EQ Bank Review
Summary
EQ Bank is one of the best high interest savings accounts in Canada with their 1.25% everyday high interest* savings rate, and my top choice for high interest secure savings!
Pros:
👍 No monthly fees
👍 Free e-transfers
👍 No minimum balance
👍 Free bill payments
👍 Free Electronic Funds Transfers
👍 TFSA and RSP savings accounts offered
Cons:
👎 Online only
👎 No bank card – you do not receive a bank card, so you will have to transfer to another bank if you want to access cash or pay by card.
Sign up for an EQ Bank Savings Plus Account today to start earning 1.25% interest!
EQ Bank now offers high interest savings in a TFSA or RSP! The interest rate in these registered accounts is 1.25%, which is the same as their standard savings plus account (1.25%). It could be a great option for people interested in a tax advantaged way to grow their savings.
Learn more about EQ Bank’s TFSA at 1.25% interest
Learn more about EQ Bank’s RSP at 1.25% interest
When the big banks are offering 0.05% – 0.50% interest rates on their “high interest” savings accounts, with some of them requiring minimum balances of $5,000, you really have to wonder what other options are out there. After having made the move for my day-to-day banking to an online bank in the form of Tangerine, I decided to take the next step and open a savings account with an online bank that consistently has one of the highest interest rates; more than double than what the big 5 offer! From my research, EQ Bank is one of the best high interest savings accounts in Canada with their 1.25% everyday high interest* savings rate, and my top choice for short term, secure savings!
In times of financial uncertainty, your savings account can be a lifeboat, so make sure you are maximizing the earnings that it makes you!
Sign up for an EQ Bank Savings Plus Account today to start earning 1.25% interest!
If you find this article interesting and helpful, and want to get your own EQ Bank Savings Plus Account, you can help support my blog by using my referral link or any other link on this page. This referral link in no way affects my opinions or recommendations.
Why the big banks fall behind
It’s always good to know what your options are before making a decision. Let’s look at what the big banks are offering:
| ScotiaBank | 0.05% | Savings Accelerator Account |
| RBC | 0.05% | High Interest eSavings |
| TD Bank | 0.05% on balances over $5,000 | High Interest Savings Account |
| CIBC | 0.05% | eAdvantage Savings Account |
| Bank of Montreal | 0.350% if you deposit $200 every month into your savings | Savings Builder Account |
| Tangerine | 0.10% | Savings Account |
But if we look at what the popular site www.highinterestsavings.ca, which tracks current options for the best savings interest rates, the big banks aren’t even close to providing competitive rates to other online only banks.
A lot of people don’t feel comfortable signing up for a bank that they might have never heard of, so we’re going to take a look at the one that consistently came up in my research, and the one that is always at or near the top of savings interest rates. I decided to go with EQ Bank and its 1.25% everyday high interest* rate!
EQ Bank – why I trust it
EQ Bank was founded in 2016, and even though 5 years isn’t a long time for a bank to be around, it helps to know that EQ Bank is a trade name of Equitable Bank, which has been around since 1970.
Equitable Bank is a member of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC). All deposits held under Equitable Bank are eligible for deposit insurance from CDIC to the maximum of $100,000. This means that any funds you keep in an EQ Bank account are insured and safe (up to $100,000).
And many users of the /r/personalfinancecanada subreddit swear by the EQ Bank Savings Plus Account as well – and while you always need to take information from reddit with a grain of salt, I’ve found the Canadian personal finance subreddit to be a source of great information and helpful users.
Knowing all of this made me feel more at ease with making the jump to this online high interest savings account.
EQ Bank Perks: why I think it’s the best high interest savings account
Let’s get down to the nitty gritty of what you get with an EQ Bank Savings Plus Account, and what makes it one of the best high interest savings account:
- Everyday high interest rate* (1.25%)
- Zero minimum balance
- No everyday banking fees
- Unlimited free Interac e-Transfers®
- Unlimited Bill payments
- Free linked accounts
- Free Electronic Funds Transfers
- Unlimited EQ to EQ Transfers
- Free Day-to-day Transactions
- Cheap international money transfers
- Find out more
What this really means, is that it’s free to open a high interest savings account, and free to transfer funds between linked banks – so you can move your money in and out as you please, and aren’t locked in.
Downsides
With all of the good this account provides, there are a few minor downsides:
- No ATM access – you do not receive a bank card, so you will always have to transfer to another bank if you want to access your money. This shouldn’t be a problem, but it may take a few days to access your cash. There is also the faster option of sending yourself a free Interac e-Transfers® as well!
- Not available in Quebec
Step-by-step: How to Sign up to EQ Bank
Step 1. Fill out the online form
Sign up is a very simple process. Go to the EQ Bank Savings Plus Account page and click Join now. You will be directed to a signup page. Fill out the online form (including your SIN number is the easiest route, but there are other options if you aren’t comfortable with that)
Step 2. Verify your account by email
You will be sent a one time passcode to login the first time. Check your email and use this code to verify your account.
Step 3. Connect an external bank account
By connecting an external bank account, it makes it easy (and free) to transfer money between all of your banks. I’ve connected to my Tangerine day-to-day chequing account, and it has worked great.
1. Go to the “Linked bank accounts” section:
2. Select “Link another bank account”:
3. Provide additional verification as needed from text message through your phone.
This helps ensure that someone isn’t adding an external account that you don’t want to be linked:
4. Fill in the Transit number, Institution number, and account number for the external account you want to link.
This can be found on cheques you have:
5. Verify your account
You will receive 2 small amounts to the external account you are trying to connect. Check your external account for the next few days, and when they show up, log in to your account and verify the amounts.
Step 4. How to add and transfer funds
Once you’ve linked to an external account, it becomes very easy to transfer between your accounts.
Click on the Pay & Transfer button on the top menu of your home page:
Now select your external account in the “From” menu, and your new account in the “To” menu, and the amount you want to transfer. Click “Transfer” and the submission will go through.
On thing to note is that transfers aren’t instant. It will take a few business days to go through, so you will need to be a little patient.
You can use the same process for transferring money from your EQ Savings Plus Account, back to your external account.
And that is that!
Hopefully this is helpful for anyone looking for an easy solution to parking any short term savings that you have, and earning as much interest as you can on it!
*Interest is calculated daily on the total closing balance and paid monthly. Rates are per annum and subject to change without notice.
This post was updated July 2021 with new interest rate information.
Read this after I opened an account at EQ but felt much better after I read this.
I was worried about my funds but like you mentioned, there is the cidc insurance.
Do they lock the interest rate? Or adjust it every month?
The interest rate isn’t locked in, but it’s also not just a promo rate. I’ve been using EQ Bank for a few years, and their current 2.00% is the lowest I’ve ever seen their interest rate at (which all banks have been lowering lately). It has ranged between 2.00% and 2.45% over the last few years, and rarely changes.
I have a joint account with my wife in Tangerine.
I would like a joint account in EQ Banking.. Is this possible?
I contacted EQ Bank about this today, and they said at this time they do not offer joint accounts, but that they “plan to offer it soon, hopefully in the next couple of months”.
Is there an update on the joint savings account? I couldn’t see an option today.
Thankyou
Yes, EQ bank does now have a Joint Savings Plus Account! Here is the link.
Rather invest in a mutual fund – much higher interest and you can take your money anytime.
You can take your money from EQ Bank at anytime, so I’m not quite sure you understand the account. There’s a vast difference in investing in mutual funds and storing money in a savings account. Low risk mutual funds may provide a better return than a savings, but still have inherent risk that if the market crashes, your mutual fund account might not be worth as much as when you put your funds in. A savings account guarantees that the value of your asset will not decrease.
And don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that someone should keep all of their money in a savings account. A good majority of your long-term assets should be invested, but for your emergency funds and short term savings, that should be in something risk free like a savings account.
Do you have a referral code? Was a little worried about EQ but this article reassured me and hope I can give you a kick back.
Happy I could help! You can use my referral link. Thanks for your support.
Hi,
I am very interested in start a savings account with EQ Bank after reading your article. I am just concerned about the taxes for interest rate. Is it a lot?
Thnx
Hi Christian,
You will have to pay tax on the interest you’ve earned over the year in the savings account. At the end of the tax year your financial institution will send you a return of investment income slip (T5).
At EQ Bank, the T5 is available as a downloadable PDF file by no later than February 28 of every year.