Wealthsimple Cash Interest Rate: Chequing, Savings, USD and Margin Rates

The Wealthsimple Cash interest rate depends on two things: which Wealthsimple account holds the money, and which plan you’re on. If you’re searching for Wealthsimple Cash, the everyday account appears on Wealthsimple’s site as Chequing, and it pays less than the separate Savings account at every plan level. This page puts every Wealthsimple rate in one place (Chequing, Savings, USD savings, the TFSA and FHSA savings option, margin and the Portfolio line of credit) so you can decide where your cash should sit and what borrowing would cost. YieldMaple checked Wealthsimple’s chequing, savings, USD savings, registered savings, TFSA, FHSA, margin and pricing pages, plus RBC’s posted savings rates, on September 23, 2026.

Wealthsimple interest rates at a glance

Wealthsimple interest rates, September 2026 (RBC's posted savings rates for comparison)

	Rate	Who gets it and what to know
Wealthsimple Savings (CAD)	2.5% (available to every client, no tiers)	Every client, every balance; individual non-registered accounts only. The highest CAD savings rate in this table.
Chequing: Core	1.25%	Under $100,000 in total Wealthsimple assets
Chequing: Premium	1.75%	$100,000 or more in assets
Chequing: Generation	2.25%	$500,000 or more in assets
Direct-deposit boost	an extra 0.5% with at least $2,000 direct-deposited within 30 days	Core and Premium only; applies to Chequing and USD savings
USD savings	2.5% Core, 3% Premium, 3.5% Generation	No monthly account fee or minimum balance
TFSA, RRSP or FHSA opened as a savings account	1.25% Core / 1.75% Premium / 2.25% Generation	Same plan rates as Chequing, per Wealthsimple's registered savings page; tax-sheltered, CDIC rather than CIPF
CAD margin loan (you pay)	4.95% Core / 4.45% Premium / 3.95% Generation	Prime-based; the Portfolio line of credit charges the same rates
USD margin loan (you pay)	7.5% Core / 7% Premium / 6.5% Generation	Priced from a U.S. prime rate of 7%
RBC High Interest eSavings	0.55%	RBC posted rate, all balances
RBC Day to Day Savings	0.01%	RBC posted rate

In short: Wealthsimple Savings pays 2.5% (available to every client, no tiers), which beats every Chequing tier even after the direct-deposit boost and is several times RBC’s posted High Interest eSavings rate of 0.55%. RBC’s Day to Day Savings account posts 0.01%. USD savings pays 2.5% Core, 3% Premium, 3.5% Generation. A TFSA or FHSA opened as a savings account earns the Chequing plan rates, from 1.25% on Core to 2.25% on Generation, but tax-sheltered. The sections below explain each rate and who actually gets it.

What is the Wealthsimple Cash interest rate?

Wealthsimple Chequing pays 1.25% on the Core plan, 1.75% on Premium and 2.25% on Generation, according to Wealthsimple’s pricing page in September 2026.

Your plan depends on how much you hold with Wealthsimple in total. Core starts at $1 in assets, Premium begins at $100,000 and Generation at $500,000. Wealthsimple moves you up automatically. Its pricing FAQ says your status is based on whichever is higher, your net deposits or your total portfolio value, and that nearly every account counts: TFSAs, RRSPs, RESPs, LIRAs, non-registered, crypto, Savings and Chequing.

How the interest works, per Wealthsimple’s chequing and pricing pages:

• The rate is annual, calculated daily and paid monthly into your Chequing account.
• It isn’t a promotional rate and has no set end date. Wealthsimple says it follows the Bank of Canada when that rate changes, so it can go down as well as up.
• Monthly and minimum-balance fees are $0, so account charges don’t eat into the interest.

In dollars, $10,000 left in Chequing for a year earns about $125 on Core, $175 on Premium and $225 on Generation, before tax. For the account’s other features (the Visa Platinum Prepaid card, e-Transfers, ATM fee refunds), see our full Wealthsimple Chequing (Cash) review.

How does the direct-deposit interest boost work?

Core and Premium clients earn an extra 0.5% with at least $2,000 direct-deposited within 30 days, lifting Core Chequing to 1.75% and Premium Chequing to 2.25%.

The fine print from Wealthsimple’s chequing and direct-deposit pages:

• Any direct deposit counts, not only a paycheque, but Wealthsimple doesn’t yet support direct deposit from U.S. payrolls.
• It’s ongoing. You keep the boost by continuing to direct-deposit at least the threshold amount in each 30-day period.
• Generation clients don’t get it. They already earn the top Chequing rate of 2.25%.
• USD savings is boosted too. Wealthsimple’s USD savings page says the boost applies to all your chequing and savings accounts, including USD savings.

One thing Wealthsimple’s pages don’t settle: the CAD Savings page advertises one flat rate with “no tiers, no promos” and doesn’t mention the boost, even though the USD page’s wording covers savings accounts in general. YieldMaple couldn’t confirm from Wealthsimple’s public pages whether CAD Savings gets the extra half point, so treat the rate shown in your app as the final word.

What does the Wealthsimple Savings account pay?

Wealthsimple Savings pays 2.5% (available to every client, no tiers), a non-promotional rate that doesn’t depend on your plan or your balance.

This is Wealthsimple’s high-interest savings account. Its Savings page (checked September 23, 2026) lists these terms:

• No monthly fees, no transfer fees and no minimum balance.
• No lock-in period, withdrawal limit or notice period. Money moves to Chequing instantly.
• No account or transit number, so your pay can’t be direct-deposited into it. The workaround is to have your pay land in Chequing (where it can also earn the boost if you’re on Core or Premium) and set up an automatic transfer to Savings.
• Individual non-registered accounts only for now. You can’t hold this account inside a TFSA, RRSP or FHSA, so its interest is taxable.

On protection, the Savings page lists CIPF rather than CDIC as the account’s coverage. Chequing balances, by contrast, are held in trust at CDIC member institutions, with CDIC coverage up to $100,000 per beneficiary, per CDIC member institution and up to $1 million, because funds are spread across up to 10 CDIC member institutions (Wealthsimple itself is not a CDIC member). If you specifically want CDIC deposit insurance on your savings, that difference matters. The Wealthsimple Savings account guide covers it in more detail.

Wealthsimple markets Savings as the highest-interest everyday savings account in Canada. YieldMaple hasn’t checked that claim against every bank and credit union, so compare it with the best high-interest savings accounts in Canada before moving a large balance.

Which Wealthsimple account pays the most on your cash?

Savings pays the most at every plan level. Its 2.5% (available to every client, no tiers) rate beats the top Chequing rate of 2.25%, even when the direct-deposit boost applies.

Here is the gap on a $10,000 balance kept for a year, by situation:

• Core, no direct deposit: Chequing earns $125 and Savings earns $250, twice as much.
• Core with the boost: Chequing earns $175, still $75 less than Savings.
• Premium with the boost, or Generation: Chequing earns $225, $25 less than Savings.

So the setup that earns the most is simple. Have your pay deposited into Chequing (which earns the boost if you’re Core or Premium), keep enough there for the card, bills and e-Transfers, and move everything else to Savings. Because Savings moves back to Chequing instantly, you don’t lose access to the money.

Wealthsimple vs a big bank: a year of interest on $10,000

At posted rates on September 23, 2026, $10,000 left for a year earns:

• Wealthsimple Savings: about $250
• Wealthsimple Chequing (Core, boosted): about $175
• RBC High Interest eSavings at 0.55%: about $55
• RBC Day to Day Savings at 0.01%: about $1

Moving $10,000 from RBC’s High Interest eSavings to Wealthsimple Savings would earn about $195 more a year, before tax. The comparison uses posted rates only; a limited-time bonus rate from any bank isn’t included.

The rate isn’t the whole story, though. RBC is a bank with in-person branch service, and its chequing page says its accounts are CDIC-insured. Wealthsimple says it isn’t a bank, and its Savings account lists CIPF rather than CDIC coverage. If branch access or direct CDIC deposit insurance matters more to you than the extra interest, the bank’s lower rate may still suit you.

Enter your own balance and plan below. The calculator applies the direct-deposit boost to Chequing only, and switches the boost off when you pick Generation, since Generation clients aren’t eligible for it.

What is the Wealthsimple TFSA interest rate?

A Wealthsimple TFSA opened as a high-interest savings account pays 1.25% on Core, 1.75% on Premium and 2.25% on Generation, per Wealthsimple’s registered savings page.

Those are the same plan rates as Chequing. Wealthsimple’s TFSA page offers the option (hold the TFSA as cash earning interest, without stock-market swings, and withdraw at any time) but quotes only the top “up to” rate; the rate for each plan is on the separate registered savings page, which also offers the account as an RRSP or FHSA. The Savings account itself can’t be held in a TFSA. Protection works the other way round from the Savings account: registered savings accounts are not protected by CIPF — the cash is held in trust with CDIC member institutions instead. The other route is to invest inside a self-directed TFSA, for example in a cash-style ETF. In that case the yield is set by the fund, not by Wealthsimple.

Taxable Savings or a tax-free TFSA? Savings pays more before tax, but its interest is taxed at your marginal rate and TFSA interest isn’t. The TFSA savings option only comes out ahead after tax once your marginal tax rate is above 50% on Core, 30% on Premium and 10% on Generation. So on Core, where the TFSA pays half the Savings rate, taxable Savings earns more unless your marginal rate is above one-half. On Generation, the TFSA wins at a much lower tax rate. The formula: divide the TFSA rate by the Savings rate and subtract the result from one.

Two TFSA rules matter for cash. First, room is limited: the 2026 limit is $7,000, and room used for cash isn’t available for long-term investments. Second, money you withdraw is added back to your room on January 1 of the following year, not right away. Putting an emergency fund back in during the same year can therefore push you over your limit. The Wealthsimple TFSA guide walks through the account itself.

Wealthsimple FHSA interest rate

Wealthsimple’s FHSA page offers the same savings option, and the registered savings page lists the same plan rates: 1.25% on Core, 1.75% on Premium and 2.25% on Generation. For a first-home fund with a short timeline, that pairs the FHSA’s tax breaks with no stock-market risk. Room is $8,000 a year up to a $40,000 lifetime limit, contributions are deductible, and qualifying first-home withdrawals are tax-free. See the Wealthsimple FHSA guide for how to open one.

How is Wealthsimple interest paid and taxed?

Wealthsimple calculates Chequing and USD savings interest daily and pays it monthly, and interest earned outside a TFSA, RRSP or FHSA is taxable income for that year.

Per month. The quoted rates are annual. At the Savings rate, one month is about 0.21% of your balance, or roughly $20.83 a month on $10,000. On Chequing and USD savings, where interest accrues daily, a 31-day month pays slightly more than a 30-day one.

Tax. Interest from Chequing, Savings and USD savings is part of your income for the year it’s paid or credited, so it’s taxed at your marginal rate. The CRA’s line 12100 guidance says foreign-currency interest is reported in Canadian dollars, and that you report interest even if you don’t receive a slip for it. If you file with Wealthsimple Tax, its pricing page says it can import slips from the CRA and from your Wealthsimple accounts.

What does Wealthsimple pay on U.S. dollars?

Wealthsimple USD savings pays 2.5% Core, 3% Premium, 3.5% Generation, with no monthly account fee or minimum balance.

With the direct-deposit boost, Core USD savings rises to 3% and Premium to 3.5%. You can open up to eight USD savings accounts. You can fund them with USD from another Canadian institution, a USD wire, a linked USD bank account or another Wealthsimple account.

Don’t confuse USD savings with the USD trading account. The USD savings page says there’s no monthly fee, while the separate USD trading account costs $10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation.

Should you convert CAD just to earn the USD rate? Usually not. Before any direct-deposit boost, USD savings pays the same as CAD Savings on Core. On Premium, the extra is half a percentage point a year, and on Generation it’s one percentage point. Converting under $10,000 into a USD account and back costs 3% in conversion fees before any exchange-rate spread, so the extra interest takes about six years to pay it back on Premium and about three years on Generation, ignoring currency moves. USD savings makes sense when you already hold U.S. dollars, such as U.S. income, dividends or money set aside for U.S. spending. Our Wealthsimple USD account guide has an FX calculator for the investing side.

What exchange rate does Wealthsimple charge on USD?

Wealthsimple converts at its own live exchange rate, which includes a spread, and adds a 1.5% fee when you trade U.S. stocks from a CAD account.

The details, from Wealthsimple’s pricing page:

• Conversions are priced off Wealthsimple’s own “corporate exchange rate”, a live rate that includes a spread. The conversion fee is added on top, so the full cost is the spread plus the fee.
• In a USD account, the fee shrinks with the size of each conversion: 1.5% under $10,000; 1.0% from $10,000; 0.5% from $25,000; 0% from $100,000.
• On the Chequing card, Wealthsimple’s foreign transaction fee is 0% (Visa's conversion rate still applies).

Wealthsimple doesn’t publish the live rate on its pricing page, so compare the rate you’re offered with the mid-market rate before converting a large amount. As an example, converting $5,000 to buy U.S. shares from a CAD account costs about $75 in fees, before the spread.

What are Wealthsimple’s margin and line of credit rates?

Wealthsimple charges 4.95% on Core, 4.45% on Premium and 3.95% on Generation for CAD margin loans, and lists its Portfolio line of credit at the same rates.

Both are priced from the prime rate. Per Wealthsimple’s margin and pricing pages, margin is available by application; as of Sept 18, 2026 prime is 4.45% (CAD) — Core pays prime + 0.5%, Premium prime + 0%, Generation prime − 0.5%. Margin interest is calculated daily and charged monthly. USD margin loans are priced from a separate U.S. prime rate of 7%, so they cost more: 7.5% on Core, 7% on Premium and 6.5% on Generation. On $10,000 borrowed for a full year, the CAD cost works out to about $495 on Core, $445 on Premium and $395 on Generation.

A few terms from Wealthsimple’s margin page are worth knowing. You apply and must be approved. You can link a TFSA to add buying power without it counting as a TFSA withdrawal or contribution. And if your account drops below its margin requirement, you get a margin call and have to add money or sell. Borrowing to invest magnifies losses as well as gains. The Wealthsimple margin account guide covers how it works in practice.

Wealthsimple portfolio line of credit rate

Wealthsimple’s pricing page lists the Portfolio line of credit at 4.95% on Core, 4.45% on Premium and 3.95% on Generation, the same prime-based tiers as CAD margin. Your investments are the collateral, so there’s no credit check and no minimum payment. Non-registered accounts (other than margin accounts) and TFSAs can be pledged, and the line can cover overdrafts on eligible transactions in an eligible CAD Chequing account. You can borrow up to 35% of your eligible collateral’s value.

Does Wealthsimple offer GICs or publish mortgage rates?

Wealthsimple publishes mortgage rates on its Mortgages page, but YieldMaple found no GIC product on its accounts, savings and pricing pages in September 2026.

The Savings page pitches the account as having no lock-in period, unlike a GIC. The trade-off is that its rate isn’t guaranteed for any term. If you want a rate guaranteed for a fixed term, compare the best GIC rates in Canada instead.

On mortgages, Wealthsimple’s Mortgages page (checked September 24, 2026) shows a five-year fixed and a five-year variable rate for insured mortgages. Your own rate is personalized after you apply. Wealthsimple acts as a mortgage broker: its in-house brokers search its lending partners for a rate. The pricing page adds mortgage cash back that rises with your plan level. The Mortgages page lists Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland as the provinces it currently serves. Compare the quote you get with at least one bank or other broker quote on the same term.

Who should (and shouldn’t) keep cash at Wealthsimple

Wealthsimple is a good home for your cash if:

• You already invest with Wealthsimple and want spending money, savings and investments in one app. Savings and Chequing balances also count toward Premium.
• Your savings sit at a big-bank posted rate. On $10,000, the gap to RBC’s High Interest eSavings is about $195 a year.
• You can direct-deposit your pay and you’re on Core or Premium, which adds the boost to Chequing and USD savings.

Look elsewhere if:

• You want a rate locked for a fixed term. Wealthsimple’s savings rates aren’t guaranteed for any term, and YieldMaple found no GIC product.
• You want your savings interest sheltered in a TFSA at the full Savings rate. Savings is non-registered only, and the TFSA savings option pays 1.25% on Core. Compare other institutions’ TFSA savings rates first.
• You want CDIC insurance on your non-registered savings specifically. Wealthsimple’s Savings page lists CIPF; CDIC coverage applies to Chequing and to the registered (TFSA, RRSP and FHSA) savings accounts.
• You’re chasing the single highest rate available this month, including promotional rates. Compare the whole market first.

This page is general education, not financial advice. Rates change often, so check Wealthsimple’s current rate in the app before you move money. Our complete Wealthsimple guide covers the rest of the platform.

Read next

• Wealthsimple Chequing (Cash) review: features, card and CDIC coverage
• Wealthsimple Savings account guide
• Wealthsimple margin account: how borrowing works
• Is Wealthsimple Premium worth it?
• Today’s EQ Bank interest rates
• Wealthsimple Canada: complete independent guide