Each month I put away all my remaining money into some kinds of savings accounts until I need to use it. Instead of locking money into RRSP, real estate, and/or other investments, high interest rate savings accounts provide a way to grow your investment and at the same time maintain high cashflow (flexibility of deposit and withdrawal as needed).
Below is a list of High Interest Rate Savings Accounts I am keeping track of. Personal favourites at this moment are (1) Amex RRSP Investment Savings for my future First Home Purchase, (2) Canadian Tire High Interest Savings Account for saving’s sake, and (3) HSBC High Interest Savings Accounts for online bill payments.
Amex Investment Savings Account – 2.00%
Not many people are aware Amex has this type of banking for Canadian. I’m not sure if you can sign up for this Amex account online, because I can’t find the online applicati on link on Amex website. I signed up for this account several years ago (in year 2001???). Once you have this account, you can access it through Amex website online.
Amex Investment Savings Account can be registered for RRSP. If you choose this option, your account becomes Amex RRSP Investment Savings Account with the same interest rate as the non-registered account. This is by-far the highest interest rate for an RRSP savings account. You can withdraw money from this RRSP account any time without any interest rate penalty. Interest is calculated daily and paid monthly. Because of this flexibility, I intend to put $20,000 aside in Amex RRSP Investment Savings Account, so that I can withdraw it later to buy my First Home.
Canadian Tire High Interest Savings Account – 2.00%
This account is offered by CT Financial. The interest rate is on the high end, compared to other banks. The interest is calculated daily and paid monthly. The account offers unlimited deposits into and withdrawals from the linked chequing account of your designated financial institution.
HSBC High Interest Savings Account – 1.05%
The interest rate is in the same ballpark as those high interest savings accounts offered by other major Canadian banks (RBC, BMO, CIBC, Scotia, etc). However, unlike all other high interest savings accounts, HSBC High Interest Savings Account allows FREE unlimited bill payment transcations!!! Instead of paying bills through chequing accounts which earn zero interest, you can put aside a fixed amount of money in HSBC account for your monthly bills.
ING Direct High Interest Savings Account – 1.35%
ING used to offer much higher interest rate, but now they don’t due to the global financial meltdown. I don’t use this account as often now.
ICICI HiSAVE Savings Account – 1.60%
Same as ING. Their interest rate is dropping, so I don’t use it as often.
Outlook Financial High Interest Savings Account – 1.75%
The interest rate is alright, but the problem is that it allows only One free debit monthly, $1 for each subsequent debit. For me, I like the freedom of unlimited debits and deposits, so this account is not for me.
Achieva Financial Savings Account – 1.85%
Pretty much the same as Outlook Financial. It offers one free cheque per month and online debit transaction at $0.50 each. I don’t like to pay bank fees, so I don’t even bother to open an account.
PC Financial Savings Account
Interest rate is too low to show. 
I’m not interested in putting money with PC for now.
We get a better interest than any of the ones listed, at our local credit union. It is a better rate than what is on offer in the published rates of banks and eve our credit union. But we have a nearly 30 year relationship with the credit union, and put all our money there, so we are treated well. You could try the same approach.
Actually, PC Financial offers all its banking and chequing services for free and if you keep a balance of $1000 in your savings account, you get 1.5% interest calculated daily. If you have less than that, you get 0.65% daily.
The chequing and savings accounts are separate (you earn the high interest in the savings account, the chequing account rate is negligible). You park your money in your savings account and pull over whatever you need to your chequing to pay bills or take out money. It takes a little forethought, but it’s worth it.
I agree with Jessica! I love PC for their NO FEE Chequing accounts! Don’t understand why people would want to pay banks any fees when they can be saving for using their own $$