Here is the number that should decide what you do next. On 12 August 2026, the Bank of Canada’s series for chartered bank savings deposits read 0.01%.
Not 1%. One hundredth of one per cent. On $20,000 that is two dollars a year.
What the market actually pays
View the data
| GIC, 5-year | 2.75% |
|---|---|
| GIC, 1-year | 2.70% |
| Personal deposit, 5-yr fixed | 2.65% |
| GIC, 3-year | 2.55% |
| BoC policy rate | 2.25% |
| Chartered bank savings | 0.01% |
Source: Bank of Canada, selected interest rates via Valet API, accessed .
The chartered bank savings figure is not a typo and it is not unusual. Canada’s big banks hold enormous, sticky deposit balances from customers who opened a chequing account years ago and never revisited it. They have no commercial reason to bid for money they already have.
Everything above that bottom bar is available to the same money, with the same CDIC protection.
Where the better rates live
High-interest savings accounts at online institutions and credit unions. Same insurance, no branch network to fund, and a rate that has to compete for your deposit rather than assume it. This is the straightforward fix for money you need at call.
GICs, if you can lock the money away. At 2.70% for one year against 0.01% at call, the gap is enormous — but the money is committed for the term.
Registered accounts. A TFSA or FHSA holding a high-interest savings product keeps the return out of tax entirely. For most Canadians this matters more than squeezing an extra tenth of a percentage point out of the rate, and it is routinely overlooked in rate comparisons.
The GIC curve is nearly flat
Look again at the GIC numbers: 2.70% at one year, 2.55% at three, 2.75% at five.
That is essentially no reward for committing longer, and a small dip in the middle. When the curve is flat, the case for locking money away for years is weak — you are giving up access and getting almost nothing for it. One year is the sensible default, and five years only makes sense if you specifically want the certainty.
Getting the CDIC coverage right
CDIC insures CA$100,000 per insured category, per member institution, across nine categories:
deposits in one name · joint deposits · TFSA · RRSP · RRIF · RESP · RDSP · FHSA · deposits held in trust
The practical consequence is better than most people assume. Someone holding a chequing account, a TFSA and an RRSP at the same bank has three separate $100,000 limits, not one. You do not need to spread money across banks until you exhaust the categories.
Check that the institution is a CDIC member, since some financial products sold by banks are not deposits and are not covered.
Why Canadian rates look low next to everyone else’s
Because the policy rate is. The Bank of Canada held its target for the overnight rate at 2.25% on 15 July 2026, with the next announcement scheduled for 2 September.
In the same month the RBA was at 4.35% after three increases, the Bank of England at 3.75% and the US Federal Reserve at 3.50–3.75%. Deposit rates anchor to the local policy rate, so an Australian article promising 5% is not describing an opportunity you can access — it is describing a different country’s monetary policy.
The prime rate, for context, was 4.45% on 12 August 2026 — which is what your borrowing costs are indexed to while your savings earn 0.01%.
What to do this week
- Check what your current savings account actually pays. Most people are surprised, and the surprise is the motivation.
- Move at-call money to a competitive high-interest savings account. Confirm CDIC membership.
- Use registered room first. A TFSA wrapper beats a marginally better rate in a taxable account.
- Consider a one-year GIC for money with a known date — but not for your emergency buffer.
- Check the licence and the categories if your balance is near a limit.
Move the at-call money first; that’s the highest-value ten minutes on this list. What a high-yield savings account is and why branch banks pay so little fill in the mechanics behind the 0.01% baseline, and the savings guide rounds out the rest.