A non-sponsored review of Implicity Financial 

I am,  of course, morally against stashing my money in any of the Big5 banks and prefer to buy their stock and profit off of their ruthless profiteering tactics. That usually leads me to stashing my money in incredibly random banks, one of them being Implicity Financial.

In 2013 I bought a 5-year non-reedemable GIC with them because they had the highest interest rate in Canada (2.85%)

(Don’t ask why I bought a GIC, I was trying to balance portfolio with fixed income investments or something  and now kinda wish I threw it into a REIT, or the aforementioned bank stock, but whatever)

Implicity Financial was founded in 2012 and is a subsidiary of Entegra Credit Union, based out of Manitoba. Deposits are not guaranteed by the CIDC, but the Deposit Guarantee Corporation of Manitoba. Because it’s a credit union, there is a $5.00 “membership share” that you get refunded if you decide to close an account. Kind of like Mountain Co-op.

Like most branchless, fee-free banks, it’s best for saving money, not daily banking. If you are trying to build an emergency fund or down payment, you really want to put your money in an easily accessible, extremely conservative investment like a HISA or a GIC. They offer both those products in both non tax-sheltered and tax-sheltered (TFSA, RSP, RIF) accounts. This gives it a leg up over a bank like EQ, which although has an extremely high interest rate, does not offer tax-sheltered accounts.

• Ease of creating an account 7/10

Pretty simply and standard. Fill out an online form and mail in a cheque! (I literally partly have a cheque book just so I can open up accounts at different banks).  Your user name is about 15 digits long and impossible to memorize. Your password on the other hand doesn’t require that capital letter, special character bullshit and they haven’t made me reset it once, thank goodness.

• Ease of transferring funds 9/10

Once they have your cheque, they link to your chequing account and you can transfer funds easily online.   You also have the option of requesting a debit card, which is FREE to use at any credit union’s ATM in Canada. A little bird also tells me that if you download their app you can send in a picture cheque.  So lots of options here for transferring and accessing your money.

• Customer Service 11/10

NO touch pad and a real human with no accent answered on the third ring! Amaze-balls! They also have online chats and an email address, from which they respond fast and clearly.

• Website aesthetics 5/10

Old-fashioned as EFF. Oh wells.

• Website layout 9/10

For something that is so blue and green and resembles a 1999 anglefire page, the website is pretty functional! Everything is clearly laid out with tabs and I find it easy to access anything I need. Simple.

• Overall impression

Implicity Financial is a solid bank for stashing money. Although they don’t currently offer the highest interest rates in Canada for non-sheltered accounts, at least they offer rates that meet inflation. Their TFSA rate however, is about the third highest right now at 1.7%, matching a few other credit unions (Motive Financial is at 1.8% and a few other banks are at 1.75%). Keep an eye on Implicity to see where interest rates take them!