Tag Archives: cash

How to Invest in the HISA AAT770 in Your InvestorLine RESP Account

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OK, you’ve had a RESP set up at BMO InvestorLine for years. Your combination of low-fee market-index-mirroring ETFs and a GIC ladder has been ticking along earning a reasonable profit. Now, with a shock, you realize it’s the spring of the year that your eldest child is starting post-secondary education in the fall. It’s time to have some cash ready in the account for those first horrific bills. You have 2 GICs that just matured. What should you do with that cash? Here’s how you can invest it within your InvestorLine account in the high interest savings account fund AAT 770.

Another Reason to Move your RESP to a Self Directed Brokerage Account

I just realized that this HISA fund is yet another reason why you should consider moving your RESP to a self directed brokerage account once you have enough money within it to not need to pay a minimum account balance fee.

In January 2014, for their regular RESP accounts, BMO was paying 1.0% interest.

In contrast, BMO InvestorLine was paying 1.25% on its high interest savings account fund AAT 770.

To be fair, BMO is paying 1% on any amount invested from $1 up. BMO InvestorLine requires you to buy a minimum of at least $5000 of AAT 770. UPDATE 2017 10 03, the minimum purchase is $1 000. And InvestorLine pays 0% on cash account balances.

Still, if you have the $5000 1 000 or more, you can get an extra 0.25% at InvestorLine.

And at other brokerages

NOTE: A self-directed RESP brokerage account at CIBC Investor’s Edge does not have any annual fee nor any minimum balance. (This is as of the time of writing in February 2014. Check the terms again before signing up.)

How to Park Your RESP Cash in the High Interest Savings Account Fund AAT770 at InvestorLine

  1. Sign in to your InvestorLine account/s.
  2. From the drop-down list at the right side of the screen, select your RESP account.
  3. From the Trading tab, select Fixed Income.
  4. Under the Inventory Search section, select High Interest Savings.
  5. If you’re not familiar with this product, under the heading
    BMO High Interest Savings Accounts in CAD,
    click on the Terms and Conditions link and read the details.
  6. If you’re sure you want to invest in AAT770, click on the link:
    BMO CAD HIGH INTEREST SAVINGS ACCOUNT
  7. From the drop-down Action: list, select Buy.
  8. Click on the Recent Closing Price button to confirm that AAT770 is a no load fund priced at $1.00 per unit.
  9. In the Amount in Dollars: field, type in what you want to buy.
    You have to purchase at least $5 000 $1 000 for your first purchase.
  10. For the Dividend Option: select either Cash or Reinvest.
  11. In the Contact Phone #: field type the number you can be reached at.
  12. Click on the Review Order button.
  13. If you’re putting the order in after 2 p.m. ET it will display a message:
    Warning: This order will receive today’s price on a best efforts basis.(14603)
    If that’s ok, click on the Accept All Warnings button.

The Mutual Fund Order Review screen will open.

  1. In the Please enter your password in order to submit your order: field, type your trading password.
  2. Click on the Submit Order button.
  3. Copy and paste the Mutual Fund Order Confirmation into a document and save it to a secure disk or stick for future reference.
  4. If you are finished with your InvestorLine account, click on the Sign Out link.
  5. For increased security, clear your browser cache and close your browser session.

You’re done! Now you just have to wait for that first huge bill this fall. Sigh.

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Do you hate seeing your RESP cash sitting at almost no interest? Do you have any suggestions other than a HISA fund? Please share your experiences with a comment.

How to Get Your Tax Slips (T5s, RRSP Contribution Receipts) for your PC Financial Accounts

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I’m continuing to round-up my tax slips prior to this year’s test of any free tax software to complete our 2013 tax returns. I printed out slips from Tangerine, formerly ING Direct, and sorted out a few quirks in the interest they reported. Next, I’m signing in to our PC Financial accounts to get our tax slips including our T5s.

We have a joint chequing account at PC Financial. I can pretty well guarantee you, though, that I won’t be able to see the T5 for the interest earned on that account. So far every time I try to do anything at PC Financial I find I’m a second class citizen. Special offers, inter-bank transfers and tax slips all seem to require the all-mighty presence of the Primary Account Holder a.k.a. my husband.

Still, here goes.

Can I Get the T5 for My Joint PC Financial No Fee Account If I’m the Secondary Account Holder?

No. But the reason isn’t what I expected. Keep reading if you care. (Ok, please keep reading even though you don’t care.)

Get and Print Tax Receipts from PC Financial

So I signed in to my PC Financial account and wandered all around their website and FAQs. I gradually came to the surprised conclusion that you can’t get your PCF T5 tax receipts online!

To check, I phoned PCF.

It’s true. They mail T5s. They are not available online.

When Can I Expect my PC Financial T5 to Arrive in the Mail from Canada Post?

Searching around the internet, I checked the RedFlagDeals thread from the spring of 2013 about when people received their T5s and other tax forms.  It appears that people started receiving T5s from PCF in mid-February and were still receiving them at the beginning of March.

Legally, the bank has to issue them by February 28.

So, I’d say Tangerine ING Direct has PCF beaten on this score. On January 15, my husband and I both printed off our T5s from Tangerine ING Direct. Now we’ll have to wait, possibly till March, to get the same information from PC Financial. I’m not impressed.

UPDATE: Our T5 for our chequing account arrived in the mail on Monday, February 24, 2014. And, oh happy days, they did not correctly report my husband’s SIN or mine, so I’ll have to follow up with PC Financial about that.

What Can I Do While I Wait for my T5?

If your T5 is only for bank account interest, you can also easily calculate it yourself. For each bank account, open your transaction history. Make a note of the interest paid each month. Add up the interest earned from each month in 2013 and you’re done.

It’s much more difficult for GICs and other term investments that have been earning interest in 2013 but which did not mature that year. You must pay taxes on the accrued interest but you may not know what formula the bank is using to calculate this amount. In that case you will probably have to wait until they issue the T5 or be prepared to do some research.

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Do you have to wait for your bank or credit union to mail you your T5s or can you zip in and print them online? Please share your experiences with a comment.