Best savings apps in Quebec (2026): what you can actually open

The best savings app in Quebec in 2026 depends on what you’re saving for, and on which providers will actually open an account for someone living here. Not all of them will. What’s left splits three ways: a rate account for the money itself, a spend-and-save app if you’d rather keep everything in one place, and your caisse or bank for the registered accounts. The table above lines them up. Below is how each one works here, and who it genuinely suits.

What’s actually offered in Quebec

All seven of the providers ranked below will take a Quebec resident as a customer, in French, today. That’s a lower bar than it sounds. One major name serves the rest of the country and not this province, and another sells here with several products missing. Both are worth knowing before you pick.

Worth saying plainly: Lodavo publishes this site. The seven options above are ranked on their own posted rates and fees, each linked to the provider’s own page so you can check the number yourself, and Lodavo closes the list rather than taking one of the ranked slots, because it isn’t an account and can’t be compared to one on rate.

Simplii Financial doesn’t serve Quebec

Simplii’s promo rate is the highest number on most national lists, and it’s the one you can’t have. Its own FAQ is blunt about it: Simplii Financial products and services aren’t available in Quebec (opens in a new tab), and that covers the chequing account, the Cash Back Visa, the TFSA and the RRSP. Simplii clients get fee-free access to any CIBC ATM in Canada, and that’s the extent of what a Quebec resident gets. Tangerine’s promo, further down, is the closest thing you can actually sign up for.

EQ Bank is here, minus a few products

EQ Bank launched in Quebec in December 2022 and the account most people want, the Personal Account, is available here. The products it doesn’t sell here (opens in a new tab) are the US Dollar Account, international money transfers, RRSP savings and GICs, FHSA savings and GICs, business accounts and business GICs. EQ to EQ transfers are off too. For a plain emergency fund none of that matters. For a first-home down payment it matters a lot, and it’s why Desjardins earns a slot further down.

How we ranked the rest

Four things, none of them hype: the rate it posts, what it costs to hold, whether your deposit is insured and by whom, and whether the app holds your money or sits beside it. For context on the numbers, the Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.25% on July 15, 2026 (opens in a new tab), which is why the everyday rates below cluster where they do and the eye-catching ones are short promos.

Best no-fee everyday rate you can open here: EQ Bank

For a clean account with no monthly fee that pays a strong ongoing rate, EQ Bank is the pick. The Personal Account pays a 1.00% base rate, rising to up to 2.75% (opens in a new tab) once you set up qualifying recurring direct deposits of at least $2,000 a month, as of August 2026. No monthly fee, no minimum balance, and EQ Bank is the digital arm of Equitable Bank, a CDIC member, so eligible deposits are covered to $100,000 per category. Best for someone who’ll route a paycheque through it and wants a dependable rate without watching promo end dates. It’s the wrong pick if you want your RRSP or FHSA in the same place, since neither is sold in Quebec.

Best promotional rate available in Quebec: Tangerine

If you’re willing to move new money for a few months of a high rate, Tangerine is the one still open to you. It’s running a 4.50% promotional rate (opens in a new tab) for new clients on new deposits for up to five months, as of August 2026, and it brings the offer back a few times a year. There’s no monthly fee, it’s a Scotiabank subsidiary so deposits are CDIC-covered, and the full site and app run in French. The catch is the usual one: when the promo ends the rate drops to a low base, so this rewards people who’ll actually move the money again when the clock runs out. Put the end date in your calendar the day you open it.

Best tiered rate with no direct-deposit condition: Neo Financial

Neo Savings is the answer for someone who won’t move a paycheque and doesn’t want to chase promos. It pays on a tiered basis rather than on a condition: 2% under $5,000, 2.5% from $5,000 to $20,000, and 2.75% at $20,000 and up (opens in a new tab), as of August 2026, with no promo code and no lock-in. The savings account is free and there’s a French edition of everything. Neo isn’t a bank itself, so deposits sit with a CDIC-member partner, which is worth knowing but doesn’t change the coverage. Best for a mid-size balance you want left alone. If your balance is small and your paycheque is portable, EQ Bank’s 2.75% beats Neo’s bottom tier.

Best all-in-one for spending and saving: KOHO

KOHO puts the card, the budget and the savings in one app, and pays interest on the whole balance rather than a savings sub-account. The rate runs 2% on the Essential plan up to 3.5% on the top tier (opens in a new tab), as of August 2026. Essential is $0 a month if you set up a direct deposit or put $1,000 through it a month, and the paid plans run to about $22, so the headline rate has a fee attached to it. Balances are held in trust at CDIC-member banks. Best for someone who wants one app for daily money and finds a separate savings account too easy to ignore. If you just want a place to park cash, a free account paying 2.75% will beat a paid plan paying 3.5% at most balances.

Best for investing and everyday banking together: Wealthsimple

Wealthsimple is the one to look at if your savings and your investments should live in the same place. Its Chequing account (opens in a new tab) pays 1.25% for Core clients, 1.75% for Premium and 2.25% for Generation, as of August 2026, and Core and Premium each gain another 0.5% with a $2,000 monthly direct deposit. There’s no monthly fee, no minimum balance, and ATM fees are reimbursed. The French edition is complete, and it runs a monthly prize draw of its own. Two honest notes: the rate you get depends on how much you hold across your accounts, and Wealthsimple isn’t a bank, so chequing balances are held in trust at CDIC-member partners while an investing balance carries market risk and CIPF rather than deposit coverage. Best for someone already investing there. For cash alone, the rate tiers make it a weaker deal than EQ Bank or Neo.

Best if you want a caisse and a first-home account: Desjardins

Desjardins is where a lot of Quebec money already is, and the reason to keep some there isn’t the everyday rate. Its non-registered savings account posts 0.55% and its TFSA 0.35% (opens in a new tab), well under the online banks. The FHSA savings account pays 2.00%, and that’s the one worth pausing on: if you’re saving for a first home, Desjardins will sell you the account EQ Bank won’t. You also get a caisse you can walk into, a share of the surplus paid back each year, and a vote at your caisse’s annual meeting. Deposits are insured by Quebec’s Autorité des marchés financiers (opens in a new tab) rather than CDIC, to the same $100,000 per category. Best for someone who wants every product in one place and a branch nearby. Not the pick if the everyday rate is what you’re optimizing.

Best free banking if you’re under 25: National Bank

National Bank is headquartered in Montreal and its chequing packages run $3.95 to $28.95 a month (opens in a new tab), which is ordinary. What isn’t ordinary is who pays nothing: anyone 24 or under, students included, gets The Connected plan free, and the entry-level plan is free for under-18s, students 24 and under, seniors on the Guaranteed Income Supplement, RDSP beneficiaries and Indigenous Peoples. That’s among the most generous free banking in the country. The savings account posts 0.55%, so keep the savings elsewhere and use the chequing. It’s a CDIC member. Best for a student or a young worker in Quebec who wants a real branch without paying for it.

Lodavo, the one that doesn’t ask you to leave your caisse

To get any of the rates above, you have to move money to the provider paying it. In Quebec that’s a bigger ask than it looks, because a caisse membership comes with a share, a dividend and a vote, and people don’t hand that over for an extra half a percent. Lodavo is free, and it works with whichever account you already have. Desjardins, National Bank, EQ Bank, Tangerine, KOHO, Neo, Wealthsimple, and virtually any other Canadian bank or credit union. Your savings stay where they are, earning whatever they already earn, and the more you save each week the more free tickets you get in Lodavo’s draw. You can win up to $10,000, and a guaranteed prize of at least $100 goes to a user every week.

Lodavo is a prize-linked savings app: it rewards the saving itself rather than paying a rate, so you use it with whichever account you picked above instead of choosing between the two. And yes, Quebec residents are in. We’re a Montreal company and the draw runs in both languages, which is worth saying out loud on a page like this, because so many Canadian contests still exclude Quebec out of habit.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.

Which one should you actually pick?

Start with what the money is for. An emergency fund or a short-term goal belongs wherever the ongoing rate is highest, which is EQ Bank if you’ll move a paycheque and Neo if you won’t. A first-home down payment belongs in an FHSA, and in Quebec that means Desjardins or another provider that sells one, not EQ Bank. If you’re already investing at Wealthsimple, keeping the cash beside it is worth more than the rate difference.

Then use two things instead of one. Nothing stops you keeping the money at the best rate you can open and using Lodavo with it for free, and that’s how most people here end up set up: the account pays the interest, and you get tickets for saving. For a wider view of the same field, our national roundup of the best savings apps in Canada covers the options that don’t turn on where you live.