Hello everyone!
This article is for Canadian Steemians. I'm sure some of you already saw publicity about Tangerine Bank and are wondering who the heck they are and what is going on.
Well, here I will explain what they are about. I will then point out a few details about them that will allow you to understand why they have been the smartest choice for me.
Who are they? ----->
The Tangerine Bank is owned by SCOTIA BANK. Just like all other banks, they offer services such as Checking Account, Saving Account, Credit Cards and Retirement Saving Options.
The Tangerine bank is part of the current 'Thinking Forward' vibe. They say they are 'BANKING FORWARD'. They're all about providing Canadians with a banking alternative that doesn't believe in unfair fees.
They can afford to offer us better rates or less fees by being DIGITAL. (That's one of the part I love) Being a digital bank means everything is online. You cannot go to the bank. However you can contact them by phone or chat if needed.
Just think about all the CASH they save by not having to pay RENT + ELECTRICITY + INSURANCE for every branch. This money they save goes back in OUR pockets.
I will write here how I can MAKE and SAVE money with Tangerine but I really suggest you go check them out for yourself! Depending on your current banking situation, it may be worth your time! Also follow them on Facebook, they post really helpful content. https://www.facebook.com/TangerineBank/?fref=ts
How can I SAVE MONEY with them? ----->
The debit card:
I used to pay 15$/month so I have unlimited usage of my debit card.
If you take a second to think about this, you quickly realize that the usage of your debit card DOES NOT create a workload so having to pay a fee for that makes no sense.
Over the last decade, this 15$/month piled up and ended up being 1800$. That is 1800$ I just gave to my previous bank for absolutely NO REASON.
-----> The Tangerine debit card is unlimited and has no monthly fee. That's already a huge win for me! Just like that I already save 180$ a year.
The credit card:
My bank's VISA card and the Tangerine MASTERCARD are pretty much the same.
Though recently I looked into the reward system of my VISA card and realized it wasn't that great..
I used to get 1 point for every dollar I spend and I can then exchange said points for rewards such has a payment on my credit card, a payment on my line of credit, gas gift cards, etc.
The best, and by far, offer I could get was 225$ payment on my line of credit in exchange for my 25 000 points.
That means: 25 000$ spent = 25 000 points = 225$ from best reward offered.
----->The Tangerine MASTERCARD works with a cashback reward system. You simply get 1% cashback on any amount you spend.
That means: 25 000$ spent = 250$ cashback. (Tangerine = 250$ > Previous bank = 225$)
So that's already a win for me! But NOW is when it gets fun!!
THE FUN PART:
That cashback reward system also work with categories from which you can choose 2. Examples of available categories would be Gas, Furniture, Travel Tickets, Grocery, etc. These 2 chosen categories will give you 2% cashback reward instead of one!! Choose wisely and your 250$ turns into almost 500$ (going from 1% to 2%).
Also, if you get your cashback rewards to be deposited into your SAVING ACCOUNT, you get to pick a 3rd category!
I already knew which categories I needed to pick but in case you would not be sure, there is a tool that shows you exactly where your money goes. See Below:
To make things even more exciting, when you sign up for your 1st credit card with them, Tangerine offers you 4% on your categories for 3 months!(as seen in the picture above)
I am posting this article on August 14th. I had my Tangerine MASTERCARD activated on August 3rd. That means I used it for 11 days. I got my 3 categories and I currently get 4% cashback from them.
The next picture will demonstrate how 11 days of 4% cashback reward can quickly add up!
That's right! I got 16.67$ cashback in 11days. That's a hell of a lot more than what any point reward system could give me.
Also see on the right side of the picture: as per the services I have with them, they calculate how much I saved on the most common unfair fees from other banks. In my case it's not exact but I do save that 15$/month on my debit card.
So let's calculate my financial improvement so far.
Since April (when I got my debit card) I no longer pay 15$/month with my previous bank.
15$ x 5 months = 75$
In 11 days I made 16$ cashback. Lets assume I can double that in the remaining 17 days.
16$ x 2 = 32$
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Wow!! Just WOW!! In 5 months with a new debit card and 1 month with a new credit card I'm already over 100$ richer! That's good but that's 100$ over 5 months.. ok..
But by looking only at the current month though it gets really relevant for your wallet! That would be 15$ + 32$ = 47$
So just in August i'm at least 45$ richer that I've ever been before.
A thing you can think about if you're still not convinced: You pay taxes to the government on the amount of $$ that you make, not on the amount of $$ that you actually have for yourself.
That means for 10 years I have been paying taxes over money that was leaking out of my pockets and going to the bank and numerous other places.. Cut your losses now and react!!
The fact is, the more money you have, the more it can leak from everywhere without you noticing it.. I feel kind of stupid for not looking much into my finances and consider other options for 10 years but hey, most of us are in the same boat!! ABANDON SHIP!! ABANDON SHIP!!
How can I MAKE MONEY with them ----->
Like some other banks, Tangerine offers referral rewards. I'm not going to go into details about this because I simply print-screened this from their website: https://www.tangerine.ca/
If you're thinking about opening an account with Tangerine, go ahead and use my Orange Key (shown in the picture).
This way we will BOTH get 50$ bonus.
If you're like me and you're a skeptical person, you're probably wondering what's the catch about that. Well I did my own test and being very transparent about all this I will show you the results from my own account.
I deposited the 100$ as instructed(by picture messaging! that was fun!), received my debit card, received the code to activate it, activated the card and then the bonus came in!
So I then had 150$ in my account and I wanted to test (for myself and to prove others) if I did have access to it. I know, I know I'm super skeptical ahaha.
Anyway, as you can see, I made 1 purchase of over my initial deposit of 100$ and I worked just fine. Since then I kept learning about Tangerine and how I can profit from using them.
So there you go folks! I hope you learned a few interesting things about Tangerine Bank through this article.
I would recommend you take a little bit of time to do your own research on them and compare if what they offer would actually be profitable for you.
I would be very glad if it helped a few of you. As you know I love helping out other people.
You can go ahead and read my introduce yourself article if you want to learn more about me and know why I like to share helpful information. https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@dee-mcroy/i-m-ready-to-step-into-the-future-with-steemit
Oh also, their cards are super cool!
Cheers!
Thanks for the detailed post. I recently moved to Canada and have found bank account fees extreme and basically not worth it.
If Tangerine is owned by Scotiabank why can't Scotiabank just reasonably lower their fees themselves? Because they open physical banks and would have to help their customers?
This reminds me of how the small Telcos are owned by Rogers and Bell, and have created just another abstraction from where your money is actually going.
Hey FreedomPains,
You're welcome! I too think that banks are overdoing it with the fees.
I don't have an absolute answer to your question, however Tangerine does offer help over the phone/online chat. I also mentioned something about saving money by not having physical branches but there might be a lot more to it. I guess Scotia Bank only could answer that question..
In any case, here is the part where I put out what I believe makes the lower fees possible:
''They can afford to offer us better rates or less fees by being DIGITAL. (That's one of the part I love) Being a digital bank means everything is online. You cannot go to the bank. However you can contact them by phone or chat if needed.
Just think about all the CASH they save by not having to pay RENT + ELECTRICITY + INSURANCE for every branch. This money they save goes back in OUR pockets.''
Hope this help. Hopefully other banks will take example on Tangerine and lower their fees eventually.
Cheers.
I've been with Tangerine (formerly ING Direct) for over a decade and had two mortgages with them. No issues at all and really great not having to pay fees... although you sound like you work for them.
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