Canada Review: EQ Bank – Is it as safe & good as it seems?

Long story short, yes.

I signed up for EQ bank probably about 2 years ago, and it was ONLY for their killer 2.3% interest rate on their high interest savings accounts.

I found the process very easy to sign up and there were no hassles as I could recall.

I linked both of my major banks – Simplii Financial and Tangerine (use referral 36726976S1 for a free $50 in your pocket ) as direct deposits for bank to bank transfers and that has been the only “hassle” I’ve encountered because you need to get a void copy of each chequing account and submit it.

I keep my entire emergency fund stash in here and it grows at 2.3% which is an excellent rate. Most banks give you a general rate of 1.25%, but hold short promotional rates that go as high as 3.5%).

I also use this bank to pay my bills directly. Frankly, I don’t really need the other banks except for the fact that I need a cheque from time to time, so I transfer the money from EQ to the other banks as needed.

I also like that once you set up a transfer to EQ, the money appears in your balance right away to start earning interest.

Most of all, I like their app. I sign in, I look at my money, and I find it easy to set up transfers between my other banks when required.

This is the view in the app I use quite often:

It says the actual balance which is the Available Balance, and the rest is on hold.

There is not much else to say on EQ, I only use them to park my money that must stay liquid and not be invested so I can use it for daily expenses.

I schedule all my bills through EQ bank and also get text alerts telling me what I’ve withdrawn or scheduled:

Sometimes when I’ve scheduled or withdrawn money and did not take a note but KNOW I did it, I can go back to these text messages to confirm what I did which is handy.

Any questions?