Tag Archives: insurance

Is My Money In Savings Accounts and GICs At Simplii Financial Protected by CDIC Insurance?

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Simplii Financial is the new name for what used to be called President’s Choice Financial. It’s also a somewhat new business and is owned and run by CIBC. Recently I read a question about what kind of CDIC insurance Simplii Financial offered on cash deposits and guaranteed investment certificates so I decided to check.

Be Careful Of the Insurance Maximums If You Have Money at CIBC and Money at Simplii Financial

First, deposits at Simplii Financial are insured by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation, CDIC.

HOWEVER, the limit of $100 000 we’re all so used to reading applies to any money you have in that type of account at both CIBC and Simplii Financial, because they are both insured under one policy.

For example,

we have

  • a joint CIBC chequing account
  • a joint Simplii Financial chequing account
  • a joint Simplii Financial savings account

We are only insured up to $100 000 deposited in total in those accounts. If we bought any regular GICs at CIBC or Simplii Financial, those would also be insured only if the total of the 3 bank accounts and all of the GICs was $100 000 or less.

Because CDIC treats your money the same if it’s at CIBC or at Simplii Financial, which is part of CIBC, you may want to make sure you understand the maximums and don’t exceed them if you bank with both institutions.

Are Tangerine and ScotiaBank Accounts Insured Together To One CDIC Maximum Also?

No.

I checked whether this was also the case with Tangerine. After all the Bank of Nova Scotia bought out Tangerine.

But no, they have separate CDIC insurance. So you can reach the $100 000 limit on, say a savings account at ScotiaBank and also reach the $100 000 limit on another savings account at Tangerine and you will be insured separately to the full amount on each of them.

We don’t bank with BNS so we never checked this before. I’m glad I learned about the limits on CIBC/Simplii Financial though. It’s unlikely I’d ever have more than $100 000 in the two banks but better to know now that find out the hard way later that we’re not fully insured!

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Do you keep money at both CIBC and Simplii Financial? Did you know you had to keep the totals across the 2 banks in the different categories under $100 000 each? Please share your experiences with a comment.

 

How Much Will I Save on My Home Insurance If I Replace My Roof?

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Earlier this year, I called my insurance agent when the renewal notice came for our home owner’s insurance. The premium had gone up again and the coverage had gone down. By phoning in, I was able to reduce our costs considerably. One question they asked was when we last replaced the shingles on our roof. They hinted that a new roof would drop our insurance rate. Today, I’m phoning in to find out how much we’ll save on our home owner’s insurance rate because we have just replaced our 17-year-old roof.

Why Do I Need a New Roof After 17-Year When I Bought 30-Year Shingles?

I’ve discussed our roof before when he had some leaking only about 10 years after the pricey 30-year shingles went on. We discovered that the roofers had made a mistake and put too small vents into too large holes which left a gap for the rain to sneak into the house. It was easily fixed and the years passed by drily.

This spring, however, we noticed over the winter one section of our roof facing the heat and sun had lost a lot of its granules. Sure enough during a heavy, 24-hour long rain, water began to come in. The cardboard backing for the shingles had soaked up water like a sponge and eventually it started to work through them.

So it was time for a new roof. When we spoke with a variety of roofers, I discovered that 10-12 years is all they really expect 25- or 30-year shingles to last. So much for the accuracy of the names!

So What’s the Benefit of Getting the New Roof—Did I Save a Lot on My Insurance?

Now the new roof is on, I phoned our insurance company to ask them to update their file. And guess what? Our annual savings are: $23.

Yep. Just twenty-three dollars a year.

Sigh.

It’s going to take a LONG time to pay off the roof with that cost savings!

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How long has your roof lasted? Does your insurance company give you a discount for having a new roof? Please share your experiences with a comment.