Tangerine Special Savings Tax Offer (Jan 3, 2018) | Tangerine Bank | Discussion forum

I got the same, anyone different?

I'm considering Hubert's 1-year GIC, redeemable without penalty quarterly, of 2.25%. The difference is not that much when you consider Tangerine's highest rate offer is in the winter season, meaning they've only got one to go but down this year and I'll be lucky if I can get 2.40% for the year. 🙂

Scotiabank may be keeping Tangerine separate but they are clearly meddling in the cost cutting / rate strategy terms. 🙂

Cheers,
Doug

SavingIsGood said
Go for it! I am sick of Tang so I just did that. At least it is 100% insured.  

Probably will and going to encourage parents to do the same - finally got them to open a Hubert account.

I also moved the bulk of my non-investment "cash" into a 33-month convertible GIC (essentially, non-redeemable but carries a one-time redemption or "conversion" option to a new term at a higher rate that equal or greater to the remaining length of the current term) paying 2.5% from Coast Capital Savings and two 19-month non-redeemable 2.25% GICs from Coast Capital Savings, too. I'll discuss these later in more detail.

Cheers,
Doug

Loonie said
Hubert is ideal for annual TFSA deposit, at one-year cashable rate. I wouldn't touch Tang for TFSA, considering their transfer-out fee and very regular rates. I couldn't even be bothered doing the arithmetic!

For those of us who contribute annually, it's only $5500, so the difference in absolute returns between one "high interest" FI and another is not going to be very much. For me, it's best to pick the one with the best service and flexibility. When something preferable comes along or I have accumulated a few years' contributions to bump up the capital, I can consider another option. I moved all of my existing topped-up TFSA to Oaken's 3.5% x 5 years during that brief blip last year when it was available, but started over with Hubert on Jan 2.  

Assuming you meant Tangerine's irregular rates, as in promotional rates, or did you mean regular rates as in ordinary posted rates of interest? 😉

And yes, for those that prefer to use their TFSAs for GICs or HISAs, I think Hubert's one of the best options for the reasons you mentioned. Did you transfer over all of your TFSA contribution room and assets to Hubert or do you keep more than one TFSA open?

I also wouldn't touch Tangerine, Simplii Financial or any other FI known for doing regular "net new money" promos for TFSAs. You need a good "steady Eddy". Implicity Financial and Alterna Bank would be good options for longer term GICs or the longer duration portion of your overall "TFSA GIC ladder".

In terms of your laddering, you take into account your registered plan GIC assets for determining your non-registered GIC ladder allocation or do you keep the allocations separate by non-registered and registered plans?

Related, with interest rates expected to remain low for many, many years, a view I share, do you tend to "overweight" the shorter end of the GIC rate curve (i.e., heavier allocation to 1- to 3-year GICs)? My former colleague from HSBC always insisted on always doing 5 year GICs and I'd generally agree with that based on historical rate patterns but we're in unconventional times in many, many ways, and I tend to think it's better to have shorter term GICs (1- to 3-year) - just look at the lopsided spreads at many FIs (i.e., 2.25% for a 1-year versus 2.10% to as much as 2.6% for a 5-year).

Cheers,
Doug

I wouldn't touch ANY of Tang's rates for registered plans.

Please re-read my last sentence in previous post re: other TFSA.

I don't have a very firm policy on how the ladders are constructed. This part of my planning needs more work. I would not separate TFSAs from non-registered in that regard, normally. I ran another thread a while ago trying to figure out what else one could do with TFSAs within the requirement that they need to be bought in January but you can't withdraw and redeposit until following year, which makes GICs awkward at best. I couldn't figure out anything better than the Hubert approach, and then to aggregate them every so many years. Another example of government stupidity.

With rates so low, the difference between short and long is not always very much, and longer rates can sometimes be less than shorter ones or even than HISAs. So, I suppose I am all over the map - just like the current economic indicators! Grab it where and while you can, as long as income needs are covered and tax considerations are attended to. Fortunately for me, I have a lot of flexibility in these considerations. My goal, such as it is, is to do the best I can overall in each individual year.

I am, if anything, a bit more disciplined with RSP/RIFs. This is primarily because I need to have a chunk maturing annually in order to fiddle with adjusting my annual income for tax purposes. Ideally, they would all mature in early-mid December for this purpose, but it doesn't always work out this way, hence the need for all such FIs to offer registered savings accounts - something Oaken seems not to appreciate. So, much as I like Oaken, it does not get my money as often as it otherwise might, due solely to the lack of registered savings accounts. I only use them for RIFs when the rates are so exceptional that I can afford to fuss around with a transfer-out and fee at the end - i.e. not very often. Like many FIs, they have not fully considered the needs of retired persons.

If I were being a bit more rational and organized, I would probably still go for the five year ladders for the most part. Lots of people (including me!) have already lost out on income over the last 3 or 4 years by not being invested in longer GICs, and the future is a cr*p shoot. Some think we should really be looking at 10 year ladders by including bonds, although you hear less about that these days. I wouldn't go that far out. It is said you should not invest in anything longer than your life expectancy. That makes sense to me. Although my official life expectancy is a bit beyond 10 years, I could also easily be gone before then!

I couldn't read the print in the paste-in in #1 above. I assumed OP's focus was on TFSAs, and thus not really the same as the other thread which focuses on HISA.