Orange Key:
42741579S1

You can get a free bonus of $50 when you open an account with Tangerine with a balance of $100 using a promotion code like mine above.

Why are they doing that and heck, why am I doing this?

Tangerine wants to make you a customer so they are offering this promotion. I took them up on the offer and received the same bonus you can. It was a nice perk to make $50, but to be honest, I use their US dollar account as well because my brick-and-mortar bank charges money for that type. They are a convenient way of saving money--when you don't need the extra cash in your regular chequing account, transfer it over to your Tangerine savings account and let it earn better interest.

I put this site up here, because as you probably noticed, Tangerine doesn't offer a signup bonus unless you have a code, and by using my code, we both get a $50 bonus. It's win-win. Enter the promotion code when you are signing up, deposit $100, and you get the $50 bonus to do with as you see fit--transfer out, save, etc. When you get your Orange Key code when you sign up, send it to your friends so you can earn some referral money as well.

To get the bonus, enter the Orange Key 42741579S1 on the sign-up form. There are no obligations on what you do with your bonus, nor are there fees on their accounts. It's a good place to earn decent money on accounts that other banks would slowly siphon away with fees.

What kind of accounts does Tangerine have?

How To Get Started:

  1. Sign-up at Tangerine's Website
  2. Choose the type of account/product that is most useful to you
  3. Enter the Orange Key 42741579S1 on the sign-up form.

Some of the Benefits/My Experiences of Using Tangerine

Their Accounts Make A Great Savings Companion to Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia, TD (Toronto Dominion), Bank of Montreal

Tangerine offers the usual savings accounts you find at big banks, including TFSA. Their savings interest rates, however, because they don't need to staff or build branches, are actually much better. Check them out here: Tangerine Interest Rates

What to Expect From Their Web-Based Banking

I have found Tangerine's online banking site quite good. It is very straight forward to navigate, and for the products I use, which is really just savings accounts it is very easy. Take for instance the screen you see after logging in:

The left-hand side shows the menu you can use to perform transactions on your account. Tangerine has a message center "My Inbox" which is used for communications with their customer service. Much of the menu structure relates to keeping an eye on transactions in progress, configuring your account, statements, and the status of applications. The most-used feature in my case is the "Move My Money" option you see.

The right-hand side of the page shows a listing of your current accounts and their balances. In my case, the US$ savings, standard savings and TFSA accounts. There is a convenient button to download the transactions in a file.

Move My Money

As I mentioned above, the "Move My Money" is my most-used and a very important feature of Tangerine's accounts. This feature enables you move money from your brick-and-mortar bank to Tangerine and vice-versa. They will automatically do currency conversion (if need be) which seems like it is as competitive rate-wise as the big banks. Transfer time seems to be a day or less in my experience. Here's how the Move My Money feature works:

  1. After clicking the "Move my money" link on the left-hand side of the page, you select the currency and enter the amount of money in that currency that you want to move.

    2.  

  2. Select the account you want to move the money from.
  3. Click the Next button.

    4.  

  4. Select the account you wish to move the money to (as shown above). If you are moving money from Tangerine to your brick-and-mortar bank, you'll select your chequing account at your big bank.
  5. Click the Next button.

  6. Select "When" you want to move the money. You can schedule money to move at a predetermined date or make a recurring transfer. 
  7. Click the Next button. You will be prompted to confirm the move.

 

Customer Support

Tangerine's support has been very good for me. They are very helpful and appear to want to please their customers. I had doubts about dealing with a bank that didn't have in-person branches, but in the contacts I have had, they have resolved my requests quickly and cheerfully. I believe they truly realize their business depends on the voice/brain on the other side of the telephone and computer.

Free US-Dollar Accounts

All the big Canadian banks offer US dollar accounts. All of them charge fees as far as I know. At least that was my experience when I went to open an account at my usual big bank. For anyone looking to have a US dollar account to have money transfered to or to deposit cheques to, Tangerine is great.

You Can Ditch Your Current Bank

Tangerine bank is owned by Bank of Nova Scotia and Tangerine customers can use the Bank of Nova Scotia's 4000 ATMs for free. Effectively, if you want to use Tangerine as your main bank, it is possible if not easy to switch. You get a free Tangerine Client Card and then do free withdrawals and free deposits at Bank of Nova Scotia ATMs. Debit purchases are free of fees as well, so it is the bank to deal with if you want to get away from the fee sucking accounts everyone else seems to have.

CDIC Coverage

Tangerine's Canadian currency accounts have the same insurance protection from the CDIC (Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation) that all the other banks have, so your savings are covered like everywhere else.

Direct Deposit

If you want to have money directly deposited, it can be done fairly easily by using Tangerine's Direct Deposit form. Fill in the information and print the form and hand it off to the person who will pay you and you are set.

More Info

We've had a look at Tangerine's Mobile app and their Chequing accounts as well if you wish to learn more.