I was on my Pc bank account online a few minutes ago and spotted this great offer.
Earn 2.5% interest on all new deposit amounts from December 1, 2010 until April 30, 2011 on these registered investments:
Interest PlusTM RRSP
The World’s BestTM RRSP
Tax-Free Interest PlusTM savings account
Our† registered investments are just the ticket. RRSP deadline is March 1, 2011
This is awesome for me because in the next few weeks I will be making our RRSP contribution. Click here for more information.
Whoa, Sally. I’ve been sucked into PC RRSPs and experienced spectacularly bad service. They SEEMED OK at the start. But just try to move your money without big fusses, lots of hidden rules and time consuming frustration. It took a lot of work to get my money eventually “unlocked” and moved out of that godforsaken institution. They are nowhere nearly as easy to deal with as ING direct or Manulife.
Glad to see that you are making RRSP contributions – but 2.5% is a VERY low rate of return – in essence, you are not really making money at all because 2.5% does not keep pace with inflation.
For any SCer’s in Ontario, I would be happy to recommend a Financial Advisor who can help them choose the best investments for them. Just PM me (kduever)
thnaks for this info I will open a new account
I saw that too! Awesome! Beyond perfect timing for me. I had put $4000 more into my TFS… made over $3 in interest! Now I will be adding $6000, lol. And then maybe some into the RRSP, hmmmmm!
I recommend Canadian Tire Financial Services
for their TFSA – you receive 3.5% interest. If you sign up, plust they wire your money out when you want it back, so it’s optimal and quick. 3.5% is the best interest rate I have found.
https://www.myctfs.com/?LOGON=LOGOFF
PCF is not available in Quebec… nor Canadian Tire…
Quebec laws suck!!!
The only option is ING direct.
Sandra, were paying back what we took out for our house 5 years ago, so were stuck for a bit there.
On another note (sorta)… Can I put another $5000 in my tax free savings account now that it is 2011? last time I had to pay tax of like $40 as I placed more money into it 🙁 I want to make sure it is really time…can’t really see it stated on the website that it starts exactly on the new year (jan1)
*READ THE FINE PRINT
I personally love PC and do all my financials with them. But just so you know the 2.5% is only on new deposits made and is only offered UNTIL April 30, 2011. After that date the interest rate will very likely drop. Just keep that in mind.
Sally – just an FYI if you are repaying a home buyers plan, you do not need to put the RRSP money back into the same financial institustion. You just have to make RRSP contributions period. When you do your taxes, as long as you have the RRSP slips – you are fine. (At least I think this is what you are referring to).
Sampler – each calendar year your contribution limit increases by $5000. I got a tax bill for $186 last year because they said I overcontributed by $18000. I filed a complaint and got it all back thankfully (note: i made $38 in interest that year)
I read all the fine print and the rules were very unclear so as it is a savings account, I withdrew money and then when I had more, put it back in, maintaining a balance under $5000 at all times, but the don’t consider withdrawls (i.e. deposit 5000, withdrawl 2000, deposit 1500 when i get more $$ and they say I put in 6500… then you pay penalities on the amount over the 5000)
In my opinion TFSAs are for people with more money than they know what to do with it and have maxed out their RRSPs. If I have lump sums of money I would rather put it into RRSPs, get the tax back now and keep that for a while for liquid assets – when when I build up more, repeat. Worse case scenario I NEED money (i.e. job loss) so I withdraw from my RRSPs pay the tax – but since my income is so low, who cares….
Unless you are a really savvy investor, you will not make any interest worth talking about in a TFSA and if your annual interest is unfer $50 you dont even get a slip or have to claim it.
okay – sorry for the ramble
Tax free savings accounts do not have to be in a bank, and don’t have to be in a savings account. You can hold stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. in a TFSA. And you can withdraw all of your money from a TFSA if you want. You just have to wait until the beginning of the next year to put it back in. If you worked with a financial planner, they would help you with this, but doing it yourself, over the internet, is just stupid. And an RRSP paying 2.5% for a few months is also useless. As someone else said, that doesn’t even cover inflation.
Do yousrselves a favour and work with a planner…. it’s free of charge and you will get the right advice. Would you try and do a heart transplant on yourself? No… you would go to someone who is trained. So why wouldn’t you go to someone who is trained to handle money instead of trying to do it yourself???
And Super M – RRSP’s are great if you are not going to be collecting a company pension. But if you are, a TFSA is a much better way to add to your retirement income. Seriously, work with a CFP – investing online at PC Bank is NOT the answer.
Sorry for the rant.
I guess it all depends what your situation is.
To: SuperM …Please tell me how you filed the complaint..I just read this a few mins ago that it had to be before August, but some site said that you can still do it after August?? I didn’t know you could file a complaint…I had the same confusion 🙁 I want my $40 back…
sampler – It was like 6 months ago. I cant remember the form I filled out. Try calling them. 18009598281 for CRA and then they can re-direct you.
carlotta – just explain one thing to me – if financial planners are free – how do they make money??
Super M – I work for a company that pays me on the amount of assets I hold and manage for them. I do estate planning, investment planning, tax planning, insurance planning, retirement planning and cash and debt management for ALL of my clients. It costs the clients an account fee if they hold investments (which the banks do as well… you just don’t see it). But even if my clients HAD to pay me a fee for service, the amount they could save on taxes, the problems i would help solve about trheir estate, ensuring their family is protected if they happened to die young, and helping them to manage their day to day finances would be a pretty valuable service wouldn’t it? Sorry… I’m pretty passionate about my job and my clients are like my family. They call me whenever something in their life changes (new baby, wedding, death, new job etc) so that we can alter their financial plan to compensate. Since my pay is determined by how well my clients investments are doing, if I don’t do a good job of diversifying their rrsps, tfsas and open accounts, their value will decrease and so will my income. When they do well, my income increases. So it’s in my best interest as well as my client’s to work hard to ensure they are set up properly.
I just get irate when people talk about places like PC bank. They have virtually no overhead because they have no buildings. They offer no individual investment advice. They will put you, your neighbor, your mother, your son all in the same portfolio without ever asking a question about you. It’s assembly line investing. And there’s a big difference between having an “investment” and having a financial “plan”.
Haha sorry again…. I’ll finish my rant now!
I love PC, have been with them for years and have saved so much money by not paying bank fees.
The 2.5% is a bonus on top of the regular interest rate you get….so it isn’t just 2.5%…
SuperM says…
In my opinion TFSAs are for people with more money than they know what to do with it and have maxed out their RRSPs. If I have lump sums of money I would rather put it into RRSPs
—————–
OK a young working student who is studying to become an engineer and is now making $18000 a year comes to you and asks: I have $1000 to put away….RRSP or TFSA?
Answer and explain based on your previous logic.
PC Fin. = CIBC …go with ING direct…much better service.
I can answer that one Bytown! Put it in a tfsa. Once your income increases and your marginal tax rate increases, move it into an RRSP. So you can take your capital and any growth and roll it into the RRSP and then get a tax refund. Put the tax refund into your TFSA (after the end of the year, of course or you will get dinged for over-contributing). This makes for a double dip and gives you your best bang for your buck. You don’t want to use up your RRSP room when your tax rate is really low – save it for when you are making big bucks.
Unless you are on a defined benefit pension plan – then its a whole new ball game.
SuperM -Thanks! you are the best !…do you think they will still give me my money? I didn’t know about this because I didn’t have cable during that time so I didnt watch the news, and I didn’t have net access then 🙁 …now I have come across this news and i am pissed… I called them months back and they didn’t tell me about this dispute option…I thought that I was SOL and that was it!
Thanks Carlotta. I already knew the answer. I was just trying to show SuperM flaws re his comment.
The 2.5% interest is an annual rate but only for the four months of offer. It is actually PC Financial’s 1.5% rate + promo bump up rate to equal 2.5%. As stated on http://www.banking.pcfinancial.ca/a/products/RRSP2011.page?WT.mc_id=RRSP2011_00
b. Under the Offer, promotional interest (“Promotional Interest”) is the amount of interest to be paid that is in excess of the regular interest paid on each Eligible Account balance. This means that the annual Promotional Interest rate, plus the regular annual interest rate on an Eligible Account is 2.5%.