You’ve probably seen the ads around everywhere: RBC will give you $50 visa gift card for a face-to-face opportunity to prove their bank can offer better products and services. I, genuinely interested in their services and more so the gift card, booked an appointment to check out the RBC Banking Statement Challenge, giving them the chance to pitch their timeshare. I went to visit a RBC branch near work during my lunch hour one day.
I met with a lady who was pleasant and cheery. She asked for 2 pieces of ID; a driver’s license and credit card did the trick. We spent a few minutes creating a profile that established a net worth based on salary and investments with other financial institutions. At that point I was asked for the latest statement from my current bank account for her review. I provided a print out of my online statement from Tangerine since I do not receive paper ones. She let out a little sigh at the mention of “Tangerine”; I guess it’s hard to beat a no fee bank account. To her credit, she did try to offer a RBC Signature No Limit Banking account (usually a $14.95/month fee) free for 2 years if I would switch my direct deposit. She also offered the basic $4 Day to Day Banking offering to waive the fees if I opened a TFSA and signed up for a credit card. Not interested as it provided no value to me, I politely declined.
Next she tried size up some mutual fund accounts, taking out some impressive looking charts and presentation materials. I let her know that I was happy with my TD e-Series index funds. She pointed out that RBC also had index funds and took the details out for review. In the end, we couldn’t find any RBC index mutual fund comparable to the TD e-Series index fund with an MER lower than 0.33%. She made a comment about looking into those herself.
When all was said and done, RBC wasn’t able to save me any money in my day-to-day banking. To be fair, the multi-product rebates to waive fees on everyday accounts could work in your favour if you did all your banking with one institution. The effort was painless and I walked out about 20 minutes later with a $50 gift card.
If you have it in mind to take the challenge, don’t delay; offer expires February 2.
On one final note, open a Tangerine account using my Orange Key 40822574S1 before March 31, 2015, and we will both receive a $50 bonus!
Now what should I do with my $50 visa gift card?
This sounds very interessting. I will open a Tangerine account I think. Sounds very cool.