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High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 20:12
by Pickles
This is the thread to post rate changes, questions, special offers, etc. Please do not use this thread to discuss the relative merits of HISAs and GICs as an investment vehicle. There are threads on asset allocation, TFSA strategies, etc., in the Financial Planning and Retirement Planning sub-forums. Here is just one of the discussions on the merits of setting up a GIC ladder and another on the changing role of GICs in financial planning/investment.

Some of the current rates offered on High Interest Savings Accounts (HISAs) as of January 1, 2014:

ING savings account 1.35%
ING RRSP savings account: 1.35% (there is a time limited promo rate of 2.5% for new contributions)
ING TFSA account 1.4% (there is a time limited promo rate of 2.5% for new contributions) plus a cash bonus of $25 for new clients opening up a TFSA
People's Trust Savings account 1.8%
Peoples Trust TFSA account 3%
President's Choice Financial Interest Plus/No Fee and RRSP Savings - 1.35% (does not include their current promotional rate of 2.25% that ends Jan 31 on Interest Plus and No Fee)
President's Choice TFSA Savings - 1.4%
Canadian Tire Bank Savings 1.5%
Canadian Tire Bank TFSA 1.9%
Canadian Direct Financial Savings 1.9%
Canadian Direct Financial TFSA 2.25%
Oaken Financial (a new online banking option from Home Trust) Savings 1.65%

All of these institutions' deposits, subject to $100,000 limit per account are covered by federal CDIC insurance.

There are also credit unions which offer savings accounts and GICs. Their deposits are insured by provincial deposit insurance plans. Some members believe the guaranteed of these provincial insurance plans is not as secure as CDIC insurance.

Some online banks charge service fees (eg. Canadian Tire will charge $50 to transfer your TFSA to another provider) while others -- notably ING, are fee-free. It pays to check out what fees may apply, particularly if you like to move your cash around frequently.

GIC rates vary from provider to provider. ING, Oaken and Canadian Tire offer cashable GICs in addition to the more usual hold-to-maturity GICs (though early redemption pays less interest and sometimes no interest at all). Discount Brokerages offer Money Market Funds and GICs as well, from a variety of providers at fairly competitive rates. For example, here are the top GIC rates offered to BMO Investorline clients. This list is updated at the beginning of each trading day and draws from a stable of more than a dozen GIC issuers. More of these links will follow in subsequent posts.

Oaken Financial currently has the best rates of CDIC insured institutions and offers the option of semi-annual or monthly interest payments for a slightly lower rate:

1 year 2.00%
2 year 2.2%
3 year 2.4%
4 year 2.6%
5 year 3.0%

Major changes took place during 2013 and more will occur in 2014.

Ally Bank was bought by RBC which promptly closed down accounts and reissued GICs under the RBC banner. Peoples Trust developed a new online bank to handle non-registered, RRSP and TFSA savings accounts and GICs. Their website was hacked and some clients' personal information was compromised. Scotiabank bought ING bank and will be re-branding it "Tangerine" later this year. There are separate threads on these topics in the Under the Mattress sub-forum.

Home Trust is following Peoples Trust strategy (with better website security, we hope) and opening an online bank called Oaken Financial (only a savings account for non-registered deposits but GICs for RRSPs and TFSAs can be bought in addition to non-registered GICs).

There is a great deal of useful and relevant information on GIC laddering, comparison of different online banks, the difference between CDIC guarantees of your deposit (banks and trust companies) and guarantees offered by credit unions and insurance companies, etc., etc in previous years' threads on this topic. It is worthwhile to do a search in the 2012 and 2013 threads before posting a question on these topics here.

Happy New Year!

edited to add new information and links

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 21:09
by westinvest
Excellent summary - thanks for posting this. It will be interesting to have this baseline as we go through the year.

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 21:12
by Peculiar_Investor
Pickles wrote:There is a great deal of useful and relevant information on GIC laddering, comparison of different online banks, the difference between CDIC guarantees of your deposit (banks and trust companies) and guarantees offered by credit unions and insurance companies, etc., etc in previous years' threads on this topic. It is worthwhile to do a search in the 2012 and 2013 threads before posting a question on these topics here.
A slight hijack promotion for those that don't find the forum search very helpful. Some/most of the factual information that Pickles mentions has been captured in various finiki articles such as Guaranteed Investment Certificate, High-interest savings accounts, Deposit insurance and Short term cash returns, plus various other finiki articles linked within those mentioned. finiki is not intended to capture the nuances of the day-to-day changes in special offers, rates, terms, etc. that get discussed in this topic. Together they capture the best that FWF has to offer to Canadian investors on the subject.

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 22:00
by adrian2
Pickles wrote:To start off, here are some of the current rates offered on High Interest Savings Accounts (HISAs) as of January 1, 2014
Nitpick: the rates you've posted are as of December 31, 2013. I'm quite confident to predict Tangerine (ING Direct) will come up with some kind of promotion on Jan 1.

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 09:51
by like_to_retire
adrian2 wrote:
Pickles wrote:To start off, here are some of the current rates offered on High Interest Savings Accounts (HISAs) as of January 1, 2014
Nitpick: the rates you've posted are as of December 31, 2013. I'm quite confident to predict Tangerine (ING Direct) will come up with some kind of promotion on Jan 1.
See here for ING TFSA promotion. 2.5% interest.

ltr

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 10:56
by Pickles
adrian2 wrote:
Pickles wrote:To start off, here are some of the current rates offered on High Interest Savings Accounts (HISAs) as of January 1, 2014
Nitpick: the rates you've posted are as of December 31, 2013. I'm quite confident to predict Tangerine (ING Direct) will come up with some kind of promotion on Jan 1.
Yup, and I see LTR has posted it! That's how the thread works.

I plan to update the original post a bit when I have more time today. I just wanted to get the thread started and ensure some basic information re current rates appeared in the first post.

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 11:49
by adrian2
like_to_retire wrote:See here for ING TFSA promotion. 2.5% interest.
Not only TFSA, but RRSP, too, with the same conditions.

Noteworthy, not eligible:
- transfers from ING expiring GIC's (TFSA GIC -> TFSA ISA or RRSP GIC -> RRSP ISA);
- redemption from ING mutual funds (TFSA MF -> TFSA ISA or RRSP MF -> RRSP ISA).

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 12:00
by eezee
Pickles, Thanks for the diligent summary, needless to say it will be a moving target, but a great baseline for 2014.

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 13:50
by AltaRed
eezee wrote:Pickles, Thanks for the diligent summary, needless to say it will be a moving target, but a great baseline for 2014.
:thumbsup: I might suggest Pickles throw President's Choice Financial in her original post too....as it has a significant following here.

Interest Plus/No Fee and RRSP Savings - 1.35% (does not include their current promotional rate of 2.25% that ends Jan 31 on Interest Plus and No Fee)
TFSA Savings - 1.4%

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 13:57
by CROCKD
Alta Red posted PC while I was typing this.
PC Financial -Interest Plus Savings 1.35%

PC are also 2 months into a 3 months special offer paying 2.25% if you enrolled which I did by telephone and I noted that Bylo did also. The differential promo interest will be paid at the end of the period.

Also I noted when at my credit union on Friday that they now offer a HISA paying (currently) 1.5% , prior to this their savings options were low paying.
As I use my credit union chequing account as my main account for paying bills etc. it is linked with a number of financial institutions where I have HISAs so consequently money in transit at times may be sitting there. The new account is an option for parking funds.

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 14:44
by Pickles
AltaRed wrote:I might suggest Pickles throw President's Choice Financial in her original post too..
Dobe, and thanks for the suggestion!

Plus I updated the info on ING/tangerine. Thanks, adrian2 and ltr!

CROCKD, thanks for adding info on your credit union. Although I only track CDIC-insured institutions, credit union interest rates are of interest to many.

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 16:13
by queerasmoi
It is said that sometime in 2014, Tangerine will allow their cards to be used fee-free at Scotiabank ATMs. It is unclear whether that means they'll drop the Exchange network or not.

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 18:21
by optionable68
adrian2 wrote:
like_to_retire wrote:See here for ING TFSA promotion. 2.5% interest.
Thanks adrian2, so does the Quickstart cash invested 3 months ago and effectively deposited into the TFSA today count for the 2.5% promo on "new TFSA deposits as of Jan 1st"?

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 18:28
by ig17
ING Children's Saving Account is 2%. It's a joint account between a child and a parent. Tax attribution rules apply.

http://www.ingdirect.ca/en/save-invest/csa/

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 20:15
by adrian2
optionable68 wrote:Thanks adrian2, so does the Quickstart cash invested 3 months ago and effectively deposited into the TFSA today count for the 2.5% promo on "new TFSA deposits as of Jan 1st"?
It should, AFAIK.

BTW, it's Kickstart. :)

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 08:42
by fundamental
adrian2 wrote:
optionable68 wrote:Thanks adrian2, so does the Quickstart cash invested 3 months ago and effectively deposited into the TFSA today count for the 2.5% promo on "new TFSA deposits as of Jan 1st"?
It should, AFAIK.
I called ING this morning. $5500 Kickstart deposits on Jan 1st qualify for 2.50% promo for 4 months. :thumbsup:

Note: The rep said the posted web rate wont show this however 2 interest payments will be paid monthly: 1 deposit at 1.40% and 1 additional deposit at 1.10%

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 11:08
by poedin
See here for ING TFSA promotion. 2.5% interest.
Noteworthy, not eligible:
- transfers from ING expiring GIC's (TFSA GIC -> TFSA ISA or RRSP GIC -> RRSP ISA)
For existing TFSA ISAs it seems possible to trigger the 90 day GIC @ 2.00%. LIke late last year to trigger the promo first attempt an online transfer of $25,000, then when the 90 day GIC menu pops up type in the actual amount and complete the transaction.

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 11:33
by thegov
poedin wrote: For existing TFSA ISAs it seems possible to trigger the 90 day GIC @ 2.00%. LIke late last year to trigger the promo first attempt an online transfer of $25,000, then when the 90 day GIC menu pops up type in the actual amount and complete the transaction.
I believe this generates a non-registered GIC not a TFSA GIC which is unlikely what you want to do at this point in the year.

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 12:07
by good4u
thegov wrote:
poedin wrote: For existing TFSA ISAs it seems possible to trigger the 90 day GIC @ 2.00%. LIke late last year to trigger the promo first attempt an online transfer of $25,000, then when the 90 day GIC menu pops up type in the actual amount and complete the transaction.
I believe this generates a non-registered GIC not a TFSA GIC which is unlikely what you want to do at this point in the year.
Has anyone tried this in 2014? I tried doing this late last year and it worked but was thinking that they may pull this hidden promotion after Dec 31st.

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 12:22
by Gurs
On a related note, you can also hold a HISA account in your RSP/TFSA. Might be old hat to many of you, but something I just discovered. You can purchase the HISA as a fund in your brokerage account. Great way to 'park' money and still get a great interest rate. CDIC insured as well.

Some additional info...

http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/high- ... t-brokers/

https://www.tdassetmanagement.com/solut ... /index.jsp

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 14:03
by poedin
thegov wrote:
poedin wrote: For existing TFSA ISAs it seems possible to trigger the 90 day GIC @ 2.00%. LIke late last year to trigger the promo first attempt an online transfer of $25,000, then when the 90 day GIC menu pops up type in the actual amount and complete the transaction.
I believe this generates a non-registered GIC not a TFSA GIC which is unlikely what you want to do at this point in the year.
:o Thanks "thegov". A second look at this doesn't indicate that the 90d GIC is a TFSA, so definitively not a good idea to proceed. :!:
With a phone call one may be able to negotiate a better rate.

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 03 Jan 2014 09:15
by flywaysuzy
Scotiabank also in with a 5-year gic @ 3.01%.

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 03 Jan 2014 13:28
by gsp_

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 04 Jan 2014 12:29
by good4u
Thanks for this. Seems like a good deal when you compare to what else is out there.

Re: High interest rates for savings, GICs and MMFs (2014)

Posted: 07 Jan 2014 11:59
by MALDI_ToF
good4u wrote:
thegov wrote:
poedin wrote: For existing TFSA ISAs it seems possible to trigger the 90 day GIC @ 2.00%. LIke late last year to trigger the promo first attempt an online transfer of $25,000, then when the 90 day GIC menu pops up type in the actual amount and complete the transaction.
I believe this generates a non-registered GIC not a TFSA GIC which is unlikely what you want to do at this point in the year.
Has anyone tried this in 2014? I tried doing this late last year and it worked but was thinking that they may pull this hidden promotion after Dec 31st.
Just tried this now and works like a charm when it is at least $25000. You can change the amount later if you want. You get a banner ad for a 90 day GIC at 2% on the page where you have a last chance to cancel/change or proceed with the withdraw. Just click the banner and they send you to the GIC page but this is non-registered.

*Added*: When opening the GIC I changed the amount to less than $5000 for the GIC and it opened up fine at 2%.