Savers Roundup February 2022: Rate leaders are merging x 2; TFSA survey results

AcceleRate Financial and Hubert Financial vote to merge

The proposed merger between Access Credit Union (the parent of AcceleRate Financial), Noventis Credit Union, and Sunova Credit Union (the parent of Hubert Financial) has been approved. Whatever changes are coming to AcceleRate Financial and Hubert Financial will take place after July 2022.

For comparison, the parent companies of Implicity Financial and Outlook Financial agreed to merge last August, with the merger becoming official on January 1, 2022. Their interest rates have been nearly the same for years, and the Implicity Financial website now directs everybody who is interested in opening an account to go to Outlook Financial.

EQ Bank and Wyth Financial to merge

Continuing the consolidation momentum, just last week Equitable Bank (parent of EQ Bank) announced the acquisition of Concentra Bank (parent of Wyth Financial). It was only in December that we added Wyth Financial to our savings account comparison chart, a chart it now leads with an interest rate of 1.55%. EQ Bank’s rate is still competitive at 1.25%. The official news release states that “at closing, EQ Bank will become the sole digital platform, replacing Wyth” but the exact details are anyone’s guess!

TFSA survey results: Are you one of the 14% who have over-contributed to their TFSA?

Over the past month, we ran a TFSA survey and got 455 responses. Thanks to all who participated! Here are some quick results:

• 98% of respondents have a TFSA; 85% have an RRSP or RRIF.
• 95% intend to contribute to a TFSA this year; of those eligible for an RRSP, 46% intend to contribute.
• 76% max out their TFSA contribution room every year, whereas only 39% max out their RRSP contribution room every year.
• 63% hold more than just savings accounts or GICs in their TFSA, while 4% didn’t even know this was possible!
• 64% consider the primary use of their TFSA to be retirement or long term savings.
• 14% have over-contributed to their TFSA.

We’ll release the full results on the HighInterestSavings.ca website later this month!

If you’re looking for promotions, you’ve come to the right place

There have been so many savings account and GIC promos recently, both registered and unregistered, that we could dedicate an entire newsletter to them. Instead, we’ve listed a few of them below, and encourage you to check our promos page for the full list.

• CIBC 5-year GIC promo is down from 3.25% to 3.00%
• AcceleRate Financial: 2.25% GIC for 18 Months
• Wealth One Bank of Canada GIC promos include a 3.18% 5-year GIC until March 1, 2022
• EQ Bank: 2.00% for a 1-year GIC; 2.50% for a 2-year GIC
• motusbank: 2.25% for 122 days in your first TFSA savings account

More personal finance news

• TD joins the no-commission online brokerage party… sort of
• A mild surprise: the Bank of Canada keeps key interest rate unchanged
• Canadian Tire Bank to decrease its regular savings account and TFSA interest rate from 1.25% to 1.10% on February 17
• Oaken Financial increases its regular savings account and TFSA interest rate from 1.25% to 1.32%
• Simplii Financial new customers: get up to $350 by opening a chequing account and setting up an eligible direct deposit of at least $100 a month for 3 straight months