A lot of people have been asking me lately if their money was safe at Canadian Banks (in checking and savings accounts). So I went to CDIC (the Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation) to check it out.
First some common misconceptions:
- you are insured up to 100000$ total in your name, not per bank you do business with
- mutual funds and stocks are not insured even if they are in your RRSP
You can really get insurance for up to 600000$ since each of these categories are insured separately (text copied from the CDIC web site)
CDIC insures up to $100,000 in each of the following six categories. Click on any of the following to see if your savings are covered.
Category 1:
Savings held in one name
(personal, business or other organization)
Category 2:
Savings held in more than one name
(joint deposits)
Category 3:
Savings held in trust
Category 4:
Savings held in an RRSP
Category 5:
Savings held in a RRIF
Category 6:
Savings held for paying realty taxes on mortgage payments
For example...
Say you have the following savings in Canadian dollars, at a CDIC member institution:
- $15,000 in a chequing account in your own name (Category 1)
- $10,000 in a joint savings account (Category 2)
- a 4-year GIC worth $90,000, held in an RRSP (Category 4)
CDIC insures ALL of these amounts, as each falls under a different CDIC insurance category.
What is NOT covered?
CDIC does NOT insure some products, such as mutual funds and stocks. CDIC does NOT insure U.S. dollars or other foreign currency deposits.
So how do people with way more money insure their savings? Any idea?
