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Amazon Visa discontinued

Some people who make a lot of purchases across the border have found great value in the Amazon Visa. Although it only provides a mediocre 1% cash back rewards system, it does not charge foreign currency exchange fees that usually amount to 2.5%. However, as of early April 2017, you can no longer apply for this card. It’s unclear whether it is being permanently discontinued, but for the time being, this leaves the Marriott Visa and the Rogers/Fido MasterCards as the only credit cards that effectively don’t charge foreign transaction fees. Of course, if you happen to have a lot of US cash, you can always apply for a US dollar credit card so there is no conversion to Canadian dollars at all.

Tangerine MasterCard gets much worse

In the high interest savings forums, the bigger news is that the Tangerine MasterCard gets much worse starting on April 29, 2017. Although you still get 2% cash back in up to 3 merchant categories, all other purchases get 0.5% cash back instead of 1.0% cash back. Also, the foreign currency exchange fee, which was previously at 1.5%, goes back to the industry standard 2.5%. This was a well-received card when it first came out 1.5 years ago, but this latest news has significantly lowered its appeal.

Tangerine’s quarterly offer

Despite sinking profits, a less appealing credit card offering, and savings account interest rates so non-competitive that it no longer appears on our comparison chart, Tangerine is still heavily discussed on this site. This is partially because of its net new deposits promo of up to 3.25% every quarter.

With some sleuthing on the Tangerine site and an analysis of past promos (for 6 straight quarters now), people have been able to predict within days when a net new deposit promo is coming. A few days before the next quarterly promo starts, savers transfer their money to another financial institution or even to a Tangerine chequing account, and then transfer their money back to Tangerine savings after the promo starts. Not everybody is eligible for the promotion, though, and it remains a mystery as to who gets targeted and for what rate. If you’re not targeted, you can always contact Tangerine and ask for a better rate.

Canadian Direct Financial rebrands to Motive Financial

After a moderate amount of hoopla including an announcement video, Canadian Direct Financial rebranded to Motive Financial. Despite some marketing words about “recognizing and rewarding savers” so far nothing has changed in terms of account offerings, features, rates, or even website functionality. Savers are now waiting to see whether the rebrand actually means anything for them.

Ideal Savings arrives on the scene

Ideal Savings, a division of Carpathia Credit Union in Winnipeg, burst onto the scene with an attractive 2.50% savings account and TFSA interest rate on November 18, 2016. The kicker was that the rate was guaranteed until the end of 2017! It took only 11 days, though, for the rate to drop to 2.30%, and less than a month for a further drop to 1.75%, where it has stayed until now. (Note that savers who got in early still benefit from the guaranteed original rate.) Those were unprecedented initial rate drops, even compared to the 3 months it took for EQ Bank‘s initial drop from 3.00% to 2.00%. Regardless, Ideal Savings is a welcome addition and provides yet another option for savers.

Trouble at Home Capital Group and concern for Oaken Financial

Bad news, including improperly handled financial disclosure and the need to receive a $2 billion loan, has hit Home Capital Group recently and caused massive stock drops of over 80% over the course of 1 year, and a dramatic 65% drop in 1 day. What does this have to do with savers? Potentially nothing. But it is the parent of Oaken Financial, its CDIC insured deposit arm. (Technically, Home Capital Group is the parent to Home Trust, which is best known for offering mortgages, but takes deposits through Oaken.)

All this trouble at Home Capital Group has some savers anxious. While the debate rages on about how reasonable the concern is, one undoubtedly material effect is that Oaken raised its savings account interest rate from 1.50% to 1.75% on April 25, 2017!

In January 2016, EQ Bank launched to great fanfare. After years of seeing continuously dropping high interest savings account rates, were things turning around for Canadian savers? EQ Bank made a splash with a 3% interest rate, and quieted some skeptics when it boldly stated that it “is not a promotional rate; it is our current everyday rate”.

It took only 3 months for that 3.00% rate to drop to 2.25%, and in August it dropped further to 2.00%.

In addition to dropping its rate, EQ Bank has received mixed reviews, closed off new registrations for weeks, has no TFSA account, is not available in Quebec, and has no transit number (so that transfers cannot be initiated outside of EQ). It also removed its $25 birthday bonus, leaving one of our forum members to lament that the bloom is off the EQ rose.

However, EQ Bank got a lot of customers, got a lot of publicity, and still has the highest interest rate on our comparison chart.

Another recent addition to our chart is Alterna Bank, which has in some ways been an anti-EQ offering. Alterna is available to Quebec residents, added a TFSA option in July, and quietly became the only Canadian financial institution to increase its rate in 2016 (at least among those that we track). It now sits #2 on our chart just 0.05% below EQ, yet you hear almost nothing about Alterna in the media.

For those chasing the highest rates, new deposit and retention promos continue to be the story at PC Financial and Tangerine. PC Financial’s latest promo is 2.25% on new deposits until December 31, 2016. Tangerine’s current new deposit promo expires on September 30, and offers somewhere between 1.75% and 3.25%. No one has yet discovered what Tangerine uses to determine what rate it will offer you. But many people have learned to play the game of withdrawing their money before a promo ends in order to maximize their return on the next new deposit promo. And for those who don’t want to move their money around, they’ve learned that Tangerine will often give you a higher rate… if you ask. Add savings account interest rates to the list of things you need to negotiate these days, along with mortgage rates and TV, internet, and cell phone bills.

All of this song and dance around PC Financial and Tangerine is necessary because their base rates are a paltry 0.80%. This puts them so far off the chart that we have completely dropped them off the page. Not everybody in our forums agree that those banks should have been dropped — after all, there is more to an account than an interest rate — but for now you’ll have to find them on the promos page.

And speaking of promos, many other banks have gotten into the game, especially around new deposits and new accounts. DUCA, Meridian Credit Union, Luminus Financial, and BC credit unions are among those with current promotions.

In other news, if you’re looking for a free chequing account, our long-time forum member Doug has done a huge update to the free chequing account comparison chart. Be sure to check that out, and thank Doug for his hard work!

Today we saw the official launch of EQ Bank, whose headline feature is a 3% savings account. Regardless of whether even 3% can be called “high interest”, that is still 71% higher than the top rate (1.75%, shared by 6 institutions) on our chart and almost 4 times higher than Tangerine and PC Financial’s standard savings account interest rates (0.8%). EQ’s savings account also includes bill payments and 5 free Interac e-transfers per month, among other features.

EQ Bank’s launch is the latest in a string of new developments in the Canadian high interest savings landscape in this current era of generally low rates. Undoubtedly, people are seeking higher returns in equities and other investments, but high interest savings remain a key element of many Canadians’ strategies.

20 years ago, PC Financial launched, and a year later ING Direct (now Tangerine) came onto the scene. These were game-changers, offering rates much higher than the big banks and pushing an online model where the savings from not having traditional brick & mortar locations could be passed on to customers. They were considered pioneers in this space and are very much mainstream today.

Fast forward to 2012 when Scotiabank acquired ING Direct, and re-branded it as Tangerine in 2014. Savers complained about how Tangerine would never be as attractive again, but in reality, Tangerine / ING’s rates had lost their competitive edge since about mid-2009.

The online divisions of several Manitoba credit unions, as well as other upstarts such as Canadian Direct Financial, Canadian Tire Financial, and ICICI Bank launched in the 2000s. (Technically, Achieva Financial came even earlier: 1998.) They quickly hit the top of the rate charts and have stayed there to this day. None of them have reached the name recognition or adoption of PC Financial and Tangerine, but savers in search of the best rates have been touting these institutions for many years, and the number of alternatives has increased steadily.

In 2013, we saw the beginning of frequent promotion rates. While there have always been promos for new accounts, these promo rates advertised the best rates for new deposits in existing accounts. A look at our promo page shows the proliferation of such offers. Although PC Financial and Tangerine’s regular rates still languished at the bottom of the chart, these promos shot them back to general relevance. These promos require savers to strategize more, however, and many people transfer their savings between institutions before a “new deposit” promo ends so that they are eligible for the next one. Zag Bank joined the promo scene, although with a few glitches. Tangerine and Zag Bank have also started to offer promotion rates on entire balances instead of just new deposits. Tangerine has recently started an even more involved variation where you have to call in to ask for a higher rate, testing the limits of how much savers are willing to chase higher rates. This keeps the hardcore savers mostly happy but normal savers who can’t be bothered still get the lower rates.

Thus, at the beginning of 2016 we still have a few financial institutions offering good, normal rates on savings accounts on all balances, and an increasing number of institutions trying to stay relevant by relying on promotions that make savers jump through hoops. EQ Bank states that 3% is their regular, non-promo rate. There is a bit of hope that this could usher in a new era of high interest savings despite the general economic malaise, but only time will tell whether EQ Bank can become a serious player!