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Email this4:10 pm
November 4, 2014
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I just wanted to tell everyone that Oaken Financial extended their 0.25% bonus rate promo until December-19-2014, http://www.oaken.com.
I remember Kanaka got an email about this but I just wanted to make sure that it is now confirmed and is not ending on November-7-2014 anymore.
We setup the transfer for $85,000 in RRSP's and $63,000 in TFSA's from another financial institution today and locked in their 3.05% 5 year rate.
9:41 am
November 4, 2014
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I just wanted to tell everyone that Oaken Financial's 1 year cashable GIC after 30 days with no lost interest or penalties is 2.00% until December-19-2014.
This is great for part of your portfolio that wants to be short term in nature. It is not as liquid as a savings account but the advantage is, if rates go higher after 30 days, you can cash in and reinvest it in whatever you want or need.
Also, the current 2.00% rate is fixed for 1 year so if rates fall and you don't cash in for the full year or when you do cash in after 30 days, you will get that full 2.00% no matter what. We will be putting some money probably about $5,000 soon in this type of GIC with Oaken.
12:20 am
November 4, 2014
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Just let anyone know that is thinking of converting an RRSP to a RRIF at Oaken Financial, they do have the highest that I could find, 5 year GIC's paying monthly payments of RRIF income which includes principal and interest at 3.05%.
Our adviser showed us an example of a 65 year old person or couple both 65 years old that at 3.05% rates, RRIF's will last 248 months or 20.66 years. This is based on $540 a month in RRIF income. This stays within minimum required RRIF withdrawals.
Obviously, the longer you wait to convert your RRSP to a RRIF, it will be a higher amount and provide more monthly or annual RRIF income based on 3.05% GIC's and higher rates so everyone must decide what it best for themselves regarding their RRSP's or RRIF's and when they need income.
Take care and it pays to shop around.
3:05 pm
November 4, 2014
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I was just looking through different financial institutions about monthly interest paying GIC's and the best I could find is Oaken Financial's 2.95% 5 year rates.
We maybe thinking of putting a portion of our money there to have a monthly financial cushion to help pay future bills.
We are probably putting around $61,000+ to generate about $150 a month interest income. The lost interest per month if we don't take an annual interest option is only about $5.08 or $305 over 60 months.
Take care and it pays to shop around.
9:41 am
November 19, 2014
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Hi,
New user, appreciate this site very much. Just wanted to mention that depending how much you put in, Oaken will also generally top up the rate by half a point if you ask them. My wife bought one the 1yr cashable at 100K and they sweetened it on request.
Cheers.
11:05 am
October 21, 2013
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Good to know, Koogie. Perhaps they are feeling the need to compete with Hubert's 1 yr offering at 2.35%, which is cashable after 3 months at 2.2% and at higher rates thereafter.
It never hurts to ask.
9:18 am
June 29, 2013
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Not sure what interest rate Koogie (#5 above) got on his wife's 100K GIC at Oaken. I phoned Oaken today asking about higher interest rates for large GICs amounts. They said they would NOT give me extra % while their .25% bonus is in effect until Dec 19. After Dec 19, when rates go back down (the .25% bonus is discontinued), then they "may" give an extra bonus for large GICs but no commitment at this time.
9:28 am
October 21, 2013
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... or they "may" keep the special rate going a bit longer, I suppose. They already extended it once.
This did seem too good to be true though. Perhaps the "extra" was just the current special rate.
1:54 pm
September 5, 2013
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Brian said
Not sure what interest rate Koogie (#5 above) got on his wife's 100K GIC at Oaken. I phoned Oaken today asking about higher interest rates for large GICs amounts. They said they would NOT give me extra % while their .25% bonus is in effect until Dec 19. After Dec 19, when rates go back down (the .25% bonus is discontinued), then they "may" give an extra bonus for large GICs but no commitment at this time.
Please check with Com tech credit union. They always provide a match or incentive for large amount, and give reason for us to continue biz with them.
2:43 pm
October 21, 2013
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There should be some incentive rates coming after Christmas. The TFSA season will be upon us, along with the RRSP season. I'm in no hurry to lock in right now. They have to beat CFF for TFSA GIC; should be interesting...
4:30 pm
November 7, 2014
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Re TFSAs: As long as Peoples Trust is giving 3% on TFSAs with total accessibility, no long term commitment, and CDIC coverage, this is a "no brainer".
RRSPs, etc. are another issue.
8:39 am
November 19, 2014
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Brian said
Not sure what interest rate Koogie (#5 above) got on his wife's 100K GIC at Oaken. I phoned Oaken today asking about higher interest rates for large GICs amounts. They said they would NOT give me extra % while their .25% bonus is in effect until Dec 19. After Dec 19, when rates go back down (the .25% bonus is discontinued), then they "may" give an extra bonus for large GICs but no commitment at this time.
It was in fact before their current promo so I could see that they wouldn't be offering it currently (no matter the amount). Still, console yourself, you're still getting a higher rate with the current promo than we did even with their bump up !
1:53 pm
October 21, 2013
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It never hurts to ask, especially if, for some reason, you prefer to stay with a particular institution. If you ask them to match or better another institution's rate, it's a reasonable request and shows that you are a serious informed consumer.
5:49 pm
November 26, 2014
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I just arranged to move some of my RRSP to Oaken, but made sure it was worth it first.
For anyone interested I put up a calculator that works out what the true rate is once any "transfer-out" fees are taken account of. For example, that 3.05% goes down to 2.77% if you only moved $10,000 and had to pay a $135 rrsp transfer out fee.
To play with the numbers I made a little calculator on my website gic-rates-and-transfer-fees. Feel free to check it out.
7:26 pm
December 23, 2011
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Jeff said
I just arranged to move some of my RRSP to Oaken, but made sure it was worth it first.
For anyone interested I put up a calculator that works out what the true rate is once any "transfer-out" fees are taken account of. For example, that 3.05% goes down to 2.77% if you only moved $10,000 and had to pay a $135 rrsp transfer out fee.
To play with the numbers I made a little calculator on my website gic-rates-and-transfer-fees. Feel free to check it out.
Hi Jeff. Good site. I am doing same.....moving away from adviser and I assume with a $135 fee you are with one of the Investment Companies. But keep in mind if you could move more $$ the fee can become irrelevant. But just say if Oaken did drop to 2.77% after your 5 years it is unlikely that where you are "moving from" would have a rate at 2.77% (likely at least .25% or more lower). And Oaken says they do not charge for RRSP transfers.
12:05 pm
November 4, 2014
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Jeff, I assume you are taking into account compound interest for your RRSP. Interest compounding at 3.05% versus 2.77% over many years, decades on initial investments and new money adding during the years can add up to quite a good amount more, as much 20%, 30% plus extra interest.
12:09 pm
November 4, 2014
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Kanaka, good points made and the $135+ H.S.T RRSP transfer out fee is ridiculously high. What makes it even worse is you can't even deduct it from your income taxes anymore.
You could deduct RRSP transfer fees back in the 1990's until they scrapped that tax write off.
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