Lodavo vs RBC: Do You Need to Leave Canada's Biggest Bank?

You bank with RBC and you’re not leaving. The mortgage is there, the credit card is there, there’s a branch on the way home, and moving all of it to chase a rate isn’t happening. That’s the honest starting point for most people searching Lodavo vs RBC, and the good news is that you don’t have to choose. RBC is Canada’s largest bank: it holds your money, pays a rate on it, and hands out points and fee rebates for banking there. Lodavo is a free savings app that rewards you for saving, and it works with the RBC account you already have. The more you save, the more chances you get at a cash prize each week.

What is the difference between Lodavo and RBC?

RBC holds your money and pays interest on it. Lodavo works the other way around: it connects to the account you already have and gives you free tickets in a weekly cash draw based on what you save. You keep banking exactly the way you do now, and the money already sitting in your RBC savings account starts earning you a chance at cash on top of the interest the account pays.

What RBC gives you is a safe place to keep your money and a rate paid on it. You open an account, your money sits with Royal Bank of Canada, a CDIC (opens in a new tab) member, and it earns whatever the account pays while your eligible deposits stay insured. Everything else RBC sells hangs off that account: chequing, credit cards, a mortgage, investments, an advisor you can book, a branch you can walk into.

Lodavo attaches to that account rather than replacing it. As Canada’s first prize-linked savings app, it never holds your money. You link the Canadian bank account you already use, and each week your balance earns you free tickets in a draw for up to $10,000, with at least $100 going to a user every week. There’s no account to open and nothing to fund.

How RBC works

RBC charges a monthly fee for chequing and gives part of it back the more of your banking you keep there. Chequing runs $4 to $30 a month depending on the plan, and the savings account is free. The rate on those savings is where the fine print sits.

What you pay, and how RBC gives some of it back

Chequing is tiered: $4 a month for Day to Day Banking, $12.95 for Advantage, $16.95 for Signature No Limit and $30 for VIP, per RBC’s chequing comparison (opens in a new tab). The RBC Value Program (opens in a new tab) then hands a lot of it back. Hold two eligible product categories and RBC rebates up to $6 a month; hold three or more and it’s up to $12.95, which clears the cheaper accounts outright. You have to enrol and use the account each month, with a direct deposit, a bill payment or a pre-authorized payment.

The same program pays Avion points on debit purchases: 1 point per $5 spent, or per $3 at the higher tier, capped at 300 or 500 points a month. It’s a genuine rewards program, and it’s worth noticing what it rewards. Spending on debit earns points. Holding more RBC products earns a rebate. The money you leave sitting in savings earns neither.

The savings rate: 90 days high, then 0.55 percent

RBC High Interest eSavings has no monthly fee and pays a promotional 4.60 percent (the regular 0.55 percent plus a 4.05 percent bonus) for 90 days on balances up to $1,000,000. It’s for first-time holders only, and the offer closes October 27, 2026. After the 90 days the rate is 0.55 percent, per RBC’s eSavings page (opens in a new tab). For context, the Bank of Canada (opens in a new tab) has held its policy rate at 2.25 percent since October 2025, so 0.55 percent sits well under it. One more thing to know: eSavings includes one free RBC ATM withdrawal a month and charges $5 for each one after that.

Where RBC genuinely helps you save

RBC has a real savings feature here, and Lodavo has no equivalent to it. NOMI Find & Save (opens in a new tab) uses the patterns in your RBC chequing account to pick out amounts you won’t miss and moves them into a free digital savings account, up to $75 a day and up to five times a week. You can’t set the amount yourself and the account pays 0.150 percent, but the transfers cost nothing and the saving happens without you thinking about it. If your problem is that you never get around to it, that feature is the best answer on this page.

How Lodavo works

Lodavo is free and setup takes about two minutes. You link an RBC chequing account, a savings account, or a deposit-based TFSA with Plaid (opens in a new tab), which covers about 99 percent of Canadian deposit accounts. The access it grants is read-only. Your tickets follow what you save, so the more you set aside, the more of them you get.

The draw runs every week and pays up to $10,000, with a guaranteed prize of at least $100 going to a user. You can check the draw yourself: the provably fair page shows how each week’s result is generated and verified, and the contest rules set out who can enter and what the odds are. Two RBC-specific notes: investment accounts like RBC Direct Investing can’t be tracked yet, so pick an account where the money sits as cash, and if the link doesn’t go through the first time, that’s a known Plaid issue with some two-step sign-in setups. Our RBC connection page walks through both.

Can you use Lodavo and RBC together?

Yes, and for most people that’s the whole answer. There’s nothing to close and nothing to transfer. Keep your chequing at RBC, keep the eSavings account, keep the Avion points and the fee rebate, and connect that same savings balance to Lodavo so it also earns you free tickets each week. Your RBC login, your app, your rate and your CDIC coverage are all untouched.

So the practical version of Lodavo vs RBC isn’t a choice at all. RBC pays the interest and insures the deposit. Lodavo gives you a chance at cash for saving, and it costs nothing to add.

When RBC is the better choice

Stick with RBC alone if any of this is what you’re actually after:

• You want branches, ATMs and an advisor you can sit down with, in most towns in the country.
• You want chequing, savings, a credit card, a mortgage and investments behind one login.
• You want CDIC insurance on your deposits, up to $100,000 per category.
• You want a guaranteed return on your savings, which is exactly what a bank account is for.
• You want saving to happen for you: NOMI Find & Save does that automatically and free.
• You already hold enough RBC products that the rebate clears your chequing fee.

If the 0.55 percent ongoing rate is what’s bothering you, that’s a different question, and RBC alternatives in Canada lines up the banks paying more.

When Lodavo is the better fit

Add Lodavo if:

• You want a chance to win cash every week just for saving.
• You’d rather not open another account or move a dollar to be in a draw.
• You want it free, with nothing else to keep track of.
• You like RBC and have no intention of leaving.
• You want a reason to save that 0.55 percent doesn’t give you.

There’s no trade-off to weigh here, which is the part that surprises people. Lodavo isn’t asking you to swap interest for a chance at a prize. You keep whatever your account pays, and the tickets are free on top of it. That’s also why it’s worth adding while an RBC promo is running: the 4.60 percent keeps paying, and every week that balance sits there it’s also in a draw.

Every $25 you have saved earns a ticket in a weekly draw for up to $10,000. Get Lodavo free on the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) or Google Play Store (opens in a new tab).

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.