Tag Archives: daily interest savings accounts

Testing the Rules of the Tangerine Interest Rate Promotion by Moving Money Between Spouses

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As I mentioned in a previous post about the short-term higher-interest-rate offers from Tangerine and PC Financial, we don’t have a huge stash of cash waiting to transfer into Tangerine to take advantage of their current 3% for 3 months offer. Or do we? I wondered if there is some way to bend the rules for the promotion by moving some money between my husband and I.

The Tangerine Interest Rate Promotion Won’t Apply If You Just Transfer Money Between Joint Accounts

Each time Tangerine offers one of these short-term rate promotions, it seems like the list of exemptions grows longer. That’s because of people like me who resent not getting the higher interest even though we are loyal long-term customers. We are on the lookout for loopholes.

If you and your partner have joint accounts at Tangerine, you can’t get the special interest rate just by transferring money between some accounts. The higher interest only applies on balances higher than the total closing balance on August 31, 2014 (for the promotion I’m discussing here) across all your various accounts.

But my husband and I don’t have joint accounts at Tangerine. Well, we do have a joint US dollar account but US dollars aren’t eligible for this special rate anyway.

What, I thought, if I moved a few thousand of my husband’s emergency fund money into my savings account? Would that work? Could it really be that easy??

What Do the Tangerine Rules Say About Spouses?

I read through the rules again fairly carefully.

I can’t find any fine print that precludes this manoeuvre!

Testing the Crooks Contrivance

OK, if “Smith” can have a manoeuvre and “Norbert” can have a gambit, can’t I have a contrivance? That’s “a thing created skillfully and inventively to serve a particular purpose.” Ok so maybe it’s not as a good as the CO2 scrubber that brought the crew of Apollo 13 home safely, but still….

So today I took out the money from my husband’s Tangerine account via his “Big Canadian bank.” As soon as it’s in and the hold is off, I’ll transfer it into my Tangerine savings account. Then I’ll have to wait for the first interest payment at the end of September to see if it works.

Please: Stay tuned! Where else can you follow (non-)nefarious money-making schemes like this in slow motion?

REMEMBER The Person Who Owns/Made the Money MUST Claim the Interest on Their Tax Return!

While it’s fine to play games with Tangerine (in fact it’s fun!) it’s important not to try to game the CRA. They not only own the ball, they own the teams, the refs, the stadiums and the leagues!

Since this was my husband’s money, if it earns any interest, HE will have to claim it on his income tax. That may be a bit confusing to the CRA as the interest will be reported on MY T5. However, they should realize that by following their own attribution rules, we will end up paying MORE taxes, so I think they’ll be good with that.

Never cheat on your taxes! A few bucks in savings could result in a lifetime of misery.

And the Results are In for the Crooks Contrivance!

It’s now October and Tangerine has paid its interest for the September portion of its high interest on new balances promotion.

Did the money I moved from my husband’s savings account to my own earn the bonus?

Yes!

Once more proving no matter how idiot-proof you make an offer, there’s always some idiot just a bit more idiotic than you’d anticipated.

Still, it’s an interesting option for anyone else who doesn’t hold all their assets jointly at Tangerine with their spouse.

Can I Still Get the High Interest If I Try This Tangerine Trick Today?

Just a word of warning: the Tangerine promotion only applied to new deposits made up till September 30, 2014. So for now, this strategy is not going to work. If the pattern continues, however, there will be another bonus interest promotion sometime in the New Year. I’ll write about it here, and try to remind readers of this option at that time.

What Tangerine is offering right now, is bonus interest on money put into a designated TFSA Kick Start account. So if you have cash waiting to go into your TFSA on January 1 (or if you will be stockpiling that cash quickly over the next month or so) you may want to check into it.

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PC Financial Offers 3.1% Short-Term Rate to Lure Customers from Tangerine

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OK, so on September 1, 2014, Tangerine started offering a rate that works out to 3% annually on new savings deposited between September 1 and September 15. It pays that interest rate until November 30, then it drops back to the usual rate, probably 1.3%. Of course, that encouraged anyone with a large cash balance elsewhere to put it into Tangerine. It didn’t take long before President’s Choice Financial came out with a competitive offer of 3.1% on new savings deposits made between September 3 and September 30: here are the details.

Why Do I Care Whether PC Financial Is Offering an Interest Rate Bonus for 3 Months on Savings?

When Tangerine announced its newest incentive to lure new customers we already had our savings largely in our Tangerine account. That meant our cash savings account money was only going to keep receiving the regular 1.3% interest rate. The Tangerine 3% rate only applies to deposits made which raise the total of your savings above the level they were at on August 31. (You can read the details of what they add up at the Tangerine website.)

So I waited for PC Financial to come out with a competing offer. Then I could simply transfer our cash savings (basically our emergency fund plus a bit for a home project that starts in the New Year) to our President’s Choice savings account.

Crickets chirped.

Sunrise. Sunset. (Cue Fiddler on the Roof.)

It wasn’t till I was reading a thread on RedFlagDeals about the Tangerine promotion that I found out that PC Financial HAD launched a competitive offer. They were NOT advertising it on their website nor by email to their customers; at least, not by September 8, 2014.

Ah ha! But as of today, September 9, the ad is up on the PC Financial website. Anyway….

What Is the PC Financial Bonus Rate Offer?

Well, I’m still trying to get the details in writing.

By telephone, we were told

  • They will add up all of your types of savings with them as of September 5, 2014. This would include your chequing account, savings account, TFSA and RRSP amounts. (It may include other amounts: check the details carefully.)
  • Interest will only be paid on the daily balance that is higher than this amount. (That’s the same rule as Tangerine.)
  • The new money must be deposited by September 30 2014 to qualify. Remember that the date it is deposited is not necessarily the date you make the transfer from another bank or the date you put a cheque into an ABM. It has to be processed and posted to your account before September 30. (That’s the same at Tangerine as well, although there the money has to be in your account by September 15.)
  • You must “enroll” to receive the offer. To do so, you must talk to an agent at their 1 888 723 8881 number (press 0 if you want to skip the tree of choices), by visiting a PCF pavilion or hub and speaking to the agent, or if you get one, by accepting the online banking invitation sent to your email.
  • The higher interest rate, which only applies to the money you deposit above the amount you had in your accounts September 5, applies until December 15, 2014. Any amount equal or below the amount on September 5 just earns the usual interest rate. For savings that’s about 1.3%.

You can now read the complete details at the PC Financial website.

How Did Our Chat with the Agent Go?

Well, once again we hit the “Primary Account Holder” stupidity. Only my husband can ask to have the interest rate promotion applied to our Savings account. I’ve ranted talked about this before: Can you believe my husband would OBJECT if I, the Secondary Account Holder, managed to get us a higher interest rate on our savings without him having to do anything?

The rate did get applied to our account. But I had to phone again to check if it was working because the “confirmation email” we were promised has not arrived yet, as of September 9. (We called on September 7.)

So Off Our Money Goes

So our money is off on another adventure. Wish me luck!

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Do you transfer your savings balance to capture the best possible rate in these days of ultra-low interest rates? Or would you rather skip the dim sum lunch you could buy with the additional proceeds and just leave your money parked in one bank? Please share your views with a comment.