A portion of my savings are in GICs, and my credit union offers a dizzying variety of 15 GIC flavours: see (in English): http://www.desjardins.com/en/particu...tis_taux_fixe/ and http://www.desjardins.com/en/particu...nts_indiciels/.

They're always pushing the interest-linked or market-linked GICs, with a variable interest rate that is linked to changes in the prime rate or stock market indices. In theory this sounds interesting if rates are expected to climb, but because the bank promotes it I'm always suspicious of going this route and opt for the fixed-rate 5-year term (or a ladder that eventually has all my GICs maturing at five years over different periods).

As a general rule am I likely to be better off sticking with the simple fixed-rate GICs (which they call "term savings") or might I benefit from one of these other products instead?