I set up my Tangerine Savings Account, over 7 years ago when it was called an ING Direct Investment Savings Account, and I linked it to my regular chequing account at a Big Canadian Bank. Recently, I decided to link it to a joint chequing account my husband and I have at a different Big Canadian Bank. I want to be able to move my money overnight from the Big Bank to the Tangerine account even though they will put a hold on the money once it lands at Tangerine. I could move the money by writing a cheque on the joint account and using the Cheque-In photo deposit app to cash it into my Tangerine Chequing Account. But I’d prefer not to waste a paper cheque, since the Big Bank charges us for each paper cheque even if it doesn’t charge us to use one. And I’d prefer the money to go straight to my savings not route through the Tangerine chequing account. So today I decided to connect my Tangerine Savings Account to this joint chequing account at the Big Bank.
How Many Bank Accounts at Other Big Banks Can I Link to my Tangerine Account?
According to the Tangerine website as of June 2014, you can link your account to up to 3 bank accounts at other financial institutions.
I know that there are many bargain hunters who link to PC Financial and periodically transfer all their savings from one to the other to benefit from short-term-interest-rate bonus incentives. Personally, I haven’t bothered with that. Yet. ; )
What Info Do I Need to Link my Bank Account to Tangerine?
For your account at a Big Canadian Bank (or other financial institution) you’ll need to know
- the transit number
- the bank number
- the account number
- whether it’s a US or Canadian dollar account
What’s my Bank Number?
Well, if you have a chequing account this is easy to check. (Pun intended.)
At the bottom of your cheque is a serious of odd marks with numbers between them. If you squint at them for a while, you’ll realize that near the beginning 5 of them are your bank account’s transit number. Then there is an odd dash that is divided up into a few segments. Then there is a 3-digit number. That’s your Bank Number. Then there’s another symbol, mine looks like neutral Smiley face. Then there is your bank account number.
In this ING Direct cheque, the transit number is 00152 and the bank number is 614. (You didn’t really think I was going to include my account number too, did you?)
If you don’t have a chequing account, or if you can’t decipher your cheque, you can
ask your bank what its Bank Number is; or
check online lists.
Common Bank Numbers in Canada
Some common Banks have the following Bank Numbers:
- Bank of Montreal: 001
- The Bank of Nova Scotia: 002
- Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce: 010
- Royal Bank of Canada: 003
- The Toronto-Dominion Bank: 004
You can see that either BMO invented these numbers or that CIBC was a very late arrival on the Canadian banking scene when it started as the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1867.
Do I Need to Send in a Cheque to Link to my Tangerine Account?
No.
You don’t need to send in a cheque to link an account if you already have your Tangerine account set up BEFORE you try to make this connection.
For example, when I first opened my Tangerine Savings account I sent in a cheque from my Big Bank chequing account to link the two. Now, though, I am linking to a different account at a different Big Bank without sending in a cheque.
Linking a Tangerine Savings Account to a Big Bank Joint Chequing Account
Sign In to Tangerine
- Open your browser and go to www.tangerine.ca
- Click on the link: I’m a Client, let me in!
- Type the appropriate info in the Enter your Client Number, Card Number or Username text field.
Never click to select Remember me. Why would you want to give a criminal half of the info they need to break into your account?! - Click on the Go button.
- Type the answer to your secret question in the Answer text field.
- Click on the Next button.
- Type your PIN in the Personal Identification Number text field.
- Click on the Go button.
Add the New Account to Your List of External Accounts
UPDATE: October 1, 2017. Tangerine has revised its website, so I’ll have to revise my procedures!
- Click on your abbreviated name at the top right side of the screen.
- Click on Profile & Settings.
- From the links across the top of the Profile & Settings page, click on: External Accounts.
- Your existing account links are displayed.
If, like me, you already have 3 accounts linked you cannot add another! Fortunately, I have an account linked which I do not need any more. So I will permanently remove that link. To remove the link, I will click on the Delete button for that line.I read the warning about possibly breaking an Pending Transfers. Then clicked on the Delete button again. A confirmation message is given with the Transit and Account numbers but not the Institution number. Weird. I clicked on the Done button. - Click on the button Add account button.
The Add External Account Page
- Read through the information.
- If you’re willing to go ahead
- Type the transit number for your Big Bank account in the text field: Transit number
- Type the number for your Big Bank or Credit Union etc, in the text field: Institution Number (yes, this time they capitalized Number)
- Type the account number for your Big Bank or Credit Union etc. account in the text field : Account Number
- Type the account number for your Big Bank or Credit Union etc. account in the text field: Re-enter Account Number to Confirm
- Ensure the correct currency, Canadian or US dollars, is selected for that external bank account.
- Click to select the box beside the statement “I confirm that the information provided above is for a personal bank account in my name” if and only if you are trying to link to your own personal account and not that of a friend, relative, business or other entity. You cannot use this page to link to anyone’s account except your own personal account.
- Click on the Next button.
The Review the External Account Information Page
Cool!
A pop-up window lists the bank name and address for our joint chequing account at the Big Bank. It’s correct too!
- If the details are correct, click the Submit button.
The Account Added Page
Read the info.
Basically it says sometime in the next two business days, Tangerine will deposit two small amounts of money into my external/Big Bank bank account. I have to write down those amounts, then log in to Tangerine and report what they were. If I get it right, they will finalize connecting the two accounts. (This is what Google does too, when you tell them where to deposit your pay from AdSense.)
Click on the Done button.
I can also see that beside the listing for my Big Bank account, which has been added to my list of external accounts, there is a Cancel button.
It should switch to a Confirm button after they have sent me the deposits. I’ll need it after they deposit the money in my account.
For now, though, I’m done.
Sign Out of Tangerine Safely
- If you have no other banking, under your abbreviated name, click on the Log Out link.
- For increased security, clear your browser cache and close your browser session.
Check Your Email Alerts
I received an email notification that I had requested to add a link to a new external bank account.
Start Checking and Waiting (Beware: Sexist Content Included)
Start checking your Big Bank or Credit Union etc bank balance hourly to see if Tangerine has made the two test deposits yet.
Note: realistically the deposits will be credited when your account file is updated overnight. So you only need to check once per day. If they are not there yet, they won’t be until at least the next day.
As one of my more annoying teachers in Grade 8 used to say: “Patience is a virtue; possess it if you can; found seldom in a woman; and never in a man.”
How’s that for sexist! And it was a He who kept quoting this.
Related Reading
- How to Open a Tangerine Chequing Account
- How to Confirm the Link and Transfer Money Between Your Tangerine Account and Your Other Bank Account
Join In
Have you connected your Tangerine account to the maximum 3 other external bank accounts? Do you send your money flying through the electronic ether on a daily whim? Or do you prefer to shuffle your money with a paper trail and always use a cheque to move it from one account to another? Please share your opinions with a comment.
Thanks for your advice and instructions. I just mailed in $100 to open an RSP Mutual Fund account and I used your Orange Key. Hopefully it goes through and you get a reward! Cheers.
Thanks! that would be great.
The Canadian Couch Potato says that the Tangerine funds offer a great “one step, one fund” way to invest. Best wishes!
Can you link an existing tangerine account to your family’s chequing account at a large canadian bank? say your parents’? that account however does not have my name attached to it. I ask because to transfer money in that large canadian bank from my chequing account to my parents’ require me to go to the bank in person. If i can link via tangerine, that would be easier.
It might be possible to link the accounts from the Tangerine end but I’m not sure given you are not an owner of the Big 5 account. Can you do a (free for now anyway) Tangerine email money transfer to them instead? They will have to know their bank’s financial number, transit number and account number to accept and deposit the money but it does work. I can’t contact Tangerine right now to confirm your question so if direct linking is essential, you may want to phone them to discuss it. Sorry!
In what banks, too, have a function of transferring money using external account?
Most banks will allow you to set up a link to another bank. Large banks such as BMO, CIBC, TD etc may charge you a fee, though, to send out your money to another bank.
Tangerine, PC Financial and Oaken Financial will let you link to other banks to send and receive money by e-transfer for free.
EQ Bank and Zag Bank will let you link so that you can send money out of your account to another bank, or to pull money into your account from another bank, but they will not (yet) allow you to link to them to send money into your account. It’s a bit odd why they are only allowing transactions to proceed if you make the request on their website. They do not charge a fee to send or pull in money from your other bank.
There doesn’t seem to be a way to withdraw your RSP. I just get directed to ways of investing in RSP.
I need my RSP – I’m 68 years old and want to withdraw my RSP – but don’t know how. I was told to go to Tangerine.ca click move my money, click withdraw RSP – can’t find this on your sites?????
You have to telephone Tangerine to make a RRSP withdrawal. There will be some tax withheld when the money is taken out and there may be more income tax owing when you file your tax return for this year by the end of April next year. They don’t handle this online without discussing it over the telephone. Some people, for example, will want to move their RRSP money into a RRIF before making a withdrawal. They may also require a mailed in form with a signature for some RRSP withdrawals, especially for people who are not retired yet.
(My site is not a Tangerine site. It’s just my personal instructions to myself on how to do things with my Tangerine accounts. I post them up online in case they help anyone else.)
Can I link my us account at tangerine to ING account in USA? And how?
I don’t think so. Everything I’ve read from Tangerine says that they only link to Canadian banks. You could call them to check, though. (I don’t work for Tangerine; I’m just a customer.)
So say I want to link my US bank account to a tangerine account, could I do that considering we have different numbers on our checks here (we just have a routing number, no bank or transit number)
Just saw the comment above, NVM
I highly doubt it as the Canadian banks seem to not allow direct connections to US banks unless they are part of the same banking family (e.g. BMO and BMO Harris.) If Tangerine says it’s possible, please let us know!
Thank you for the useful information. I’ve just opened an account with the Tangerine using your orange key. Best wishes!
Thank you very much! Tangerine is not perfect but we’ve used it for many years now and it works well as a Savings account and as a chequing account to pay bills and use debit. Because several of the family have Tangerine accounts, we also use the email money transfer as it moves from Tangerine to Tangerine customer in less than 2 hours.
hi, i just used your orange key so $50 should be on your way :). are the tangerine balanced funds any good? are the rates stated AFTER the mer and any other fees are taken off? or is it better to put money into coast capital guaranteed 4%? 33 months is a long time though with rates going up. i have resps which may be needed in 3 years and tfsa’s probably 7-10 years time to invest.
thanks!
I’m not an investment advisor, just a working taxpayer like you, so I find it difficult to decide the best way to invest too!
(Many thanks for the orange code referral–our eldest child is starting college soon and every $ helps!)
The Tangerine Balanced Funds are considered good by people like the Canadian Couch Potato
http://canadiancouchpotato.com/model-portfolios-2/
who study these things in detail.
The fees are already taken out before they list the % return.
However, any mutual fund can go down in value as well as up.
When I bought my first mutual funds, similar to the Tangerine ones, they went down below the price I paid and stayed below it for several years. I ignored them for over 10 years, and when I checked then, discovered that they had recovered and earned about 7% a year–I was very surprised! If I had sold them when they were worth less, though, I would never have got my money back much less the growth. So you have to be prepared to stick to it even if they drop in value.
I’m nervous, so I would never invest in the stock market through mutual funds, ETFs or individual stocks with money I would need within 10 years. That means I have to sell stuff off as I get close to needing to spend it, too. So for e.g. in our RESPs for our eldest child, everything is now in GICs because it’s less than 5 years till we need that money.
Everyone’s “risk tolerance” varies. You could put some of your money in the stock market if you won’t need it for 7 years, but think about how much of it you want to risk.
For me, the most I would risk is 50% of my savings for a new car in 7 years since I could always buy an old clunker instead, so I’d put 50% in the stock market and 50% in GICs.
You might need your TFSA in 7 years for a vacation (could probably skip it if you had to or delay taking it) so would invest 80% in the stock market; or you might need your TFSA in 7 years for a new wheelchair (really, really need it) so you might put 0% in the stock market.
Sorry I can’t give better advice–just be careful of the stock market if you can.
I have a big bank account (BBA) + Tangerine. My son has a Tangerine account (TA). I regularly move $’s from my BBA to his TA, and less frequently he moves $’s from his TA to my BBA. No fees are charged here and I thought this was due to my linking my BBA to my TA. Recently he let me know something went oddly and instead of him moving $’s to me, he ended up with a deposit in his TA. It took a day but showed up in my online BBA that $’s left my account and went to his TA.
How can this be? Does linking an account give full access to the other person? There seems to be nothing written on this but whatever this needs correction.
I would be grateful for any comments.
If the accounts are actually linked so that you can use “Move My Money” then yes, the Tangerine customer can both move money into their account from the Big Bank and move money out of their Tangerine account to the Big Bank.
If you want to limit his access to your Big Bank account, you should ask him to only send you money by cheque or by an email transfer (or for a fee by an interac transfer) and have him remove the link between the accounts.
I’m not sure how Tangerine agree to let the accounts be linked if his name is not on your account. Did you tell him the amounts of the the micro deposits? If so, then their security systems would not necessarily have noticed that he was not supposed to have access to that information.
(Technically, you are only supposed to link accounts which both can be legally accessed by the user. E.g. joint accounts can be linked, or single user accounts can be linked to other accounts only used by that same single user. You’re not supposed to link an account belonging to single user A to an account used by single user B. You’re supposed to move that money by cheque, email transfer or interac transfer for a fee.)
I’m sorry for the slow reply to this question and I hope you resolved it with Tangerine. (I don’t work for or with them.)
Since 2005 have been on ING Direct am now unable to access my account on Tangerine. Received a note April 10, 2018 that my PIN had been changed. As far as I know I did not change it, just that I was to give the name of my favorite doll as a child! Are you kidding. I have money deposited monthly from an annuity and have no access.
I hope that you have phoned Tangerine and restored access to your account. Sometimes someone is trying to access their own account but types in your account number online, puts their PIN (which is wrong for your account) in 3 times, and locks the account. By phoning in, you can answer the security questions you set up yourself, and Tangerine will re-set your PIN. If you can’t answer your own security questions, they have other ways you can prove your identity to reset your PIN. Sorry it’s such a hassle! (I don’t work for Tangerine, I’m just a customer who has money with them, like you.)
Best instructions! Even Tangerine website cannot match this. I did not know how to deposit USD. now I can just send TD to Tg via linking. Tangerin does not accept USD deposits at Scotia ATM, nor app deposits. Only via cheque mail-in (super annoying). Thanks!