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Transfer-out Fees, reimbursements, and time lines
September 2, 2014
4:54 am
Loonie
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The Comparison chart on this website has a line for Transfer-out fees for the financial institutions which concern us, i.e. the ones with the better rates.
Understandably, it does not include the fees at the Big Banks or brokerages, but these are the ones we must often deal with in order to move our money into higher interest accounts.

I wonder if we could compile some data on this.

I would like to know what National Bank is charging, and can't find it anywhere on their website.

I have found that the transfer-out fees are not always the same for RRSPs and RRIFs.

Also wondering what has been people's experience with getting the "new" bank/CU to reimburse you for the transfer fee. Which ones will do this?

Is there any convenient way to ensure that the fee is NOT taken out of your tax-sheltered plan?

And, lastly, what sort of time lines are you encountering for the transfers, and will the "new" institution hold the rate for you, and for how long?

So far, I have found out that BNS charges $50 for both RRSPs and RRIFs.
TD charges $50 for RRSPs only.
TD Waterhouse seems to have a bad reputation for taking too long to make the switch (based on other people's comments on the internet and also on what I was told by staff at one of the CUs), and charges $135.

Your experiences are welcome.

September 2, 2014
8:34 am
AltaRed
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Loonie said

I wonder if we could compile some data on this.
>
snip
>
Is there any convenient way to ensure that the fee is NOT taken out of your tax-sheltered plan?

On the first point, I think it would be very complex to make such a list because the fees (or not) could depend on whether it is intra-instutition, e.g. Royal Bank to RBC Direct Investing, or inter-institution.... and as an example, Royal Asset Management may have a different fee schedule than either RBC Direct Investing or RBC Dominion Securities. This information is generally available on the respective websites though may be hard to find.

At one time I recall that a transferring institution 'might' consider having the transfer out fee taken out of another account (IF and ONLY IF another such account existed at that institution - e.g. taxable account or savings account). I had that experience perhaps 15 yrs ago. Nowadays, I don't know. It may be that all institutions have agreed that transfer out fees and reimbursement of same must take place within the RRSP or RRIF itself for a number of reasons... maybe even a regulatory requirement.

In any event, in two separate cases in the past 5 years, I have found that reimbursement of transfer out fees by the receiving institution was made as a 'negative administrative fee' from within the RRSP and that does not affect contribution room, or anything like that. That suited me perfectly well. Just make sure one has some surplus cash sitting in your transferring out RRSP account to cover the transfer out fees.

September 2, 2014
8:35 am
Loonie
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Accelerate says:
"With an incoming RRSP transfer we can reimburse a portion of the fee paid as long as the funds are deposited to an RRSP GIC when they arrive at Accelerate Financial.

If the transfer is between 10,000.00 and 24,999.00 we can reimburse up to $25.00 of any fee charged. If the transfer is between 25,000.00 and 49,999.00 we can reimburse up to $50.00 of the fee that is charged. If the transfer is between 50,000.00 and 99,999.00 we can reimburse up to $75.00 and if the transfer is greater than 100,000.00 we can reimburse up to $100.00 of any fee charged.

As I mentioned the funds need to be deposited into an RRSP GIC in order to qualify for the fee reimbursement. When you receive the statement from the other institution showing the fee that was charged all you do is send it to us and we will add the portion that is refunded right to the RRSP GIC that we made the deposit to when the transfer arrived."

September 2, 2014
9:21 am
kanaka
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Loonie. I have RRSP GIC's at Coast Capital through Peak Financial. My advisor purchased them as a "deposit agent". They show on my Peak Statement and Coast Capital also sends me a statement every six months. I cannot talk direct to Coast Capital about them and must do all direction through my adviser. The Peak office changed over to Manulife but the same conditions apply although they do not make GIC purchases that way any more.

So I directed my adviser to send me transfer paperwork to transfer the GIC from his control to my personal Coast Capital RRSP account. That was done at no charge as Alta Red suggests. I then transferred to Oaken from Coast Capital for a fee of $55. If the GIC was purchased as a commodity as they do now I would have been charged $75 for Manulife to transfer out.

Oaken does not charge a fee to transfer out nor do they offer to pay all or part of a transfer in fee. The proceeds to transfer from Coast Capital to Oaken was completed in 2-3 weeks. The question unanswered is; how quick is a free transfer out, from Oaken?

I could not find anywhere on the Coast Capital site, a fee that covered an RRSP transfer out fee. I visited my local branch and asked about the fee and of course the teller did not know and I was able to talk to one of their financial people and he looked up online...and he too could not find nor did he know! He called the head office to confirm the $55 transfer out fee.

Oaken offered a 30 day guarantee on the rate for a transfer in.

Accelerate offers to pay an amount for transfer ins and I believe their guaranteed rate is better than Oaken but one should confirm, as these options can change.

I quess a table would be a good idea, but would not be as accurate as the rates are in the comparison chart. I don't know if a format could be set up for members to input. I too can see the use for the information but difficult to keep up do date and to cover all the variations.

September 2, 2014
11:15 am
Rick
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September 2, 2014
11:35 am
kanaka
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Rick said

https://www.coastcapitalsavings.com/Personal/Banking/Service_Fees/

Gave up on CC last year.

Thanks and I agree. When I find an alternative to CC I am gone. Have pulled all reserve money out! May just use for PayPal only. I need a bank/CU that has hi interest savings, no fees with the ability to pay vendors from it and then I need a chequing account to move from savings to chequing and then cut a cheque.

And lol....I will not be renewing any GIC's with them either!!!

September 3, 2014
9:19 pm
Loonie
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I got a very convoluted answer from National Bank which APPEARS to say that for RRSPs that are or have been invested in GICs, there will be a $50 exit fee; and for RRSPs that have been in mutual funds, there will be a $100 fee.

Their inability to provide a clear answer plus the lack of info on their website are additional good reasons not to bank with them.

September 3, 2014
10:09 pm
Jack Manning
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Loonie, I had a small 9.375%, 5 year GIC of $4,155.25 in 1995 with National Bank and when it was about to mature they did not even send me a 15 or 30 day GIC notice or GIC renewal reminder.

I wish I bought a 20 year Canada zero coupon bond with that money which would be worth about $25,000 next year in 2015. This is one of my regrets as I had no real financial, investment experience in 1995.

I found out later that they put in the contract auto renewal without my permission as I still have the copy. I closed my account and never did business with them again. It is a good thing, it was not an RRSP GIC so I did not pay any transfer fees to move my money out.

September 4, 2014
12:28 am
Loonie
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Heck, you were only 20 years old! Don't beat yourself up. It's a lesson learned, and you're well ahead of an awful lot of your peers now.

As for National Bk, it would be kind to call them a "minimalist" organization. I don't know how they do as well as they do. The response I received wasn't even in clear English, which is why I'm not really sure what he said.

September 4, 2014
9:24 pm
Jack Manning
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Loonie, I know, I am not obsessing over it but if I needed that money and spent it in 5 years I would of thought the other way and wished I did not lock it up for years or I did not want to sell it because it was compounding at such a great rate with not much income taxes due for years.

I think National Bank is more widely used in Quebec and northern Ontario, New Brunswick where french is more widely spoken, written.

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