Today I was interested in what RBC has to offer in terms of savings accounts. I am not generally in the loop on what is available so I thought learning about it might be beneficial. Below is a summary what RBC has to offer for Savings Accounts and my findings.

RBC High Interest eSavings Account

This account provides a constant rate of interest on every dollar in the account. Today that interest rate is 1.2%. This account requires no minimum balance and has no monthly fee. One of the main benefits is that you can transfer funds between your other RBC accounts and this account for free. Be careful though because assisted transactions and electronic self serve transactions will cost you $5 per transaction. I assume “electronic self serve transactions” also includes RBC ATM withdrawals. The accounts does come with one free RBC ATM withdrawal per monthly billing cycle. However it is probably a good practice to transfer your money into another RBC account with free debit transactions before you withdraw your money. Additionally, Interact email transfers will also cost you $1.00.

RBC US High Interest eSavings Account

As the name suggests this account is for US dollar savings and is very similar to the RBC High Interest eSavings in the sense that it has no minimum balance, no monthly fee and fund transfers between RBC accounts are free. All funds in the account will also accrue interest at a constant rate. That rate today is 0.25%. In comparison to the RBC High Interest eSavings account the interest rate of 0.25% doesn’t seem like much. I wonder why the US interest rate is so much lower?  Assisted transactions and electronic self serve transactions are cheaper at $3 per transaction and the account comes with one free debit transaction per monthly billing cycle.

RBC Enhanced Savings Account

This account is geared towards customers with higher account balances and comes with a tiered interest rate structure that increases as your account balance increases. Today all account balances under $5K receive an interest rate of 1.2%. Account balances above $5K receive an interest rate above 1.2%. The top interest rate of 1.7% (1.2% + 0.5%) requires an account balance of 250k or more. Like all the other savings accounts there is no monthly fee or account minimum. Assisted transactions and electronic self serve transactions are even cheaper at $1.50 per transaction and the account comes with one free debit transaction per monthly billing cycle. The main benefit for this account is obviously access to a higher rate of interest on higher account balances.

RBC Day to Day Savings Account

This is another account that provides a tiered interest rate structure based on your account balance. Like all other savings accounts their is no minimum, no monthly fee and you can transfer funds between other RBC accounts for free.

The main difference that I see vs. the RBC Enhanced Savings account is that you are able to hit a higher interest rate on a lower account balance on the RBC Day to Day Savings account. The RBC Enhanced Savings account however does have a higher available interest rate on larger account balances.

Compared to the RBC High Interest eSavings account the RBC Day to Day Savings account provides a higher rate of interest at all account balances and lower assisted transaction and electronic self serve transaction costs at $1.50 each. My immediate thought is why would anyone ever take the RBC High Interest eSavings account over the RBC Day to Day Savings account? The only benefit that the RBC High Interest eSavings account has that is evident to me is that it offers fund transfer to other RBC accounts without delay on a 24/7 basis. I assume that the RBC Day to Day Savings does not offer this benefit. Hard to tell how important of a benefit that is if it is the only differentiator that the  RBC High Interest eSavings account has.

Conclusion

Personally, if I had to choose between the savings accounts at RBC I would go with the  Day to Day Savings Account (I don’t have any need to save USD).  The Day to Day Savings Account provides a higher rate of interest at all account balances vs. the High Interest eSavings Account and I don’t particularly care for 24/7 fund transfer with no delay. I prefer the Day to Day Savings Account over the Enhanced Savings Account because I just don’t have enough savings to take advantage of the higher interest rates available to higher account balances in the Enhanced Savings Account.

For more information on of RBC’s savings accounts products visit the RBC website.