Norman1 said
(1) and (2) aren't really issues. The credit union does say their High Interest Savings Account pays interest based on each month's minimum balance and once a year on December 31.

It's not an issue as long as the client knows about it. They should be more forthcoming in disclosing this important aspect of that account. I was an FA for 35 years, having dealt with thousands of clients, so I know firsthand that there will be many customers who will assume that they will earn daily interest regardless of what day of the month the deposit is made. Especially since this is the case for the vast majority of interest-yielding bank and credit union accounts. You can say it's the clients' own fault for not reading the fine print carefully enough or doing their due diligence, but you know there's a reason In Canada we have so many rules and regulations for DISCLOSURE for financial instutions and investment products. Over the years, they've become tougher, which is a good thing for the consumer. This critical information should be disclosed front and center on SCU's website and other material, not just listed as one of many features. e.g. In bold, red, large font. If you go to the main webpage for their accounts, https://scu.mb.ca/personal/ban.....s-accounts, where they have a summary of each type of account, it is *NOT* disclosed. On the following "more details" page, it is disclosed, but not highlighted in any way. There are plenty of investors who won't even understand what "minimum monthly balance" even means. My beef isn't with how they run the specific account. That's their choice. It's ok to be different. But it's that they KNOW very well that they will benefit from depositors (at least initially) not understanding how it actually works. I find that to be unethical on SCU's part.

FWIW, I am still a client of SCU. I still have significant money with them because they do have a few features and benefits that in my particular situation come in handy vs some of the other HISA FIs I deal with. So I'm not in any way saying to avoid them completely. In fact, my main gripe with them is that they still haven't implemented a 2FA system! None at all! Especially since they have had multiple cases of customers being victims of fraud. This is unacceptable. 2FA has been around for years now. There's no excuse not to have some type of system implemented. Thus, I recommend keeping small cash account balances and the rest in GICs which cannot be broken mid-term (i.e. stolen).

Norman1 said
Access CU has a similar offering. Their Platinum Savings account pays interest on each month's minimum balance too.  

Access now offers monthly interest payments on all their GICs, for a 0.1% lower rate of interest, which is kind of unique.

https://www.accesscu.ca/en/rates

Their Daily Growth Savings Account pays interest based on daily balances on the last day of the month. Interest rate is lower. But, the account is more in line with how people expect a savings account to pay interest (monthly, on daily closing balances).

Access CU has a similar offering. Their Platinum Savings account pays interest on each month's minimum balance too.

svg1234 said
I've been dealing with this CU for a few years. Had a couple of minor annoyances and snags along the way, and should have avoided. Made the mistake of trying to do business with them again (GIC purchases). Regretting it already. My advice to fellow forum readers is to avoid SCU. They're just not worth the hassle.

For example, they are the only FI that I know of that only gives you interest on money that is in the savings account for the FULL month. Got that? So if you transfer money into the savings account, waiting to buy a GIC or to leave it in that HISA, you get scr*w*d out of your interest until the first of the following month! How ridiculous is that? On top of that, they only pay the interest at the end of the yearinstead of monthly (like everyone else). For those reasons, I stopped using the HISA years ago.

But this time, I've been buying just GICs from them. They have a dumb way of doing it. First, the money goes into the HISA, and then a different department does the actual GIC placement. You lose a few days of interest from when they pull the money until the GIC start date, which isn't fair, but not too bad. No, the real problem is for some odd reason it takes the "other department" far too long to actually fill the purchase order for the GIC. In my case, they pulled the money last Friday, Sep 6th, supposedly the GIC is dated from the 9th, however it has still not shown up in my account - a full week later! Last time it took 4 or 5 days to show up, this time it's even worse (for a large sum of money).

Also, when you message customer service, it take 3-4 days to hear back from them.

Anyway. It's my own fault for ignoring my own advice to avoid them in the future. Just wanted to give a heads up to anyone thinking of doing business with them. Don't. Just like People's, they're simply not worth the hassle.  

Thanks for the heads up. With their 2.00% HISA and 3.30% 1 yr and 3.55% 14m GIC, this CU looks attractive but reading your experience:

1) Pay HISA interest for the full month (does not pay interest if less than 30 days)
2) Pay HISA interest only at the end of the year
3) Delays in opening GIC, resulting in loss of interest

This CU should not be worth the trouble.

The original post was made in 2024, unsure if the above is still valid in 2026

AndreyG said

I spoke with [front desk?] today she said there is no fixed date set: it can be ended tomorrow or stay another 3 months.
Asked how to transfer money in/out. She said 'wire transfer'. How much transfer will cost have to ask accounting. I left phone message. If they reply and I get the answer I will post.  

Hmm, your source didn't seem to be on the in. Otherwise, the response you got seemed scripted and boilerplate. Thanks for the effort, still a useful tidbit of insight though.

To send funds to SCU your bank is linked during account creation. In my case it was TD bank and I can’t directly return the money from SCU to TD. I presume there may be an external bank you could link that would allow push/pull.

Wire transfer fee out of SCU is $32.

JohnnyCash said

We are always looking for volunteers to take one for the team. How about giving them a call to see if they'll share any office scuttlebutt, then come back and tell us what you found out.  

I spoke with [front desk?] today she said there is no fixed date set: it can be ended tomorrow or stay another 3 months.
Asked how to transfer money in/out. She said 'wire transfer'. How much transfer will cost have to ask accounting. I left phone message. If they reply and I get the answer I will post.

Nirvana7734 said
Does anyone know when this promotion will be discontinued? I'm currently enjoying 4.7% from Meridian, and I would like to utilize that as long as possible and then jump into SCU's 4.6% promotion.  

We are always looking for volunteers to take one for the team. How about giving them a call to see if they'll share any office scuttlebutt, then come back and tell us what you found out.

MAC99 said
As I understand it I need to contact SCU To do a pull into the account. Is this a wire transfer? Is there a fee?

I believe I need to do the same to retrieve my funds by contacting my inbound bank and having them do the same? Potentially with a fee?

It’s too bad they don’t have a way to link your external account as so many others do.  

Options when external accounts pull/push don't worked well: SCU has chequing accounts, just write yourself a cheque to retrieve your funds. They are free chequing accounts, where not qualified, take the 'pay-per-use', the fee for the cheque withdrawal is $0.75.

Oscar said

Simplii and Alterna Bank are 2 online banks that are well suited for this purpose.  

Good to know, thank you!

JohnnyCash said

If I understand it correctly, to move funds in and out of Steinbach, it helps to have an account at financial institution that offers the linking of external accounts for EFT transactions in order to push and pull funds?  

Simplii and Alterna Bank are 2 online banks that are well suited for this purpose.

RetirEd said
The traditional banks don't do direct debits. If Steinbach won't send the cash back, you'll have to route the transfer through another institution that does direct deposit and debit. That's how it's always been with the Big Five.  

If I understand it correctly, to move funds in and out of Steinbach, it helps to have an account at financial institution that offers the linking of external accounts for EFT transactions in order to push and pull funds?