RBC High Interest eSavings Account!
Finally, one of the big banks has started a high interest savings account that is competitive with other financial institutions like PC Financial. RBC has introduced their High Interest eSavings Account that currently pays out 4% interest / year.
If you look at the details below, this account will work out great for those of you who already have RBC accounts as the transfers between accounts are free. For those who don’t have RBC accounts, there will be a transfer fee to port your money from RBC to your own bank account.
The details:
Features and Fees
Monthly fee Per transaction fees Unlimited Online Banking transfers from this account to other RBC Royal Bank accounts in your name Free† All other debit transactions, cheques, in branch, ATM, Telephone, or Online Banking bill payments $5.00 each Interac* and Plus* System ATM network access fees3 Interac: $1.50PLUS System: $3.00
(within Canada and USA)PLUS System: $5.00
(outside Canada and USA)Overdraft protection5 N/A Stop payments Regular fees apply Interac Email Money Transfers $1.50 Search for Records/Trace Items greater than 90 days old6 Regular fees apply Cross Border Debit22 $0.75 Deposited item returned NSF Regular fees apply Recordkeeping Options: eStatement with Cheque Images free** Free Monthly Paper Statement (consolidated/combined***) Free Cheque Images returned with paper statement $2.00 Bankbook Not available Other Services Access to Online and Telephone Banking4 Free
Because I don’t bank with RBC, I will be sticking with the PC Financial Interest PLUS Savings account as the fees involved with the RBC account are too much for me.
30 Comments, Comment or Ping
1. Jon Lee
How are the regular RBC chequing accounts? Also, PC gives the annual bonus of 0.03% or something, not a lot but its something.
Mar 22nd, 2007 @ 9:01 am
2. Canadian Dream
Good to know RBC has finally got a product like this, but it is said to see in the fine print that the 4% interest rate is only good to July 2007 after which it will drop to 3.25%. So I’m keeping with ING for now.
CD
Mar 22nd, 2007 @ 11:28 am
3. FrugalTrader
Jon: I don’t bank with RBC, but i’m sure that they are similar to the other big banks with fees up the ying yang for regular chequing accounts. I usually stick with accounts with have free transactions with a min balance.
C. Dream: Sneaky sneaky.. those big banks always have stipulations. Thanks for the heads up.
Mar 22nd, 2007 @ 11:33 am
4. Blain Reinkensmeyer
Good find here Frugal, doesn’t seem to be any major catches with it as well from what I can see from what you posted.
Mar 22nd, 2007 @ 12:14 pm
5. Blain Reinkensmeyer
Minus the $5 fees everytime you conduct an atm transactions, and if I am reading this right, in branch are still $5? If so that’s a bad beat, most banks will charge nothing for branch atm transactions…
Mar 22nd, 2007 @ 12:16 pm
6. FrugalTrader
Blain: I think the trick here is if you already have an RBC chequing account to transfer to your chequing account first (which is free).
Mar 22nd, 2007 @ 12:53 pm
7. Canadian Money
The TD Bank has a similar account that pays 3 percent. Not sure how it compares to RBC with respect to fees. The (Casera?)Credit Union in Winnipeg has a similar account that pays 3.25 percent.
Mar 22nd, 2007 @ 2:28 pm
8. Canadian Capitalist
How is this better than E*Trade Cash Optimizer which today pays 4.15% without any fees of any kind? I bank with RBC but wouldn’t touch this product because this is just an introductory rate for four months. After that the rate will be 3.25% which is lower than ING and no where nearly as good as some other savings accounts.
Mar 22nd, 2007 @ 6:57 pm
10. Thomas
It will be interesting to see which big banks follow suit.
Apr 11th, 2007 @ 3:35 pm
11. mir18
HSBC is also doing an introductory rate of 5% until October, then dropping to 3.5%…but the best interest rate you can get is at ICICI bank Canada, at 4.5%!!!
Jul 12th, 2007 @ 1:41 am
12. ed
HSBC is 5% until Oct 10 and then it drops to prime. It was 3.5% before they started offering this 5% deal. It may not be 3.5% it could be lower or higher.
The big bonuses HSBC is you can use BMO ABM as well for fast cash. I have no clue were you can find a ICICI ABM.
But ING is still offering the $13 if you
Aug 9th, 2007 @ 9:56 pm
13. dax
I just enrolled in this program. It is now past July 2007. I will be getting 4%. You think it will only be for 4 months?
Nov 11th, 2007 @ 9:20 pm
14. Serg
Here is how you can get RBC checking account without monthly fee
http://frugal-geek.blogspot.com/2007/11/rbc-no-fee-checking-account.html
Nov 27th, 2007 @ 2:41 pm
15. bleah
Ugg, I feel so silly, I opened this account thinking it would help me Save for my Travels in 6 months, thinking it make interest per month, but now im to understand its per year? My face is red.
Dec 9th, 2007 @ 11:24 pm
16. Ann
I have dealt with ICICI and it was a good experience. No holds on money transferred back into my PC chequing so could use funds right away.
Dec 17th, 2007 @ 12:07 pm
18. Neil
What is the current rate on the e savings account at rbc?
Is it a tiered rate. So much interest up to the top rate.
I don’t believe you get 4% ON ALL YOUR MONEY. I cant find
the rate schedule on the rbc web site.
Jan 20th, 2008 @ 12:06 am
19. FrugalTrader
Neil, just checked their site and their interest rate has dropped to 3.8%. To my knowledge, the 3.8% applies to every dollar in the esavings account.
Jan 20th, 2008 @ 12:33 am
20. DAvid
Neil, you can find the info here:
http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/RBC:R5LUOY71A8UADODqCSk/products/deposits/e-savings.html
DAvid
Jan 20th, 2008 @ 1:28 am
21. John
I’ve been watching the RBC e-savings account and it looks pretty clear that RBC boosted the rate for a few months (after the introductory period) to give a false impression that it was competitive with ING. Now that they’ve sucked in your money, their rate is consistently inferior to ING. IIt was just a marketing gimmick to fool the clients.
Mar 21st, 2008 @ 1:41 am
22. Bob Howse
$5.00 charge for every online bill payment???? President’s Choice PAYS ME PC points for every online bill payment I make! And their interest rate is better. And it’s not tiered.
Mar 21st, 2008 @ 11:07 pm
23. DAvid
Bob,
Does PCF allow online bill payments from their High Interest accounts? Their website is unclear on the topic, as it just speaks about transfers to and from their regular account.
DAvid
Mar 22nd, 2008 @ 4:43 pm
24. bleah
Well if you are like me, my high interest savings is my second account and i do all my transfers online. I dont use that account for paying bills, I keep it for earning the interest. I use those hefty fees as a deterrant from using debit etc, and it works for me. as for the 3.8%, thats a whole lot better than what a regular savings pays, a few measly cents.
Mar 22nd, 2008 @ 10:10 pm
25. FrugalTrader
David, just confirmed that PCF does not allow bill payments directly from savings accounts. It makes sense as they require a 1 day delay for withdrawals.
Mar 22nd, 2008 @ 10:36 pm
26. david
I can’t believe this, but RBC just dropped their rate to 2.5%! How is this a “High Interest” savings account now?
May 10th, 2008 @ 10:09 pm
27. adam
This is just astounding. RBC high interest account 2.5% interest rate. what a load of ##. i just got back from poor old Poland. every day on tv i was seeing ads for savings accounts that payed from 6%. Online i found one that payed out 7% over a year. Just shows u how much we are getting ripped off here. year by year my family is regretting ever coming to Canada.
This is a list of bank percentages. its in polish. the percentages shown are a bit higher because they are based on 18 allocations with variable change percentages, whats show is is the average you would achieve over the 18 month period. the bottom line is after all the fine print your getting betweek 6-8% a year.
http://www.comperia.pl/lokaty_bankowe/index.php?p=2&rodzaj_l_=2&waluta_=1&kwota_=20000&typ_=1&okres_=8
Oct 28th, 2008 @ 5:11 pm
28. DAvid
Adam,
However if you tell the rest of the story: consumption loans start at about 13% if you want a loan longer than 12 months; mortgages at 7.4%; and loans ‘for other purposes’ start at about 9% (National Bank of Poland website). In Canada just now you can get a car loan for about 7%, a mortgage at about 5%, and a LOC as low as 4%. In the not too distant past mortgage rates in Poland were about 25%.
Do your research before moving — the grass often looks greener on the other side of the fence.
DAvid
Oct 28th, 2008 @ 9:11 pm
29. Sampson
I feel this account was made with me perfectly in mind. I don’t do normal banking with RBC (I do it with PCF), however, 80-90% of my family’s investments are through RBC Direct Investing.
This account is great because transfer within the RBC family are free. This means that any cash paid out in my non-RRSP investment accounts (both the TFSA and normal non-registered account) can be moved into this eSavings high interest account. Easy and I can actually earn interest on that money.
I don’t know about other discount brokerages, but RBC DI does not pay interest on any cash held in ANY of the self-directed accounts.
So those investing with RBC DI, this is a great account to use to park money since transactions into the investing accounts have be linked the the eSavings account.
They also have a US eSavings too so both CAD and US trades can be made.
Feb 6th, 2009 @ 4:26 pm
30. dude
Hahaha. Sadly, now it’s 0.750 percent interest.
Jun 17th, 2009 @ 2:13 am
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