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Email this4:34 pm
December 19, 2015
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Has anyone noticed a substantial decline in Tangerine's Customer Service and competitiveness on their promotional savings over the last year? I have.
Here is the latest set of issues I had:
I called in on the weekend and the automated voice tells me I have 5 minutes to reach a customer service agent. Great! I will hang on the line then instead of the usual 45 minutes. Over an hour and 16 minutes later, someone picks up. .. Strike one.
I ask them about a new promo rate. They offer me 1.15%. Not acceptable. I tell them ongoing competitive rates at other institutions (like 2.8% at Oaken, etc.) and also mention the fact that they have an existing customer promo on for between 3.5-4.2% for others and why not me? I kindly ask them to see what they can do to be competitive for me. The rep says he can do nothing. I ask him to talk to his supervisor. Supervisor is not in. The Tangerine rep says to call back in on weekdays. I kindly tell the Tangerine rep I am not going to wait another 1 hour and 16 minutes again even though their automated voice over mentioned a wait time of 5 minutes for the next customer rep. I told them they should fix their system on this. I get no apology for the inconvenience. I kindly, respectfully told them to have their supervisor call me back. They promise a supervisor will call me back within 48 hours by Tuesday. He can't do anything about it. I tell him to proceed to call me back then by Tuesday however, i am very dissatisfied with his customer service.... Strike 2
On Thursday, 4 days later, I get a call from a supervisor. I told him the issues above. Again no apology on the wait. He mentioned to put a deposit in first and then they will see what they can do about a promo rate. I told them I have been a customer for more than 20 years and that they well know what I can deposit given my history. I kindly ask the supervisor to check my history. They refuse. He tells me to deposit first. I kindly told him that they have to give incentive to even get my business and we will see if it is competitive enough to even get any deposit. He refuses. I respectfully ask to speak his manager. He refuses and tells me it will go to the complaint department and I should hear back in 55 days. I told them this kind of customer service is unacceptable and that they should treat their customers with respect. ... Strike 3
I have had enough. I have also had issues with their Mastercard as well not giving me their 2% rewards on several eligible transactions over the last year with no help from them to correct.
Time to move on and cancel all my accounts with Tangerine.
There are more competitive institutions than this. I have had excellent treatment with Oaken, Steinback Credit Union, Omnia and others and don't see a need for an institution like Tangerine anymore. I am steering funds that way.
I would strongly encourage everyone else to do the same if they are running into even 1/4 of the issues I mentioned above
There is no reason here to put up with pathetic customer service from Tangerine anymore.
They can go out of business (after I cancel the accounts). I am calling this week when I have more time to deal with their long wait times again.
Anyone else notice the substantial decline in Tangerine Customer Service ?
6:56 pm
February 6, 2019
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It is hard to believe that its predecessor was the best Canadian online bank 20-25 years ago.
I gave up calling them about 5 years ago.
When they offer me a good rate, I take it.
But that has not happened for more than 7 months now.
That is fine, my current balance is under $1.
5:34 am
January 25, 2024
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rk said
It is hard to believe that its predecessor was the best Canadian online bank 20-25 years ago.
I gave up calling them about 5 years ago.
When they offer me a good rate, I take it.
But that has not happened for more than 7 months now.
That is fine, my current balance is under $1.
Completely agree with you at all points.
A looong time ago we had competition among on-line and newcomers banks. ICICI had amazing rates and I even had TFSA with them. ING was the champion. Few others were muscling in. NOT ANY MORE.
I keep balance $0 until they threaten to close inactive account.
5:47 am
April 27, 2017
Online
The wait was bad on behalf of Tangerine.
The rest reads like pointless whining by someone with way too much time on his hands. Guess I do too because I read the whole thing.
Cc cash-back depends on the shop being coded correctly. That’s not Tangerine’s fault.
6:18 am
May 3, 2015
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Agreed. I deal with various financial institutions and, in my experience, Tangerine's customer service is the worst of them all. I find their agents aren't trained well enough to help you - that is if you are lucky enough to get through to one of them. Wait times on the phone are unacceptable (45 mins to well over an hour) and I think what it does is shows what they think of their customers.
The days of Peter Aceto are long gone. I am seriously looking at Simplii for my day to day banking because I have zero desire to give my business to a bank that refuses to answer the phone.
6:21 am
January 29, 2026
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Folks, the days of good old Tang offers is over. They just don't need your deposits as badly as before. No point to argue with them or beg. Look elsewhere.
TIP: one can self-serve to close an account from their online banking portal. Cheers.
6:53 am
March 15, 2019
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I recently got a 4.20% offer from Tang but I'm not sure I will take it.
Question: Is it possible to deposit a cheque directly to the Tang savings account (to get the promo rate) at the ATM? Or, does one has to deposit first to the chequing and then telephone Tang to transfer the funds to the savings?
7:53 am
February 7, 2019
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COIN said
I recently got a 4.20% offer from Tang but I'm not sure I will take it.Question: Is it possible to deposit a cheque directly to the Tang savings account (to get the promo rate) at the ATM? Or, does one has to deposit first to the chequing and then telephone Tang to transfer the funds to the savings?
If you deposit to checking just go online and transfer it yourself; a process that takes 30 seconds max.
| CGO |
7:54 am
February 7, 2019
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COIN said
I recently got a 4.20% offer from Tang but I'm not sure I will take it.Question: Is it possible to deposit a cheque directly to the Tang savings account (to get the promo rate) at the ATM? Or, does one has to deposit first to the chequing and then telephone Tang to transfer the funds to the savings?
You have better than 4.2% elsewhere?
| CGO |
1:03 am
November 9, 2025
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Nothing OP posted is new. All issues have been discussed here before. I have a few of my own. They canceled 3 five figure transfers on me and said it was at my request. You can get different responses/offers/conditions to the same inquiry from different CSRs. It's been a while, but I don't play their game anymore. I'll take their offers if they contact me, but I won't call them anymore, & I've learned to stagger my withdrawals to avoid attention. You have to know the rules if you want to play their game, but you can win.
7:39 am
August 5, 2022
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Newton said
Folks, the days of good old Tang offers is over. They just don't need your deposits as badly as before. No point to argue with them or beg. Look elsewhere.TIP: one can self-serve to close an account from their online banking portal. Cheers.
They don't appear to actually 'close' your account. I was with them since ING days, but around 2015, after better rates elsewhere, I transferred my funds and told them to close my account. A few days later I received an email from 'supervisor of customer relations' or something to that effect, asking why I closed my account. I replied poor rates compared to other financial institutions. He said he would forward my response to higher ups, back office or whatever and that Tangerine takes my response seriously. Around 2022/2023, after reading of their promotional rates at times on this site I decided to see if I could log in to my account and check what rate I would get. I remembered my account number and clicked on forgot password. Once password was reset I was in and able to link other accounts and transfer funds. A little strange that they kept my account active with zero balance for about 7/8 years.
7:11 pm
April 14, 2021
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Poor Richard said
You have to know the rules if you want to play their game, but you can win.
What do you believe the rules to be?
5:05 am
March 30, 2017
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HermanH said
What do you believe the rules to be?
The rule is NOT to have any sense of loyalty to any banks, telecom, any service providers.
8:58 am
September 11, 2013
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I don't think it's an issue of loyalty, most people on here move their money to wherever the best rate is, we're the professionals at not being loyal.
From reading on here for some time now I get the impression that the misunderstanding is more (maybe because in Canada the relatively-larger public sector is much more involved in our daily lives than in USA) that many Canadians confuse private sector with public sector. A private sector business can do whatever it (legally) wants to do, unlike the public sector it's under zero obligation to provide us with anything other than what it wants to. For example, if I want to open a business and sell only chocolate ice cream, I'm completely allowed to. All those people who prefer a variety of flavours and, instead of just taking their business elsewhere, get upset with me, with someone who has zero obligation to them or even the public in general, aren't really understanding how a free market economy works.
And of course in Canada it's confused further by the fact that financial institutions are closely scrutinized and regulated by government thus again contributing to the impression that they ought to do this and ought to do that, as we desire.
9:10 am
February 7, 2019
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Bill said
I don't think it's an issue of loyalty, most people on here move their money to wherever the best rate is, we're the professionals at not being loyal.From reading on here for some time now I get the impression that the misunderstanding is more (maybe because in Canada the relatively-larger public sector is much more involved in our daily lives than in USA) that many Canadians confuse private sector with public sector. A private sector business can do whatever it (legally) wants to do, unlike the public sector it's under zero obligation to provide us with anything other than what it wants to. For example, if I want to open a business and sell only chocolate ice cream, I'm completely allowed to. All those people who prefer a variety of flavours and, instead of just taking their business elsewhere, get upset with me, with someone who has zero obligation to them or even the public in general, aren't really understanding how a free market economy works.
And of course in Canada it's confused further by the fact that financial institutions are closely scrutinized and regulated by government thus again contributing to the impression that they ought to do this and ought to do that, as we desire.
| CGO |
1:38 pm
March 15, 2019
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"For example, if I want to open a business and sell only chocolate ice cream, I'm completely allowed to. All those people who prefer a variety of flavours and, instead of just taking their business elsewhere, get upset with me, with someone who has zero obligation to them or even the public in general, aren't really understanding how a free market economy works."
There's been some debate about this. What if you sell chocolate ice cream only to tall thin people? Discrimination base on height and weight?
2:11 pm
April 6, 2013
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Discrimination is perfectly legal as long as it isn't based on specifically prohibited grounds.
If height and weight aren't prohibited grounds, then there is no issue for the business.
Income isn't a prohibited ground. So, PC Financial can refuse to issue their World Elite Mastercard to those that don't earn $80,000+ annually.
4:20 pm
September 11, 2013
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COIN, my point was a business can offer whatever it wants as long as it's legal, you said "there's been some debate about this".
Then you go on to talk about discrimination against certain people, which is not "this" at all, in fact it's a completely different topic from my point.
Norman1 has addressed your topic. And it's also why, to give you another example, Tangerine can pay different interest rates to different people who have the exact same savings account type, i.e. because it's not illegal.
5:19 pm
April 14, 2021
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Bill said
For example, if I want to open a business and sell only chocolate ice cream, I'm completely allowed to.
Selling anything based solely on the colour of the product is 'racist'. 
1:18 am
November 9, 2025
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HermanH said
What do you believe the rules to be?
savemoresaveoften said
The rule is NOT to have any sense of loyalty to any banks, telecom, any service providers.
Savermom is right. Tang has its own rules but they won't tell anybody...ie some get offers...others don't. I CAN be bought if the price is right, but that's not loyalty. Off the top of my head... Pretty much don't call them, you often get different answers from different csr's. Don't try to move large sums at once. Pull from your destination FI instead of push from Tang. Don't HAVE to take every offer, I won't move cash for a .2% difference. Don't wait until offer is over before moving out. Probably 1 or 2 more that don't come to mind.
