I have been a customer of Tangerine since it was ING Direct, which feels like eons ago. I lived in…read moreWinnipeg when I signed up for a savings account online.
The mandate of this bank was to eliminate fees and operate without brick-and-mortar stores. Back then, the main headquarters was on Gordon Baker Drive.
Scotiabank acquired ING Direct years later, which ultimately became Tangerine. A few years ago, I was unhappy with my bank of choice where I opened up a couple of accounts in Winnipeg. I decided to open a chequing account with Tangerine and transfer practically all my financial accounts over here. I have been happy with Tangerine ever since.
Tangerine has its main headquarters at Steeles Avenue East, on the south side, just west of Victoria Park Avenue. It's oddly not all that far away from its old location on Gordon Baker.
I pass by this building often. It's diagonally across from Don Valley North Toyota. It's on my way to ZeeV's Nutrition Studio. I definitely cut through the backroad to get to Shan Shan Cafe and Kung Fu Tea.
I have never had to visit the main headquarters for anything. However, if you do need assistance opening an account, you can come here.
The parking lot requires that you pay. If you are a Tangerine customer, you can get a parking pass, which waives the parking fee. It is a bit weird to ask for one, rather than making parking free right off the bat. Perhaps the building always had private parking and making it public would not be simple.
This building also has Freshii and Tim Hortons. Both customers and Tangerine employees can eat healthy and indulge in donuts, respectively.
A year ago, I worked with a Tangerine financial representative over the phone to move my RRSPs (Registered Retirement Savings Plans) from my old bank to Tangerine. I had a knowledgeable man help me out. He was working from home thanks to the pandemic.
The weird thing was that he saw my employer's name on file and said that his son did an internship there. I asked who his son was. It turned out that I had worked closely with his son before he headed back to university for his final year. Small world! The apple doesn't fall from the tree. Both were and likely are still chatty guys.
It is rare that I need to speak to anyone at Tangerine. I tend to do all my regular banking online or withdraw money at any Scotiabank ABM. When I do need a human to talk to, it's for my RRSPs, or that one time when my debit card looked like I had chewed on it as a snack and needed a replacement. With the latter, I got my replacement card within days and was happy.
The best part about being a Tangerine customer is getting my paycheque directly deposited into my chequing account a day before the official payday. My payday is biweekly on Thursday. When I moved over to Tangerine, my pay was available after 9 pm on Wednesday. Roughly half a year ago, it got moved up to just before 6 pm on Wednesday.
I'd like to thank Tangerine's IT department for running their nightly builds early. I feel like I've won the jackpot every pay period!
Tangerine is awesome. Should I ever need help opening a future account and need to speak to someone in-person, I can always come here. It's probably a fifteen-minute drive from my home.
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