Advertiser disclosure
Advertisers are not responsible for the content of this site, including any editorial or review that may be published on it. For complete and up-to-date information about any product featured, please visit their website. We maintain business relationships with certain partners mentioned in our communication tools. While we may receive compensation if you sign up for a product or service through our affiliate links, our reviews and content are based on an objective assessment. Value estimates are established by Milesopedia and are not provided, endorsed, or verified by the issuing financial institutions. †*Terms and conditions apply.
Tangerine raised its GIC rates on August 22, 2026. The 5-year term moves from 3.80% to 4.00%, and the 18-month term from 3.35% to 3.50%. The same rates apply to non-registered GICs and to Tax-Free, RSP and RIF GICs. US dollar GICs are unchanged.
That puts Tangerine GIC rates level with EQ Bank on the 5-year term, and 1.25 points above Scotiabank, which has owned Tangerine since 2012. Only one online bank does better, Haventree Bank, at 4.20%. The increase is real, then, but it is concentrated on the long terms. It changes how you should place your money more than how much you put in.
The Tangerine Guaranteed Investment (GIC) stays a simple product: 100% of your principal is guaranteed, the rate is locked for the full term, and there are no service fees. If you would rather make your everyday spending work for you, our best credit cards page covers that side.
Two things stand out in this grid. The curve rises sharply from 18 months on, which rewards a long commitment. Every term under one year, on the other hand, stays below 3.10%, so below what a good high-interest savings account pays in Canada right now.
Deposits are protected by CDIC, up to $100,000 per account category. Tangerine is a subsidiary of Scotiabank, which places those deposits inside a federally chartered institution.
Seven of the nine terms went up. The two shortest terms held steady. The increase builds gradually and peaks on the 5-year term.
On $10,000 placed for five years, moving from 3.80% to 4.00% returns $2,166.53 in interest instead of $2,051.99. The increase is therefore worth roughly $114 more, on the same principal.
Spread over the term, those $114 come to about twenty dollars a year. That is too little to justify breaking a GIC already under way, and early redemption penalties would wipe out the gain anyway. For money you have to place right now, though, the spread works in your favour. The rule is simple: new deposit, take the higher rate; existing GIC, let it run to maturity.
Tangerine applies exactly the same grid to all four Canadian dollar plans. A Tax-Free GIC at five years therefore pays 4.00%, just like a non-registered GIC of the same term. Not every institution makes that choice.
The difference sits in the tax treatment, not in the posted return.
Since the rate does not move from one plan to another, put your GICs in whichever account is most tax-efficient for your situation first. Tangerine charges no fees or service charges on registered accounts.
Tangerine also offers US dollar GICs. That grid did not move on August 22 and still sits well above the Canadian one, by 0.40 to 0.95 of a point depending on the term.
Here is what a fixed-rate guaranteed investment of $10,000 pays at Tangerine, at current rates, with interest compounded annually on terms of one year and up.
These amounts are gross. In a non-registered account, the interest is added to your taxable income for the year it is paid. Depending on your tax bracket, that can take away between a quarter and half of the return.
This is the calculation few savers run before signing. Between the 1-year at 3.30% and the 5-year at 4.00%, the gap is only 0.70 of a point. Yet you tie up your money four extra years, with no way to cash out early.
Two situations make that trade worthwhile. First, if you expect rates to fall: locking 4.00% for five years then becomes a good deal. Second, if the money is tied to a dated goal, such as a down payment or a retirement date that is close.
Otherwise, you are better off laddering your GICs: split the amount into five tranches with different terms, from 1 to 5 years. Every year one tranche matures and gets reinvested at the going rate. You keep annual liquidity without giving up the long-term rates.
Good, but not the best on the market. Here is what three other institutions post, checked the same day: EQ Bank, Haventree Bank, and Scotiabank, which owns Tangerine.
The most telling number in the table sits in the last column. Over five years Tangerine pays 4.00% while Scotiabank, which has owned Tangerine since 2012, posts 2.75%. That is 1.25 points apart, inside the same financial group. On $10,000, the gap works out to $714 of interest over the term.
Against the other online banks the picture is tighter. Tangerine matches EQ Bank on the 5-year and beats it on the 3-month, but trails it on the 1-year and the 3-year. More to the point, Haventree Bank pays more on every term of one year and up, reaching 4.20% at five years.
Two practical differences then matter as much as the rate. EQ Bank does not make its RSP, FHSA and business GICs available in Quebec, while Tangerine offers all four plans across the country. On the other hand, EQ Bank goes out to 10-year terms, against 5 years at Tangerine.
Tangerine moves back among the leading Canadian online banks on long terms, without topping them. The 4.00% over five years crushes what the big banks offer, matches EQ Bank, and sits 0.20 of a point behind Haventree Bank.
Tangerine’s argument is therefore not the highest rate on the market, but the combination of a good rate, all four plans available across the country, and an account you may already hold. If you are shopping on yield alone, look at Haventree first.
If your horizon is shorter or uncertain, the savings account welcome offer or a ladder across several terms stays more flexible, for a comparable return.
To go further on Tangerine products:
To get our rate updates and analysis every week, sign up for our newsletter.
If you already bank with Tangerine and want your everyday spending to work alongside your savings, the Tangerine® Money-Back World Mastercard®* lets you pick your own cash back categories.
Here are the questions that come up most often in the milesopedia community about Tangerine GICs.
Savings are this way:
You can change your preferences or unsubscribe at any time by clicking one of the links available at the bottom of each newsletter.
If you are already subscribed and would like to unsubscribe, you can click the link at the bottom of one of our emails.
