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Email this3:37 pm
November 7, 2014
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I would assume you found an old web page. When you click on the area that says "see all rates" in the lower right hand corner of that page, you get the full display of the lower rates currently being offered.
Unfortunately there are lots of old web pages out there giving obsolete and misleading information, but nobody removes them.
3:43 pm
September 11, 2013
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Here's another old one, top of my google search list:
http://go.oaken.com/withoutope.....gJT9fD_BwE
It shows 2018 and it too, if you click on "see all rates", takes you to current rates. Their online banking system looks rickety compared to the others out there so maybe, as well as being kind of casual about their mortgage business before last year or so, they're just not that good at IT stuff either.
4:19 pm
December 17, 2016
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Seems everyone's driving around trying to make something out of pages they've had bookmarked for years or whatever in trying to make it more difficult than it really is.
I'll just post this one again - always sure fire with their current rates
4:36 pm
January 16, 2017
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https://www.oaken.com/gic-rates/ is now showing new numbers
For example:
Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSA)
Annual compound or annual pay
Min. dep. $1,000
1 Year 2.50 %
18 Mths 2.75 %
2 Year 2.85 %
3 Year 2.95 %
4 Year 3.05 %
5 Year 3.25 %
5:48 pm
October 21, 2013
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Thanks to GR for alerting us to possible increase, and to Alain for finding the updated rates verified.
These just happen to match the ones I found over an hour earlier, unverified. So, you'll forgive me if I pause for a moment to pat myself on the back as I do my happy dance! 
At the moment, I see no mention of backdating these rates, as we have sometimes seen with Oaken.
I don't think there's anything in particular wrong with their IT system. We just happened to catch them in the middle of an update.
5:28 am
December 17, 2016
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Before the glad-handing and back-slapping gets carried away ONLY the link, the same link I pointed to 6 days ago ... https://www.oaken.com/gic-rates/ ... should be the link to use BECAUSE that link is the ONLY link showing the following language -
The rates below are effective as of today. Our rates were last changed on January 26, 2018.
8:13 am
November 7, 2014
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Loonie said
Thanks to GR for alerting us to possible increase, and to Alain for finding the updated rates verified.These just happen to match the ones I found over an hour earlier, unverified. So, you'll forgive me if I pause for a moment to pat myself on the back as I do my happy dance!
At the moment, I see no mention of backdating these rates, as we have sometimes seen with Oaken.
I don't think there's anything in particular wrong with their IT system. We just happened to catch them in the middle of an update.
FYI : In the email I received from Oaken is the following statement:
"These new rates will be applied automatically for all GICs booked on January 19, 2018 or later"
11:05 am
September 15, 2017
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As I forecast in postings 37 & 39 above, Oaken did increase GIC rates Jan 26th and will also apply them retroactive to GICs purchased a few days before the increase effective date.
We are all pleased with these new higher rates, which probably place Oaken at the top of rate charts in Canada.
BUT, is this a warning sign that Oaken and their parent company need funds badly, such as a few months ago when they were in trouble?
5:17 pm
October 21, 2013
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FWIW, I don't think HCG is in trouble. I think the more likely explanation is that their mortgage business is springing back to life and they need the deposits to fund it. It was reported in the news a couple of months ago that they were concentrating on rebuilding their mortgage business as they had lost a lot of referrals during the crisis. The earlier problem was very different, caused by a run on the bank, in turn caused by bad management (since departed).
8:05 pm
April 6, 2013
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Home Trust still has that $2 billion committed line of credit from Berkshire Hathaway in place, until end of June this year. They are paying 1% per annum standby fee for it.
The line of credit was repaid down to zero in July 2017. They can draw on it again. It provides them up to $2 billion on demand, if they needed it.
5:13 pm
September 11, 2013
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Norman1, the way I read what you're saying is Home Trust is paying $20 million/year for the right to have access to a line of credit whether they use it or not, correct?
5:35 pm
December 17, 2016
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IS that 1% per annum standby fee on the Berkshire line of credit OR is it a "hangover" from the original HOOPP line of credit deal?
8:13 pm
April 6, 2013
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The 1% per annum standby fee is on the current Berkshire line of credit. The former line of credit from HOOP had a standby fee of 2½% per annum.
8:19 pm
April 6, 2013
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Bill said
Norman1, the way I read what you're saying is Home Trust is paying $20 million/year for the right to have access to a line of credit whether they use it or not, correct?
The $20 million per year is a minimum charge. According to their June 29, 2017 press release, the exact calculation is
- 1% per annum standby on the undrawn portion and
- 9% per annum interest on the drawn portion.
8:56 pm
December 4, 2016
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I'm going to do a bit of abstract thinking here.
Home Trust just had a huge influx of applicants to it's credit card.
Like how huge?
Like the entire portfolio of the Amazon Visa and Marriot Visa pretty much.
It's CC is the last CC in Canada with no fx fee. Which is about 2.5%.
Lots of exposure. Meant lots of applicants.
It needs the money to take on that huge of a liability.
Basically, it doesn't have the money to undertake such a large influx.
Therefore, they are trying to compensate by entice people with higher GIC rates so to accommodate this massive influx of CC people and not reject all of them.
It's likely not to foster their growing mortgage market or a huge drop in funding from outside sources.
They likely just want to draw from internal sources first before tapping outside sources.
Same reason why they raised it last time. The root cause is different from my estimation.
4:23 pm
January 16, 2017
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Anybody has a logic opinion to why the Oaken 5 yrs rate would go up or down in the next few weeks ? (ex: RSP period until Mar1st, Stock Exchange going down, etc..)
5:34 pm
January 10, 2018
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I am struggling with the same question !
Considerations:
- Oaken has been moving their rates up either just before or immediately after the Bank of Canada (BoC) rate increases. So their rate will not go up until a BoC increase.
- A number of other CUs just moved their rates up to 3.1% on 5 year term this week to match Oaken's move.
- The next BoC announcement is on March 7..
- The US Fed was expecting to increase the rate in the few months ...
However, because of the stock market volatility and continued NAFTA uncertainty, I am currently thinking/guessing the US Fed and BoC will project "stability" and will HOLD their current rates. Therefore, Oaken rates will not change in the short term.
Things may look entirely different in a couple of months due to events driven by the US administration.
9:54 pm
October 21, 2013
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Nobody knows, of course. There may also be internal considerations at Oaken which are affecting their rates.
The thing that I find difficult to reconcile is that there seem to be two current ideas which, in my mind, don't fit together very well.
One is that the US/Cdn economies are going great guns and that therefore increasing rates are all but inevitable. The financial institutions seem to believe this as they seem to have hiked rates more definitively than they did last year.
The contrary message is that things might be going down the tubes, especially with NAFTA etc. - which will hurt both countries. NY state has passed a law that says their govt can't spend large amounts outside the country, which already will affect us. Ontario is considering retaliatory measures. And the NY decision was apparently unanimous, both sides of the aisle. Even Bernie Sanders has gone on record agreeing with this, according to what I read. NAFTA is far from settled, and Americans seem to be rallying around "buy American" even if they remain deeply divided about Trump. So, how does a trade war help anything? And it makes cancelling NAFTA even more credible. Is recent market skittishness a reflection of cold feet on the future?
I guess I find the confidence in the economy a bit premature and possibly misplaced.
So the question for me is, what do they know that I don't know?
(Don't go by what I'm saying. I have no special knowledge. just asking.)
Some of us held back on GICs last year, especially five year GICs, because of low GIC rates and comparatively high savings rates. Perhaps this year we should split the money , buy some GICs now and the rest late in the year, to even things out a bit.
Please write your comments in the forum.