Loyalty doesn't pay. You really need to keep things moving to maximize your benefits. As I mentioned, I'm thinking of moving my BMO chequing account to CIBC just to get the 15K AP miles. I like the idea of closing the account after 4 months. $52 for 15K miles is a good deal.

I also dropped my CIBC Visa in favor of the TD AAdvantage Visa last November. So I'm hoping the 15K promotion for the CIBC Visa lasts until then so I can switch back.

The biggest pain, is just getting all the automatic withdrawals changed over. But I'm getting pretty good at that. I now keep a list with the phone number to call to get auto. debits changed.

ING accounts don't work for the CIBC promos. I learned that the hard way last year and had to fight for six months to get my 10k points. In the end, the day after I got the points, I closed to account because I was just absolutely ticked at the way it was all handled.

And inconvenience is the price to pay with all the moves and you don't build any "relationship" with any one institution which could work against you.

That being said, I'm planning on opening an account and using that as the movable account while I keep 99% of my business with TD.

That's why I was thinking it's a good idea to keep a couple of accounts handy for just this purpose.

Note that for this promo the automatic transfer (payment) can come from a different account. I'm thinking of my stale ING account and one bill payment.

=aw

Sorry, didn't see the earlier responses.

Why not ING? Because it's not Big-5 I assume? Would Amex Bank work?

=aw

How would CIBC know ?
 

Just out of curiosity, how would CIBC know that a person had closed a chequing account with another financial institution ?

Also, would transferring and then closing a Credit Union chequing account qualify for this promotion ?

You fill out a form at CIBC that they send to the other institution, asking them to close the account and transfer the balance to CIBC.

Don't know about Credit Unions. I know TD won't count ING but the teller thought Amex Bank of Canada would qualify.

=aw

I'm not sure how quickly all these things happen, but I was thinking of opening a PC Financial account, transferring it to TDCT for the Ipod, then transferring that account to CIBC for the AP miles. Then I was thinking of checking what BMO offers for Air Miles for account transfers. By that time, I should be ready to start the cycle again next summer when they undoubtedly offer these promos again.

But the banks aren't stupid so they probably have these set up to take too long for each transfer and awarding of prizes to be able to pull it off before the expiry dates.

I have no clue if Amex or credit unions would work (I assume credit unions have a better chance of working than Amex), but ING won't work because ING refuses to allow deal with anyone else on your account except you. At least that was CIBC's arguments were. I didn't entirely buy it, but I had to figure out a way to play their game.

A quick note -- the CIBC QuickSwitch service or whatever it is called is not run by CIBC, it's outsourced to Davis and Henderson (yes, the cheque people).

Yup.

They want your money to be in the account for at least three months I believe it is.

And don't forget that if your money is not in the new account for at least an x period of time, the banks usually impose a service charge.

Of course, that being said, you can always try to negotiate it with the "new" bank to pay the fee for you for closing the first account.

Not a chance, for one thing these promotions typically require that the money be on deposit for a certain period of time to qualify. Also banks have always (since I was a kid, at least, and I'm sure much longer) charged a fee for accounts closed within 90 days of opening. That's why you need to open an account (or several ;)) NOW, in preparation for next year!

I heard something similar from TD. I asked about Amex Bank of Canada and she said it should work (wasn't sure) but I notice the promotion specifically says "transfer your personal chequing account" so Amex is probably out on that score. As would be ING, even if the account transfer were not an issue. Of course PC Financial has free chequing accounts. :)

When I was in the TD branch yesterday, I also had a chance to look at their cheatsheet (nothing secret) and it appears the two pre-authorized payments can be existing. Which I thought was funny until I realized it's a way for them to allow existing customers to participate. If true, it's the kind of thing I like about TDCT. If not true, I have several automatic-to-credit-card payments (e.g. Rogers, Yak) which I can turn into auto-debits for a few months.

I can actually qualify for the Nano (level 2) by depositing $5K in new money. I suspect I could take it out of my business account and give it to myself and deposit to a savings account. Or I could transfer to my Amex or PC account now, then when I close that and move it to TD, there's $5K! :)

To get to level 3 (the 30GB iPod) you also have to open (or ugrade to) a TD Elite or TD Travel (brochure) or TD AAdvantage (cheatsheet) card. I have both the former. I could perhaps open an AAdvantage Visa but there's an annual fee and only 10K of bonus miles on first purchase. Not sure it's worth all that for the iPod but maybe it is. It would take a long time to have enough points to do anything on AA.

=aw

Yup, that's the way to do it.

Assuming you transfer 5k in and open another Select Service account, you can open a new visa card and link the new account to that visa card to avoid paying the fee while ensuring your other credit card stays in tact. I don't think the Select Service account waives the fee on the AA card, so I would just get another TD Travel card or something, use up the $150 on a train ticket and then close it.

I think the $5K has to go into a savings account, not another Select Service account (where it would waive the fees). What's a 30GB iPod worth these days?[ [answered my own question: $275 on FS]

=aw

$112.50 I think? Not a lot less, but the difference between slightly less than the annual fee and somewhat more than it.

I wonder if they'll let me open yet another Visa account...

=aw

Yup, they let my Dad open another account. He now has both the Travel and the Elite cards. He'll be closing one of them shortly.