National Bank alternatives in Canada (2026): 5 compared

What are the best National Bank alternatives in Canada?

The best National Bank alternatives are Desjardins if you want a branch nearby, EQ Bank for the highest rate you still have next year, Tangerine for no-fee daily banking, Wealthsimple for banking and investing together, and Lodavo for a free weekly cash draw on top of whichever one you choose. The table above prices all six.

National Bank’s home market is Quebec, and Quebec narrows the shortlist in ways worth knowing before you open anything. Simplii doesn’t operate in the province at all. EQ Bank holds back several of its registered accounts there. Desjardins insures deposits through a different body from every other name on this page. Each of those sits below, beside the option it affects.

Why look for a National Bank alternative?

Three things send people looking: the monthly fee on The Connected or The Total, a savings rate of 0.55%, and the balance you have to leave untouched to cancel that fee. Whether any of them is worth acting on depends on your age, your status, and how much you keep on deposit.

The waiver needs a balance that earns you nothing

National Bank cancels The Connected’s $15.95 fee if you hold a minimum daily balance of $4,500, and The Total’s $28.95 fee at $6,000, per the fee guide effective February 15, 2026 (opens in a new tab). Minimum daily means every day of the month, not on average. Dip below once and the fee lands.

At $15.95 a month that waiver is worth $191.40 a year, which is real money. What it costs you is less obvious. That balance has to sit in the chequing account, and chequing accounts pay nothing: National Bank’s rate sheet (opens in a new tab) lists no rate for any chequing account it currently sells, and the legacy ones it still services top out at 0.050%. So the $4,500 you leave in place earns nothing. That same $4,500 at EQ Bank’s 2.75% would make about $124 a year. Netted out, the waiver is worth closer to $67.

Plenty of people already pay nothing, so check that first

Before comparing anything, check whether the fee applies to you. National Bank’s age pricing is more generous than most: anyone 24 or under, students included, gets The Connected for $0. On The Total the discount is smaller and splits by band, landing at $13 a month for 18 to 24 and $18 under 18. People 60 and over take $5 a month off either package.

The Minimalist is free outright for people under 18, students 24 and under, seniors 65 and over receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement, beneficiaries of an RDSP, and Indigenous Peoples, under the bank’s commitment to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s low-cost account standard (opens in a new tab). Holding a Platinum, World or World Elite National Bank Mastercard knocks another $5 off The Connected and $10 off The Total, and it stacks with the age discount.

If one of those describes you, the fee argument is settled and only the savings rate is left to solve.

The savings rate is 0.55%, with no promotion behind it

National Bank’s High Interest Savings Account has no monthly fee and no minimum, and it posts 0.550% (opens in a new tab) (rates in effect August 17, 2026). There’s no balance ladder, so 0.55% is what it pays at $500 and at $50,000.

That flat 0.55% is worth something on its own terms. Several big-bank savings accounts pay less than National Bank until you clear a balance tier, and most of the headline numbers you see advertised are promotional: 4.60% to 4.75% for the first few months on a new account, then a drop. National Bank runs no promotion at all, so 0.55% is simply what you get on day one and on day 400.

Against an online bank the gap is the wider one. On $10,000, 0.55% versus EQ Bank’s 2.75% is about $220 a year, every year. Our roundup of high-interest savings accounts in Canada puts the whole field side by side.

Canadian Western Bank balances lose separate coverage on March 1, 2027

One group has a deadline rather than a preference. National Bank completed its acquisition of Canadian Western Bank (opens in a new tab) in February 2025, and the two amalgamated on March 1 of that year. CDIC’s rule after an amalgamation is that money held at the old bank beforehand keeps its own separate $100,000 coverage for two years, or until a term deposit matures, as CDIC’s notice on the transaction (opens in a new tab) sets out.

That window closes on March 1, 2027. After it, CWB and National Bank balances count as one, under a single $100,000 limit per category. If your combined total is above that line, a second institution is the straightforward fix, and everything below it carries on covered.

The best National Bank alternatives in Canada, at a glance

The five in the table solve different problems, which is why they’re listed rather than ranked. One keeps staff within walking distance, one pays the best ongoing rate, one removes the monthly fee without removing chequing, one adds investing, and one doesn’t hold your money at all.

Desjardins, best for keeping a branch close by

Desjardins is the alternative most National Bank clients weigh first, because it’s the other institution with people in the neighbourhood. It’s a cooperative rather than a bank: 189 caisses and service centres across Quebec and Ontario, chequing plans from $3.95 to $23.95 a month, a savings account posting 0.55% (opens in a new tab), and a share of the surplus paid back to members each year.

Where it beats the rest is the fee waiver. Every Desjardins chequing tier cancels its monthly fee outright at a minimum balance, starting at $1,500 on the Basic plan and reaching $5,000 on Unlimited Plus. National Bank’s cheapest waivable plan asks $4,500. If leaving a balance is how you plan to avoid a fee, Desjardins asks for a third of the money.

The rate isn’t the reason to move. At 0.55% on a non-registered savings account, Desjardins matches National Bank to the decimal, so a switch made purely for the interest gains you nothing.

Desjardins is covered by the AMF, not CDIC

Desjardins isn’t a CDIC member. Quebec caisses are authorized deposit institutions under provincial law, so the Autorité des marchés financiers insures deposits to $100,000 per category (opens in a new tab) instead, and members in Ontario fall under FSRA at the same limit.

For most people that’s a technicality with an identical number attached. It matters in one case. Because the insurer is different, money at Desjardins and money at National Bank are covered separately, with no shared ceiling between them. If the Canadian Western Bank clock above applies to you, that makes Desjardins a clean home for the overflow.

EQ Bank, best for the rate that’s still there next year

EQ Bank’s Personal Account pays 1.00% as a base rate and 2.75% once recurring direct deposits of at least $2,000 a month are landing in it, with no monthly fee and no minimum balance (rates effective June 11, 2026 (opens in a new tab)). You spend from it much as you would from a chequing account, so it can take over both halves at once.

Nothing else here pays that much without a countdown attached. Tangerine’s headline number is a five-month promotion, and National Bank has no promotion at all. EQ Bank’s 2.75% is just the rate. Without the direct deposit you sit at 1.00%, still nearly double what National Bank posts.

What you give up is physical. There are no branches, and getting cash in takes a transfer rather than a teller. EQ Bank is the digital brand of Equitable Bank, which holds the CDIC membership, so its coverage is separate from National Bank’s.

What EQ Bank can’t do in Quebec

This is the part to check before you open one. EQ Bank serves Quebec, but not with its full lineup. Its own rate page lists (opens in a new tab) the RRSP Cash Savings Account, RRSP GICs, the FHSA Cash Savings Account, FHSA GICs, the Notice Savings Account, the US Dollar Account and international money transfers as not offered in the province, along with instant EQ-to-EQ transfers. Beneficiary designations aren’t available there either.

The Personal Account, the TFSA Cash Savings Account and non-registered GICs all work normally, and the Personal Account is the one doing the work on this page. But if the plan was to move your RRSP across as well as your everyday savings, EQ Bank can’t hold that half in Quebec, and National Bank, Desjardins or Wealthsimple keeps it.

Tangerine, best for dropping the fee and keeping a chequing account

Tangerine is Scotiabank’s online bank, and its No-Fee Daily Chequing Account is the closest thing on this page to a straight swap for The Connected: no monthly fee, no minimum balance, a client card with Visa Debit, cheques, and free withdrawals at Scotiabank ABMs. Unlike Simplii, it operates in Quebec.

Its welcome rate is the best on this page. New clients get 4.50% on a non-registered Savings Account (opens in a new tab) and 4.60% on a registered one (opens in a new tab), each for 153 days, on balances up to $1,000,000 per account type (as of August 2026). On $10,000 held for the full five months, that’s roughly $190, against about $23 at National Bank’s 0.55%.

The catch arrives on day 154. The promotional rate ends and the account falls back to Tangerine’s posted savings rate, which is a small fraction of it. Tangerine brings a new offer around every few months, so it rewards someone who’ll actually move money when one lands, and it’s a poor fit for anyone who’d rather set an account up once and stop thinking about it.

Wealthsimple, best for bringing your investments along

If National Bank holds an RRSP, a TFSA or a brokerage account for you as well as your chequing, Wealthsimple is the only option here that can take both halves in one move. Its Chequing account carries no monthly fee and no minimum, and investing, trading and registered accounts sit behind the same login.

That account pays 1.25% at Core, 1.75% at Premium ($100,000 in assets) and 2.25% at Generation ($500,000), and Core and Premium clients add 0.5% by directing $2,000 into it within 30 days (as of August 2026 (opens in a new tab)). Managed investing costs 0.5% a year, or 0.4% past $100,000. There’s a prize draw as well, Monthly Millionaire, where the tickets come from moving money into Wealthsimple.

Look at the structure before a large balance follows. Wealthsimple isn’t a bank, so chequing balances are held in trust at CDIC-member partner banks rather than insured directly, with combined coverage up to $1 million, and investments fall under CIPF. That arrangement is well established and works as designed. It’s simply built differently from the per-category coverage you have at National Bank today, which is worth knowing rather than worrying about.

Lodavo, a free weekly cash draw on whichever bank you choose

Lodavo is the odd one out on this page, deliberately. It’s a free app that rewards you for saving: link the bank account you already use, put money aside, and every $25 you save earns a free ticket in a weekly draw for up to $10,000. At least $100 goes to a user every single week.

It doesn’t compete on the rate, which is the axis most of this page turns on. Lodavo sits alongside whichever account you land on, so the rate you picked stays yours and the draw costs you nothing. Use one of the four above to fix the number on your savings, and Lodavo gives you a reason to keep feeding it.

It’s built in Montreal, the same city National Bank calls home, and it works with virtually any Canadian bank or credit union, so it follows you whichever way this goes, including staying put. Lodavo never holds your money, so whatever your savings earn today, they carry on earning it. Our National Bank connection page covers what linking actually looks like.

How to choose the right one for you

Very few people should pick only one. The usual shape is an everyday account somewhere convenient, savings somewhere that actually pays, and something that makes putting money aside feel less like a chore. If prize-linked savings is new to you, our guide to how it works in Canada covers the mechanics and the law behind it.

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.