Staying with the same bank for your mortgage could cost you roughly $1,860 a year — that’s what Ratehub’s latest comparison found when they lined up the average Big Five five-year fixed rate (4.49%) against the lowest available market rate (4.04%). On a national average home price of $672,784, the difference works out to $155 a month, or $9,300 over
Canadians who pay monthly bank fees are sending somewhere between $120 and $200 a year to their financial institution for services that dozens of competitors now offer for free. That figure climbs faster than most people notice — a $16.95 monthly fee, what RBC charges after the first year on its Advantage Banking account, adds up to $203.40 annually. Here’s
The number of Canadian parents opening separate savings accounts for their children has climbed steadily, and it’s not hard to see why. Government incentives tied to the traditional RESP have shifted, tuition costs keep rising faster than many portfolios can keep up, and more families want flexibility that a single registered account doesn’t always offer. Here’s what you actually need
Going through a divorce in Canada reshapes more than just where you live. Contested divorce litigation can run from $50,000 to over $200,000, and that’s before you factor in what it costs to get the tax treatment wrong. The family home, the RRSPs, the pension credits you both built up, even the Canada Child Benefit you’ve been receiving — every
Two in three Canadians say they’ll cut their spending in 2026, and nearly a third of them are starting with subscriptions. That’s not a tip from a budgeting blog — it’s what 67% of respondents told TD Bank in a January 2026 survey, a sharp jump from 51% the year before. Subscription boxes, streaming services, app memberships: the things that
About one in three Canadians pays an NSF fee in any given year. Before March 2026, that typically meant a charge of $45 to $48 per bounced transaction. Now, the maximum is $10. That shift changes the lifetime cost of banking mistakes more than most people realise. Here’s what you actually need to know. Disclosure: Some links on this page
Food prices in Canada have risen 4.3% year over year as of May 2026, marking the 16th straight month of increases, according to Statistics Canada data cited by Retail Insider. Shoppers aren’t waiting for relief — they’re changing how they buy. A new Spring 2026 Canadian Shopper Sentiment Study from the Retail Council of Canada (RCC), conducted by Leger, shows
The Bank of Canada started cutting rates in June 2024, and the one-year GIC rate has since dropped from above 5% to roughly 2.62%. Yet Canadian households still held roughly $497-billion in GICs through 2022 to 2024, and that number hasn’t budged much since the cuts began. Here’s what you actually need to know. Disclosure: Some links on this page
Canadian households carry some of the highest debt loads in the developed world, which means losing a paycheque doesn’t just create a cash-flow problem — it puts your credit file at risk. A single missed payment can mark your report for six years, turning a temporary gap in income into a long-term barrier for renting, borrowing, or even getting a
If you’re a Canadian household, you’ve likely noticed that the grocery bill keeps climbing regardless of what you do. Data from over 173,000 KOHO members shows average monthly grocery spend rose roughly 5% year-over-year to $275 by May 2026. That doesn’t sound catastrophic until you factor in that 81% of Canadians already identified food as the expense that increased most
Nearly half of Canadian adults now use an online-only or challenger bank alongside their traditional accounts, and the share opening primary accounts with branchless banks has nearly doubled since 2022. That shift isn’t random — it’s a response to fees, interest rates, and a growing sense that one institution can’t do everything well. Here’s what you actually need to know.
Forty-five per cent of financially comfortable Canadians are in a relationship, but only 34% of single people describe their financial situation the same way, according to Kantar Canada MONITOR 2025 data. That gap suggests something about how couples handle money matters. More Canadian families are opening joint bank accounts not in their twenties, but later in life — after marriage,
