Best online banks and credit unions in Canada for 2024 + MORE Mar 20th

Looking at the Toronto housing market through a lens of percentages, shifting sales numbers and interest rates may be the go-to method for industry insiders, but for many run-of-the-mill buyers, there’s really one thing that matters: “What kind of home can I afford?”

To help answer that question, let’s look at the level of income you or your household are going to need to purchase a home in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), based on the benchmark home prices reported by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) in January 2024.

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Income needed by property type

First, let’s look at the income required for home buyers across the entire GTA (both the 416 and suburban 905) by property type. 

Across the GTABenchmark home priceHousehold income neededMonthly mortgage paymentSingle-family detached$1,360,400$269,000$6,485Single-family attached$1,043,700$208,000$4,976Townhouse$795,000$157,000$3,790Apartment/condo$682,600$137,000$3,254

There’s no debating that you will require a significant household income to afford any home in the GTA…

Where can you get the best digital banking experience in Canada? We set out to find out in this inaugural review of the best online banks and credit unions in Canada. To come up with the ranking, MoneySense partnered with Surviscor, a leading Canadian research and consulting firm specializing in financial service customer experiences. Surviscor analyzed hundreds of data points on financial institutions across the Canada’s digital banking space, including traditional banks, credit unions, co-operatives and neo/branchless banks. 

Best online banking firms for 2024

Here are the best online banking firms in Canada in 2024, based on Surviscor’s analysis. The results are based on the four pillars of the digital banking experience: desktop experience, mobile experience, rates and fees, and service availability and responsiveness. To find out more about the points, read our methodology.

RankFirm and points awardedSurviscor’s full analysis1TD Canada Trust (72 points)TD Canada Trust’s pros and cons2CIBC (70 points)CIBC’s pros and cons3Royal Bank of Canada (68 points)Royal Bank of Canada’s pros and cons4Desjardins (44 points)Desjardins’ pros and cons5National Bank of Canada (38 points)National Bank of Canada’s pros and cons6Scotiabank (34 points)Scotiabank’s pros and cons7Bank of Montreal (33 points)Bank of Montreal’s pros and cons8Coast Capital Savings (31 points)Coast Capital Savings’ pros and cons9Tangerine (27 points)Tangerine’s pros and cons10Conexus Credit Union (25 points)Conexus Credit Union’s pros and cons11Meridian Credit Union (22 points)Meridian Credit Union’s pros and cons12Motusbank (16 points)Motusbank’s pros and cons13Simplii Financial (14 points)Simplii Financial’s pros and cons14 (tie)ATB Financial (10 points)ATB Financial’s pros and cons14 (tie)Manulife Bank of Canada (10 points)Manulife Bank of Canada’s pros and cons16Servus Credit Union (8 points)Servus Credit Union’s pros and cons17 (tie)Alterna Savings (7 points)Alterna Savings’ pros and cons17 (tie)EQ Bank (7 points)EQ Bank’s pros and cons19 (tie)Motive Financial (6 points)Motive Financial’s pros and cons19 (tie)Vancity (6 points)Vancity’s pros and cons21 Alterna Bank (5 points)Alterna Bank’s pros and cons22 (tie)Laurentian Bank (4 points)Laurentian Bank’s pros and cons22 (tie)PC Financial (4 points)PC Financial’s pros and cons24BlueShore Financial (0 points)BlueShore Financial’s pros and cons

Note: The Royal Bank of Canada takeover of HSBC Canada is in progress, so we left HSBC Canada out of this review…

Despite their best intentions, some Canadians, facing a variety of financial challenges throughout their working lives, are not able to save much towards retirement. It can be difficult to know how to manage in these circumstances, especially when so much of the financial planning advice that gets shared widely caters to wealthier people. 

Retiring with little to no savings can be challenging, but it is not impossible.

Canada Pension Plan (CPP)

For a retiree who has worked most of their life, the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) will provide a modest retire income. The CPP retirement pension is meant to replace 25% of your historical career earnings, up to a certain limit. The CPP enhancement that started in 2019 will gradually increase that replacement rate to 33% over time.

In 2024, the maximum CPP retirement pension payment at age 65 is $1,365 per month—that is up to $16,375 per year. However, most retirees do not make enough CPP contributions during their careers to receive the maximum…