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Six questions, 18 criteria and 13 Canadian institutions. The tool is not looking for the best bank in the abstract, because there isn't one: it looks for the ones that match how you actually handle your money.
Each answer adds weight to certain criteria. An institution's score is the percentage of the maximum reachable for your profile: 100% would mean it ticks everything your answers made matter. It is not a quality rating, and two different profiles do not produce comparable scores.
Sweeping all 3,888 possible answer combinations, the gap between first and second is two points at the median, and stays under three points in 58% of cases. Naming a single winner would have been false precision almost half the time. When several institutions land within three points, the tool shows them together along with the table of what actually separates them.
The Big Five are the clearest case: across most profiles they are interchangeable within two or three points. What really separates them comes down to specifics, the kind laid out in the comparison of the major banks.
| Criterion | What is measured |
|---|---|
| Monthly fees | No account-keeping fee, or a fee waivable with a minimum balance |
| Branches | Whether a physical network exists where you can sit down with someone |
| Cash deposits | Whether you can deposit bills, at a branch or an ATM |
| ATM access | Own network, partner network, or fees reimbursed |
| Savings rate | Relative band: high, medium, low. No percentages, they move too much |
| GICs | Guaranteed investment certificates offered |
| Managed portfolios | TFSA or RRSP managed automatically in the same place |
| Self-directed investing | Buying your own holdings |
| Mortgages | Mortgage lending offered directly |
| Credit card | In-house credit card, useful for building a file |
| US dollar account | A balance or account held in US currency |
| Service in French | Bilingual, or French as the original language |
| Newcomer program | A plan built for arriving in Canada |
| Student plan | Fee-free account for students |
| Mobile app | Built mobile-first, or an app bolted on |
| Free tax filing | Tax return built in and free |
| Canada-wide presence | A real network outside Quebec, or mostly regional |
| Linked US bank | A US retail account, no conversion on every purchase |
Attributes recorded on August 28, 2026 across the 13 institutions included. These are structural criteria: they shift year over year, not quarter over quarter.
It does not know current promotions. A $500 sign-up bonus can flip a ranking for three months and then disappear — and it is not always treated the way you would expect at tax time, since what the CRA actually does with it does not depend on the amount. It also does not know your credit file, or the terms an advisor might grant you in a branch.
It deliberately ignores posted rates. Two institutions both rated "high rate" can be 0.3 points apart one month and reversed the next. For pure savings, the detailed comparison of where cash sits best between the two beats a score.
Finally, it treats each institution as a whole, when most people use two: one for daily banking, one for savings or investing. That is often the right answer, and the tool cannot express it. If you are considering that split, what a caisse keeps when you open elsewhere and the same exercise on the National Bank side show what is lost and what is kept.
If the tool points you to Wealthsimple, code LOIO3A gets you a $25 bonus + $10 I send by Interac after the request form = $35 total. If it points you somewhere else, follow it: that is what it is for.
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