When I found out in the summertime that that CIBC and Loblaw were ending their nearly 20 year partnership, I was caught off guard. Although I saw the Optimum-PC Plus merger coming from a mile away, I never thought in a million years it would lead to the breakup of PC Financial.
I’ve been a satisfied PC Financial client since almost day one. I estimate I’ve saved myself at least $3K in bank fees alone. When I heard that PC Financial would be rebranded as Simplii Financial, I was a bit skeptical. (The old saying, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, came to mind.) I still remember when RBC acquired Ally Bank and promptly shut it down. Would the same thing happen to PC Financial with CIBC running the show?
PC Financial clients were promised that Simplii Financial would offer the same no-fee banking that Canadians love so much. Did it deliver? Let’s take a look at my experience as a Simplii Financial client during the first couple months.
Transition Over to Simplii Financial
PC Financial promised that the transition over to Simplii Financial would be smooth. Although there were some complaints online that the transition wasn’t seamless, it went perfectly fine for me. There was plenty of communication from PC Financial leading up to the transition date of November 1, 2017, so I knew what to expect.
When I visited the PC Financial website on November 1st, I was redirected to the new Simplii Financial website. Logging in was a breeze. I didn’t have to register again. I simply (pun intended) enter my old bank login information from PC Financial and was able to access my bank account without so much as a hiccup. Besides the purple facelift, the website largely looked and functioned the same. So far, so good.
For existing PC Financial clients, you can still use your old debit card for the time being. Simplii promises to mail new bank cards out before April 2018 (I just received mine in the mail a couple weeks ago). The good news is, once you get your new debit card, your card number and PIN will stay the same. If Simplii was trying to make the transition super smooth, mission accomplished!
The Juicy Banking Deets
Simplii Financial offers clients a similar experience to that offered by PC Financial. As a client, you’ll still enjoy everything that you love –no-fee online banking, high-interest savings accounts, mortgages and free access to CIBC’s vast ATM network.
If you’re used to banking at your favourite Loblaws store, don’t expect to find a PC Financial Kiosk there. They’re being taken out, so you’ll need to find a new place to bank, although that shouldn’t be a problem, since there are plenty of CIBC ATMs around town. You’ll also no longer earn PC Points when you use your debit card for everyday purchases.
On to the Good Stuff
Perhaps my favourite new feature offered by Simplii is the unlimited free Interac e-transfers. I’m glad to see a Canadian bank step up to the plate and move into the 21st century by encouraging e-transfers. This will make my life a lot easier!
Previously, I would use Tangerine’s free email money transfer, but since my primary chequing account isn’t with Tangerine, I would sometimes end up paying an e-transfer fee of $1.50 to PC Financial when I couldn’t wait a day or two for the Tangerine email money transfer and needed it to be sent right away. This won’t be a problem any longer with Simplii Financial.
I did run into an issue receiving e-transfers in December with Simplii. For some reason, the Simplii Financial website wouldn’t accept the e-transfer password I was entering, even though it was the right one. It caused quite a headache. I had to call Interac to get it resolved. The call reps at Simplii weren’t much help. Apparently, it had something to do with the e-transfer security question password length. In the end, I ended up accepting the e-transfer at my Tangerine bank account instead. Hopefully it’s resolved in the future at Simplii.
Simplii Financial is also offering clients 3.0% interest on new deposits into savings accounts, including TFSAs and RRSPs, until February 28, 2018. 3.0% is nothing to sneeze at, especially in today’s low interest rate environment, so be sure to take advantage while the offer lasts!
Overall, I’m pretty happy with Simplii Financial so far. I plan to stick with it for the foreseeable future. I found the transition pretty smooth (even smoother than my transition from Canadian Direct Financial to Motive Financial). It will be interesting to see what new product offerings and improvements are rolled out over the coming months and years to stay competitive in the no-fee banking space.
Sean Cooper is the bestselling author of the book, Burn Your Mortgage: The Simple, Powerful Path to Financial Freedom for Canadians, available now on Amazon and at Chapters, Indigo and major bookstores, and as an Audiobook on Amazon, Audible and iTunes.
I renewed my mortgage through them and it was catastrophically disorganized. It took 3 months (good thing I started early), the original rates and terms changed just before signing, freebies that I negotiated had to be followed up on repeatedly, and it all closed the day after it was supposed to (luckily there was a grace period).
I don’t know if it was due to a poorly trained agent, but they seemed to drop the ball massively. It was an unnecessary source of stress of months.
Lets hope they figure this part of the business out- or maybe I should burn my mortgage first….
Haha I concur on the burning your mortgage part 🙂
Horrible bank – we had an account with PC financial before they switched, i applied for a personal line of credit under simplii which i was approved for but they gave me the run around for over 2 weeks before i gave up and told them to withdraw the account and closed our joint account i had with my husband. When there are so many errors and dead ends, i just didn’t feel the want to bank with Simplii. Since have moved on to a more ‘Credible’ bank
Simplii Financial – Avoid at all Costs !!
Terrible Banking Company! The Absolute Worst!!
They Closed my checking account and other accounts because of too many email transfers, deposits and withdrawals. On top of that they are still holding my direct deposit for over $5500 for over a week now and also holding a direct deposit email transfer. I can not get a hold of anyone and constantly on hold when I call in for anywhere from 30 min to an hour only to finally talk to someone to only be transfer to someone else. Then finally only to be hung up on or transferred to another incompetent employee.
DO NOT sign up with this company
What is the point of having a bank account if I can not email transfer money, make deposits and take money out of the bank.
I had direct deposit from my employer every 2 weeks for over 15 years and I sent a lot of email transfers and spent a lot of cash from withdrawing at bank machine.
I was with PCfinancial for over 15 years with absolutely no issues until Simplii financial took over.
once they closed all my accounts I immediately Jumped over to another Banking Company (I won’t mention any names just incase I have issues with them too ) However so far way better service and not one single issue.
I had a horrible experience with Simplii Finacial. I was locked out of my account for an entire month and they couldn’t seem to send me a new card. I ended up getting 4 new cards within 1 month and each card was deactivated within a couple of days after receiving them. I was completely locked out of my account; that meant no online banking no banking at the machine and no mobile banking. I also had my e-transfers deactivated. I had an e-transfer that was stuck in limbo because their system was “flakey” and was on and off that day. They also gave me a Line of Credit I never asked for. I called and told them about it and they said it was just and old duplicate…well it ended up hitting my credit report so it was not a duplicate. Oh…and this “duplicated’ line of credit was full…and now I have to pay interest charges on it?…
PC was great. I never had an issue with PC but when Simplii Finacial took over…it was a catastrophe…and still is. I am actively working on switching banks now.
It’s been some time now…. how is Simplii stacking up now?
Things have been smooth sailing on the chequing account side. No issues on my end.