2022 | Canadian High Interest Savings Bank Accounts

Savers Roundup March 2022: Rates are heading higher; how to improve the TFSA

Posted on March 14, 2022March 16, 2022

Bank of Canada rate increase, finally

After the Bank of Canada kept its key interest rate unchanged at the end of January, it made a much anticipated interest rate increase at the beginning of March. This was a rather modest 0.25% increase to 0.50%, although more increases are expected to come this year. This was its first rate increase since 2018, following several decreases totalling 1.50% in 2020.

Continuous upward march of GIC rates

GIC rates have been trending upwards so much that many people were skeptical about locking in to a recent 3.25% 5-year GIC promo at CIBC.

EQ Bank and Wealth One Bank of Canada are currently tied for the highest 2- through 5-year GIC rates on our GIC comparison chart, with the 5-year rate for both at 3.15%. Tangerine Bank has the highest 1-year rate at 2.25%, and you can get up to 2.87% on a 1-year rate through some GIC brokers.

EQ Bank’s promo of 2.05% for a 3- or 6-month GIC has been attracting quite a bit of attention as well.

Savings account rate increases continue

In general for financial institutions on our savings account comparison chart, savings account interest rates have been increasing since November.

The most recent ones have been at merger partners AcceleRate Financial and Hubert Financial, which both sit at 1.40% now.

Wyth Financial is still the leader at 1.55%. It’s interesting to note that the same company will soon hold the funds for 3 of our rate leaders — Wyth Financial, Neo Financial, and EQ Bank — following Equitable Bank’s purchase of Concentra Bank.

Tangerine Bank and Simplii Financial have some juicy promo rates

For years, we’ve been following the rolling promos at Tangerine Bank and Simplii Financial, although their current ones stand out more than usual given just how high they are. For existing customers, Simplii Financial’s latest targeted new deposit promo is for 2.75% between March 1 and June 30, 2022, while Tangerine Bank’s latest targeted new deposit promo is 2.80% until July 31.

For new customers, Simplii Financial is offering 2.20% in a savings account until April 30 (and up to a $350 bonus in a chequing account), and Tangerine Bank is offering 2.50% for the first 5 months (and up to a $300 bonus in a chequing account).

How to improve the TFSA?

We’ve now released the full results of our 2022 TFSA survey, which received 455 responses. One of the questions we asked was about how the TFSA could be improved. The first answer was rather predictable, but the top 6 answers might contain some surprises:

Increase the contribution limit.
Allow re-contributions within the same year, and/or allow easier transfers between financial institutions.
Improve the CRA’s accuracy and timeliness of reporting on TFSA contributions.
Better educate Canadians about the TFSA. Perhaps call it a TFIA (Tax Free Investment Account)?
Expand what investments can be put in a TFSA, such as a business, or a property, or metals
Make USD dividends tax exempt in a TFSA, just like they are in an RRSP.

2022 TFSA survey results

Posted on February 28, 2022February 28, 2022

The results are in! HighInterestSavings.ca ran an online survey for 4 weeks between January and February 2022 about how Canadians use their TFSAs. We received 455 responses.

High uptake for both TFSAs and RRSPs

98% of respondents currently have a TFSA, compared to 85% who currently have an RRSP or RRIF.

95% of respondents intend on contributing to a TFSA this year, whereas only 46% of eligible respondents (those who can contribute to an RRSP) intend on contributing to an RRSP.

The emphasis on the TFSA continues with the results around maxing out your contributing room. 76% of respondents max out their TFSA contribution room every year, whereas only 39% of eligible respondents (those who can contribute to an RRSP) max out their RRSP contribution room every year.

More than a savings account, despite its name

4% of respondents (20 out of 455 people) did not previously know that they could use their TFSA for more than just a savings account or GIC. For everybody else, despite knowing that they can hold other investments in their TFSA (such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, and options) only 40% of them actually do so.

The most common use case for the TFSA (at 64%) is for retirement or long-term savings. 6% have a specific short- or medium-term use in mind, and 27% aren’t sure, but are just making use of the tax-free aspect.

The TFSA has room for improvement

15% of respondents have over-contributed to their TFSA!

The only open-ended question on our survey was about how to improve the TFSA, and 337 people had thoughts on this. 4% of them specifically said that the TFSA is good as-is. Two people said to scrap the TFSA altogether.

The overwhelming most popular suggestion (at 61%) was to increase the contribution limit. Some of these suggestions had an additional comment that seniors should be able to contribute more than others.

Given that a meaningful number of Canadians have over-contributed to their TFSA, it’s no surprise that many suggestions were related to this. 10% of suggestions were about allowing re-contributions within the same year, or allowing easier transfers between financial institutions (since the only real trick otherwise is to do the “December manoeuvre“). 9% of suggestions were about having better reporting; the CRA’s online portal has a summary of your TFSA contributions, but this is known for being very slow to update. Technically, financial institutions do not have to send your TFSA contribution information for a given year until the end of February of the following year, and even then this information is not always complete.

7% of suggestions were related to better educating Canadians about the TFSA. This could include calling it a TFIA (Tax Free Investment Account); educating people on what investments can go in the TFSA; promoting it better; and making the rules around contributions and re-contributions clearer. Three respondents want a clearer definition of what is considered inappropriate stock trading in a TFSA.

We received 6 or 7 suggestions each (2% of suggestions) for these ideas:

Offer higher interest rates in a TFSA (although that’s up to each financial institution), including an idea to force TFSA rates to be guaranteed for a year (outside of a GIC)
Expand what investments can be put in a TFSA, such as a business, or a property, or metals
Make USD dividends tax exempt in a TFSA, just like they are in an RRSP

Other ideas include:

Remove or reduce the over-contribution penalty
Set a lifetime contribution limit cap
Allow Canadians to claim a capital loss made within a TFSA
Have the government match a certain percentage of contributions to encourage new deposits
Allow the transfer of TFSA funds to dependents
Increase the CDIC insurance coverage limit so that you are less likely to need to open multiple TFSA accounts
Allow people under 18 to contribute

Forum/Topic	Started	Last post	Posts
Tax Free Savings Accounts TFSA with EQ?	December 16, 2025 12:18 pm by Alexandra	December 16, 2025 7:43 pm by everhopeful	2
Tax Free Savings Accounts TFSA new contribution room history	June 25, 2022 9:25 am by Norman1	November 29, 2025 11:53 pm by cgouimet	10
Tax Free Savings Accounts Another $7,000 Can Be Added In January.	October 3, 2025 12:25 pm by Dean	October 5, 2025 12:25 pm by mordko	11
Tax Free Savings Accounts Tax trap on TFSA overcontribution that loses value	August 1, 2025 3:48 am by Briguy	August 1, 2025 10:08 am by Dean	5
Tax Free Savings Accounts TFSA contribution limit info has been unavailable since mid-April, CRA confirms	May 30, 2025 9:28 pm by GIC-Fanatic	June 27, 2025 6:22 am by hwyc	28

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

Posted on February 14, 2022February 17, 2022

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.

More personal finance news

Savers Roundup January 2022: CIBC’s 3.25% GIC and other new rate leaders; what’s your TFSA plan?

Posted on January 12, 2022January 12, 2022

A big bank is a GIC rate leader

CIBC currently has a 3.25% 5-year GIC, which applies to a non-registered, TFSA, or RRSP GIC. That beats the best 5-year rate on our GIC comparison chart (3.00% at Hubert Financial) and it’s unusual for a big bank to be a rate leader.

Despite this market-leading rate, some of our forum members are being cautious. Are other banks (big banks or not) going to match the rate? And with the Bank of Canada’s key interest rate expected to increase this year, will there be further GIC rate increases? Or should you just stick to a GIC laddering strategy?

Wyth Financial takes the outright lead for a savings account interest rate

It’s the new kids on the block Wyth Financial (1.55%), Ontario-only Saven Financial (1.50%), and Neo Financial (1.30%) leading our high interest savings comparison chart to start 2022. Rate leaders at the beginning of each of the previous 5 years were Canadian Tire Bank (in 2021), Motive Financial (in 2020 and 2019), and EQ Bank (in 2018 and 2017).

After launching in November with a 1.40% rate, Wyth Financial increased its savings account interest rate to 1.55% in mid-December.

None of Wyth Financial, Saven Financial, and Neo Financial offer a TFSA, though. Wealth One Bank of Canada continues to have the highest non-promotional TFSA interest rate on our chart at 1.50%, followed by a 4-way tie at 1.25%.

What’s your TFSA plan?

Are you going to max out your $6,000 in additional TFSA contribution room this year? If so, that would put you in a small minority of Canadians.

For those who have a TFSA at all (of any size), are you aware that you can use it for more than a savings account? According to a 2020 BMO study, 41 per cent of those with a TFSA use it for mutual funds or stocks. Almost a quarter of respondents were unsure of what could go in a TFSA.

What are your TFSA plans for 2022? Take our short TFSA survey for a chance to win one of 6 x $50 cash prizes!

If you’re going to choose to put some or all of your TFSA funds in a savings account or GIC, be sure to check out our promotions page, which currently includes the following:

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