Manulife Bank | Manulife Bank | Discussion forum

Hi Peter,

I was previously one of the opponents to having Manulife's account added to the "chart" due to uncompetitive rates and/or it being an "all-in-one" chequing/savings/mortgage account. However, with their Advantage Savings Account being separate from the Manulife All-in-One account, coupled with it offering rates better than ICICI Bank, ING Direct and PC Financial, I am now in favour of re-adding (or adding, as the correct case may be) Manulife Advantage Savings Account.

Separately, with the distinction in the "chart" of those offering Internet banking facilities, I have moved from "opposed" to "neutral" to adding Bridgewater's high-interest savings account, if there is support for it to be added. My preference remains to remove Peoples Trust from the chart due to no Internet banking facilities; however, if that's not going to happen, Bridgewater should be added out of fairness.

Cheers,
Doug

picassocat said
Can I pay bills with Manulife Bank? Interac e-transfers? Any fees for such?

Yes. Yes. Yes, there is a fee for those two if one doesn't have $1,000 in the Manulife Bank Advantage account. See previous post.

There's only the one Advantage account offered. There aren't separate chequing and savings accounts.

ATM withdrawal ($1.50) and Interac Debit ($1) fees are waived if the account has $1,000.

One can set up ongoing bill payments before the funds are in the account:

Bill payment tips

• If you set up ongoing payments, the money must be in your account the day before the payment is scheduled to be made.
• If you schedule a payment for a weekend or holiday, it will be processed the following business day.

picassocat said
I just opened an Avantage Account today (4,80%), and it was easy-breezy, but linking to Tangerine, both ways, must be done manually. When it comes to linking, I find that when dealing with smaller banks, the technology isn't convivial to say the least. I'm happy I found this promotional offer here.  

If you are not afraid of using Flinks, it is seamless on Manulife, and on Tangerine (though, I'm not sure which one is used on their site, it's been a long time).

Tangerine uses microdeposits to link to external accounts. Plaid is used to connect, not link accounts.

Manulife Bank can link to external accounts using Flinks or using void cheques.

picassocat said
I tried linking Manulife to Tangerine electronically (probably flinks), and it didn't work, had to go about it manually. Now waiting for Manulife to get it done, same thing with Tangerine to Manulife. When technology doesn't work for you.  

I just opened an account last week and linking Tangerine and BMO took about 5 minutes each. For both account they ask for a two-factor authentication. If you don't have those setup that might have cause the problem you had.

picassocat said
I tried linking Manulife to Tangerine electronically (probably flinks), and it didn't work, had to go about it manually. Now waiting for Manulife to get it done, same thing with Tangerine to Manulife. When technology doesn't work for you.  

When you go to link an external account on Manulife, it is basically asking you to pick your external institution, and log in like you normally do for online banking. Flinks sets up the account linkage in the background. It takes perhaps one minute, that's it.