However, things that are too good tend to disappear. Over the past couple years the rates for EQ Bank have dropped a bit, now at 2.5%. You can see their rates here. Still a competitive rate, and a very easy to use website, but there are better options in the market
The EQ Bank savings account does have some nice features, including free etransfers and bill payments, no minimum balance and an easy to use interface. However, they don’t have a debit card so it really isn’t practical to use on a day to day basis.
If you are opening an account why not use my referral code? We both get $20.
As per my last post on Outlook they took over Implicity and merged all the accounts. I found the process okay, with a couple bumps getting our new logins, but overall not too bad.
My fears of Outlook being lower than Implicity rates seem to be unfounded. Overall their HISA rates appear to be in line with what I received before, and their GIC rates are also very competitive. As of Jan. 2023 you can get 3.25% on all deposits which is one of the best mainstream rates I have seen. You can check out their current rates here.
There are some drawbacks to Outlook, their website and mobile app are limited at best. In particular you can’t transfer money from external accounts from their mobile app, which makes it nearly useless. You also can’t open up GIC’s from their sites, you have to phone in or do it via an online form. Not a great experience, but I don’t need to do that often so I guess it isn’t the end of the world either for so much higher rates than the big 5 banks or Tangerine.
There are a number of high interest savings options in Canada. As I have said before I used Tangerine (previously ING Direct) until their rates went in the toilet after Scotia Bank bought them. I was working in the credit union system at the time and so found Implicity. It is a online only brand from Entegra Credit Union in Manitoba buy available to anyone in Canada. Overall I like them and use them.
Overall Experience
Implicity’s website is basic, as is their online experience. Overall it was a bit of hassle to set up having to manually provide a couple of things, however, it wasn’t crazy. Once setup you get a debit card number and can start logging in. Setting up accounts involves sending in a form with your banking information and getting it linked to your account. Once setup you can move money via EFT’s at no cost. You also get the interest on the day you initiate the transfer which is nice. Like EQ Bank there are no minimums and no fees. Also you can pay bills, send eTransfers and setup multiple accounts. Unfortunately with Implicity you have to send an email to add or change the name of accounts.
They offer a full range of accounts from savings, GIC, TFSA and RRSP options.
Rates
Current rates are competitive generally with other providers. They are currently less than EQ Bank but over time have consistently been better than Tangerine . Credit Unions are insured by their provincial government (so Manitoba in this case) for 100% of deposits as described here no matter where you live in Canada. Given Federal insurance is capped at 100,000 per account type per institution that could impact some people.
Mobile App
Terrible. Don’t download it. You can pay bills, deposit cheques, and inter-account transfers, but you can’t transfer money to external accounts – and isn’t that the entire point?
This post is to review the savings accounts of EQ Bank. Over the years I have tried to find a reasonable High Interest Savings account for any temporary or long term savings I might have. Things like an emergency fund are best kept liquid (in my opinion) in a vanilla account. I have tried quite a few out and ran across EQ Bank mainly because they were one of the first cloud core banking (which is what I work in) and they used the Temenos core. They were written up here.
In any event they do have pretty good savings rates, and had an interesting 3 month GIC rate that was pretty attractive. Their longer term GIC rates weren’t great, but that’s fine.
Sign Up
The sign up was pretty painless as they use Plaidwhich connected to my Tangerine account quickly and easily. My First Calgary Credit Union account is not available in Plaid, but hurrah they had a manual connection option. I entered my transit, branch and account manually, then EQ made a couple of micro deposits. I entered these into the EQ site a couple days later and voila I was connected. For interest you can also connect your high interest savings accounts together, like to Implicity, to speed the move of money to better rates
Account Features
Since then I moved some savings in which I plan to split into 2 90 day terms 45 days apart just so I have quicker access to half if it was ever needed. One feature I really like is it shows the interest earned in your GIC as of the night before.
There were a few things I would improve. There is no way to auto renew a GIC, which would be much better and is pretty standard for sites.
The account has a few other good features including free eTransfers, no minimum balance and cheaper international transfers. It also has the ability to pay bills, so could be a pretty robust overall account for saving for a larger annual fee (i.e. life insurance) or to put a bonus in and then pay certain bills or eTransfers from.
Mobile App
The site is well designed and I would say a pretty robust mobile app with all the information you need and the ability to deposit cheques.
Referral
Like many new services EQ Bank offers a referral program. Why not use mine here! If you use it we both get $20
Overall
I have moved the bulk of our savings to EQ Bank so I guess I had better give it 5 stars! We’ll see how it goes over the coming months, but for now it seems great.
