You can also do the reverse—transfer any money you need out from your EQ Bank account to your linked account.
Aside from serving as a high interest savings account, EQ’s Savings Plus Account effectively acts as a conduit account and all transfers within EQ Bank or to other banks can be done through the Savings Plus Account. For example, if you want to contribute $5,000 from another bank to your EQ Bank TFSA Savings Account, you can transfer the money to your EQ Savings Plus Account then do an internal transfer to the TFSA Savings Account.
If you hold an RRSP or TFSA GIC with EQ Banks, once the GIC reaches maturity, your money will be deposited in either EQ’s RSP Savings Account or TFSA Savings Account respectively. This is to ensure your contribution room isn’t affected once your GIC reaches maturity.
How do international money transfers work?
To facilitate international money transfers for its clients, EQ Bank has partnered with Wise, a third-party money transfer platform. Everything is integrated, so you can easily create a Wise account through your EQ Bank online banking account or mobile app, provided you have an EQ Bank Savings Plus Account*. And you can check the status of your transfer on the International Transfer dashboard on the site or the app.
Even though EQ Bank works with a third party to process transfers, the bank is committed to low pricing and pricing transparency. You’re only charged once, and the exchange rate is calculated on what’s called the real exchange rate, which you can look up on a calculator on the EQ site. There is no markup or commission charged on this rate. Based on these factors, EQ Bank says, their international money transfers are up to “8 times cheaper than other banks.”
There are some restrictions. Currently, you can send a maximum of $9,500 (CAD) per transaction every 24 hours, to your choice of 70 countries and regions in 32 currencies.
How do you set up an EQ Bank account?
If EQ Bank’s high-interest savings account, GICs and international money transfers are tempting you, read on to find out what the requirements are to sign up for an account, as well as the process, which is quite straightforward.
Sign-up requirements
Opening a Savings Plus Account* at EQ Bank is fairly simple; however, in order to sign up, you need to be a Canadian resident, be of the age of majority where you live, and have a Social Insurance Number (SIN). Unfortunately, Quebec residents aren’t able to bank with EQ Bank.
No joint accounts – always planning… never doing!
It is unfortunate that EQ doesn’t have joint accounts. We were going to transfer money several months ago, but due to no facility for a joint account, didn’t proceed.
Can you please provide an alternative option for Quebec residents since EQ Banking is not available for Quebec residents.
Hi Guys
It is much better for you to place your money in a mutual fund – much higher interest and you can get your money back at any time with 24 hr notice. I found EQB’s service terrible. They are trying to increase their liquidity by taking your money. Put your money elsewhere. There are better options.
It is inappropriate to compare a Savings account at EQ Bank with a Mutual Funds account at a regular bank. Savings account carries no risk and no fees. Mutual funds carry risk and the fees are generally around 2.5%. It is actually not appropriate to invest in mutual funds these days and EQ Bank does have a Joint Account. Simplify your life by:
1. Banking: Do all your banking at an online-only bank like EQ Bank, but maintain a cheap regular bank account for cash withdrawals
2. Investing: Invest your savings at a Robo advisor (like Nestwealth or Wealthsimple) if you need someone to hold your hand or go with QuestTrade or QTrade. After you Emergency Fund is funded contribute to the fullest in RRSPs, RESPs, TFSas and invest only using index-based ETFs
3. Credit Card: Have only one credit card that pays cash-back
Kim – comparing mutual funds to EQ’s HISA is like comparing apples to oranges. Mutual funds often come with high MERs (2-2.5%) that eat away at any return one may make, which is not guaranteed. EQ’s HISA on the other hand has no fees, so a person can easily calculate their return using 2% and this return is not as volatile. I can only assume you are a financial advisor or some other broker who makes money by selling people mutual funds. Btw, Balanced ETF Portfolios (VBAL and XBAL) are far better than mutual funds, since their MERs are often cheaper (VBAL = .25% and XBAL = .20%), which makes ROIs higher.
Sumar – completely agree!
Is there a minimum time the money has to be in your account to earn the 1.7% rate and is there a penalty or fee for withdrawing at any time.
Early redemption of GIC’s due to Compassionate Reasons.
Warning about EQ Bank
I checked with my different banks about early redemption of GIC’s for care and living expenses of this awful, terminal disease called Cancer.
Being terminally ill with Cancer means nothing to EQ Bank, and they will not redeem your GIC early.
My first reach out to all the banks was in June and the EQ Bank response was this:
“Thank you for being a valued customer at EQ Bank.
Sorry to read about your recent health concerns. For early GIC redemptions, customers would need to send us any details regarding their hardship in a cover letter or e-mail format to “[email protected]”. All GIC redemption requests are reviewed and determined by our management team. ”
Looked promising right?
They have finally (after many emails on my part, they tend to ignore a lot) 4 months later made their decision: “Our Management has reviewed your request for premature termination of your GIC, but unfortunately has declined your request.” They knew in advance they were going to deny my request!
So just a heads up for ANYONE, EQ Bank DOES NOT HAVE COMPASSION FOR DYING PEOPLE. Do not give them your money, because if you die sooner than expected, you will never see the money you put in their care. It is not as if I was asking for a loan or charity, THIS IS MY MONEY TO BEGIN WITH. I was prepared to pay an early redemption fee.
How sad and pathetic is a company that won’t allow you to redeem early for medications and living expenses when you are terminal. If they are in financial difficulty and just don’t have it, just be honest with people and let them know. Supposedly they are very well funded, so why won’t they let me have my money back to live on? Of all the banks I checked with they are the only ones who don’t care if you are dying or not, and will not early redeem! Their email address is [email protected] Please stay away from this bank!!
Do you have a similar situation with your bank, please post it so we know who to stay away from!
Stuart Martin
Something to keep in mind if jumping into this. Be very aware of the amounts of money you are transferring. If you are like me you have a reoccurring deposit transfer amount (from another bank) which is kept ON HOLD for a few days. Triple… quadruple check that none of the total amount funds you wish to transfer is on hold. Otherwise you will get an NSF. Rookie mistake I know, but hope to save someone the $45 Tangerine just charged me for my own money. 20 months of interest lost just in that little caricature action by Tangerine. Tangerine (Owned by Scotiabank now) sucks, big, big, big time! EQ Bank has great rates.
How can nobody even answer a damn email…chat doesnt work…and I have been on the Phone for 90 mins and counting…this is soo bad.I just need help cancelling a etransfer..(code 000014061410).
Terrible service I will be closing my account after I get my $1000 E-transfer back unreal
Perhaps the best interest rates around, but horrible customer service. I’ve tried to contact them by phone, but get put on hold indefinitely and eventually give up. I’ve been waiting a week for a reply to my email.
uhhhhh, yes they do offer tfsa’s and at 2.3%
Who wrote this article??
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It’s very disappointing how EQ bank handles customer requests and complaints !!! EQ Bank business practices are very effective at ignoring customer needs by maintaining a reduced number of employees to answer phone calls.
In my particular case, I arranged on EQ bank website a funds transfer from another banking institution. A few minutes later I became aware that I incorrectly selected the bank where the funds were being withdrawn from. In order to reverse the banking transaction, l tried to stop the transfer in the website, but my efforts were futile as the option is disabled. Then I attempted to contact EQ Bank customer service four (4) times – holding on the phone 45 minutes to 1 hour each time – during the same day of setting up the funds transfer. The following day, after 1 Hour and 36 minutes, I was able to reach EQ bank, customer service agent Anmos. In the recorded conversation I was informed that EQ bank was not “capable” of helping me with the funds transfer reversal. Even after explaining to Anmos that l made all the possible efforts to contact customer service with my request the reversal of the previously noted transaction on the same day of arranging the procedure on the bank’s website, I was told that they could only reverse the transaction during the same day of placing the request!!!
As I requested to talk to a manager, Anmos said that a manager will CALL me within 48 hours of setting up my request…No call was received… An email from someone named HERMINIA was received 10 days later with no solution…
I had to pay a $45 NSF charge… thanks to the deceiving business practices of EQ bank…
EQ has the worst customer service and banking policies in Canada. They are only interested in hoarding your money, benefitting from it for days to a week before depositing the funds into your account so they earn interest instead of you. If you start a chat on a difficult issue they block you off the chat to force you to call and wait in line for your turn. They are the only bank in Canada who will hold your funds for a FULL 5 business days before you can use them, regardless if they receive the funds from your other bank on Day 1. This is not ETHICAL.
Hi there,
I am with EQ bank for almost two years now and so far I am quite happy with them. Although I did not have a real issue to be resolved yet and contacted them only to inquire general information, I do have the feeling that they are trying to improve customer service after a recent survey (i.e. mobile app was finally updated, response time in chat and email seem to be faster now). That being said, if you are looking for great customer service I would probably keep on looking.
However, if you are looking for great rates to safely park your emergency fund – I have not found a better bank so far (except for temporary promotion rates). This applies to the interest rate for the savings account (both single and joint!) as well as the international transfer rate that I started to make use of recently.
The latter I also compared to other online services such as Xe (i.e. not just ridiculously expensive banks) and while it was rather intransparent to me what part of the conversion costs are in a declared fee and what part are hidden in the conversion rate – the bottom line was that I paid about 20$ less for converting 5000CAD to EUR than with Xe.
In total I paid about 0.5%-0.6% for the conversion.
If you are looking to convert CAD to USD they now also offer a new USD account. However, the conversion rate there is about 1.5%. So this account is more useful to just keep USD that you might be earning without having to convert them to CAD. You also earn 1% interest on that account which is quite competitive (if not the best) for a USD account at a Canadian bank as well.
Cheers
I opened account with EQ Bank and the process was pretty easy (almost too easy). I opened a joint account and based on some of the comments I’m assuming this is a new feature.
I had no issues with customer service. I spoke to them twice via chat. I found their service to be no different than any other bank.
I’m only using EQ Bank for short term savings / emergency use. I have no plans to use them for my investments or day to day banking.
I wasn’t too keen on the way they implement external bank accounts to require you to enter your bank creds on their site. So instead I used my other bank account and set EQ Bank as an external bank account there and will initiate transfers from them instead.
As a bonus, they have email alerts for debits and credits. This is something that a LOT of other banks don’t offer.
I was an EQ Bank Customer…for less than 30 minutes. I had a endless stream of ‘technical difficulties’ that began with unable to open an account and ended with a wheel spinning endlessly on the sign in page. Initial issue was caused by using a VPN, which an agent helped me with via email. But after a Sunday morning signup that had one technical issue after another, I called and cancelled the transfer that I had made and cancelled the account. I was impressed that the Agent answered promptly and amused when she ended the call with “Thank you for choosing EQ Bank” 🙂
DO NOT BANK WITH EQ, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE HACKED AND YOUR MONEY STOLEN. On March 26/21 $40,000 was taken out of my account and transferred out TD Unlimited. I got a notification that a $12,900 transferred did not go through and that’s when I saw my money taken out. I contacted EQ immediately and my account was frozen, till they could find out what happened. While my account was frozen another $20,000 was taken out. I phoned again and they said it was an internal transfer and they could do nothing about it, So now I am out $60,000. I was told my computer got hacked as well as my Telus account and that’s how they took out the money. I had my computer checked out by a computer company and they told me there was no way my computer got hacked. I contacted Telus, they told me my account was not hacked. I tried contacting EQ security to tell them the information, left multiple message and never heard back from them for 9 day. I did have a few sleepless night. Finally they contacted me and they insisted my computer got hacked, even after it was all checked out. I told them perhaps the bank got hack. Oh NO, we as secure and it is my fault. The end result was I did get my money back and they told me to make sure my computer is save and if it happens again my money will not be covered. I asked them about the investigation and they would not tell me anything, other than my computer got hacked. So I took all of my money out and went to a REAL BANK. The customer service and the security at EQ is a joke, Don’t bank there.
The above review states that GICs must be bought from a Savings Plus account. EQ claims this is not true. One can purchase a GIC from WITHIN a TFSA. No transfer of funds to the Savings Plus is needed. To have it the other way would result in a withdrawal from the TFSA and any income be taxable. Please correct verify this with EQ.
I have not yet opened any account with EQ. I have seen the later reviews…tell me …what is a REAL BANK? 🙂