Canadian High Interest Savings Accounts

There are lots of places for Canadians to stash free cash. I have been using ING but keep up to date with other offerings. I have previously looked at this topic but thought I would share the most up to date information, rates, and links. Rates are current as of August 7th 2013.

ICICI Bank 1.45%

PC Financial Interest Plus 1.35%

Achieva Financial 1.80%

Outlook Financial 1.80%

Altamira High Interest Cash Performer 1.25%

ING Direct 1.35%

ING is the bank that I'm currently with. See my sidebar for an orange key and current ING sign-up bonus. (Right now it's $25 and bonus interest to 2.5%). ING frequently offers savings promotions that up the overall interest rates.

Manulife 1.55%

RBC 1.1%

There are lots of banks in Canada with high interest savings accounts. What do you use? Do you have a separate account, or keep one at your main bank?

Eleven Cents

Well the first profits have been realized and my ING account has netted me 11 cents at month end. Next month should prove more promising with a full month of a more sizable amount of money in the account.

Review of ING Direct Account Setup - Week One Update

The end of week one and I have achieved a savings of $35, $5 each day for 7 days. My money is resting in my ING Investment Account while I wait for some of the other accounts like the RBC Centura account through RBC Access to be set up. I'm also going to be investigating a low cost brokerage. I haven't achieved any gain on my savings as yet, will update you on the amount of interest at the end of the month.

Setting up the ING account was relatively quick and painless. Fill out a form online, return a cheque payable to yourself. They've set up an electronic transfer with my main chequing account at Bank of Montreal. So far I've been pleased with the service, any transfers have gone through in a day or so, with a 5 day hold on the funds. I will report back on how long it takes for the funds to be returned back to me. The account is no frills, but it serves its purpose as a leave your money there for awhile account.

High Interest Savings Accounts

What to do while I wait to build up some funds? A stack of bills under my mattress won't do me much good. I went looking around for some high interest savings accounts. Most of the major banks have some kind of a higher interest option, one maybe two percent. That's not very good, the better options are high interest savings accounts from discount banks. These banks are usually characterized by having little to no storefront presence, and their business is primarily conducted online. You usually have to submit an application form, have a social insurance number, and submit a cheque payable to yourself so that the accounts can be linked. Once your account is linked you can move funds by Electronic Funds Transfer.

Some of the options out there are:

Citizens Bank Investment Account

Citizens Bank Ultimate Savings Account

HSBC High Rate Savings Account

ICICI Bank HiSAVE Savings Account

ING Direct Investment Savings Account

The plus side is that these are all CDIC insured, the only drawback is the potential for slightly lower customer service. Personally, I've opened an account earning 3% with ING, not big dollars, but somewhere to put the cash for now.