'High Interest Savings Accounts'
 

I am with a CU right now, and the interest rate on savings is .05%.
I am charged a monthly service fee, every transaction fee, etransfer fee.

I have been looking around, and the best rate I have found online is EQ Bank which is 1.5%, no fees whatsoever.

CIBC seems to be 2nd in the list, .05% for the first 120 days then 1.25%, $5.00 transaction fees, but does not specify if per or monthly.

BONS is third of the major banks at 1.10% also showing $5.00 transaction fees

I have the BONS 1.1%. I believe your only charged the $5 fee if you access the account through your debit card. Online transfers to and from the account are waived. At least this is how it appears to work on my account.

To add insult to injury Ken, you have to pay tax on all the interest unless its in a sheltered account. Not like dividends.

EQ Bank or Assiniboine Credit Union. Would have to double check but I believe Assiniboine has a 100% guarantee over 100,000. I was with Outlook Financial which is a spinoff of Assiniboine for several years and did not have a single issue with them. Good luck.

CIBC’s is the same re fees.

Celsius pays 10.5% interest on True CAD stablecoin.

13.5% if interest paid in CEL token.

https://celsius.network/rates/

Stablecoins are NOT Bitcoin....


True CAD stablecoin is backed by Canadian Dollars....it's 1:1 ratio.


https://blog.trusttoken.com/truecad-69f751e23eeb


Stay with traditional bank and you earn essentially 0...:angry3:

or earn 10.5% interest on Celcius???

Just switched from TD to EQ Bank to hold my wife's and mine emergency fund after TD cut their rate down to almost nothing. 1.5% with EQ took about 5 min to switch over.

I talked to the CU about that, they said EQ is not a brick and mortar store, they are online only. Not that it makes a lot of difference, but it does make a guy a little more shy maybe.

My bank after telling them I am looking for better rates and less costs is all of a sudden more interested in looking for information for me, after I said I would likely be pulling 3/4 of my savings and putting it in another account that actually pays something.

They of course wanted me to talk to their financial advisors, thanks but no.

What's the point?
 

What's the point? .05 on up to 1.5 it all ads up to peanuts. Fees are what to expect if you use your savings accounts for debits and withdrawls. Do not use a savings account to do this. Having large amounts of money in a savings account today is like storing your money in the ground. It's not going to grow.....don't expect it to grow.

I got laughed at on here when I said I didn't want to risk investing at my age anymore. So I had put a large sum in a TFSA GIC which I got locked in at 2.3% for two years. More than the savings acct. were paying. I dont pay any fees as a senior.
Problem is its maturing soon and the new GIC rate is pretty much worse than my savings account pays.
Would be nice to find something but pretty much have given up for now.

My wife and I had a number of GIC's with both Servus and Can Western Bank. A number of them are over 3.25 % but when they mature best rates now are in 1.25% range. The Big banks want your money for free, then lend you your own money back at 20% on a credit card.

I gave up on trying to shop around for interest rates. As soon as you seem to find a good one, they update their plan and it changes everything.

For the 0.5% they offer, I agree. Not only are they not worth it, they're completely useless. $10,000 balance making $50/year of taxable interest? Mehhh.

I have a line of credit for emergencies, keep just enough cash on hand to fill my budget until the next deposit, and everything else gets put into some form of investment. VAB for bonds, VEQT for equity, and maybe the occasional specific company for fun.

I know some people don't trust equity markets but you're literally losing money settling for 0.5% when you can use something like InvestEase or couch potato investing for a mindless, low risk, low cost portfolio that should at the very least beat inflation over the long run.

Of course I'm young so I don't need to worry about cashing anything out anytime soon so easy to talk as the markets crashed 10% this week..

It’s too bad the banks don’t follow the principles they originally started off with, to preserve people’s wealth, now banking fees far exceed what you will receive in interest, unless you have a considerable amount of money sitting in a savings account, in which case you should be invested! It’s said that cryptocurrency will crush that soon enough!

A buddy of mine uses EQ bank, said it's fine and has had the account for a few years. Also its a spin off of some Canadian bank I believe and has the $100,000 insurance per account as well. If you don't have a TFSA put whatever you can in there to avoid the taxes. Typically fees get waived if you keep enough in the account.

Yes, peanuts if you are 19 and living paycheck to paycheck. Or shells.

For some people though, having cash sitting in a bank being invested by that bank and making money off you should mean they give some back. Yes, they do use your savings to make themselves money.

My bank gives a tiny piece of the shell. I want the peanuts. A few thousand dollars every year just to keep using my money sounds good to me.

If someone had $500,000 in at 1.5% thats $7500.00 free money after 12 months. $180,000+ in interest compounded after 20 years.

Some people's definition of peanuts is very hard to understand.

I leave my money in savings because I can access it any time any where, without penalty or anything. I like it that way, I can use my cash as I see fit.

I am not saying your opinion is wrong, and you may be independantly wealthy to the point that a few thousand dollars means nothing at all to you anymore, but I have a long time yet before I die hopefully, and that few thousand a year means many thousand over 20 years.

Did you tell your kids not to put $100 in the bank every month for a rainy day, or did you say 'nah, it's peanuts it wont grow?' :)

Exactly this! Well said.

That is the other reason I am going to leave the CU, the fees are insane. Paying them to leave my money in their bank for them to make money off it? What a racket!

CIBC charges $5.00 per withdrawal but the way around it is to transfer to your chequeing account and then withdrawal for free.

And I am ok with that, in my bracket it is not much anyway being self employed. Paying a little tax on a little interest is not a horrible thing.

I don't know how old you are but when I turned 60 I stopped paying bank fees at CIBC.

there are a few reit that paid 7-10% dividend a year .

Long way to go yet, still a couple from 55! :)

But, good to know :)

I'm saying if you have money, don't let it rot in a savings account. Put it somewhere where it's going to multiply faster that at 1%. I don't know of anyone who keeps $500,000 in a saving account....doesn't make sense if the objective is to make money....like you say, the bank is investing your money and you're not (a savings account is not an investment).

I don't care!Its your money! I have been banking with CIBC for 25 years! I have never paid a banking fee! None at all. They used to have a keep $1000.00 in your account and there is no fees, still have that account! They keep asking if I would like to upgrade, I just say no! I just asked at RCB if they would do that? And they said sure! And not a lot of money either. If they want your business, they will do it. You think it only $20-30 a month but do the math!

EQ Bank, Oaken Financial & Motive Financial
 

Not to worry, Ken . . .

The online 'EQ Bank' is a wholly owned subsidiary of 'Equitable Bank'. And yes, the EQ Bank is insured through CDIC. For more details go to their website 👉 https://www.eqbank.ca/

And you may also want to consider 'Oaken Financial' 👉 https://oaken.com/

And then there's also 'Motive Financial' 👉 https://www.motivefinancial.com/

I've dealt with all three for several years now, and I'm very happy with them ... Great Rates & Good Service ❗

Also, this is a great place to compare High Interest SA's & GIC's 👉 https://www.highinterestsavings.ca/

:cheers:

Selkirk

I have been with CU for 38 years. I have paid interest on several mortgages, and loans, on a line of credit without missing a single payment on any of them, without a single NSF cheque in all that time, and I am still paying ~$60 in monthly charges between my personal and business accounts.

I fully understand how it adds up, and I agree with you fully. It is way past time for a change.

I appreciate that, I was looking into them today.
Maybe if a couple hundred grand was pulled out of the CU they might sit up and take notice.
Doubt it lol. But I will feel better knowing in 20 years that I have made $75,000 at 1.5% from another bank.

So make it! They will do it! or leave, someone will do it for you! :)

I have been with CU for 38 years. I have paid interest on several mortgages, and loans, on a line of credit without missing a single payment on any of them, without a single NSF cheque in all that time, and I am still paying ~$60 in monthly charges between my personal and business accounts.

I fully understand how it adds up, and I agree with you fully. It is way past time for a change.

Me too. I pay NOTHING for fees. Never. I am not sure what people are saying when they say $5/transaction ........ that seems ridiculous.

Agree, nothing for fees here either.
When I was with ATB, they took $1.25 from each debit transaction.

Yeah only online like you said. We just use it to park our emergency fund in nothing else. Transactions are free. Don’t think I would use them for anything else but I have been happy with the change. For what it is worth I follow some investing groups on Facebook with a lot smarter group members than myself and quite a few of them use EQ for the same thing as me. They have been around for a while as well.