Tangerine (ING Direct) has gone massively downhill.

Motorcycle Mike

Motorcycle Mike

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What a cluster **** this has been -- but anyway, here is a warning to those that use Tangerine and travel:

Last week I was in USA and used my debit card to withdraw US$. About 30 minutes later I get an email from Tangerine saying my card has been blocked for security reasons; which is fine... better to have the security and a minor inconvenience than be out a pile of cash.

So, that was on Tuesday. For 3 days now I have been trying to contact them to unblock my card. Five calls that I made I have been on hold for longer than 20 minutes and I had to hang up each time because I had things to do. I tried calling at all times of the day, morning, afternoon, and even as late as 2am.

Finally I got through to them and they said they can unblock my card but then I need to go to an ATM, call them back to open a 'reset window', and reset my PIN. I told the Indian call center worker that every time I call in I am on hold for at least 20 minutes, and I am not going to stand at an ATM for 20 minutes while on hold.

She tells me the other option is they can send me a new card with a new PIN, but it takes two weeks.

I told her to forget it. I don't need this much hassle to access my money and I will be opening a new bank account elsewhere.
 
Sad :( I had high hopes for them even after the purchase by Scotia
 
Might not help now, but next time you plan on using your card outside of the country, call them ahead of time and you won't get blocked.
This applies to all the banks, not just Tangerine (Scotia).

That is the downside to an online only presence. They have one branch in Downtown Toronto if you want to go visit them.
 
nfq said:
Might not help now, but next time you plan on using your card outside of the country, call them ahead of time and you won't get blocked.
This applies to all the banks, not just Tangerine (Scotia).

That is the downside to an online only presence. They have one branch in Downtown Toronto if you want to go visit them.
Click to expand...

I rarely go downtown as I hate dealing with the traffic and parking, but another thing that ****** me off about Tangerine is that they moved their Toronto North location. It used to be in a good spot with free parking, friendly staff, free fresh squeezes orange juice, etc... Now it is a bit further North in a building that has pay parking ($2.95/half hour) and shares space with a busy Goodlife.

Anyway, I have had other banks put holds on my cards before when I traveled, but usually one call unblocks it after I verify my details and I am good to go... none of this on hold for hours crap only to be told I need to call back when in front of an ATM.
 
yeah, the good ol' ING days are gone.
 
I carry cash & credit card
 
Why were you with ING in the first place?

If it's no fees, then most of the major banks have chequing accounts where if you hold a minimum balance, then they'll waive any fees (outside of using a foreign ATM and issuing bank drafts).

If it's the high(er) interest rate, then leave the majority of your savings in the ISA, and move money into your daily chequing account at a major bank. It might take a couple of days of planning so that the transfer has time to clear.

With most of the discount brokerages offering ISA products close to Tangerine's rates (1.25% vs 1.3%), a lot of people should really re-think why they are staying with the orange...
 
Lightcycle said:
Why were you with ING in the first place?

If it's no fees, then most of the major banks have chequing accounts where if you hold a minimum balance, then they'll waive any fees (outside of using a foreign ATM and issuing bank drafts).

If it's the high(er) interest rate, then leave the majority of your savings in the ISA, and move money into your daily chequing account at a major bank. It might take a couple of days of planning so that the transfer has time to clear.

With most of the discount brokerages offering ISA products close to Tangerine's rates (1.25% vs 1.3%), a lot of people should really re-think why they are staying with the orange...
Click to expand...

the minimum balance is a dealer breaker for most.
 
Lightcycle said:
Why were you with ING in the first place?

If it's no fees, then most of the major banks have chequing accounts where if you hold a minimum balance, then they'll waive any fees (outside of using a foreign ATM and issuing bank drafts).

If it's the high(er) interest rate, then leave the majority of your savings in the ISA, and move money into your daily chequing account at a major bank. It might take a couple of days of planning so that the transfer has time to clear.

With most of the discount brokerages offering ISA products close to Tangerine's rates (1.25% vs 1.3%), a lot of people should really re-think why they are staying with the orange...
Click to expand...
I was with them because I liked having everything in one spot. I have a couple of their streetwise mutual funds that I fund automatically every pay cheque so it was easy.

Now I'll likely only move my chequing account and just transfer money over every so often to fund my rrsp and tfsa mutual funds. I'm thinking TD because they waive account fees if you have a balance and are offering a free tablet to open an account.
 
PC is a great option if you don't like fees and can use CIBC machines free

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
 
nfq said:
Might not help now, but next time you plan on using your card outside of the country, call them ahead of time and you won't get blocked.
This applies to all the banks, not just Tangerine (Scotia).

That is the downside to an online only presence. They have one branch in Downtown Toronto if you want to go visit them.
Click to expand...

Would like to re-iterate that debit cards are not your friend outside of Canada. Mine is probably worse than others as if it gets locked out I have to show up to a branch in person to get it unlocked. Credit card companies will work much harder to make sure you can keep racking up a balance.
 
Chaos said:
...I dunno. I've never had a problem with my debit card anywhere I've gone. You just have to use machines that are connected to the same network, ex. PLUS
Click to expand...

In theory. However in practice, there are some foreign banks that seem to work with only select CDN bank debit cards despite having the same networks printed on the back of the card: PLUS, CIRRUS, VISA, etc.

In Central and South America, TD is the worst, I've heard CIBC is bad too. The RBC card seems to work in most places we've tried. We checked the list of networks on the back of the cards that worked and didn't - exact same list.
 
Lightcycle said:
In theory. However in practice, there are some foreign banks that seem to work with only select CDN bank debit cards despite having the same networks printed on the back of the card: PLUS, CIRRUS, VISA, etc.

In Central and South America, TD is the worst, I've heard CIBC is bad too. The RBC card seems to work in most places we've tried. We checked the list of networks on the back of the cards that worked and didn't - exact same list.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. I have mainly travelled North America, Europe and Australia. So I am only going by personal experience. It's unfortunate that it would not work when expected. Makes for planning ahead more necessary.
 
Lightcycle said:
With most of the discount brokerages offering ISA products close to Tangerine's rates (1.25% vs 1.3%), a lot of people should really re-think why they are staying with the orange...
Click to expand...

Manulife is 1.55% on their chequing account. Normally where I hold my cash before allocating it around.
 
skip said:
Manulife is 1.55% on their chequing account. Normally where I hold my cash before allocating it around.
Click to expand...

There's always going to be a higher rate for shops with less infrastructure and service. 1.25% is the going rate for ISAs at the big 5 banks, but there are a whole bunch of Manitoba Credit Unions offering up to 1.9%:

http://www.highinterestsavings.ca/chart/

Tangerine is at the bottom of the list for a non-major Canadian bank.
 
When I lived and traveled through Asia I had the best luck with a credit union card on the exchange network -- and not once did they block my card when I landed in a new country.

Regardless, I should be able to use any debit card in USA. The only reason I didn't stock up on US$ before leaving this time is I don't like Tangerine's new location in North Toronto... instead I downloaded the Allpoints app which Tangerine says is the network to use, and while I had no problem taking out the money it is what happened next that is the piss off.
 
nfq said:
Might not help now, but next time you plan on using your card outside of the country, call them ahead of time and you won't get blocked.
This applies to all the banks, not just Tangerine (Scotia).

That is the downside to an online only presence. They have one branch in Downtown Toronto if you want to go visit them.
Click to expand...

I tried calling cibc before a trip. They told me they have no mechanism to record travel info for debit cards, you only need to notify them for credit cards. Seems stupid to me.
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