Financial Product Reviews

The Scotia Total Equity Plan is a parcel of credit products you can access by leveraging the equity you have in your home. This sounds more complicated than it is, really – this is really just a slightly fancier home equity line of credit (HELOC), meaning you can get low-interest credit that is secured by your house.

Most of Canada’s big banks offer insurance, including Scotiabank. On their website, Scotiabank has some information about their insurance offerings, including auto, life, health, travel, creditor, and home insurance. And by “some information,” we mean…some. There’s really not a lot of detail available on their website or when you get an online quote, so it’s really hard to know what’s available.

The Tangerine Savings Account is a digital savings account offered by Tangerine Bank. The shining feature of this account is its welcome bonus – a strong 4.5% for 5 months. After the solid start, the interest rate goes down to 0.3%, which is still competitive with the big 5 banks.

Alterna Bank is a digital bank that offers a TFSA eSavings Account with a competitive interest rate of 1.15%, no monthly fees, and no minimum balance. Though it’s a lesser known online bank, your balance is still secured through the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC).

If you’re looking for a simple place to stash some extra cash and earn a higher-than-average interest rate, EQ Bank Personal Account may be exactly what you’re looking for. It does have a few other features, including the ability to easily send International Money Transfers, but otherwise it’s mostly geared to earning you interest.

Saving for the future has never been more important. Whether you're saving for a rainy day, building an emergency fund, for planning for your eventual retirement, you want to get an account with the best savings interest rate you can.

The Tangerine US Dollar Savings Account is made for people who need a place to put some USD they have kicking around – or even deposit some income that comes in as USD. By using this account, you don’t have to convert the money to CAD, which could be a big help if the exchange rates are particularly bad.

Alterna Bank is a digital bank that offers an RRSP eSavings Account with a competitive interest rate of 1.15%, no fees, and no minimum balance. And even though it’s a relatively unknown bank (compared to the big 5), the balance is still secured through the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC).

The Tangerine TFSA is a tax-free savings account for Canadians from one of the most well-respected online banks in the country. A TFSA works like a standard savings account but you also get tax-sheltering benefits – and the Tangerine TFSA is no different.

Mutual funds are a relatively safe bet for Canadian investors, in that they are professionally managed, and diversified to withstand the vagaries of the market. Like most big Canadian banks, Scotiabank offers an array of mutual funds, ranging from cash equivalent, to balanced, to index funds.