdrawn from Tang until two business days later (for Jun 28 & 29, I earned interest at both FI's). You have to "push" the $'s back into Tang from Hubert as Hubert has only one credit union member number for all accounts and there is no unique account number for other FI's to link to. However, if you do the push to Tang before noon Central time, Tang receives the deposit the next business day (I got no interest for Jul 4 and Tang started paying me Jul 5); and
(iv) All the staff at this Selkirk, Man. based credit union are typical small-town, great Canadians providing friendly, excellent service, a real contrast to my experiences with EQ.

How Tang determines who gets which special rates is unknown, with members reporting no consistency across location, $ amount or length of time as a Tang customer. Members did not disclose their ages, incomes or employment/retired status, so we don't know if those are factors.

The Special Interest Offer is a “fixed” rate and is split between the normal Posted Rate, paid at month end, and the Additional Interest, paid on the 1st of the next month. “Fixed” means that if the Posted Rate changes during the Special Offer period, as it did on Aug 1, the Additional Rate is adjusted up or down to keep the total interest paid equal to the Special Interest Offer. For me, that meant my 2.69% rate split went from 0.8% +1.89% to 0.9% + 1.79% on Aug 1.

The $500,000 cap is applied separately to (i) the sum of new deposits in all Savings in an individual’s name and (ii) the sum of new deposits in all TFSA’s in an individual’s name.

Creating new deposits in TFSA’s can be done anytime with new contributions made on or after the 5th, or with TFSA transfers from other FI’s timed not to arrive until on or after the 5th.

Due to how the gov’t calculates TFSA contribution limits, new deposits can’t be created using deposits already Tang TFSA’s for the last three quarters of any calendar year by withdrawing the money to a Tang chequing account by the 4th & recontributing on the 5th. The withdrawals will increase the TFSA limit, but not until the following Jan 1, so any amounts recontributed results in TFSA over-contributions and potential penalties and interest charges.

To create new deposits in TFSA’s for the first quarter of the year, make the withdrawal at the end of the previous year’s 4th quarter (by Fri Dec 29 this year). Then make the corresponding contribution on or after the 5th of Jan (a Fri in 2018). I shall post a mid-Dec reminder in next quarter’s Tang Special Offer topic.

As an alternative to withdrawing funds to obtaining Tang’s special offer, some folks called Tang just before the end of Jun and said the money would be moved to the highest paying competitor unless a higher rate was offered. Many received 2.5% starting Jul 1, higher than the 2.3% then available elsewhere. This avoided the low rate period between month end and the 5th, but was lower than the special offers for the next 88 days, Jul 5 - Sep 30.

As the days when loyalty meant something are long gone and the FI’s are trying to maximize profits for their owners (largely us, collectively, through our individual, ETF, mutual fund & pension plans’ holdings), I am grateful for internet sites like this. This is where I found out about Tang’s unpublicized special offers, so thanks again to Peter for setting it up and to all the other members of these qtrly Tang forums.
I look forward to the discussion that will no doubt follow.