Wealthsimple vs KOHO: Which Account Should You Use in 2026?

Wealthsimple vs KOHO is a choice between two Canadian money apps that both give you a prepaid card, free Interac e-Transfers and interest on your balance, yet win for different people. KOHO sells plans that add cash back, higher interest and cheaper credit building; Wealthsimple keeps its chequing account free and connects it to savings, travel perks and investing. This comparison shows what each one pays and costs, works through a year of numbers, and ends with a plain pick for each kind of reader.

YieldMaple checked Wealthsimple’s pricing, chequing and credit card pages and KOHO’s plan, credit-building and travel pages and its cardholder agreement on September 23, 2026, and KOHO’s help-centre plan comparison on September 24, 2026; every figure below shows its source on hover.

Wealthsimple vs KOHO at a glance

Wealthsimple Chequing vs KOHO — costs, earnings and features (September 2026)

	Wealthsimple	KOHO
Basic plan: cost, interest and card cash back	Chequing: $0 a month; 1.25% interest on Core; no published cash back on the prepaid card	Essential: $0 a month if you deposit your paycheque or add at least $1,000 each month; 2% interest; 1% cash back on groceries, transportation and dining
Paid plans	None to buy. Premium ($100,000 in assets) and Generation ($500,000) raise your rates automatically	Extra: $12 a month when billed yearly or $18 a month when billed monthly. Everything: $14.75 a month when billed yearly or $22 a month when billed monthly
Interest on your balance	Chequing: 1.25% Core, 1.75% Premium, 2.25% Generation. Savings: 2.5% (available to every client, no tiers)	2% on Essential, 2.5% on Extra and 3.5% on Everything, on the whole balance once you opt in to Earn Interest
Cash back on card spending	Prepaid card: none published. Wealthsimple credit card: 2% on every purchase	1% on Essential, 1.5% on Extra and 2% on Everything on groceries, transportation and dining; 0% on Essential, 0.25% on Extra and 0.5% on Everything on everything else; up to 6.5% extra at partner merchants
Card	Visa Platinum Prepaid card (digital and physical), linked to your Wealthsimple Chequing account	a prepaid Mastercard issued by KOHO Financial Inc.
Foreign transaction fee	0% (Visa's conversion rate still applies)	1.5% on Essential; none on Extra or Everything (Mastercard's conversion rate still applies)
ATM withdrawals	no Wealthsimple ATM fees in Canada or abroad; eligible ATM-operator fees reimbursed	free from KOHO (the ATM operator may still add its own fee); abroad: one free international ATM withdrawal a month on Extra and Everything (not included on Essential)
Credit building	Prepaid card: no credit check and no effect on your score. Credit card: full credit check and minimum income	Credit Building: $10 a month (30% off on Extra and 50% off on Everything (no discount on Essential)); guaranteed approval, with no deposit, no hard credit check and no application
Deposit protection	CDIC up to $1 million, because funds are spread across up to 10 CDIC member institutions (Wealthsimple itself is not a CDIC member)	CDIC up to $100,000 per beneficiary, per CDIC member institution, once you opt in to Earn Interest
Investing	TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, LIRA, RRIF, non-registered (cash and margin), and corporate accounts	Crypto only (0.5% trading fee)
Regulator	Chequing is offered by Wealthsimple Investments Inc. (a CIRO member) and Wealthsimple Payments Inc., a FINTRAC-registered money services business (not a bank)	regulated by FINTRAC as a money services business (not a bank)

Which pays more interest, Wealthsimple or KOHO?

Among the free options, Wealthsimple Savings pays most at 2.5% (available to every client, no tiers); KOHO’s Everything plan pays 3.5%, but that plan carries a fee.

Wealthsimple splits interest across two accounts. Chequing pays 1.25% on Core, 1.75% on Premium and 2.25% on Generation, and Core and Premium clients get an extra 0.5% with at least $2,000 direct-deposited within 30 days. Your plan depends on how much you hold with Wealthsimple (Premium starts at $100,000), not on a subscription. Wealthsimple Savings pays 2.5% (available to every client, no tiers) to everyone, so money you aren’t about to spend earns more there than in Chequing.

KOHO pays one rate on your whole balance: 2% on Essential, 2.5% on Extra and 3.5% on Everything. You have to opt in to Earn Interest in the app, and KOHO’s cardholder agreement says the feature can take up to 5 business days to switch on. KOHO says interest is calculated daily and paid out monthly, with no minimum balance. Without a plan, KOHO pays 0.5% (after opting in).

On a $5,000 balance, a year in Wealthsimple Savings earns $125, KOHO Essential earns $100, and Wealthsimple Chequing on Core earns $62.50, or $87.50 with the direct-deposit boost.

When does KOHO Everything pay for itself on interest alone? Its rate is one percentage point above Wealthsimple Savings. Billed yearly, Everything costs $177 a year, so you’d need a balance of about $17,700 before the extra interest covers the fee. Billed monthly, it costs $264 a year and the break-even rises to about $26,400. For most people, cash back, not interest, is what decides whether a paid KOHO plan is worth it. See Wealthsimple interest rates by plan and the Wealthsimple Savings account guide for the full rate picture.

Does Wealthsimple or KOHO give more cash back?

KOHO does: every KOHO plan pays cash back on everyday card spending, while Wealthsimple publishes no cash-back rate for its prepaid chequing card.

KOHO pays cash back on every plan, and its site describes it as unlimited:

• Groceries, transportation, and food and drinks: 1% on Essential, 1.5% on Extra and 2% on Everything
• Everything else: 0% on Essential, 0.25% on Extra and 0.5% on Everything
• Partner deals: up to 6.5% extra at partner merchants, for purchases made through partner links in the app, with rates that vary by merchant

Wealthsimple. For the prepaid Visa that comes with Chequing, no cash-back rate for the prepaid card is published on Wealthsimple's chequing page (the 2% cash back belongs to the Wealthsimple credit card). The credit card is a different product: it earns 2% on every purchase and costs $240 a year ($20/month), waived with $100,000+ in individual assets or $4,000+/month direct deposit. Wealthsimple runs a full credit check, sets minimum income requirements, says the card is available in limited quantities, and requires you to pay it off from Wealthsimple Chequing. The Wealthsimple credit card guide covers it in detail.

Spend $800 a month on groceries, transit and dining, and KOHO’s cash back on those purchases works out to $96 a year on Essential, $144 on Extra and $192 on Everything.

How much does KOHO cost compared with Wealthsimple?

Wealthsimple Chequing has no plan fee, while KOHO runs from free (no plan, or Essential with a qualifying deposit) up to Everything at $22 a month when billed monthly.

KOHO’s plans:

• No plan (KOHO calls it Non-Member): free, with 0.5% (after opting in) interest and 0% — no cash back without a plan.
• Essential: $0 a month if you deposit your paycheque or add at least $1,000 each month. Miss that condition and it isn’t free: KOHO’s help centre lists Essential at $7 a month, or $0 in a month you set up direct deposit or deposit $1,000 on monthly billing.
• Extra: $12 a month when billed yearly, which works out to $144 a year, or $18 a month when billed monthly ($216 a year).
• Everything: $14.75 a month when billed yearly ($177 a year), or $22 a month when billed monthly ($264 a year).

Every plan starts with a free 30-day trial. KOHO shows yearly billing by default on its site, so the lower price you see first assumes you commit for a year. Credit Building is a separate add-on on top of any plan.

Wealthsimple charges $0 to open an account and $0 a month for Chequing, with no minimum-balance fees and no charge for Interac e-Transfers. Your plan is set by assets: Core starts at $1 in assets, Premium at $100,000 and Generation at $500,000. Chequing also covers bank-style tasks such as mobile cheque deposit, bank drafts, and domestic and international wires, and it takes cash deposits at Canada Post locations. KOHO accepts cash deposits too; its help centre lists the cash deposit fee as free on Essential, Extra and Everything ($3.00 with no plan).

Worked example: one year with each account

To see how the pieces add up, take one reader and run the numbers for a year. The assumptions:

• An average balance of $5,000
• $800 a month on groceries, transportation and dining ($9,600 a year)
• $400 a month on everything else ($4,800 a year)
• A paycheque big enough for Wealthsimple’s boost (an extra 0.5% with at least $2,000 direct-deposited within 30 days), deposited to whichever account is being tested, so KOHO Essential is free and the Wealthsimple boost applies

KOHO Essential: $100 interest + $96 cash back + nothing on other spending, with no plan fee = $196 a year.

KOHO Extra, billed yearly: $125 interest + $144 + $12 cash back − $144 plan fee = $137 a year.

KOHO Everything, billed yearly: $175 interest + $192 + $24 cash back − $177 plan fee = $214 a year. Billed monthly, the same reader keeps $127.

Wealthsimple Chequing only (Core, with the boost): $87.50 interest and no published card cash back = $87.50 a year.

Wealthsimple Savings, spending from Chequing: park the balance in Savings and move money over as you spend, for $125 a year.

Wealthsimple Savings plus the Wealthsimple credit card: $288 cash back + $125 interest = $413 a year if the card’s fee is waived, or $173 if you pay it.

What it means. On a debit-style setup, KOHO comes out ahead for this reader: Essential beats Wealthsimple’s best free option by $71 a year, because its cash back more than makes up for the lower interest rate. Everything adds only $18 over Essential, and only if you pay for a year up front. Wealthsimple pulls ahead only when the credit card is part of the picture and you meet its fee-waiver conditions; the card costs $240 a year ($20/month), waived with $100,000+ in individual assets or $4,000+/month direct deposit. Change the inputs and the order can flip: a bigger balance favours Wealthsimple Savings, and heavier grocery and transit spending favours KOHO. All figures are simple, pre-tax estimates; interest earned outside a TFSA, RRSP or FHSA is taxable.

Which is better for building credit, Wealthsimple or KOHO?

KOHO is better for building credit from scratch, because its Credit Building line of credit needs no deposit or hard credit check and reports your payments to Equifax.

How KOHO Credit Building works. You subscribe for $10 a month before plan discounts (30% off on Extra and 50% off on Everything (no discount on Essential)), and KOHO opens a small line of credit, with a limit of $225 under its cardholder agreement (or another limit KOHO sets), at 0% (a no-fee, no-interest line of credit). KOHO offers guaranteed approval, with no deposit, no hard credit check and no application. KOHO says you don’t need to withdraw the credit for it to work; it suggests keeping your utilization low each billing cycle, and KOHO reports your payment history to Equifax. KOHO shows the Credit Building fee at sign-up and can change it, and it states plainly that the product isn’t a credit repair tool and can’t promise your score will rise.

A year of Credit Building costs $120 on Essential, $84 on Extra and $60 on Everything, plus that plan’s own fee. For newcomers to Canada or anyone with no credit file, that’s a low-cost way in. The KOHO Credit Building guide covers the details.

Wealthsimple. Wealthsimple lists the prepaid Visa’s credit check as none — it spends your own chequing balance, and the card never touches your credit score, so on its own it builds nothing. The Wealthsimple credit card does build credit (on-time payments help, missed payments hurt), but it needs a full credit check and a minimum income. Wealthsimple does offer a pre-approval check that it says carries no risk to your credit score, so you can see where you stand before applying. That makes the card a good second step once KOHO or another starter card has given you a credit history, not a first step.

Which is better for travel, Wealthsimple or KOHO?

Wealthsimple is better for travel on a free plan: its card’s foreign transaction fee is 0% (Visa's conversion rate still applies), while KOHO Essential charges 1.5% per transaction.

On $2,000 of purchases abroad, KOHO Essential’s fee comes to $30; Wealthsimple adds nothing on top of Visa’s exchange rate. KOHO’s Extra and Everything plans remove the fee; by plan, KOHO charges 1.5% on Essential; none on Extra or Everything (Mastercard's conversion rate still applies). On both cards, the card network’s conversion rate still applies.

Cash abroad. Wealthsimple lists no Wealthsimple ATM fees in Canada or abroad; eligible ATM-operator fees reimbursed. KOHO’s cardholder agreement lists its ATM withdrawal fee as free from KOHO (the ATM operator may still add its own fee); none of the KOHO pages checked for this comparison mention reimbursing the ATM operator’s own fee, as Wealthsimple does. For withdrawals outside Canada, KOHO’s plan table lists one free international ATM withdrawal a month on Extra and Everything (not included on Essential), so check in the app what a withdrawal abroad costs on your plan.

KOHO also offers travel extras that Wealthsimple’s chequing page doesn’t list: eSIM data included on Extra and Everything, and an optional travel insurance add-on. On the Wealthsimple side, those perks (travel insurance and free GigSky mobile data plans) come with the credit card instead. If you mostly need a card that’s cheap abroad, Wealthsimple does it without a subscription. For holding foreign currency, Wealthsimple vs Wise for travel compares the other popular option.

Is KOHO as safe as Wealthsimple?

Both are FINTRAC-registered money services businesses that place client money in trust with CDIC member institutions, but Wealthsimple’s CDIC coverage runs higher.

• Wealthsimple Chequing balances get CDIC coverage up to $1 million, because funds are spread across up to 10 CDIC member institutions (Wealthsimple itself is not a CDIC member). Coverage works out to up to $100,000 per beneficiary, per CDIC member institution. The account is offered by Wealthsimple Investments Inc. (a CIRO member) and Wealthsimple Payments Inc., a FINTRAC-registered money services business, and Wealthsimple’s investment accounts carry separate protection: securities eligible for CIPF coverage up to $1M per defined account.
• KOHO balances are eligible for up to $100,000 per beneficiary, per CDIC member institution, once you opt in to Earn Interest. That protection depends on Earn Interest: KOHO balances not earning interest are not eligible for CDIC protection, and KOHO’s cardholder agreement places funds in trust with CDIC member institutions only once Earn Interest is active. KOHO says it partners with Peoples Trust to safeguard funds, and it is regulated by FINTRAC as a money services business.

For a spending float of a few thousand dollars, both are covered once KOHO’s Earn Interest is on. Once your balance passes KOHO’s per-institution CDIC limit, Wealthsimple’s wider coverage matters. Both apps let you lock a lost card from inside the app. For KOHO’s structure in more depth, see is KOHO safe.

Is Wealthsimple and KOHO the same?

No: Wealthsimple and KOHO are separate Canadian companies with their own apps, cards and pricing, and neither one is a bank.

• Wealthsimple is an investing company that added banking-style accounts: Chequing (with a Visa Platinum Prepaid card (digital and physical), linked to your Wealthsimple Chequing account), Savings, a credit card, and self-directed TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, LIRA, RRIF, non-registered (cash and margin), and corporate accounts.
• KOHO is a spending and saving app built around a prepaid Mastercard issued by KOHO Financial Inc., sold through Essential, Extra and Everything plans, with add-ons such as Credit Building, a paid Cover bundle for small cash advances, international money transfers and crypto trading (a 0.5% trading fee on every plan).

The two names do share some history: Wealthsimple’s old prepaid Mastercard was issued by KOHO Financial Inc., under licence from Mastercard, which is why some people assume the companies are linked. Wealthsimple is moving all prepaid Mastercards to Visa Platinum Prepaid cards in phases; if you haven't had a notice in the app or by email, you don't need to do anything yet.

The overlap is the everyday account: both give you a card, direct deposit, free e-Transfers, joint accounts and interest on your balance. The difference is the business model: KOHO puts its best rates behind a paid plan, while Wealthsimple ties its better rates to how much you hold with it.

Wealthsimple vs KOHO vs Neo: where does Neo fit?

Neo Financial sits between the two: like KOHO it has a prepaid card for everyday spending, and like Wealthsimple it also sells credit cards, alongside savings, mortgages and investing.

Neo’s everyday card is a prepaid Mastercard (the Neo Money™ card), powered by the Neo Chequing account. Neo memberships are free on Essentials (Build costs $0–9.99 a month and Grow $14.99 a month), and one catch on the card’s cash back is that the 1% cash back on gas and groceries stops once you hit a monthly spend limit, which Neo shows in its app rather than on its website. Abroad, Neo’s foreign transaction fee is 3% on purchases in a foreign currency (Neo's fee schedule, correct as of September 1, 2026); it’s rebated only on the paid Grow membership ($14.99 a month), for the first CAD$10,000 of foreign spending each month; Essentials and Build members pay the fee. That makes Neo’s prepaid card the most expensive of the three for spending in a foreign currency on a free membership.

For credit, Neo’s membership page lists a credit builder tool and a secured credit limit on its paid Build and Grow memberships, not on the free Essentials tier. A secured limit is backed by money you put down, while KOHO’s Credit Building needs no deposit. If what you want is a real credit card for rewards and credit history, Neo’s credit cards compete more with the Wealthsimple credit card than with KOHO. Read KOHO vs Neo and the Neo Financial review for more, and confirm Neo’s current terms on its own site before choosing.

Can you use Wealthsimple and KOHO together?

Yes, and the two cover each other’s gaps: KOHO for card rewards and credit building, Wealthsimple for savings, travel and investing.

Moving money between them costs nothing: Wealthsimple doesn’t charge for Interac e-Transfers, and KOHO offers free real-time e-Transfers on every plan, capped at $5,000 a day going out. The one thing to plan is where your pay lands, because both accounts reward deposits:

1. Decide which account gets the paycheque. Wealthsimple pays an extra 0.5% with at least $2,000 direct-deposited within 30 days. KOHO Essential is $0 a month if you deposit your paycheque or add at least $1,000 each month.
2. Use the second route for the other account. If your pay goes to Wealthsimple, KOHO’s help centre lists Essential at $7 a month, or $0 in a month you set up direct deposit or deposit $1,000 on monthly billing, with no minimum balance required. A monthly e-Transfer top-up from Wealthsimple may count as that deposit; confirm in the KOHO app before relying on it.
3. Spend on the KOHO card for groceries, transit and dining, where its cash back applies.
4. Keep savings in Wealthsimple Savings at 2.5% (available to every client, no tiers), and use the Wealthsimple card abroad.
5. Turn on Earn Interest in KOHO, so whatever sits there earns interest and is eligible for CDIC protection; allow up to 5 business days for it to switch on.

If Wealthsimple is the half you’re missing, opening Chequing costs $0 and there’s no monthly fee to keep it.

The verdict: who should pick Wealthsimple, and who should pick KOHO

Pick Wealthsimple if:

• You keep a bigger balance: Savings pays 2.5% (available to every client, no tiers) with no plan fee, and Chequing gets CDIC coverage up to $1 million, because funds are spread across up to 10 CDIC member institutions (Wealthsimple itself is not a CDIC member)
• You travel, since the card’s foreign transaction fee is 0% (Visa's conversion rate still applies) and eligible ATM-operator fees are reimbursed
• You want to invest in a TFSA, RRSP or FHSA from the same app
• You already have good credit and can qualify for the Wealthsimple credit card, which earns 2% on every purchase
• You don’t want to pay a subscription for a better rate

Pick KOHO if:

• You want cash back on a debit-style card: 1% on Essential, 1.5% on Extra and 2% on Everything on groceries, transportation and dining
• You need to build credit without a deposit or credit check, for example as a newcomer or someone with no credit history
• Your paycheque can land in KOHO, so Essential stays free
• You like built-in budgeting tools such as RoundUps, Goals and a Vault for money you don’t want to spend
• If that’s you, open a KOHO account on its official site and use the free trial to test a paid plan

Use both if you want KOHO’s cash back and credit building for daily spending, and Wealthsimple for savings, travel and investing.

This page is general education, not financial advice; both companies change fees and rates, so confirm current terms before you switch. For every Wealthsimple account in one place, see our complete Wealthsimple guide, and for the card itself, how the Wealthsimple debit card works. The KOHO review covers KOHO’s app on its own.