I too hate BMO. Our mortgage was a disaster and 3 years later, I’m still trying to get things sorted out. Currently, I can’t even do my taxes until they get my home buyers plan documentation fixed, we are being asked to pay back $6000 that we never borrowed because of their error. Recently, I spoke to 8 different people, even using some of my limited flex time to go home for documents (even though they had all my information already) and was promised a phone call from the bank manager. That was a month and a half ago. Tax time is upon us and I either pay back money I didn’t borrow, or file my taxes late. Thanks BMO. I transferred everything else to RBC after getting a better rate from them on a car loan, a bank I’ve never dealt with before, than my bank of 20 years. (Don’t even let me get started on my first car loan through BMO) At RBC we felt like they were OUR bank and not just a place I put my money.

Ah banks. I have been with RBC for 17 years now, and will be calling it quits in the next few weeks. I still remember getting my first Tiger account and looking at my book update with a penny here and a penny there. I am changing mainly because they are raising their monthly fees, but also because I have accounts in different provinces, which causes me a hassle because I cannot freely transfer funds between them (which makes sense, I guess). Either way, I’m going to try a new bank and see how it goes.

I am a CIBC user, but they pay literally no interest (0.3% or something), so I moved my extra cash into ING.

It *used* to be 3.65% @ ING but recently went down to 3.3% due to overnight interest rates falling. Sign-up for ING is a bit of a pain, you need to sign up online and then mail in a cheque linked to your “brick and mortars” bank. After that you need to call up and verify yourself. Then finally it works, but once signed up there have been no issues. They put a 5 day hold on my transfers in and then CIBC puts a 5 day hold on my transfers out, so it is best used for “long term savings” and not money that you’ll need in a month or something.

It is easy to use, zero fees, no minimum balance and I got my tax info online by PDF at the beginning of March, which is a bonus for someone like me to likes to file ASAP.

I dealt with HSBC both in Canada and when I was in the UK. It was great in the UK, but customer service in Canada seems to be completely geared towards Asian clients. I opened an account and had so many problems I closed it without even putting any money in. A nightmare.

So I wouldn’t suggest you go all-in in ING, but for a high interest savings account, I’d recommend it. CIBC is ok. I like TD’s hours better but can’t be bothered to change. You could look into credit unions for your brick & mortar account and use ING for savings, if you don’t really care about ATM useage then that may work for you.

Man I can’t remember ANY time a bank has called me at home. I usually just get phoned with crappy Mastercard offers, and since M/C is still on the ban list from 10 years ago, no deal.

From the ING website:

Investment Savings Account (ISA) 3.30%
US$ Investment Savings Account (US$ ISA) 1.75% (due to lower interest rates in the US)
Short Term Guaranteed Investment (GIC) 90 day 3.20%, 180 day 3.25%, 270 day 3.30%
Guaranteed Investment (GIC) 1 year 3.50%, 2 year 3.30%, 3 year 3.50%, 4 year 3.75%, 5 year 4.00%

Sooooo, your benefit for locking in for 5 years is 0.7% while there is an actual cost of getting a GIC over a savings account with terms <1 year. Realistically the only reason people should want a GIC in this type of market is if they have over $100,000 in an account as each savings account is only guaranteed by the CDIC to that amount.

Also interesting how the 2 year GIC rate is lower than the 1 year – shows that the market is telling us right now that interest rates will be lower this time next year than they are right now.