Savers Roundup November 2022: It’s 5.00% somewhere

All rates trending to 5.00%

After what seemed like a brief slowdown or pause, GIC rates have been increasing again, especially for shorter terms. One month ago, Resurrection Credit Union’s (Ontario only) 5.00% 1-year GIC rate stood out. Now, the 1-year GIC rate leader on our GIC comparison chart is Peoples Trust at 5.20%, and it’s one of a few financial institutions with 1-year rates higher than their 5-year rates. EQ Bank, Oaken Financial, and Wealth One Bank of Canada all have 1- through 5-year GIC rates of at least 5.00%.

Half of the savings accounts on our comparison chart sport a 3.00% interest rate or higher, with Ontario-only Saven Financial leading at 3.75%, followed by nationally-available Oaken Financial at 3.40%. The next key interest rate decision from the Bank of Canada is scheduled for December 7.

You can get up to 3.80% in an Investment Savings Account through your brokerage. Interest rates in such accounts usually lag traditional savings account quite significantly, but have been trending upward.

What’s more, you can get interest rates that almost rival GIC rates via at least a few savings account promotions, including:

• HSBC 4.40% (on less than $25,000) or 4.90% (on $25,000 or more) new deposit promo for new and existing customers in a High Rate Savings Account between October 17, 2022 and January 27, 2023
• Tangerine targeted 5-month new deposit promo for existing customers: 4.75% between November 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023
• Tangerine new customer promo: 4.50% for the first 5 months in a savings account if you also open a chequing account
• Simplii Financial new customer promo: 5.00% in a savings account until January 31, 2023
• Vancity (BC only) 4.50% new deposit promo for new and existing customers in a Jumpstart High Interest Savings account until February 28, 2023

TFSA contribution limit increasing to $6,500?

The TFSA contribution limit for 2023 is all but guaranteed to be $6,500, which would be up from $6,000 in 2022. This increase is thanks to inflation, as the TFSA contribution limit is indexed to inflation and rounded to the nearest $500 increment.

Bye bye Wyth Financial

Just over a year ago, Concentra Bank renamed itself to Wyth Financial and made its savings account generally available. Now that Equitable Bank has completed its acquisition of Concentra Bank, Wyth Financial is being retired. No new Wyth Financial accounts can be opened, existing savings accounts will be closed, and GIC accounts will be serviced until they mature. On the Wyth Financial website, new customers are being directed to explore EQ Bank.

Credit card news

The STACK Prepaid Mastercard’s recent changes are not good: first, it reinstated its previously waived foreign currency exchange fee, and now it will start charging a monthly fee if you don’t spend at least $350 per month.

We’ve published a new comparison of some promising small business card solutions: Float and Caary. They both allow you to create employee cards with no annual fee, but there are quite a few meaningful differences between them.