Well, December ended and with it my 3% interest rate on my savings account at Tangerine. It was a nice six months. Now it’s time to move the money to keep earning interest that at least comes closer to keeping up with inflation. (My rate at Tangerine has dropped back to their standard 0.8%.) I looked at PC Financial but they don’t have a promotion on right now. Then I read about a new promotion from Zag Bank offering 2.5% so now I’m going to open a Savings Account with them to earn a reasonable rate on my cash.

How Long Is the Zag Bank Promotion Rate of 2.5% Applicable?

You can read all of the details about this offer on the Zag website. (That’s not an “affiliate” link: I don’t get anything if you open an account at Zag or look at their website.)

Basically, they are offering a rate of 2.5% per YEAR but only for a few months, so the actual $$ earned is much less than you might think. The rate is in effect for deposits made between January 11, 2016 and June 1, 2016. They reserve the right to limit how many customers can sign up for this promotion so I’ll go ahead and open my account today on the 12th.

Zag savings accounts are insured by CDIC.

What Do I Need to Open a Savings Account at Zag Bank?

Their website says I will need

• my name
• address
• SIN
• valid email address and
• a cheque in Canadian funds which has my name pre-printed on it to deposit into the account.

(Quebec residents are out of luck again.)

You might find it handy to choose a user ID and a password for your new account before you start the sign up process. If so, the rules for the user ID are:

• it must have at least 6 characters including
• 1 letter and
• 1 number and
• it can include many special characters.

The program forces your answer to all uppercase letters.

And the rules for the password are:

The password must be

• at least 8 characters in length,
• include 1 upper case letter,
• 1 lower case letter,
• 1 number and
• 1 special character from a choice of 3.

How to Open a New Savings Account at Zag Bank

Go to the website at https://www.zagbank.ca/

Click on the Open a Zag Account button.

I’ve never had an account at Zag before, so I then will:

Click on the New to Zag button.

The Hello Page

Read the info on the Hello page.

Click on the Begin button.

The Get Started Page

1. From the drop-down list beside “Which account would you like to open?” I selected Zag Savings.
2. From the drop-down list beside “Is this a joint account?” I selected: No
3. From the drop-down list beside” What is this account for?” I selected: Savings
4. From the drop-down list beside “Is this account for somebody else?” I selected: No
5. Click on the blue right facing arrowhead.

The About You Page

Type your

• First Name
• Last Name
• Birthday
  You have to select the year and month from the drop-down lists and click on the day; you can’t type it in.
• SIN
• From the drop-down list beside “What is your gender?” select Male or Female (The only choices offered are Male and Female, unlike with Facebook)
• From the drop-down list beside “Are you a US Person?” select Yes or No.

Click on the blue right facing arrowhead.

The Staying in Touch Page

Type to fill in the following fields:

• Street
  Ooo-oooo. Spooky. When I typed in the street number of our home and part of the street name, up popped a list to choose from with the rest of the address, city, and postal code so I could just select it. Good stuff.
• City
• From the drop-down list beside Province, select your province of residence.
• Postal Code
• Phone
• From the drop-down list beside ”What industry do you work you in?” (Yes! It says that!), select the closest choice you can find.

  Interesting that I can’t be retired or a homemaker unless I choose “Other”
  From the drop-down list beside “What is your occupation?”, select your closest choice. You may have to change your “industry” choice in the previous question to see the answer you want for this question.

• If you selected Other the choices are:
  Commercial Driver
  Homemaker
  Retired or
  Student

Why is a Commercial Driver in this group?!

It’s actually kind of fun to poke through the categories. I wonder how the PEO would feel seeing the title “Engineer” prefacing several categories under Computer Technology and Other Computer Related  industries? Such as Engineer – Web Developer

Click on the blue right facing arrowhead.

The Your Profile Page

1. Choose a user ID for Mobile and Online banking

   It must have at least 6 characters including 1 letter and 1 number and it can include many special characters. The program forces your answer to all uppercase letters.

2. Choose a password for Online banking login

   The password must be at least 8 characters in length, include 1 upper case letter, 1 lower case letter, 1 number and 1 special character from a choice of 3.

3. Confirm it by typing it again.
4. Email address
5. Confirm it by typing it again.
6. From the drop-down list beside ”Do you agree to receive marketing information, select Yes or No.
7. Click on the blue right facing arrowhead.

The For Your Security Page

Read the For Your Security message

Click on the blue Continue button.

You will be asked identity questions based on your credit bureau profile. You will have to answer each question quickly by selecting your answer and clicking on the right facing arrowhead.

Once you click on the correct answer, be sure to click on the right facing arrowhead at the bottom of the screen. I nearly missed this step and nearly ran out of time to answer correctly.

The Set & Save Page

You can set up a recurring automatic transfer from the account you are writing your cheque on to this Zag account now if you like.

I don’t want to.

From the drop-down list beside “Set up recurring transfers?” select Yes or No.

I selected No.

Click on the blue right facing arrowhead.

The Almost There Page

Write down your Reference Number. You’ll want to keep this until your account is set up to your satisfaction.

Click on the link to the Product Agreement to read the details

If the information seems ok, click to check the box beside “I accept the product agreement”

Click on the Confirm button.

The First Deposit Page

Read through the choices for how to deposit money into your new account.

If you want, you can mail in a cheque if it is

• Pre-printed with your name (or with both you and your joint holder’s names if you are opening a joint bank account.)
• Issued by a Canadian financial institution
• Payable to Zag bank with a minimum deposit of $25
• Signed and dated by you with today’s date
• Includes the reference number previously given to you on the memo line

Mail your cheque to
Zag Bank
P.O. Box 56261, STN A
Toronto ON M5W 4L1

Type in the amount in the amount line

OR

Select “Take a picture of my cheque”

You will need to be on a mobile or tablet to deposit a cheque by taking a photo of it.

They will email you a welcome message with instructions for how to deposit your cheque this way.

Click on the Finish button.

The You’re all done Page

The program will respond:

That is all we need for now.

Once we have processed your initial deposit, we will send you an email to let you know your account is ready to use. Welcome to Zag.

How Did Opening My First Zag Account Go?

Well, I forgot to include how much I want to deposit into my account on the First Deposit page. And I have not yet received an email with instructions about how to use the photo cheque deposit technique. So I may need to update this article as things happen. For now, it all seems good.

Related Reading

• How to Open an Account a PC Financial in Person
• How to Open Another Account at Tangerine
• How to Open a Savings Account at Oaken Financial

Join In
Have you opened an account at Zag bank? Do you intend to use it regularly or only if the rate for your savings account is higher than you can get somewhere else? Please share your opinions with a comment.