How to Create More Savings Accounts at EQ Bank for Different Purposes

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Ok so far I’m fairly pleased with how opening my new Savings account at EQ Bank has gone. I applied and sent in a cheque by taking a photo of it with their App on January 25. On February 2, the cheque cleared my bank. On February 6, I received an email from EQ Bank saying they had processed my cheque and in 5 business days my account would be fully open. And on Tuesday February 10, I received the Welcome email saying my account was now fully activated. On Friday February 12, I decided to test the electronic funds transfer option by pulling in some cash from my linked bank account at Tangerine and by pushing out some money from EQ Bank to Tangerine. Now I want to deposit a cheque written on an unlinked account at PC Financial but I don’t really want the money in my main EQ Bank account because it’s for a separate future home reno project so I decided that I want to open a second savings account at EQ Bank.

Why Would I Want More than One Savings Account at EQ Bank?

I’m quite capable of keeping all of my money in one account and remembering how much Is my savings for my next new car, how much is for our hoped-for home improvement reno, and how much is my child’s money from their last birthday. It’s nice, though, to see the amounts separately on the screen by putting them into “separate” savings accounts. EQ Bank lets me do this.

I will try to find out the maximum number of accounts one person is allowed to have later. For now, I just want to create two. UPDATE 2016 02 19: MoneyWeHave says the number is unlimited. I have not confirmed that yet with EQ Bank itself.

Update: 2018 02 14 EQ Bank has advised customers via a secure email that in the future, customers will be restricted to having 1 main account and up to 4 sub-accounts. If you already have more than 4 sub-accounts you can keep them open but you can’t create a new 5th account.

Adding A New Account at EQ Bank for General Personal Savings

Once you have a fully operational Savings Account at EQ Bank, you can open an additional account online.

  1. Sign in to your EQ Bank account.
  2. From the list on the left side of the screen, click on the box: Add a new account
  3. There is a Yes No slider button to answer the question: Apart from the account owner(s), will anyone else access or benefit from this account?
    I left the slider set to No.
  4. From the drop-down list, select your answer to the question: “How do you intend to use this account?”
    Select: Personal Savings.
  5. If desired you can type a name for the account in the text field: Account Nickname.
  6. There is a Yes No slider button to answer the question: “Is this account to save for a particular goal?”
    I left this at No.
  7. Click on the agreement link to read through the account agreement information.
  8. If you find the terms acceptable, click to check the box beside: I accept the account agreement.
  9. Click on the button: Open Account

Neat! It’s done. The new account is assigned a new number as well.

How to Open an Account for a Specific Savings Goal

Once you have a fully operational Savings Account at EQ Bank, you can open an additional account online for any specific savings goal you have such as for a new car.

  1. Sign in to your EQ Bank account.
  2. From the list on the left side of the screen, click on the box: Add a new account
  3. There is a Yes No slider button to answer the question: Apart from the account owner(s), will anyone else access or benefit from this account?
    I left the slider set to No.
  4. From the drop-down list, select your answer to the question: “How do you intend to use this account?”
    I selected: Saving for a Specific Goal.
  5. If desired, type a name in the Goal description field.
    I typed: new tile
  6. There is a Yes No slider button to answer the question: “Is this account to save for a particular goal?”
    I clicked to slide it to Yes.
  7. If desired, type in a number in the text box: Goal amount.
  8. If desired, select from the calendar a date for the Goal date.
  9. Click on the agreement link to read through the account agreement information.
  10. If you find the terms acceptable, click to check the box beside: I accept the account agreement.
  11. Click on the button: Open Account

Can You Deposit Money Directly Into One of Your Accounts Using the Photo App?

Next, I wondered if I could make a deposit directly into one of my new accounts or if I needed to make the deposit into my first account and then move it.

I wrote a cheque to deposit into the second account.

Then, I opened the EQ Bank app on a device.

When I used the mobile deposit part of the app, I was asked to select which account to deposit the cheque into. I successfully selected the new account I had created for saving for the home reno.

So yes, you can deposit a cheque directly into one of the various savings accounts you have set up.

The cheque was successfully deposited and the balance on that account was increased by the cheque amount. Now I just have to wait 8 business days to see if the cheque clears properly and the amount is no longer “on hold.”

UPDATE 2016 02 19: The cheque cleared my “Big Bank” chequing account successfully the second business day after I submitted the cheque to EQ Bank. As of the fourth business day since I deposited the cheque at EQ Bank the funds are still on hold but they appear to have been earning interest daily since I deposited the cheque.

So far, so good! I hope this continues to work reliably.

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Are you one of the hundreds of people opening an account at EQ Bank to take advantage of the 3% interest rate available right now in February 2016? Please share your experiences so far with a comment.