Author Archives: BetCrooks

How to Make a Referral to BMO InvestorLine and Possibly Get a Referral Bonus

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Some banks and brokerages encourage you to recommend them to your friends and family. They often reward you with a small amount of money for your recommendation. If you are a BMO InvestorLine customer, it is fairly easy for you to get some money deposited in to your InvestorLine account if a friend or relative uses your referral information when they apply to open an account for themselves. Often you both get a bonus for doing this.

Written: 2012
Reviewed: 2023
Revised: 2023

BMO InvestorLine does change the rules from time to time. Always check the most recent rules on the BMO InvestorLine website. I can’t keep up!

What Kind of Referral Code Does BMO InvestorLine Use In January 2023?

They are in the process of revising the rules again on January 29 2023! However, up till January 7, 2023 the referral code was the email address of the existing BMOIL customer that is in the customer’s Client ID Profile for their cash or margin (joint or individual), corporate or sole proprietorship account. The email has to match the one BMO InvestorLine has on their program for that account.

Also last year in 2022, you could only make a referral if you had a trading account. If you only had a RRSP, RRIF, LIRA, RESP, RDSP etc account you could not make a referral.

And in 2022, only certain types of new accounts were eligible for a referral. You could get one for opening an RRSP account, but not for opening a Locked-In Retirement Account (LIRA.)

To Check Your BMO InvestorLine Referral Email Address Under the Legacy System

In 2023, BMO InvestorLine is trying to change their look and program. It’s taking time, though. Some tasks still have to be done on the “old” or “legacy” platform. As of January 29 2023, checking your profile for your email address is still only possible on the old Legacy platform.

To check the “email address you have set up on your Client ID Profile” for your trading account at BMO InvestorLine

  1. Sign in to your InvestorLine cash or margin trading account.
  2. Click on the Legacy Platform link, if necessary.
  3. Ensure you have selected your Cash/Trading/Margin account from the account drop-down list in the top right of the screen.
  4. From the Account Services menu, find the Settings list and click on Client ID Profile.
  5. Confirm which email address is associated with your cash/trading account.
  6. Give your friends and relatives that email address and ask them to type it in the Refer a Friend promotion code field on the application form for a new InvestorLine account.

In 2022, the bonus would be deposited in 90 days + 45 days after opening and funding the new account with the required minimum amount of cash which was then $5000. So about 4 1/2 months after putting the money into the new account, both the new investor and the referring investor would get their bonus deposited into their accounts, in 2022.

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Have you received a bonus for referring another investor to your self-directed investing broker? Any tips for maximizing that bonus? Please share your experiences with a comment.

You Can Buy Your US Dollars at Tangerine

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In 2012, the simplest way for me to buy US dollars at a reasonable rate was from Tangerine. Tangerine is owned by the Bank of Nova Scotia / ScotiaBank so it may not be the cheapest place to buy your US dollars,though.

Written: 2012
Reviewed: 2023
Revised: 2023

How to Check the Cost to Buy US Dollars Easily Online

Tangerine posts their buy and sell rates online. No need to phone anyone to see what it costs. You can even check at 3 a.m. if you’re up and online.

In January 2023, to find the rates, go to the www.tangerine.ca home page. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page, looking for a list of links. Click on the Rates link. Scroll down looking for the Exchange Rates section. Then click on the link Current Rates.

The site will tell you that buying $1 US dollar will cost you, for example, !.354 Canadian. (on January 29 2023) It also states today that selling $1 US dollar will give you 1.309 Canadian dollars.

But How Do I Get the US Dollars Out of Tangerine?

Ok, there’s always a drawback. We get our US dollars out of Tangerine by transferring them to our CIBC US Dollar account. Then we withdraw them at CIBC. In 2021, it costs us $0.75 US to make a withdrawal from our CIBC US Dollar account. The transfer out from Tangerine costs nothing.

Why Have a CIBC US Dollar Account?

We chose a CIBC US Dollar account because there were no fees for the account and no minimum balance. There was no fee to make a deposit to the CIBC account. So keeping the account active (requiring one transaction every 6 months) was as easy as depositing a US dollar every 5 months or so.

If you are considering opening a USD account at any bank, please check first what fees will apply. The rules change frequently!

The Canadian Dollar is Up, When Will the Tangerine US Dollar Price Go Down?

They change the rates in what seems to be almost a random pattern, so it isn’t easy to predict when they will respond to the daily fluctuations in the value of the dollar.

The good thing is there is no additional fee to make the purchase. The only fee is the one included in the posted exchange rate. So you can always purchase a bit at a time.

What’s the Best Way to Exchange CAD to USD for Investors?

If you are buying US dollars for investing purposes you will probably be exchanging a lot of dollars. In that case, you should consider performing the exchange by using Norbert’s Gambit in a brokerage account. There are also large Forex conversion companies that will likely offer a better rate than any bank.

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Do you try to save money on buying your US dollars before a trip or US purchase? How do you try to get the best exchange rate? Please share your experiences with a comment.