There is a chart of High Interest savings accounts out there, but it doesn't include the Big-5 chartered banks because their high-interest accounts are comparatively paltry, as you can see:
| Bank | Account | Interest Rate |
Minimum balance |
Transaction Fee |
Free Transfers |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RBC | High Interest eSavings | $0 |
$5 |
unlimited to your RBC accounts |
||
| Scotia | Power Savings | $5000 |
$5 |
unlimited to your Scotia accounts |
||
| CIBC | eAdvantage | $5000 |
$5 |
unlimited to your CIBC accounts |
||
| BMO | Smart Saver | $0 |
$5 |
1 |
||
TD |
High Interest Savings | $5000 |
$5 |
0 |
Transaction fees waived in months where balance > $25,000 |
Basically, the RBC, Scotia and CIBC accounts seem similar. If you have under $5000 then you want RBC. As long as you have another account there, you can get your money out without charge. TD charges $5/transfer even to your own accounts, so it sucks; you can get free transactions if your balance doesn't dip below $25,000 for the month, but most people keeping that much in cash will probably want to put it in a High Interest Savings account elsewhere elsewhere and get a much better rate. The BMO has one free transfer per month, so it sucks just a bit less than TD.