# Simplii Financial (former PCF)



## gibor365

Simplii Financial (former PCF) started to operate today and offers 3% interest until Feb 28.
Initiated transfer from Tangerine to take advantage of it .
btw, EQ Banks servers crushed today , probably as a result of huge outflow to Simplii


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## james4beach

Hi gibor, what did you have to do to get 3% ? I'm glad they boosted it because with the uncertainty of the switch, I was about to send a bunch of cash over to my credit union.


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## AltaRed

james4beach said:


> Hi gibor, what did you have to do to get 3% ? I'm glad they boosted it because with the uncertainty of the switch, I was about to send a bunch of cash over to my credit union.


As I understand it, nothing other than adding new money to Simplii.

https://www.highinterestsavings.ca/...erest-on-new-deposits-until-february-28-2018/


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## james4beach

3% is a great rate! Let the transfers begin.

First step, testing that bank-to-bank transfers still work...


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## 319905

A nice gesture by CIBC ...


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## Eder

Too bad its only till end of Feb...


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## Mookie

Simplii is also offering free Interac eTransfers. I believe there used to be a fee with PC Financial.


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## My Own Advisor

james4beach said:


> 3% is a great rate! Let the transfers begin.
> 
> First step, testing that bank-to-bank transfers still work...


Yup. Good incentive for a few months at least.


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## My Own Advisor

Correct. I was $1.50 before.


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## james4beach

I'm now planning to transfer cash from my credit union to Simplii. I have a GIC maturing and realized that I have insufficient liquidity, so instead of reinvesting into more GICs, I will accumulate cash at Simplii for a few months.

I hate the name though.


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## gibor365

james4beach said:


> I'm now planning to transfer cash from my credit union to Simplii. I have a GIC maturing and realized that I have insufficient liquidity, so instead of reinvesting into more GICs, I will accumulate cash at Simplii for a few months.
> 
> I hate the name though.


I have also few GICs from Oaken that will mature Dec/Jan, so will move $$$ to Simplii.... however, i need to open another JOI account with them to stay within CDIC limits just in case, even though IMHO , because it belongs to CIBC, I don't believe there is even smallest chance of default


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## AMABILE

I have an account at EQ BANK paying 2.3% and
another at TANGERINE paying 2.5% til Dec 25
right now I'm staying put because I'm wondering
what will the 3% at SIMPLII fall to after Feb 28


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## gibor365

AMABILE said:


> I have an account at EQ BANK paying 2.3% and
> another at TANGERINE paying 2.5% til Dec 25
> right now I'm staying put because I'm wondering
> what will the 3% at SIMPLII fall to after Feb 28


3% is still better than 2.3% and who knows what you gonna get at tangerine after Dec 25?!
I'm just move money back from Simplii on Mar 1 to Tangerine/EQ...
Also, I've read rumors on RDF that on jan 5, 18 Tangerine gonna do "lottery" for promo rates on new money.


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## andrewf

nt


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## AMABILE

the 3% gets paid on March 1st
I really like getting my interest at the end of each month 
then transferring it out as part of my monthly income.


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## gibor365

AMABILE said:


> the 3% gets paid on March 1st
> I really like getting my interest at the end of each month
> then transferring it out as part of my monthly income.


I aslo would prefer to get interest at the end of every month, just to clarify 2% paid on Mar 1 and 1% at the end of each month


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## lonewolf :)

Would not transfer any RRSP or TFSA into simplii fees to transfer out are probably about $100 if interest rates drop as well getting money transferred out could take weeks/months to get a better interest somewhere else when accounts are registered the process can be slow when feet are dragged.


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## Eclectic12

From the fine print, it looks like the RRSP or TFSA transfer is $50 per transfer.

The TFSA is more flexible as most Financial Institutions don't charge for withdrawals. 

If there is TFSA contribution room that can handle the withdrawal, the withdrawal then contribution can happen this year, where the withdrawal amount becomes new contribution next year. If there is no TFSA contribution room, the withdrawal can be Dec with the contribution in Jan will have no issues as the withdrawal has become the same $$ of contribution room.

What the potential earnings are will factor into this. If the TFSA $$ are emergency funds where the usual earning in 1%, there likely is no down side as the PCF rate has been 1% for a while, with no reason to believe Simplii will drop the rate after the promo ends. If the TFSA $$ are long term in a brokerage - the potential earnings varies a lot more that 1%.


The TFSA transfer timing may match the weeks/months while the withdrawals are at maximum a couple of days.


Cheers


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## james4beach

Has anyone received a new Simplii debit card yet? Do we keep using the PC debit card at ATMs for now?


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## Danny

James I received my card about a month ago. No issues. Was usuing my old one at the machines till my new one came. Once the new one came I tried it at the machines and verified ir worked then cut up my old one.


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## Mookie

I haven't got mine yet. Old one still works fine, for now.


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## doctrine

I got my new Simplii bank account card last week and have been using it no problem.


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## andrewf

james4beach said:


> Has anyone received a new Simplii debit card yet? Do we keep using the PC debit card at ATMs for now?


Received mine last week.


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## james4beach

I haven't received mine yet. My old PC one continues to work.


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## scorpion_ca

Once you activate the new card, old one will stop working.


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## james4beach

I discovered something interesting. I have a savings account at TD, not a chequing account, and I thought it was impossible to link this into Simplii. Since TD has been impossible to reach by phone all of January, I decided I should link up my TD savings account to Simplii so I can withdraw large amounts without relying on TDDI to do a bank transfer. Interac transfers have limit of a few thousand.

Goal is transferring from TDDI -> TD savings -> Simplii. Same idea to use TDDI as a LoC for emergencies with margin borrowing, in a pinch I could borrow out of TDDI margin and zip the cash to Simplii.

It seems that Simplii does support external savings accounts. Instead of a void cheque, you can get one of the bank's account information and "pre-authorized debit" forms that shows your account details, transit, etc. Just get this stamped at your bank branch, then mail the form into Simplii. Through TD's online banking, you can directly print this form from a link on your savings account screen.

I'm currently going through these steps and will let you know how it turns out, but I'm excited about linking these up.

Thanks TD! If it wasn't for your unresponsiveness on the phone, I never would have figured out a new way to pull money out of your bank faster!


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## gibor365

didn't receive and don't need it


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## humble_pie

james4beach said:


> Goal is transferring from TDDI -> TD savings -> Simplii.
> 
> Thanks TD! If it wasn't for your unresponsiveness on the phone, I never would have figured out a new way to pull money out of your bank faster!




jas4 can't you do a Bill Payment from TD savings to Simplii? it's easy to move cash from TDDI to TD bank account. Many accounts have $100,000 per day BP ceilings, which when you think about it is ample enough.

re unresponsiveness on the phone, what i find is that the reps are holding up magnificently in the face of what must be non-stop stress at work, for 8 hours every single day, week after week. As one lady cheerfully told me, this is the worst they've seen since the dot com buying mania 17 years ago. And it won't get any better until the middle of may, she added.

it's the same story at the backup broker, they are all managing very well imho. When they do get to your call in the queue they are focused & calm, as if they had no other callers in the world.


.


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## james4beach

humble_pie said:


> jas4 can't you do a Bill Payment from TD savings to Simplii?


I don't think Bill Payment is a way to transfer cash out from TD to another institution's account. When I go to TD's bill payment section, I have to first add a payee. Entering Simplii doesn't bring up any matches (nor does PC Financial, other than the mastercard).

Interac e-mail transfers are a way to transfer money out from TD to another bank account, but have daily & weekly limits. The only other way I'm aware of is to register the external (TD) account with Simplii so that transfers can be done in either direction from the Simplii side.

If someone knows of another way to move cash between Canadian bank accounts, I'd love to know.


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## SixesAndSevens

I haven't received the new simpliiii ATM card but the old PCF one still works.

btw i wouldn't sign up for their teaser rate offers.
PCF AND CIBC will pull the rate down sooner or later and you will be stuck with a lower rate.


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## Eclectic12

Actually ... there is no signup for the promo rate - unlike the Tangerine one and what PCF used to do.

Sure, the Simplii promo rate will be expire - but with Tangerine offering something like a 2.4% promo rate, if Simplii wants to keep $$$ with them there will have to be a counter offer.
Even if it is at the low rate of 1.1% - that beats a TD savings account that pays nothing on the first $5k then 0.5% on everything else.

Registered accounts are where one needs a plan or one likely should skip it ... but for a taxable account, there is no barrier preventing money from flowing to other accounts.


Cheers


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## james4beach

I feel like there's not much point keeping cash/savings in registered accounts. Isn't the whole point of cash to have liquid money available?

My strategy is to keep cash/savings non-registered and readily accessible to the extent possible.


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## andrewf

If you haven't received the new bank card, you may want to call and ask about it. I imagine they have all been sent out by now.


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## gibor365

SixesAndSevens said:


> I haven't received the new simpliiii ATM card but the old PCF one still works.
> 
> btw i wouldn't sign up for their teaser rate offers.
> PCF AND CIBC will pull the rate down sooner or later and you will be stuck with a lower rate.


Why you will be stuck?! Just transfer money to another bank....
I;m planning to transfer all money from Simplii on Feb 26 or so, in case they will have another promo rate for a new money...

btw, i don't really understand why do you need Simplii debit card? Do you really use it? I had PCF card for several years , but never used it....


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## Eclectic12

james4beach said:


> I feel like there's not much point keeping cash/savings in registered accounts. Isn't the whole point of cash to have liquid money available?
> My strategy is to keep cash/savings non-registered and readily accessible to the extent possible.


Depends on what it is intended for ... having cash was useful in early 2009. 
In a couple of cases, having converted from stock to cash then back to stock at about half price worked really well for my RRSP.


Cheers


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## Eclectic12

gibor365 said:


> ... btw, i don't really understand why do you need Simplii debit card? Do you really use it? I had PCF card for several years , but never used it....


Not sure for the poster ... but for me PCF now Simplii is my main bank so I used the ATM card all the time and in a pinch, for a debit every couple of years.

The ING Direct now Tangerine one is like your PCF one in that has never been used.


Cheers


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## gibor365

Eclectic12 said:


> Not sure for the poster ... but for me PCF now Simplii is my main bank so I used the ATM card all the time and in a pinch, for a debit every couple of years.
> 
> The ING Direct now Tangerine one is like your PCF one in that has never been used.
> 
> 
> Cheers


oic , our main bank is CIBC (also discount brokerage is there), so I use those online banks only for HISA/GIC promos...

btw, too bad I cannot have access to Simplii accounts on my CIBC login....


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## SixesAndSevens

gibor365 said:


> Why you will be stuck?! Just transfer money to another bank....


I meant the hassle of transfer.
for some it may be easy to click a few buttons....but for a grumpy fart like me, it is too much trouble.



> btw, i don't really understand why do you need Simplii debit card? Do you really use it? I had PCF card for several years , but never used it....


I use it to withdraw cash because the PCF account is my primary checking account.
now you may ask what do I need to use cash for


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## Eclectic12

Don't get me wrong ... if you find it a hassle that you don't want then by all means skip it.

It just seems weird that clicking a few buttons to transfer to get paid better interest is too much trouble but clicking likely a lot more buttons to comment for free about the risk of being "stuck" as well as the transfer hassle is worth it. :biggrin:


Unless the $$ are really low so that next to nothing is gained by the transfer ....


Cheers


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## Eclectic12

gibor365 said:


> oic , our main bank is CIBC (also discount brokerage is there), so I use those online banks only for HISA/GIC promos ...


I keep the bulk of the transactions where there are no limits, transaction charges etc. where the big 5 bank account is as a backup as well as making transfers in/out of the brokerage fast/easy.




gibor365 said:


> ... btw, too bad I cannot have access to Simplii accounts on my CIBC login....


That would make too much sense. :rolleyes2:

Does Scotia let their regular and Tangerine accounts share a logins?


Cheers


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## andrewf

gibor365 said:


> Why you will be stuck?! Just transfer money to another bank....
> I;m planning to transfer all money from Simplii on Feb 26 or so, in case they will have another promo rate for a new money...
> 
> btw, i don't really understand why do you need Simplii debit card? Do you really use it? I had PCF card for several years , but never used it....


If it is your primary bank, you need it for withdrawing cash from ATMs.


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## Synergy

james4beach said:


> I don't think Bill Payment is a way to transfer cash out from TD to another institution's account. When I go to TD's bill payment section, I have to first add a payee. Entering Simplii doesn't bring up any matches (nor does PC Financial, other than the mastercard).


You can set up a personal payee in the bill payment section. Gather the information required (account #, etc.) ad call TD to set up the personal payee. Once set up you can transfer once, set up recurring, etc. It's not instant like a wired transfer but it works. I use it it get around a few of TD's stupid rules and have set myself up as a personal payee to transfer within my TD account. The games we play ;o)


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## james4beach

Synergy said:


> You can set up a personal payee in the bill payment section. Gather the information required (account #, etc.) ad call TD to set up the personal payee. Once set up you can transfer once, set up recurring, etc. It's not instant like a wired transfer but it works. I use it it get around a few of TD's stupid rules and have set myself up as a personal payee to transfer within my TD account. The games we play ;o)


I didn't know that! Is that the terminology, "personal payee"? I'll phone TD and ask to set that up.

Do you pay a fee to send money that way? Or is it included within the X free debits you get each month?


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## Synergy

james4beach said:


> I didn't know that! Is that the terminology, "personal payee"? I'll phone TD and ask to set that up.
> 
> Do you pay a fee to send money that way? Or is it included within the X free debits you get each month?


No fees. Personal payee is the term they use. Here's a link to the information:
https://www.tdcanadatrust.com/easyweb4/help/banking/acc00085.htm


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## Synergy

Looks like I may have made a mistake. It may only be within TD! I've only used it for TD accounts (family, etc.) and thought it was ok for other banks as well. That's too bad ;o(


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## humble_pie

i've frequently transferred $$ using Bill Payment to accounts at other financial institutions including other bank accounts.

there's no charge for these, but they do count as withdrawals in any TD bank plan

when you think about, all "bill payments" to 3rd parties - ie non-TD parties - have to be sent to legitimate bank account numbers with legitimate transit numbers, no?

_what i'm not sure about:
_
- what is the dollar cap on bill payments that can be made? one rep has told me $5000 daily but this figure should be confirmed. If the maximum daily amount is indeed 5k, a larger amount could be transferred in portions each day

- how can a new payee such as Simplii be set up? i'd suggest phoning the bank call centre to find out


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## gibor365

Eclectic12 said:


> Don't get me wrong ... if you find it a hassle that you don't want then by all means skip it.
> 
> It just seems weird that clicking a few buttons to transfer to get paid better interest is too much trouble but clicking likely a lot more buttons to comment for free about the risk of being "stuck" as well as the transfer hassle is worth it. :biggrin:
> 
> 
> Unless the $$ are really low so that next to nothing is gained by the transfer ....
> 
> 
> Cheers


 +1


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## james4beach

humble_pie said:


> i've frequently transferred $$ using Bill Payment to accounts at other financial institutions including other bank accounts.
> 
> there's no charge for these, but they do count as withdrawals in any TD bank plan


I phoned TD this morning and they did not let me do this. They said that I can only add "personal payees" to bill payments if they are also TD bank customers -- but not arbitrary external bank accounts.

They said one way you can do this is if the external account holder has a "visa debit card" which some banks support. In those cases you can enter the person's visa debit card # into the bill payment section. Simplii however did not issue this type of card.

humble perhaps you are transferring to someone with a visa debit card? D'après the TD rep, they don't allow bill payments to just any old external Cdn bank account (institution/transit): only TD accounts, or visa debit card #s.


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## humble_pie

james4beach said:


> I phoned TD this morning and they did not let me do this. They said that I can only add "personal payees" to bill payments if they are also TD bank customers -- but not arbitrary external bank accounts.
> 
> They said one way you can do this is if the external account holder has a "visa debit card" which some banks support. In those cases you can enter the person's visa debit card # into the bill payment section. Simplii however did not issue this type of card.
> 
> humble perhaps you are transferring to someone with a visa debit card? D'après the TD rep, they don't allow bill payments to just any old external Cdn bank account (institution/transit): only TD accounts, or visa debit card #s.




how strange. I do bill payments to external accounts - ie "any old external bank account" regularly. Works like a charm. I can even surpass that $5k ceiling that some TD rep mentioned to me. No visa card is involved nor is any other credit card involved.

but back to your issue, you want to transfer an amount greater than those small e-mail limits, from TDDI to Simplii. Why don't you phone the big green on the phone app, thus bypassing the wait queue?

better yet, why don't you find out from Simplii how to set it up from their end, so they can pro-actively collect $$ from the TD bank account? that's how Tangerine basically works.

once you have established this Simplii link you can use it to deposit & also to withdraw funds, back & forth with your TD bank account.


.


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## Danny

James, I currently use simply as my free account and I have set up as a payee my TD direct investing account. I have so far transferred (or lets call it payee) three times in last 2 months and had no issue. It took about 3 business days before I seen the money in my TD investment account. Seems strange that Td can not do it the way you want. I did this for myself on my simply bank site and needed no phone calls. The first time I transferred the money I just sent $100.00 because I wanted to confirm it worked. And since then I transferred $500.00 twice. No issues.


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## SW20 MR2

I have my Simplii and TD banks accounts linked via the Simplii online banking. I think I had to send in a blank cheque from my TD account. My TD account shows up as a transfer option within online banking.


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## gibor365

Simplii 3% rate gonna drop to 1% on Mar 1, are you going to withdraw cash from Simplii? When?
I'm catious that last couple of days of Feb, it won't be possible to reach Simplii on the phone , as tons of people will be calling asn asking to transfer money out (and you cannot do it for any big amount online), so I think to withdraw 3-4 days before promo ends


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## SixesAndSevens

gibor365 said:


> Simplii 3% rate gonna drop to 1% on Mar 1


so that rate was for 3 months only?
i knew it!
this company is bait & switch.

re. my previous post, all this transfer in & transfer out makes sense only for those that have high six figures to put into that account.
I don't so I will pass 
the interest income for 3 mon. isn't worth it.

I will save myself a few clix.


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## james4beach

Danny ... yes I agree it's possible to send from Simplii (or any Canadian bank) to TDDI. This *can* be done with bill payments and I do that too, so it works great. But I think that's only in the OtherBank->TDDI direction. To set this up, you add TD Waterhouse as a bill payee and put in your TDDI account #.

humble_pie: do you remember how you set this up? Maybe I'll give TD another shot and perhaps I just reached a rep who didn't know how to do what you describe. But you are correct that this is probably better to take care of on the Simplii side. I have already acquired the forms from Simplii to do a full link to TD, and once that's set up I should be able to transfer both ways (Simplii>TD and TD>Simplii).

I just have to pop into a TD branch and get some paperwork signed.


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## gibor365

SixesAndSevens said:


> so that rate was for 3 months only?
> i knew it!
> this company is bait & switch.
> 
> re. my previous post, all this transfer in & transfer out makes sense only for those that have high six figures to put into that account.
> I don't so I will pass
> the interest income for 3 mon. isn't worth it.
> 
> I will save myself a few clix.


they announcedup front that this 3% promo will last for 4 months. And IMO it's worth it... Ihave there about 250K, so this additional 1% gave me more thaen 800$ in 4 months


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## Eclectic12

SixesAndSevens said:


> gibor365 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Simplii 3% rate gonna drop to 1% on Mar 1 ...
> 
> 
> 
> so that rate was for 3 months only?
> i knew it!
> this company is bait & switch ...
Click to expand...

LOL ... if a limited time frame then lower rate that is detailed in the announcement is "bait & switch", you need to add to the list TD bank, CIBC and pretty close to all other banks. 

Of course one could go with a non-bait and switch savings account at another bank that pays 0.05% not matter what. That's instead of being paid the low 1.1% with some short term periods up to 3%.




SixesAndSevens said:


> ... re. my previous post, all this transfer in & transfer out makes sense only for those that have high six figures to put into that account.
> I don't so I will pass the interest income for 3 mon. isn't worth it.
> 
> I will save myself a few clix.


Your choice ... but in my case, it isn't high six figures where reading an email then spending five minutes doing the transfer every four months has resulted in extra $300+.


Cheers


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## gibor365

imho, [email protected]'s did much more clicks posting 97 times on CMF and earning ..... nada for those clicks


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## SixesAndSevens

gibor365 said:


> imho, [email protected]'s did much more clicks posting 97 times on CMF and earning ..... nada for those clicks


much sorry I don't have $250K sitting in cash.
enjoy your $800 please.
have a cold brewski on my behalf.


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## 319905

james4beach said:


> Danny ... yes I agree it's possible to send from Simplii (or any Canadian bank) to TDDI. This *can* be done with bill payments and I do that too, so it works great. But I think that's only in the OtherBank->TDDI direction. To set this up, you add TD Waterhouse as a bill payee and put in your TDDI account #.
> 
> humble_pie: do you remember how you set this up? Maybe I'll give TD another shot and perhaps I just reached a rep who didn't know how to do what you describe. But you are correct that this is probably better to take care of on the Simplii side. I have already acquired the forms from Simplii to do a full link to TD, and once that's set up I should be able to transfer both ways (Simplii>TD and TD>Simplii).
> 
> I just have to pop into a TD branch and get some paperwork signed.


If the receiving bank accepts pics, write yourself a cheque, take a pic, wait the usual waiting period, done. Was asking how to best deposit a large amount to my Alterna Bank account ... short story, wrote myself a cheque from my sending bank, took a pic, waited the usual wait period, done ... too easy, my opinion.


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## james4beach

I agree that writing cheques to yourself is one of the best ways to transfer money.

I do the same moving money between US and Canadian banks. It's incredibly easy. I just write a cheque to myself and deposit in the Canadian bank.


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## Eclectic12

It has also worked well moving Canadian bank or Heloc to Canadian bank to brokerage. The ETF route would have taken a couple of days where the cheque being deposited to the ATM then transferred to brokerage was usable same day.


Cheers


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## 319905

^ To clarify, Alterna Bank (and others) don't have ATMs but they (and others) do have a "Deposit Anywhere" function (or equivalent) whereby just log in, use the app to take a pic of the front/back of a cheque, and it's deposited. ATM? I don't even know how to spell ATM. The method gets around any EFT amount restrictions e.g. $25K in per day and so on ...


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## leeder

James, do you have Interac e-transfer? Easiest way to transfer money to yourself, but I am assuming you don't.

I know with some online institutions, such as Oaken and EQ bank, one can set up a link to external bank accounts to push or pull money into or from the account. However, I have not seen this feature with TD. I would be very interested if you are able to do it, especially pulling money from TD.


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## james4beach

I have the interac option but there is a limit of a few thousand $ per transaction. I'm trying to set up a way to make larger transfers on the order of 10K a shot, that's too much for the interac email transfer.


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## leeder

Any word from Simplii on a new promo rate after February 28th?


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## Synergy

^ No news. Moving money to Tangerine tomorrow.

Anyone receive their T5 from Simplii. Tried calling in a few time today. Lost my patience after being on hold for over 25 minutes -" there are more than 10 people ahead of you....". The first few time their machine hung up on me after being on hold for 5-10 minutes. Same as last year, mid march and still no T5. Shitty service and no on line access to tax documents - why, because they can ;o)


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## gibor365

Synergy said:


> ^ No news. Moving money to Tangerine tomorrow.
> 
> Anyone receive their T5 from Simplii. Tried calling in a few time today. Lost my patience after being on hold for over 25 minutes -" there are more than 10 people ahead of you....". The first few time their machine hung up on me after being on hold for 5-10 minutes. Same as last year, mid march and still no T5. Shitty service and no on line access to tax documents - why, because they can ;o)


Same here.... Just moved $260K from Simplii.... to do that got transfered to manager who tried me to convince to stay with Simplii with some 2.5% GIC rates . he did several transfers 50K each.
Gonna buy some Oaken GICs and rest deposit unto Tangerine for 2.5% HISA

Same extremely bad experience with calling Simplii... waited 30 min and disconnected.
Also didn't get T5 yet... 
btw, interest that I got beginning of 2017 from PCF, should be included into Simplii T5?


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## AltaRed

gibor365 said:


> Also didn't get T5 yet...
> btw, interest that I got beginning of 2017 from PCF, should be included into Simplii T5?


I haven't seen clarity on forums yet about that. Don't know.. albeit I'd only get a T5 for the PCF portion. I closed my PCF account back in early 2017.


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## andrewf

In theory it should all be the same. Simplii is still the same entity, they just rebranded.


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## AltaRed

andrewf said:


> In theory it should all be the same. Simplii is still the same entity, they just rebranded.


I would agree, with the key caveat being the word 'theory'.

Added: When Scotia iTrade re-branded E*Trade Canada, I got 2 sets of tax slips that year.... one before the re-branding and one post re-branding. That said, that change may have involved a change in entity. But then again, in the Scotia family, when Hollis Bank was re-juggled and parts of the Hollis business spun off, and ADS Bank emerged, I only got one T5 for 2017.


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## gibor365

andrewf said:


> In theory it should all be the same. Simplii is still the same entity, they just rebranded.


When I login into Simplii, I see that I was paid interest on Jan 31 ... this time it was still PCF...so looks like I should get T5 from Simplii that include both....


----------



## AltaRed

A good sign....


----------



## Synergy

Finally received my T5. Based on my calculations it looks like CIBC will only be issuing one T5 (PC & Simplii combined).

When I spoke with a rep over the phone I was told that T5's are "official tax documents" which cannot be accessed online. Code for I don't know what I'm talking about. A better answer would be we do not have the capabilities to allow for such access at this time ;o)


----------



## AltaRed

LOL. What a BS answer that was. Smart institutions make their tax clips available online in PDF form.


----------



## andrewf

AltaRed said:


> LOL. What a BS answer that was. Smart institutions make their tax clips available online in PDF form.


Many are _only_ online.


----------



## AltaRed

andrewf said:


> Many are _only_ online.


Indeed they are and should be. Fits with the definition of an online bank.


----------



## gibor365

Synergy said:


> Finally received my T5. Based on my calculations it looks like CIBC will only be issuing one T5 (PC & Simplii combined).
> 
> When I spoke with a rep over the phone I was told that T5's are "official tax documents" which cannot be accessed online. Code for I don't know what I'm talking about. A better answer would be we do not have the capabilities to allow for such access at this time ;o)


Still didn't get it . Also, there is no Simplii T5 on CRA auto-fill..... don't they obligated to submit it to CRA before specific date?


----------



## AltaRed

They only have to 'mail' by Feb 28th I believe. Don't know what the rules are for having them on CRA My Account but I've got both snail mail and PDF tax slips a few weeks ago for items that are still not on CRA My Account.


----------



## leeder

I received the T5 from Simplii today. The Simplii T5 covers everything including the interest from pre-PCF transition.


----------



## Eclectic12

Interesting ... the mailed copy arrived pretty much in about the same time frame as I recall the PCF one arriving (Feb 28th).

What I noticed when confirming the numbers is that the over $50 interest paid account includes the PCF as well as SF interest while the under $50 interest paid account is not included at all. I don't remember if PCF was dropping accounts with less than $50 interest paid.

Tangerine seems to cover all accounts, regardless of being over or under $50 for the specific account.


Cheers


----------



## gibor365

leeder said:


> I received the T5 from Simplii today. The Simplii T5 covers everything including the interest from pre-PCF transition.


Also got it and yes, it includes also PCF's interest including 2016 promo rate that I recieved beginning of Jan 17


----------



## james4beach

New Simplii promotion: 2.75% until October 31.

I received an email for the new promo rate. 2.75% for new deposits into Simplii Financial High Interest Savings Account, from July 1 to October 31. The extra interest is on _new_ amounts compared to the total balance you had at Simplii as of June 30. One trick is to look at your online statement for June to see the month end value.


----------



## leeder

james4beach said:


> New Simplii promotion: 2.75% until October 31.
> 
> I received an email for the new promo rate. 2.75% for new deposits into Simplii Financial High Interest Savings Account, from July 1 to October 31. The extra interest is on _new_ amounts compared to the total balance you had at Simplii as of June 30. One trick is to look at your online statement for June to see the month end value.


I haven't received any new promo emails since the PCF conversion to Simplii. I see in other forums that select people got promotions up to June 30th. I wonder how people got the promo or how Simplii selects people to get it. Balance size? History with the account? It angers me a bit that they don't treat everyone the same with these promos.


----------



## james4beach

The last two promos I got were dated to begin shortly after I just transferred IN a significant amount of money. In other words, the timing of the promo kind of screws me by evaluating the starting balance at a very high point, so I'd really have to transfer in a huge amount of new cash to make use of this.

I wish they were consistent and gave the promos to everyone. I'm increasingly using Outlook Financial for my cash savings, currently 2.0% and probably going higher (lag after BoC raise).


----------



## mrPPincer

Promo chasers like myself and others on https://www.highinterestsavings.ca/ have been trying to decipher a pattern with no success for years now in how they decide, with Simplii (formerly PCF), and Tangerine (formerly ING) and the rest of them (but mainly those two).

It seems totally random, ignoring account size, years with the institution, etc.

What we have learned to do is to pull all funds out of our accounts into a hub account that pays a decent rate, and wait for the new promotional rates, if and when they come.

The date of the 'new money' new promo is fairly predictable, every three months, almost to the day, but if you are on a promo during that time, you will not likely be offered the new money one.

There are other promos varying in terms and conditions from time to time.

I was on a promo with Tang that ended, and pulled all my money out. and they offered me a 90 day promo at 2.5% until Nov 30 2018.
I'm happy with that, but will continue to play the game.

It's not unusual to see people on forums express disgust and annoyance with these little games these institutions are playing and forswear to leave them for good, but I have no problem playing. It's not consistent and I accept that.


----------



## james4beach

Would a useful strategy then be, for example, that as soon as my current Simplii/PC promo period ended, I immediately transfer the entire balance out to Outlook (always a pretty good rate), and then only transfer back into Simplii when the next promo is announced?

For 40K-60K cash, I wonder how much extra income this would earn. Can't be that much extra versus the already high Outlook rate, especially since promos don't show up like clockwork.


----------



## mrPPincer

Yes, (I use Hubert as my hub), for me it's over 100k cash, but I've been equally carefull over smaller amounts in the past, it's maybe a small difference, but why not take it? over time these little things add up.

It's a guaranteed bonus. Guaranteed is not something that comes easily, usually, and certainly not with the equity side of the portfolio.


----------



## james4beach

I agree it's definitely worth doing with 100K cash. Good point about "guaranteed". This is a situation with guaranteed profits -- even if it's just a few hundred dollars a year -- with absolutely zero risk, for totally liquid cash. Nothing locked in.

One thing I'm going to start doing is linking my bond trading to these high interest promotions. I hold individual bonds in a tax efficient portfolio (see thread). As bonds get close to maturity, you can sell them early and redeploy the money. For example a govt bond that's about 6 months away from maturity can be sold today at 1.5% yield. That means I'm forfeiting 1.5% return over the next 6 months, but if I can redeploy that money into the 2.75% promotion, my money has picked up (2.75% - 1.5%) = 1.25% extra yield.

That's a freebie. On a 20K bond that's about $120 advantage over 6 months, again with zero risk.


----------



## scorpion_ca

james4beach said:


> New Simplii promotion: 2.75% until October 31.
> 
> I received an email for the new promo rate. 2.75% for new deposits into Simplii Financial High Interest Savings Account, from July 1 to October 31. The extra interest is on _new_ amounts compared to the total balance you had at Simplii as of June 30. One trick is to look at your online statement for June to see the month end value.


Although I didn't receive this email for my account, my brother got it for 2.5% instead of 2.75% until Oct 31, 2018.


----------



## scorpion_ca

Simplii is offering 3.15% interest rate for all new deposits staring from Nov 1, 2018 to Feb 28, 2019.


----------



## Userkare

scorpion_ca said:


> Simplii is offering 3.15% interest rate for all new deposits staring from Nov 1, 2018 to Feb 28, 2019.


Seems that you have to be invited, or must call to enrol (sic) in the offer. I wonder how they select who to send the offer.

_Earn 3.15%* interest on new deposits until February 28, 2019. Already have a savings account? Sign up for this offer by calling 1-866-674-5609

*..... For existing savings account holders, to participate in the Offer, the primary account holder must enrol during the Offer Period by accepting the online offer through online banking, by selecting the “accept” button for e-mail offers or by calling 1-888-236-5999 to complete enrolment..._


----------



## james4beach

scorpion_ca said:


> Simplii is offering 3.15% interest rate for all new deposits staring from Nov 1, 2018 to Feb 28, 2019.


I just got this email too. You must exceed the balance as of October 31.

Unfortunately that's going to be tough for me as I don't have new money to put into the account (it's already all in there), so although it's a great rate, I can't benefit from it. Instead I will probably move some money the other direction, out of Simplii, into GICs


----------



## Onagoth

Userkare said:


> Seems that you have to be invited, or must call to enrol (sic) in the offer. I wonder how they select who to send the offer.
> 
> _Earn 3.15%* interest on new deposits until February 28, 2019. Already have a savings account? Sign up for this offer by calling 1-866-674-5609
> 
> *..... For existing savings account holders, to participate in the Offer, the primary account holder must enrol during the Offer Period by accepting the online offer through online banking, by selecting the “accept” button for e-mail offers or by calling 1-888-236-5999 to complete enrolment..._


https://www.simplii.com/en/home.html

Open to all I think...right there on their website


----------



## Userkare

Onagoth said:


> https://www.simplii.com/en/home.html
> 
> Open to all I think...right there on their website


Yes, and if you click on [Tell me more] you get.... 

_Have an account and want this great offer?
Call 1-866-674-5609 to sign up_

Which is what I said above - if you don't get an invite, you have to call them to sign up. When I log into on-line banking I don't see an invite, and I did not yet get an email.


----------



## scorpion_ca

I asked Simplii that if this offer is for everyone, why we need to call them and waste everyone's valuable time. The response was that there are some system issues and they need to do it manually.


----------



## Userkare

scorpion_ca said:


> I asked Simplii that if this offer is for everyone, why we need to call them and waste everyone's valuable time. The response was that there are some system issues and they need to do it manually.


Their 'system' could do with an overhaul; probably hasn't changed much since the PC Financial days. This is why I prefer Tangerine; they seem to make things much easier to do on-line. Their current promo savings rate is 3.00% BTW.

With PC Financial - and I don't know if this has changed with Simplii - I had to phone, or send a form by mail to do RRSP/RRIF withdrawals. With Tangerine, I can do it with a few clicks. It keeps track of RRIF withdrawals so that you can see if you've reached the minimum yearly amount.


----------



## james4beach

I noticed something that works differently in Simplii than the old PC Financial. When I transfer money from the high interest savings account to chequing, it show up immediately. Previously there was a 1 day delay, so this is a nice improvement. Thanks CIBC!


----------



## Eclectic12

Seems like they decided to match Tangerine ... though I did have a call in a while ago (it was SF, not PCF) where the agent made the transfer same day. The agent said that at that time, agent transfers would be immediate while online ones were still next business day.


Cheers


----------



## james4beach

I haven't seen a Simplii high interest promotion in a while. Has anyone received one in the last few months?

I continue to keep most cash at a credit union @ 2.4% because I haven't seen a better offer from Simplii.


----------



## AltaRed

You have to be nomadic in your approach. Have half dozen or more accounts at different FIs and follow the herd to the next promo.


----------



## Synergy

Simplii has an extended promo ending June 30th (3.15%). Tangerine had a recent offer - 2.75% until November 30th - new deposits. I'm sure we'll see something from Simplii over the next few wks. EQ bank, 3 month GIC - 3%. It's a game.


----------



## AMABILE

Synergy. thanks for mentioning the EQ Bank promotion.

I have an account with them, but have not been notified as yet

I have a substantial amount @ Tangerine (2.3%) that I will be transferring to EQ


----------



## james4beach

Maybe I should start playing the cash shuffling game again.

I recently took a stack of old books to sell to a second hand store, and got $10 for my trouble. If I'm willing to do all that for $10 then presumably I should be willing to zip some electronic transfers around for extra interest.


----------



## AMABILE

I only shuffle cash between EQ BANK and TANGERINE.


----------



## Synergy

High Interest Savings.ca does a pretty good job of keeping track of the currently available and past promotions.

https://www.highinterestsavings.ca/promotions/


----------



## Beaver101

james4beach said:


> Maybe I should start playing the cash shuffling game again.


 ... am I correct to assume that this cash shuffling game applies to mostly "non-registered" accounts otherwise it'll be a PITA doing so for RRSP, TFSAs, etc.



> *I recently took a stack of old books to sell to a second hand store, and got $10 for my trouble*. If I'm willing to do all that for $10 then presumably I should be willing to zip some electronic transfers around for extra interest.


 ... at least you got $10(US$?). The public library here in metro TO don't even want your book "donations" if they were published more than 5 years ago. Ie. you can't even give them away, let alone sell them.


----------



## Eclectic12

james4beach said:


> Maybe I should start playing the cash shuffling game again ...


If you are planning on it, you may want to consider ManuLife's offer ... https://www.manulifebank.ca/campaign/groupoffers/gb-flexible-financial-solutions.html#advantage
A post on FinancialWisdomForum says that in theory, for Manulife Group Benefit members, but no verification involved.

Even if a verification happens, there is also said to be a 3.25% offer available to everyone.


Account opening process took about five minutes for me.




Beaver101 said:


> ... am I correct to assume that this cash shuffling game applies to mostly "non-registered" accounts otherwise it'll be a PITA doing so for RRSP, TFSAs, etc.


I expect so but James can confirm.

I have never bothered for an RRSP but at a few times, I've been able to withdraw from the TFSA in late December then take advantage of an offer in Jan by re-contributing what was withdrawn. More often it has been allocating new money in Jan. 




Beaver101 said:


> james4beach said:
> 
> 
> 
> ... I recently took a stack of old books to sell to a second hand store, and got $10 for my trouble. If I'm willing to do all that for $10 then presumably I should be willing to zip some electronic transfers around for extra interest.
> 
> 
> 
> ... at least you got $10(US$?).
> 
> The public library here in metro TO don't even want your book "donations" if they were published more than 5 years ago. Ie. you can't even give them away, let alone sell them.
Click to expand...

The library that doesn't pay and likely used to get lots of outdated books dumped on them is a measure of what one can sell books for?
I'd expect the second hand book store would have a better idea.


Cheers


----------



## AltaRed

Depends on book content, but many retirement homes will take them gratis.


----------



## andrewf

I see selling booked and getting $10 is akin to bringing back beer bottles to the Beer Store. More about recycling than the money. If it was purely the money I would just dispose of it all through waste collection, as it is generally not worth the trip for a couple of bucks of deposit money.

I feel bad about throwing books away, so would tend to donate them or sell them through garage sales for 25 cents.


----------



## james4beach

I agree, the books are about re-use. I don't want to throw perfectly good books into the trash.

Yes I meant cash shuffling between non-registered accounts. I have never done this kind of thing with registered accounts.

Registered accounts are great tax shelters for long term growth, so they should contain assets that perform above inflation. Whatever you put in the RRSP or TFSA should be invested so that it has a positive real return, meaning it's not cash. In my opinion there's just about no reason to have a significant cash balance inside the tax shelter, unless it's temporary.


----------



## james4beach

Well that's funny timing. Just saw this today at Simplii when I logged in:

"Until October 31, earn 2.5% interest on new deposits into your Simplii FinancialTM High Interest Savings Account."


----------



## bgc_fan

james4beach said:


> Well that's funny timing. Just saw this today at Simplii when I logged in:
> 
> "Until October 31, earn 2.5% interest on new deposits into your Simplii FinancialTM High Interest Savings Account."


Funny, mine says 3.0%. The problem is that I moved the funds from the last promotion on Jul 2, so I'm not going to benefit from it as the baseline is your balance on Jul 1. I should remember to move funds out a day or two before these promotions end.

Edit: that is the baseline is June 28.


----------



## james4beach

bgc_fan said:


> Funny, mine says 3.0%. The problem is that I moved the funds from the last promotion on Jul 2, so I'm not going to benefit from it as the baseline is your balance on Jul 1. I should remember to move funds out a day or two before these promotions end.
> 
> Edit: that is the baseline is June 28.


Well that's too bad, wonder why I'm getting 0.5% less. Does yours also go until October 31?

Maybe I should just keep the cash at Outlook which is 2.4%. Perhaps that will make the Simplii algorithm offer me something higher next time?


----------



## bgc_fan

james4beach said:


> Well that's too bad, wonder why I'm getting 0.5% less. Does yours also go until October 31?
> 
> Maybe I should just keep the cash at Outlook which is 2.4%. Perhaps that will make the Simplii algorithm offer me something higher next time?


Yeah, it goes to October as well. I wonder if it is related to the balance that I had. Maybe they tier the percentage based on what your balance was in the previous month or something.


----------



## scorpion_ca

The interest rate of Motive Savvy Savings is 2.8%...FYI


----------



## AltaRed

scorpion_ca said:


> The interest rate of Motive Savvy Savings is 2.8%...FYI


That will not last long, and it cannot because it is well beyond competitive and last I knew, CWB is not a charity. I wouldn't be opening an account to chase a temporary offering. One must be realistic about out-of-norm offerings.


----------



## james4beach

bgc_fan said:


> Yeah, it goes to October as well. I wonder if it is related to the balance that I had. Maybe they tier the percentage based on what your balance was in the previous month or something.


I suspect they do. If there's already a lot of cash in the account, they probably have to offer a higher incentive rate to attract more cash.

The times I've seen particularly strong promo rates, I already had lots of money in the account and had no spare cash to bring in. I doubt that's a coincidence.


----------



## james4beach

That Simplii promotion period has ended (Oct 31). Remember everyone, it's time to withdraw large amounts of cash from the bank en masse!

I've moved the cash back to my credit union at 2.4%. I'm not opening new accounts, will just wait for another Simplii promotion or leave my cash at the credit union.


----------



## scorpion_ca

They are offering 2.8% from now to April 30, 2020. 

https://www.simplii.com/en/special-offers/high-interest-savings.html


----------



## james4beach

scorpion_ca said:


> They are offering 2.8% from now to April 30, 2020.
> 
> https://www.simplii.com/en/special-offers/high-interest-savings.html


Yes 2.8% but that's only on _new money_ beyond your Oct 31 balance. In other words, you have to bring new money in to get the new rate, and any $ you have there already only earns 1.1%.

That means that someone (like me) who already had all their cash there to benefit from their most recent promotion should transfer their money out.

It also suggests that next time, the optimal strategy might be to preemptively pull cash out of Simplii a week before the promotion period ends. That way your "start of period" balance would be low again, allowing you to transfer the same cash back in for the new promotion.

And, as people like us figure that out, Simplii will inevitably adjust their strategy to change the date of the "start of period" to something more unpredictable. And so we go, the cat-and-mouse game to try and get enough extra yield to buy yourself one dinner.


----------



## leeder

james4beach said:


> Yes 2.8% but that's only on _new money_ beyond your Oct 31 balance. In other words, you have to bring new money in to get the new rate, and any $ you have there already only earns 1.1%.


Wasn't the October 31 promotion the same where only new funds deposited into the savings account are eligible for 3%? Also, if they are basing the opening balance on the closing balance on October 31 in the savings account, couldn't one theoretically transfer the money from the savings account to the chequing account on October 30 or even on the 31st?

I also wonder how they calculate this. I see in prior offers (and most likely the current one) that it is based on the average daily closing balance in excess of the opening amount. Is the average based on simple average? Weighted average? Has anyone successfully verified the promotional interest amount from prior promotions?

Also, is it 2.8% on top of the 1.1%? Or is it an additional 1.7% to get to the 2.8%?


----------



## james4beach

I'm virtually positive that the money has to be new money into Simplii. The whole point is attracting deposits into the bank. There is no way they would permit just sloshing the money between two Simplii accounts to get extra interest.

I have tried in the past to verify the promotional interest calculation and was unable to replicate it exactly but the result was in the right ballpark.


----------



## AltaRed

This is the same technique that was used by the old PC Financial. I used to move money out a few days before the promotion was over, and then wait for the next promo to be announced within days.


----------



## james4beach

It's kind of funny that the bank thinks this is healthy. I am actually working on setting up a group chat with a circle of friends so that we can all remember to withdraw our cash on time, to reset our promotion periods. Is that what CIBC wants -- tons of people all withdrawing tens of thousands of $ on the same day?


----------



## leeder

According to their legal disclaimer: 



> The Simplii Financial promotional savings interest rate offer (the “Offer”) is available between November 1, 2019 – April 30, 2020 (the “Offer Period”) to Eligible Savings Accounts and Eligible Registered Savings Accounts (together, “Eligible Accounts”) that meet all of the applicable terms and conditions below. Only primary account holders are eligible for the Offer.
> 
> “Eligible Savings Accounts” means a Simplii Financial High Interest Savings Account and/or Savings Account. “Eligible Registered Savings Accounts” means a Simplii Financial Daily Interest RRSP Account and/or RRSP Savings Account, or Tax Free Savings Account.
> 
> *The Offer*
> 
> The special annual interest rate of 2.80% is a combination of the regular annual interest rate set by Simplii Financial payable on an Eligible Account (“Regular Interest”), plus a promotional annual interest rate (“Promotional Interest”) that is calculated for the Offer Period on, as applicable, the Additional Balance or New Balance (each as defined below). Any change to the Regular Interest rate will result in a corresponding change to the Promotional Interest rate.


Just from my interpretation, they shouldn't include the chequing account if they are truly only looking at "eligible accounts". But until we can reconcile the promotional interest, we'll never truly know...


----------



## james4beach

I think you missed this part:



> Promotional Interest will not be paid on existing funds that were in any Simplii Financial deposit or registered account as at October 31, 2019 and are transferred to an Eligible Account during the Offer Period.


I think that is clearly saying that money you transfer from chequing, or anywhere within Simplii, doesn't earn the promotional interest. The money has to come from outside Simplii.

So I think you would have had to transfer the cash to another bank before the October 31 deadline (which I missed). Then transfer it back in.


----------



## AltaRed

james4beach said:


> I think that is clearly saying that money you transfer from chequing, or anywhere within Simplii, doesn't earn the promotional interest. The money has to come from outside Simplii.
> 
> So I think you would have had to transfer the cash to another bank before the October 31 deadline (which I missed). Then transfer it back in.


You are indeed correct. Always has been this way.


----------



## leeder

Damn, that's a shame. I had an outflow from the chequing acct on Nov 1.


----------



## m3s

I hate the current meta of transferring money around for promos but started doing it between EQ and Tangerine

Now if I open a chequing account with Simplii I can get $200 plus the 0.5% additional interest boost


----------



## Synergy

Great timing, my current promo ends with Tangerine on Nov 30th. Thanks for the update on the new promo. Called in and activated the offer. It's crazy how many of the banks are doing this now.


----------



## james4beach

I saw a new Simplii promo rate pop up when I logged into my account today.

This one is 2.8% interest (May 1 - August 31) on the amount that exceeds the October 31, 2019 balance.

The interesting twist here is that they are using an old date for the baseline, way back to October 31, instead of resetting the baseline this month.

Are others seeing the same October 31 date in their Simplii promo offers? The interest rate you see could change, because they appear to give different rates to different people.


----------



## andrewf

Logged in--no offer.


----------



## BC Eddie

I also did not see the offer. However I did not expect it because back in Oct 2019 my Simplii balance was low. Did not put significant money in for the 2.8% deal until Nov 27, 2019.


----------



## bgc_fan

No offer here, maybe they are using the old date because they are essentially extending the original offer?


----------



## james4beach

bgc_fan said:


> No offer here, maybe they are using the old date because they are essentially extending the original offer?


Interesting. I had a pretty high balance at Oct 31, so it's just about impossible for me to actually add more cash. Perhaps their algorithm extended this offer to me (extending previous one in effect based on Oct 31) in the faint hope that I might actually bring more cash.

It could be they custom tune these more than I previously thought. Realistically I don't think I can use this promo anyway, just because I can't exceed the Oct 31 balance.

Maybe they will have a different promo coming out in the summer months, starting June 1 for example? Now I'm wondering if, despite the promo, I should transfer all my cash out in anticipation for a new promo coming soon?


----------



## nathan79

I logged into my Simplii account last night and noticed it said "dormant"... so I called and asked them to reactivate my account, which they did. I checked it again immediately after and verified it was back to normal. Then I log in this afternoon and it's already dormant again... wtf???

I'm not sure why I even bother with these guys. They rarely offer any promos, and the website is pretty mediocre as well.

I am not seeing the offer on my account either.


----------



## AltaRed

There is no traffic at Simplii Financial (formerly PC Financial) on a Simplii offer starting May 1..at least not yet.

The last offer was effective Nov 1, 2019 through end of April 30th and it would be out-of-character for Simplii to signal a new offer before the last one expires.... or maybe not.


----------



## james4beach

Thanks AltaRed. Given their historical pattern, do you know when they might post a new offer?

I just transferred out all my cash because we're a few days from the end of the month.


----------



## AltaRed

For the years I was with PCF (then Simplii), a new offer came out somewhere between 1 and 10 business days after the expiry of the last offer. I always moved my money out 2-3 business days before the end of the month so as to have a near zero balance in event of a new offer. Not been with them for about 3? years now, so am not necessarily current.


----------



## scorpion_ca

No offer for us and I doubt that they will offer any promotional interest rate anytime soon since the prime interest rate is too low lately.


----------



## pearl

I am thinking of opening a Simplii account to temporarily park some cash for higher interest rate. Should I open a checking account or high interest saving account? Thanks.
Edit: Never mind. I think I need to create a Saving account.


----------



## Eclectic12

The chequing account has always paid next to nothing ... though more than a typical chequing account.

The Savings account is higher and is the typical account for promo interest rates (along with TFSA and RRSP accounts).


I'd open both a cheqing and savings account as I find the chequing account useful for fast, low dollar email fund transfers. Plus the cheques are free so it's been useful for me when I want to write cheques.

I'm a PCF account holder that was converted to a SF account holder so I've used the free cheques/savings accounts and promo rates for a long time.

Cheers


----------



## andrewf

They're both free, so I see no reason not to get both.


----------



## pearl

Thanks Eclectic12 and Andrewf


----------



## james4beach

Just a reminder to everyone in Simplii, since the last promo ended it's time to withdraw all your cash!

pearl: you mentioned parking cash here for higher interest savings but it's only 0.3%. Why not Tangerine instead, which is showing 2.8% interest for 5 months (new account).


----------



## like_to_retire

james4beach said:


> Just a reminder to everyone in Simplii, since the last promo ended it's time to withdraw all your cash!




Seems like they have targetted offer now.

ltr


----------



## pearl

Thanks james4beach. I already have Tangerin account and the rate is 0.25% right now. I expected to have much better rate with Simplii. Anyway, I think it is good to have 2 accounts. I will still waiting for mail from Simplii.


----------



## scorpion_ca

Motive Savvy Savings rate is 2.2%. Not bad...


----------



## bgc_fan

james4beach said:


> Interesting. I had a pretty high balance at Oct 31, so it's just about impossible for me to actually add more cash. Perhaps their algorithm extended this offer to me (extending previous one in effect based on Oct 31) in the faint hope that I might actually bring more cash.
> 
> It could be they custom tune these more than I previously thought. Realistically I don't think I can use this promo anyway, just because I can't exceed the Oct 31 balance.
> 
> Maybe they will have a different promo coming out in the summer months, starting June 1 for example? Now I'm wondering if, despite the promo, I should transfer all my cash out in anticipation for a new promo coming soon?


So, I just logged in today and got the same offer. I had logged in yesterday and it wasn't available. The funny thing is that my current balance exceeds the Oct 31 balance, so I guess it works out for me? But I imagine it only counts new money as of 1 May for the special until August.


----------



## Eclectic12

pearl said:


> Thanks james4beach. I already have Tangerin account and the rate is 0.25% right now. I expected to have much better rate with Simplii. Anyway, I think it is good to have 2 accounts. I will still waiting for mail from Simplii.


Well if you go back to Dec or so, it was 1.6% for the savings account and for the chequing account, something better than zero percent a big five bank gives me. 

If a high rate is the priority then something like EQ Bank at 2.00% might be helpful. 








Savings Plus Account | EQ Bank


Our high interest savings account means no monthly fees, free bill payments, free Interac e-Transfers ® and more. Sign up online in minutes.




www.eqbank.ca





Plus I find it useful to have somewhere to park money so that the Simplii balance is low when the new offer comes in.


The trade off is that it's another account to manage, keep track off and report on one's tax return. 
There's also other competitors and if one is comfortable going away from CDIC deposit insurance coverage, online credit unions.



Cheers


----------



## james4beach

I was able to verify the Simplii promotional interest (their payout matched my calculation). In case it helps anyone, here's how I calculated it:

First, determine the baseline balance. In each of their promotions, they say: "portion of an Eligible Account’s average daily closing balance during the Offer Period that exceeds the closing balance as at Some Date"

The balance of all your Simplii accounts on that date is the *baseline*. In other words, how much money you already had at Simplii. Then, for each month of the promotion, calculate the average daily balance.

additional_bal = (avg_daily_bal - baseline)
... but can't be negative. It's 0 or greater.
promo_interest = additional_bal * (promo_rate - regular_rate) / 12

Example with made up numbers: say promo_rate = 2.5% and regular_rate = 0.5%

If baseline=1000, avg_daily_bal=999, then additional_bal=0 and there is no promotional interest at all.

If baseline=1000, avg_daily_bal=9000, then:
additional_bal = 8000
promo_interest = 8000 * (2.0%) / 12 = $13.33 that month

^ it's 2.0% interest here because the 0.5% regular interest rate was already paid out. When they say the "special annual interest rate" is 2.5%, they mean that on top of the regular 0.5% rate, you'll get another 2.0% _to be applied only to the additional balance._


----------



## james4beach

A reminder to anyone who is currently in one of those promotions that goes until the end of August.

It's now time to transfer all your cash out of the bank! I'm transferring all my cash out now.


----------



## nathan79

Thanks for the reminder. I'm not sure when the Tangerine one ended... but it shows my current interest rate as 0.2% -- yikes! I thought the promo was to the end of August, perhaps not. I just initiated a transfer to Alternabank... hopefully Tangerine will come out with a new offer.


----------



## james4beach

nathan79 said:


> Thanks for the reminder. I'm not sure when the Tangerine one ended... but it shows my current interest rate as 0.2% -- yikes! I thought the promo was to the end of August, perhaps not. I just initiated a transfer to Alternabank... hopefully Tangerine will come out with a new offer.


I can't believe I was getting 2.8% on this latest promo. I should frame that on the wall or something. Rates like that on cash may never be seen again. The normal Simplii rate today is 0.2%

The GIC rates over 1% are starting to look good and I have a GIC maturing in a couple weeks, so that will be reinvested back into a 5 year GIC in any case.

I'm not adding to my bond allocation these days, but keep in mind that XBB also has YTM of 1.26% which still makes it a reasonable place for long term fixed income investment when your time horizon is 10+ years. There's also XSH, short term corp bonds with slightly lower credit quality, with YTM of 1.24%.

Any of the above (GICs, XBB, XSH) seem reasonable depending on a person's time horizon.


----------



## OneSeat

james4beach said:


> GIC rates over 1% are starting to look good


Not so sure I understand that comment.
My bank GIC 5yr is 1.7%
My Manitoba CU 5yr is 2%, 1yr is 1.7%, HISU is 1.6%.


----------



## james4beach

OneSeat said:


> Not so sure I understand that comment.
> My bank GIC 5yr is 1.7%
> My Manitoba CU 5yr is 2%, 1yr is 1.7%, HISU is 1.6%.


The credit unions do have better rates. Outlook Financial has 5 years at 2.10%. But the big banks are at 1.1% or so.

Which bank has 1.7% ?


----------



## Eclectic12

james4beach said:


> I can't believe I was getting 2.8% on this latest promo. I should frame that on the wall or something. Rates like that on cash may never be seen again. The normal Simplii rate today is 0.2% ...


My Tangerine 2.5% runs out the end of Sept. I expect any promos to be lower.

Quite the pessimist be to be saying "may never" ... reminds me of my co-worker who insisted that $0.60 a litre gas would never be seen again.

EQ bank has lowered their rate but 1.7% on cash doesn't look all that bad.


Cheers


----------



## james4beach

This might not happen for another day or two, but has anyone seen any new Simplii promotional interest rate offer?


----------



## AMABILE

my fantastic Tangerine promotion just ended- 
so back to EQ Bank for a 3 month GIC @ 1.8%


----------



## leeder

james4beach said:


> This might not happen for another day or two, but has anyone seen any new Simplii promotional interest rate offer?


Not new, but I am on one going from July 1 to October 31 @ 2% from Simplii. 

On another note, Oaken will be reducing the HISA to 1.4% effective September 3. I can see EQ following suit shortly after. Hard to find any good deals in the short term over 2% now.


----------



## james4beach

leeder said:


> On another note, Oaken will be reducing the HISA to 1.4% effective September 3. I can see EQ following suit shortly after. Hard to find any good deals in the short term over 2% now.


That should be expected, with the Bank of Canada cash rate at 0.25%. The central bank continues to make life difficult for all of us savers.

Outlook Financial at 1.5%


----------



## bgc_fan

Simplii is now offering 2.3% on deposits into saving accounts until March 31, 2021.


----------



## scorpion_ca

bgc_fan said:


> Simplii is now offering 2.3% on deposits into saving accounts until March 31, 2021.


Yup, Available by invitation only. I wanted to transfer my fund in the last week of October since I have been getting promotional 2% interest now. However, this Promotional Interest will not be paid on existing funds that were in any Simplii Financial deposit or registered account as at September 30, 2020 and are transferred to an eligible account during the Offer Period.

*You're already saving towards your goals with a great rate. Why not shift gears and get there faster? Sign up now and get 2.30% interest on eligible deposits until March 31, 2021.

Even better—your eligible deposits in October will earn interest from your current savings offer (which ends on October 30th), plus will count towards your eligible deposits for this new 2.30% offer.*


----------



## bgc_fan

scorpion_ca said:


> Yup, Available by invitation only. I wanted to transfer my fund in the last week of October since I have been getting promotional 2% interest now. However, this Promotional Interest will not be paid on existing funds that were in any Simplii Financial deposit or registered account as at September 30, 2020 and are transferred to an eligible account during the Offer Period.
> 
> *You're already saving towards your goals with a great rate. Why not shift gears and get there faster? Sign up now and get 2.30% interest on eligible deposits until March 31, 2021.
> 
> Even better—your eligible deposits in October will earn interest from your current savings offer (which ends on October 30th), plus will count towards your eligible deposits for this new 2.30% offer.*


I took @james4beach 's reminder about emptying out my account at the end of August, so I've got a lower balance. Did you just sign up recently to get a 2% promotional interest?


----------



## nathan79

bgc_fan said:


> Simplii is now offering 2.3% on deposits into saving accounts until March 31, 2021.


Awesome news! I've been getting so depressed looking at my savings lately...


----------



## james4beach

bgc_fan said:


> I took @james4beach 's reminder about emptying out my account at the end of August, so I've got a lower balance. Did you just sign up recently to get a 2% promotional interest?


Very exciting...

I just saw this 2.3% offer when I logged in today. It's on amounts that exceeds the balance (in all Simplii accounts) on September 30, 2020 so they key thing is that the high rate applies to new dollars you bring in, that weren't already in Simplii on Sept 30.

That's why I emptied out my accounts at the end of August, to get the balance as low as I could. But I was 1 month off on the timing.

2.3% is a great rate. It's higher than any of the rates I see at the usual high interest / credit unions. I'm going to start transferring cash out of my credit unions ASAP.


----------



## scorpion_ca

bgc_fan said:


> I took @james4beach 's reminder about emptying out my account at the end of August, so I've got a lower balance. Did you just sign up recently to get a 2% promotional interest?


That 2% promotion rate I received in July and it will be end of October.


----------



## AltaRed

Those 2+% promos will likely have to disappear soon. The banks are pretty much limited to allocating those funds for personal/auto loans carrying higher rates. Can't allocate it to mortgages with mortgage rates in the 1.75-1.9% range. I noticed elsewhere that Alterna Bank just dropped their HISA rate to 1.2% leading the way down on the best known group of digital banks.


----------



## james4beach

AltaRed said:


> Those 2+% promos will likely have to disappear soon. The banks are pretty much limited to allocating those funds for personal/auto loans carrying higher rates. Can't allocate it to mortgages with mortgage rates in the 1.75-1.9% range. I noticed elsewhere that Alterna Bank just dropped their HISA rate to 1.2% leading the way down on the best known group of digital banks.


I agree, these can't last long at current interest rates.

Anyone who got this 2.3% from now to March should pump every single dollar into it.


----------



## james4beach

I'm sitting on a bit of excess cash, temporarily.

Do any of you ever deposit more than the 100K insured CDIC amount? I'm thinking of exceeding that limit for a month or two but am hesitating.


----------



## Money172375

james4beach said:


> I'm sitting on a bit of excess cash, temporarily.
> 
> Do any of you ever deposit more than the 100K insured CDIC amount? I'm thinking of exceeding that limit for a month or two but am hesitating.


I’ve got a lot more in equities, so I accept the risk. is This money outside the big 5? Or at Simplii?

i know TD has a handful of CDIC issuers, so you can protect up to $400k (or is it $300). easy to do with with GICs, but I see where you can hit limits on the chequing/savings accounts, Do other banks have similar structures?


----------



## Money172375

I just read that Simplii and CIBC share insurance coverage. So it’s Up to $100,000 At Simplii and CIBC combined,

are there another relationships like this for online banks that we need to be aware of?


----------



## james4beach

Money172375 said:


> I just read that Simplii and CIBC share insurance coverage. So it’s Up to $100,000 At Simplii and CIBC combined,


Right, and I meant exceeding 100K at Simplii (CIBC). I'm trying to make use of the 2.3% offer.



Money172375 said:


> are there another relationships like this for online banks that we need to be aware of?


I was going to say Tangerine, but when I click on their CDIC statement I see that they have separate coverage from their parent (Scotia).






Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) | Tangerine


Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC)




www.tangerine.ca


----------



## Money172375

james4beach said:


> I'm sitting on a bit of excess cash, temporarily.
> 
> Do any of you ever deposit more than the 100K insured CDIC amount? I'm thinking of exceeding that limit for a month or two but am hesitating.


I wouldn’t give it any second thought. If (A big, humongous, giant IF) a big 5 faltered, one of the others would pick it up, along with all the deposits.


----------



## depassp

I logged into my online Simplii account today and did not see the offer. I called and sat on hold for about 20 minutes. The agent I spoke to said there are currently 2 promo rates being offered: 2% and 2.3%. I qualify for the 2% offer only. She could not tell me what determines the rate a client qualifies for.


----------



## Synergy

depassp said:


> I logged into my online Simplii account today and did not see the offer. I called and sat on hold for about 20 minutes. The agent I spoke to said there are currently 2 promo rates being offered: 2% and 2.3%. I qualify for the 2% offer only. She could not tell me what determines the rate a client qualifies for.


Thanks! I never got an email either and thought I was SOL. Seen your post, did a quick google search and figured out that the 2% offer was being offered to anyone calling in. Called in, waited just under 20 minutes and was signed up for the 2% rate. Thanks for posting!


----------



## Synergy

james4beach said:


> I'm sitting on a bit of excess cash, temporarily.
> 
> Do any of you ever deposit more than the 100K insured CDIC amount? I'm thinking of exceeding that limit for a month or two but am hesitating.


This question has been asked numerous times in this forum. Once you reach a certain amount of funds you don't have much other choice. I try to stick to 100k with certain institutions (EQ, etc.) but feel fairly comfortable with Tangerine and Simplii and any of the big banks.


----------



## james4beach

depassp said:


> I logged into my online Simplii account today and did not see the offer. I called and sat on hold for about 20 minutes. The agent I spoke to said there are currently 2 promo rates being offered: 2% and 2.3%. I qualify for the 2% offer only. She could not tell me what determines the rate a client qualifies for.


They are very mysterious about all of this. I suspect they have some algorithm that is weighing various things. Myself, I've seen the best offers come my way in circumstances where it was very difficult for me to actually bring the cash in. Sometimes, I've received no offer when others here DID receive one.

It gets frustrating and this is why I mainly leave cash at my credit union, where it always gets a decent interest rate. Sometimes the Simplii promo is huge (like right now) in which case I will bother to transfer cash.


----------



## AltaRed

I'd never be concerned with over $100k at Simpli or Tangerine. Possibly even Motive (CWB) and LBC Digital (Laurentian) but that is pushing it perhaps.


----------



## james4beach

AltaRed said:


> I'd never be concerned with over $100k at Simpli or Tangerine. Possibly even Motive (CWB) and LBC Digital (Laurentian) but that is pushing it perhaps.


Thanks


----------



## m3s

AltaRed said:


> Those 2+% promos will likely have to disappear soon. The banks are pretty much limited to allocating those funds for personal/auto loans carrying higher rates. Can't allocate it to mortgages with mortgage rates in the 1.75-1.9% range. I noticed elsewhere that Alterna Bank just dropped their HISA rate to 1.2% leading the way down on the best known group of digital banks.


I just got 2% Tangerine promo rate by email invite until Mar 31. So I guess I'll top up the 100k now from EQ

I'm leaving my income in USD from here out. Far more options for better yield using USD stablecoins


----------



## AltaRed

Yeah, I see those things still happening. Not sure what the business model is, but it must be adding something to the bottom line.


----------



## Eclectic12

Simpllii has posted the previous years (back to 2014) statements so if you missed one and need it, you can now retrieve it.


Cheers


----------



## james4beach

My rate promotion is ending March 31, so I'm about to transfer out all my cash to reset the account balance back to zero.


----------



## Money172375

james4beach said:


> My rate promotion is ending March 31, so I'm about to transfer out all my cash to reset the account balance back to zero.


I left $1 in it. Do you need to go to zero to entice a new promo?


----------



## james4beach

Money172375 said:


> I left $1 in it. Do you need to go to zero to entice a new promo?


No sorry, I was being dramatic. I'll probably leave a thousand bucks in it.

You just want to get the balance low. This is because, if they have another promotion, you will only get the promotional interest for amounts that are higher than the initial balance. So whatever you set now, in the next few days, will likely be that "initial" amount.

Timing that is a bit tricky and it's a bit of a gamble, but I have found it helpful to withdraw all the money in the last few days before the previous promotion ends.


----------



## AMABILE

Where are you all transferring the cash to ?


----------



## scorpion_ca

james4beach said:


> My rate promotion is ending March 31, so I'm about to transfer out all my cash to reset the account balance back to zero.


Last time Simplii changed the rules.....they counted the ending balance of previous month instead of current promo end month. As a result, I had to transfer to other banks.


----------



## james4beach

AMABILE said:


> Where are you all transferring the cash to ?


I always send mine to my credit union where I consistently get a decent rate. I only put it back into a place like Simplii if there's a promotion.



scorpion_ca said:


> Last time Simplii changed the rules.....they counted the ending balance of previous month instead of current promo end month. As a result, I had to transfer to other banks.


Thanks, I did not realize that. I'll transfer it out anyway and hope for the best. But with rates where they are now, I'm not holding my breath.


----------



## Eclectic12

scorpion_ca said:


> Last time Simplii changed the rules.....they counted the ending balance of previous month instead of current promo end month. As a result, I had to transfer to other banks.


Interesting ... I wasn't offered that promo as I check the fine print dates before moving money in. 

At times, I have skipped Simplii's promo, even if I could use it, because of an FI's promo with either better rates or which applied to all funds on deposit instead of what was over the balance on a set date.


Cheers


----------



## scorpion_ca

*Available by invitation only. *The special annual interest rate of 2.75% is a combination of promotional and regular annual interest rates payable on deposits made to an eligible Simplii Financial High Interest Savings Account (“Eligible Savings Accounts”), between March 1, 2022 to June 30 2022 (the “Offer Period”). Eligible Accounts opened before the Offer Period must be enrolled in the offer by the primary account holder. Eligible Accounts opened during the Offer Period are automatically enrolled in the offer.

For Eligible Accounts opened *before* the Offer Period that have been enrolled in the offer, promotional interest is calculated as follows. For Eligible Savings Accounts, on the portion of the applicable account’s average daily closing balance during the Offer Period that exceeds the closing balance as at February 28, 2022 (the “Additional Balance”) up to a maximum Additional Balance limit of $1,000,000 aggregated across all Eligible Savings Accounts

For Eligible Accounts opened *during* the Offer Period, promotional interest is calculated as follows. For Eligible Savings Accounts, on the portion of the applicable account’s average daily closing balance from the date the account is opened to the end of the Offer Period (the “New Balance”) up to a maximum balance limit of $1,000,000 aggregated across all Eligible Savings Accounts.

Promotional interest will be paid in July 2022 into a single Eligible Savings Account held by the primary account holder.

Eligible Accounts will continue to earn regular interest, calculated on the daily closing balance and paid monthly.

The offer is non-transferable and cannot be combined with other promotional rate offers. Promotional interest and regular interest rates are subject to change at any time without notice. Click *here* for the full terms and conditions of this offer.


----------



## m3s

2.75% is still negative real return in this inflationary environment

I'm getting 8-20% lending algorithmic stablecoins (8% is the market demand, above that is promos or leverage)


----------



## nathan79

I wasn't invited.


----------



## Synergy

nathan79 said:


> I wasn't invited.


Me neither 😭


----------



## scorpion_ca

nathan79 said:


> I wasn't invited.


We didn't receive any email. We found out when we logged into our accounts online.


----------



## Synergy

Logged in and still no chicken dinner!


----------



## james4beach

I haven't seen anything in my account.

For others who see it, is it always 2.75% or does the number vary?


----------



## Eclectic21

Don't know whether it varies but I finally received the offer for 2.75% today and activated it.
The fine print says the threshold date is Feb 28th, for me ... which is pretty much the timeline of previous offers.

Cheers


----------



## nathan79

Synergy said:


> Logged in and still no chicken dinner!


Nothing here either.

It's been quite a while since I last made a deposit, so perhaps they don't see me as worthy.


----------



## Synergy

nathan79 said:


> Nothing here either.
> 
> It's been quite a while since I last made a deposit, so perhaps they don't see me as worthy.


Possibly. I'm not sure why they'd think that anyone would want to park money in a HISA for less than a quarter of a basis point.

More than likely it's some sort of computer algorithm with very little method to the madness!


----------



## james4beach

nathan79 said:


> Nothing here either.
> 
> It's been quite a while since I last made a deposit, so perhaps they don't see me as worthy.


I didn't get it either. And I phoned the call center, and they said I won't be getting one (it would have happened by now).

By the way, the Simplii 1-888 phone number's verification of my card number and password fails every time. Even after I have them reset my telephone banking PIN.

Does that phone system verification work for anyone here? I mean, are you able to enter your card number + phone PIN, to get access?


----------



## Eclectic21

I haven't had to do it recently but it has worked for me in the past.
In the fall, was the last time IIRC.

Cheers


----------



## james4beach

I got a Simplii promo for 3% interest until October 31.

The interest is earned only on the extra amount relative to June 30 (the starting balance).


----------



## scorpion_ca

We got 2.75% offer earlier this year and transferred all amount out at the last week of June. Got 3% offer now.


----------



## nathan79

Nothing on my end. I left 2.5K in my account as a gesture of goodwill, but maybe that backfired.


----------



## Konigstiger

I got 3% offer. Thankfully I had moved the money out late June. To me it’s crazy that you have to constantly move your money like that in order to qualify for the new offer. I have three HISAs—Simplii, Tangerine, and Scotia momentum. My money goes to the highest bidder!
We’ll see what Tangerine comes out with now…I find that after one of the banks releases and offer like this, another will come out with something slightly better.


----------



## scorpion_ca

nathan79 said:


> Nothing on my end. I left 2.5K in my account as a gesture of goodwill, but maybe that backfired.


I kept below $50 at the end of June. Already put a note on my calendar to transfer out on Oct 25, 2022.


----------



## james4beach

I used to care more about these promo rates when I had large cash amounts sitting around.

But now I have much less cash on hand. These promos aren't going to make much of a difference for me. For example while 3% is enticing, my credit union upped their rate to 2.4%. I only have 30K in play, so that difference is just $15 a month.

Doesn't feel very worthwhile to me when I also have to keep track of cutoff dates and starting balance levels.

Also keep in mind that rates are rising, but Simplii's 3% is constant until Oct 31. It's extremely likely that the BoC will raise rates again in a month, but that 3% won't change.


----------



## scorpion_ca

Motive Financial is offering 3% on their Savvy savings accounts. Well, we don't need to chase the promos anymore.


----------



## james4beach

I was wrong when I said that Simplii's rate won't change.

When logging in today I saw a new promotion at Simplii: 3.85%
that's until October 31, on the balance that exceeds the June 30 balance

The dates and terms appear to be identical to the existing promo, so I think they just increased the rate from 3% to 3.85%

That makes it competitive versus my credit union, so I'm transferring cash over.


----------



## bgc_fan

james4beach said:


> I was wrong when I said that Simplii's rate won't change.
> 
> When logging in today I saw a new promotion at Simplii: 3.85%
> that's until October 31, on the balance that exceeds the June 30 balance
> 
> The dates and terms appear to be identical to the existing promo, so I think they just increased the rate from 3% to 3.85%
> 
> That makes it competitive versus my credit union, so I'm transferring cash over.
> 
> View attachment 23556


Interesting, I didn't get that offer as I assume that I already accepted the 3% offer.


----------



## scorpion_ca

bgc_fan said:


> Interesting, I didn't get that offer as I assume that I already accepted the 3% offer.


We accepted 3% offer in early July and now it's increased to 3.85% automatically for those who accepted 3%. I contacted Simplii and they sent me the latest T&Cs with 3.85% rate from July 1 to Oct 31, 2022. You can contact them and get the latest T&Cs.


----------



## bgc_fan

scorpion_ca said:


> We accepted 3% offer in early July and now it's increased to 3.85% automatically for those who accepted 3%. I contacted Simplii and they sent me the latest T&Cs with 3.85% rate from July 1 to Oct 31, 2022. You can contact them and get the latest T&Cs.


Thanks, I'll do that. Did you get some notification about that? Because I didn't get an e-mail and don't recall any notice when I signed in.


----------



## scorpion_ca

Yes, we got notifications for 3% in early July. When I logged into my account this week, I got that 3.85% pop up message without the accept option but my spouse didn't get the pop up message. After that I contacted Simplii and they confirmed that both are getting 3.85% and sent us the revised T&Cs for 3.85%. The agent told me that they increased to 3.85% for who accepted the 3% offer.


----------



## nathan79

bgc_fan said:


> Thanks, I'll do that. Did you get some notification about that? Because I didn't get an e-mail and don't recall any notice when I signed in.


I also got nothing, as usual.


----------



## james4beach

scorpion_ca said:


> The agent told me that they increased to 3.85% for who accepted the 3% offer.


Should add, I also had accepted the 3% offer earlier. I'm pleasantly surprised to see them automatically increase the rate.

In fact when I saw the new text and notification about 3.85%, there *was not* a button to "accept". It seemed my account was already in the promo accepted state.


----------



## Synergy

Thanks all! Logged in and received the 3.85% offer. I had 60 cents in the account as I hadn't had a special offer for some time now. Bunch of clowns!

Other than the offer when logging in there no indication on my account, no confirmation email, etc. Gotta luv their interface.


----------



## scorpion_ca

Synergy said:


> Thanks all! Logged in and received the 3.85% offer. I had 60 cents in the account as I hadn't had a special offer for some time now. Bunch of clowns!
> 
> Other than the offer when logging in there no indication on my account, no confirmation email, etc. Gotta luv their interface.


You should be getting a confirmation email within 48 hours.


----------



## Synergy

scorpion_ca said:


> You should be getting a confirmation email within 48 hours.


Thanks. Email confirmation received overnight!


----------



## james4beach

When I logged in today I saw this notice. It seems the new rate is *4.75%*

Too bad the high interest period ends at the end of this month but hopefully this is a sign of good things to come. Banks finally competing again for deposits, with high interest rates -- let's hope it continues!


----------



## andrewf

I personally hate this promotional interest rate nonsense. The base rate Simplii pays of 0.4% is kind of insulting.


----------



## scorpion_ca

​
*Notice of offer expiry *
Hi Name,
We’re reaching out to let you know that the promotional interest rate offer on your Simplii Financial High Interest Savings Account(s) will end on Octo‍ber 3‍1, 20‍22. After this offer ends, the interest rate for these account(s) will be the regular posted rate. As of the date of this letter, the regular posted rate is 0.40% per annum1. For a list of current rates, please visit simplii‍.‍com‍/‍en‍/‍rates‍.‍html.
Your rights and obligations in relation to these account(s), including fees, are described in the Simplii Financial Products and Services Agreement that was provided when your account was opened. You can also obtain a copy of this document at simplii.com.
Your ongoing satisfaction is important to us. If you feel this account no longer fits your needs, reach out to us to discuss account options or to close your account at any time.
Thank you for choosing Simplii Financial to meet your banking needs. We appreciate your business and we’re always happy to help.
Sincerely,
The Simplii Financial Team

I have received this email today.


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## james4beach

andrewf said:


> I personally hate this promotional interest rate nonsense. The base rate Simplii pays of 0.4% is kind of insulting.


I didn't realize that the normal rate was that low. That is insulting.

Well as soon as these promos end, I withdraw all the cash immediately and will be doing that again. At the end of the month, I'll transfer all the money out of Simplii and back to my credit union.


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## scorpion_ca

I already put a reminder on my calendar to transfer out from Simplii by Oct 26/27. I can play this game but my wife is not interested to know about finances. There are many people in Canada who are in this situation and banks are ripping them off.


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## james4beach

scorpion_ca said:


> I already put a reminder on my calendar to transfer out from Simplii by Oct 26/27. I can play this game but my wife is not interested to know about finances. There are many people in Canada who are in this situation and banks are ripping them off.


I agree with your strategy and that's exactly what I'm doing as well. Initiate the funds transfer on Oct 25-26 so that the cash leaves Simplii by the last day of the month.

That should help reset the balance to zero, so that we can grab their next promotion.


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## james4beach

I transferred all my high-interest savings cash out of Simplii today (should happen tomorrow).


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## scorpion_ca

james4beach said:


> I transferred all my high-interest savings cash out of Simplii today (should happen tomorrow).


Same here


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## james4beach

scorpion_ca said:


> Same here


I kind of hate playing this game, but that last promo was juicy. I'm going to end up with enough extra interest to buy a pizza or two!

When there aren't promos, I just park the cash at my credit union which usually has a good rate.


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## scorpion_ca

james4beach said:


> I kind of hate playing this game, but that last promo was juicy. I'm going to end up with enough extra interest to buy a pizza or two!
> 
> When there aren't promos, I just park the cash at my credit union which usually has a good rate.


I got an email last week that "As a valued client, we’re contacting you to let you know that we are making changes to the interest rate tiers on our High Interest Savings Account. For now, the annual interest rate continues to be 0.40% across all balance tiers. Please click here for changes that will take place, effective Oc‍to‍ber 2‍1, 20‍22. Please keep a copy of this notice for your records."....They should be shameful that their regular rate is 0.4% now.


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## james4beach

scorpion_ca said:


> They should be shameful that their regular rate is 0.4% now


Yeah that's awful. By the way, Horizons CASH now yields 4.1% (after fees) and they say those deposits are with a Canadian bank (could be National Bank of Canada). So that tells us that in the institutional market, it's possible to get around 4% on cash deposits at banks.

Scotia iTrade's DYN6004 yields 3.8% and the 6-month government treasury bill has a yield of 4.1%


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## andrewf

james4beach said:


> Yeah that's awful. By the way, Horizons CASH now yields 4.1% (after fees) and they say those deposits are with a Canadian bank (could be National Bank of Canada). So that tells us that in the institutional market, it's possible to get around 4% on cash deposits at banks.
> 
> Scotia iTrade's DYN6004 yields 3.8% and the 6-month government treasury bill has a yield of 4.1%


Thanks for tipping me to these new Horizons products. CASH is nice, but HSAV seems much more appealing, especially if you don't need cashflow. CASH is already up to 750MM in AUM so it seems to be gaining traction. All this nonsense of moving money between banks for promotional rates is silly when you can get comparable yield this way. And 5 year GICs are still only offering 5%....


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## james4beach

andrewf said:


> Thanks for tipping me to these new Horizons products. CASH is nice, but HSAV seems much more appealing, especially if you don't need cashflow. CASH is already up to 750MM in AUM so it seems to be gaining traction. All this nonsense of moving money between banks for promotional rates is silly when you can get comparable yield this way. And 5 year GICs are still only offering 5%....


Beware, HSAV has encountered a problem (due to excessive deposits) where it no longer tracks NAV. If you look at the HSAV web page you'll see that it has 0.5% premium to NAV. And at times I believe the premium has been even larger, which is dangerous for buyers.

Horizons explains here that they've stopped new subscriptions on HSAV, meaning that new inflows will not go to deposits. They say that investors should not buy units of HSAV. Maybe they're worried about the tax issues or have been warned by CRA. Following this, they launched CASH to accomplish the same thing, but without the tax loophole trick.

TDDI and other brokerages have *banned* several of these funds including CASH, HSAV and PSA.


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## andrewf

Thanks. Maybe the 0.5% premium to NAV is acceptable for a longer term hold. Keep in mind, if the spread is tight, it's not a big deal if there is a slight premium to NAV, it's more a big problem is there are big swings in the premium/discount to NAV.


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## james4beach

andrewf said:


> Thanks. Maybe the 0.5% premium to NAV is acceptable for a longer term hold. Keep in mind, if the spread is tight, it's not a big deal if there is a slight premium to NAV, it's more a big problem is there are big swings in the premium/discount to NAV.


I agree that 0.5% premium isn't bad, you'll definitely make it back, but you should still be careful when placing the trades in case the premium increases.

I'm curious, which brokerage is allowing you to buy this?


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## andrewf

I haven't bought it, but Questrade seems to allow them. Why would they ban them? Wanting to avoid competition for their crappy savings accounts?


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## james4beach

andrewf said:


> I haven't bought it, but Questrade seems to allow them. Why would they ban them? Wanting to avoid competition for their crappy savings accounts?


Yes I think the big brokerages ban them so that cash deposits go into their own bank products. I can't believe they haven't been sued for this yet.


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## Gator13

james4beach said:


> Yes I think the big brokerages ban them so that cash deposits go into their own bank products. I can't believe they haven't been sued for this yet.


This sounds like a cause for you to spearhead. Try to get it one someone's radar?


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## james4beach

Gator13 said:


> This sounds like a cause for you to spearhead. Try to get it one someone's radar?


I've been in touch with a lawfirm that has done a few class action suits against brokerages. But I'm probably not the ideal person to spearhead this for other reasons.


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## Gator13

A daunting task no doubt. Would be great if the media would get involved in some of these issues. Wishful thinking I suppose.


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## Money172375

james4beach said:


> I've been in touch with a lawfirm that has done a few class action suits against brokerages. But I'm probably not the ideal person to spearhead this for other reasons.


Is there something special or legal about brokerages? Should I be able to get a BNS visa from a RBC branch? Or a PCF high interest savings account from BMO? Trying To understand the difference?


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## james4beach

Gator13 said:


> A daunting task no doubt. Would be great if the media would get involved in some of these issues. Wishful thinking I suppose.


There have been at least two articles on this in the G&M, so it's a known issue. The broker might even change course once they receive some legal threats.



Money172375 said:


> Is there something special or legal about brokerages? Should I be able to get a BNS visa from a RBC branch? Or a PCF high interest savings account from BMO? Trying To understand the difference?


The discount brokerage is supposed to let you trade stock securities on the Canadian marketplace (TSX listed). Imagine that TD's brokerage told you that you can't buy RBC or BMO stock. They'll let you buy TD stock though.

Or what if RBC's brokerage said you are not permitted to buy bond ETFs from iShares or Vanguard. If you want a bond fund, you can only buy TD's crappy bond fund (and pay a higher fee). Can you imagine? And yet that's exactly what they are doing here, just with ultra-short / cash ETFs.

With visa cards, no, you can't get a BNS visa from an RBC branch. The service offered by RBC branches is not: access to credit cards from any vendor.

Discount brokerages are generic gateways to the TSX. That's the whole purpose... not to buy only bank-related stocks, but any stock. RBC Direct's stock trading service is supposed to be: access to securities that trade on the TSX. In my 25 years with these brokers, I've never encountered TSX-listed securities that they don't allow you to trade.

I can buy any crap that's listed on the TSX. That includes bitcoin ETFs and leveraged inverse natural gas ETFs. I can buy bankrupt companies, etc.

*The only thing I can't buy is this particular category of ETFs*. That's weird right? They want to make sure you can only buy their product, which has higher fees, and which feeds the bank's deposit needs.


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## james4beach

Got about $300 in Simplii promotional interest a few days ago.

Has anyone seen a new promotion?


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## Synergy

james4beach said:


> Got about $300 in Simplii promotional interest a few days ago.
> 
> Has anyone seen a new promotion?


Haven't seen any new promo's for existing customers. Based on the letters they sent out to their customers they don't appear overly concerned with retention. For "new" customers they're offering 5% until Jan 31st, 2023. Sitting on a $0 balance waiting for their next offering!


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## nathan79

Synergy said:


> Haven't seen any new promo's for existing customers. Based on the letters they sent out to their customers they don't appear overly concerned with retention. For "new" customers they're offering 5% until Jan 31st, 2023. Sitting on a $0 balance waiting for their next offering!


That's my impression as well. They haven't sent me an offer in two years.


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## Synergy

nathan79 said:


> That's my impression as well. They haven't sent me an offer in two years.


Check your inbox. Just received a 5% offer until the end of April 2023.


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## james4beach

I did not receive an email. Damn and I had carefully emptied my accounts too.

Has anyone else gotten the 5% that @Synergy saw?


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## Eclectic21

Nothing yet for me.

It had been a long drought before the offer that expired in Sept or so and it looks like a return to the drought.


Cheers


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## scorpion_ca

Synergy said:


> Check your inbox. Just received a 5% offer until the end of April 2023.


Same here...Starting from Dec 1 to Apr 23. Have you received any confirmation email after signing it up?


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## nathan79

Synergy said:


> Check your inbox. Just received a 5% offer until the end of April 2023.


Nothing.


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## Synergy

scorpion_ca said:


> Same here...Starting from Dec 1 to Apr 23. Have you received any confirmation email after signing it up?


No confirmation. I don't believe they send out any confirmations, unfortunately. I'd archive the original email or screenshot the online offer, just in case they try to short change you. My offer goes to April 30th for some reason. Read your offer again, it may actually go to April 30, 2023. Possibly you read it too fast!


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## scorpion_ca

Synergy said:


> No confirmation. I don't believe they send out any confirmations, unfortunately. I'd archive the original email or screenshot the online offer, just in case they try to short change you. My offer goes to April 30th for some reason. Read your offer again, it may actually go to April 30, 2023. Possibly you read it too fast!


No, It's until April 30, 2023.


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## scorpion_ca

We contacted Simplii and the customer service agent enrolled us. After that logged into our accounts and receive pop up offers and accepted it again. Received the enrolment confirmation emails within two hours. So, signed up three times for the same offer and now we have the confirmations.


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## james4beach

I received the Simplii promotion a day after Synergy posted about it.

5% until April 30, 2023
for the account balance _that exceeds the closing balance on November 30, 2022_


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## Eclectic21

Finally received the offer ... but for now, it is not enough to move any money.


Cheers


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## james4beach

Eclectic21 said:


> Finally received the offer ... but for now, it is not enough to move any money.


Interesting that it went out to people at different times.

@Eclectic21 where do you currently keep cash, that has a decent interest rate? The best I'm aware of is DYN6004 at iTrade, which @AltaRed discovered, at 4.25%


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