Best High-Interest Savings Accounts in Canada (2026): Ongoing Rates vs Promos
The map of deposits, GICs, and cash ETFs is the cash management guide. How a fund yield compares once you are willing to hold a security is CASH versus PSA versus CBIL. Whether the balance is even the right size is the emergency-fund guide.
- Write down the rate in month six, not the rate in the ad. If the page does not say what happens when the offer ends, you do not have an ongoing rate.
- EQ’s 2.75% requires $2,000 a month of qualifying pay deposits. Without them the posted base is 1.00%. Both lines are effective 16 September 2026.
- EQ notice savings pays 2.35% with 10 days’ notice or 2.75% with 30 days’ notice. The wait is the product. It is a bad first-layer emergency fund.
- Wealthsimple’s chequing page lists 1.25% (Core), 1.75% (Premium), and 2.25% (Generation), with a 0.5 point boost for Core and Premium if $2,000 lands in 30 days, and not above 2.25%.
- Tangerine’s and Simplii’s public rate tables did not return a readable number in a static fetch on 27 September 2026. This page does not invent one. Open the issuer page.
Choose an ongoing rate if… you will still qualify next quarter, because the hurdle is a direct deposit or an asset tier you already have. Treat a promo as a promo if… the page names an end date, a “new money” window, or a rate that applies only to clients who opened in a stated period. When the teaser ends, the comparison starts over.
What is an ongoing rate, and what is a promo?
An ongoing rate is the number the institution says it pays now, with the conditions printed beside it, and with no calendar end on the page you are reading. It can still change. EQ’s notice-savings page says the rate is subject to change and that the bank will email you if it does. “Ongoing” means “not a countdown,” not “guaranteed.”
A promo is a higher number with an expiry, a cap on which dollars earn it, or a requirement that you be a new client. The honest test is mechanical. Copy the rate into a note, write the condition, and write the date it dies. If you cannot find the date, look for the sentence that says the bonus continues only while a deposit lands. That sentence is the condition. It is still not an expiry, and it is still not the base rate.
EQ’s Personal Account FAQ uses the word “promotion” for the 2.75% line and, in the same set of answers, says existing customers earn it for as long as direct deposits total at least $2,000 each month. Read both sentences. The bonus is conditional and, on the page reviewed, not a five-month teaser. Miss the direct deposit and the rates page says you are at 1.00%.
Which rates were actually on the issuer pages?
The table is limited to pages that returned a number on 27 September 2026. Tangerine’s rates index describes a savings account and a no-monthly-fee chequing account, and Simplii’s high-interest savings page describes balance tiers, but both sites filled the rate cells with a script this fetch could not read. Quoting a blog’s version of those rates would be how a stale 4-point teaser ends up presented as fact. Check those two sites yourself the day you move money, and write down the rate that applies after any introductory period.
| Account | Posted rate | What you must do | What the page says about the end |
|---|---|---|---|
| EQ Bank Personal Account | 1.00% base, or 2.75% (1.00% plus a 1.75% bonus) | Direct deposits of pay totalling at least $2,000 in the month, for the bonus | Bonus continues while the deposits continue. The FAQ also calls the bonus a promotion. No end date was printed on the rates page. |
| EQ Bank Joint Account | Same 1.00% / 2.75% split | Same direct-deposit test | Same rates page, effective 16 September 2026 |
| EQ Bank 10-day notice savings | 2.35% | Give 10 days’ notice to withdraw | EQ says the rate can change and that it will email you |
| EQ Bank 30-day notice savings | 2.75% | Give 30 days’ notice to withdraw | Same change language as the 10-day account |
| EQ Bank TFSA, FHSA, and RRSP cash savings | 1.50% on each | Registered room, and the account has to be open | Posted on the same 16 September 2026 rates page. Not a bonus rate. |
| Wealthsimple chequing, Core | 1.25%, or up to 2.25% with the boost | Under $100,000 in assets for the 1.25% tier. A further 0.5 point if at least $2,000 is direct-deposited in 30 days, and not above 2.25% | Wealthsimple says the rates have no set end date and that they follow Bank of Canada changes. They can still change. |
| Wealthsimple chequing, Premium | 1.75% above $100,000 in assets, plus the same 0.5 point boost, capped at 2.25% | The asset tier, and the direct deposit if you want the boost | Same “no set end date” sentence |
| Wealthsimple chequing, Generation | 2.25% at $500,000 or more in assets | The asset tier. Generation is not eligible for a further 0.5 point, because 2.25% is already the top rate on the page | Same sentence |
Table as of 27 September 2026. EQ also lists a US-dollar account at 2.50% on that rates page. It is a currency decision, not a Canadian-dollar parking spot, and this page does not compare it with a Canadian HISA.
What do you keep after tax?
Outside a TFSA, RRSP, or FHSA, interest is included in your income. A posted 2.75% is not 2.75% in your pocket. Multiply by one minus your combined marginal rate. This page will not invent that rate. Look it up on the federal and provincial tables for your province and your bracket.
Forty percent is not a Canadian average and not your rate. It is a round number so the arithmetic is easy to check. Keep 60% of the interest: 2.75% times 0.60 is 1.65%. On a $10,000 balance that stays $10,000, 2.75% is $275 of interest before tax. At this assumed 40%, tax is $110 and you keep $165. The same $10,000 inside a TFSA keeps the $275 if the rate is actually 2.75% for the whole year, and it spends TFSA room. EQ’s registered cash accounts were posted at 1.50% on the same day, which is $150 on $10,000 before any fee this page did not see. Shelter does not repair a lower posted rate. Run your own bracket before you move registered room onto cash.
Who is each account actually for?
- You already direct-deposit a paycheque of at least $2,000. EQ’s 2.75% is the ongoing line to beat, with the bonus condition written down. Pair it with a no-fee chequing account if EQ’s limits bother you: no cheques, no cash deposits, no bank drafts. That tradeoff is the chequing comparison.
- You will not move your pay. Do not quote yourself 2.75%. EQ’s base is 1.00%. Wealthsimple Core at 1.25%, or 1.75% if the boost applies, can be higher than a base you will actually earn. Read both pages the same day.
- The dollar has a date and you can wait. Notice savings pays for the wait. A 30-day notice account is not the rent money. The first layer of an emergency fund has to move without notice. The emergency-fund guide is that test.
- The dollar is a house down payment inside an FHSA. EQ’s FHSA cash rate on the page was 1.50%, not the 2.75% personal-account bonus. A GIC inside the FHSA is the ladder post. Do not buy an equity ETF because the cash rate looks dull. The timeline is FHSA sequencing.
CDIC’s depositor FAQ says it determines whether a given high-interest savings account is an eligible deposit case by case. EQ states that its deposits are eligible and that EQ Bank is a trade name of Equitable Bank, one CDIC member. Wealthsimple states that it is not a bank and not a CDIC member, and that chequing balances are held in trust at member institutions. Those are different sentences. The coverage map is CDIC coverage.
How often should you re-check?
The Bank of Canada’s target was 2.25% at the 2 September 2026 announcement, and the next date on its 2026 schedule is 28 October. Banks do not have to wait for that date to change a deposit rate. A quarterly fifteen minutes is enough: today’s base rate, today’s bonus and its hurdle, the rate after any teaser, and the account the money sits in. Automate the transfer in the automation stack. Do not automate the assumption that last quarter’s winner is still ahead.
Frequently asked questions
What is the highest ongoing savings rate in Canada right now?
This page will not crown one. On the pages reviewed on 27 September 2026, EQ’s 2.75% Personal Account bonus and EQ’s 2.75% 30-day notice account are the highest Canadian-dollar figures that came back with a condition attached. Wealthsimple’s top posted chequing rate is 2.25% for Generation clients. Tangerine and Simplii did not return a readable rate in the fetch, so they are absent on purpose. Check them before you decide you have the highest number.
Is EQ’s 2.75% a promo?
EQ’s FAQ calls it a promotion and also says you keep it while monthly qualifying pay deposits stay at or above $2,000. The rates page, effective 16 September 2026, shows it as 1.00% base plus 1.75% bonus, with no end date on that table. Treat it as conditional and ongoing, and re-read the terms the month your pay schedule changes. If the deposits stop, the page says the rate does too.
Why isn’t Tangerine or Simplii in the rate table?
Their rate pages did not render a number in a static fetch on 27 September 2026. Simplii’s savings page showed balance tiers with the percentage replaced by a placeholder. Inventing a “base” or a “4 percent promo” from another site would break the rule this article is built on. Open the issuer page, record the rate, the end date, and which dollars it applies to, and compare that note with the table above.
Should I chase a five-month teaser?
Only if you will move the money on the day it ends, and only if the after-tax gap beats the hassle. A teaser on new money that then falls to a low base is how people earn a high rate for a season and a poor rate for the rest of the year. Write the month-six rate in the same note as the teaser. If you will not calendar the move, take the ongoing rate you will still have in month six.
Is a notice account a HISA?
It is a savings deposit with a withdrawal delay. EQ pays 2.35% for 10 days’ notice and 2.75% for 30 days’ notice, on the 16 September 2026 page. The rate can look like a top HISA. The liquidity does not. Keep the bill money in an account you have already withdrawn from once, without notice.
Does a higher rate change my emergency fund?
No. The size of the fund is months of spending you cannot easily cut, set in the emergency-fund guide. A better rate changes how much interest that pile earns. It does not make a HELOC a substitute for the pile, and it does not make a 30-day notice account the first layer.
Sources
- EQ Bank: rates and accounts, effective 16 September 2026
- EQ Bank: Personal Account
- EQ Bank: Notice Savings Account
- Wealthsimple: chequing
- Bank of Canada: policy interest rate
- CDIC: for depositors, including the HISA eligibility answer
A posted rate is not an after-tax rate.
Interest lands on the T1 at your marginal rate. The 2026 tax guide is how that line is calculated.
Get the 2026 Tax Guide — $49 CAD
