Savers Roundup September 2018: Savings and GIC promos galore!

More incentive to sign up with Hubert Financial

There have been no changes to regular savings or TFSA interest rates recently — especially with the Bank of Canada holding its key interest rate steady this month — but the current Canadian leader Hubert Financial (2.35%) is running a promotion for new sign-ups that gets the new customer $25 and, if they were referred by someone, $25 for the referrer as well.

GIC rates current snapshot

We haven’t seen much movement in GIC rates over the past month other than a few Motive Financial fluctuations and increases across the board from AcceleRate Financial. The current leaders are:

• 1-year GIC: 2.85% at AcceleRate Financial and Hubert Financial
• 2-year GIC: 3.10% at Oaken Financial
• 3-year GIC: 3.25% at EQ Bank and Oaken Financial
• 4-year GIC: 3.33% at Wealth One Bank of Canada
• 5-year GIC: 3.52% at EQ Bank

Promotions are everywhere

Our promotions page is always full of deals, but financial institutions have been especially busy rolling out new promotions, most of which beat the highest standard savings account and GIC rates, over the past few weeks. If you’re in the market for a new bank or you don’t mind transferring your money around, here is some of what we’ve been tracking lately.

Savings accounts:

• Meridian Credit Union: 2.80% for 6-months in a new savings account
• DUCA Credit Union net new deposits savings account promo: 3.25% until December 3, 2018
• RBC: 3.00% interest rate for 6 months on new eSavings Accounts opened by November 30, 2018
• HSBC net new deposits: 2.80%, or 3.35% over $25K, or 3.40% over $50K, or 3.50% over $100K until November 15, 2018
• Tangerine Bank: 2.75% interest rate for 6 months in a new savings account opened by October 31, 2018

GICs:

• Meridian Credit Union: 3.00% for a 1-year GIC funded by new money; 3.75% for a 5-year GIC funded by new money
• Achieva Financial: 2.80% for a 20-month GIC, and 3.45% for a 5-year GIC until October 20, 2018
• Implicity Financial: 2.85% for a 1-year GIC funded by new money; 3.00% for a 2-year GIC funded by new money

More reading

• The long, dark night for GIC investors and savers has finally come to an end
• The Oaken Financial newsletter: “The good news about the increase in interest rates is that it usually signals better returns on deposits like GICs and high interest savings accounts. The bad news is that it can take some time for those returns to show up. Financial institutions don’t automatically raise savings rates just because the Bank of Canada rate has risen. They will also make their decisions based on competitive market pressures and their own financial needs.”
• Foreign currency exchange transfers: don’t use your bank! The case to consider both Wise (formerly TransferWise) and OFX