2.1.2 Deposit services

You can deposit your money at a financial institution to keep it safe until you need it. In fact, deposits in most financial institutions are guaranteed up to a certain amount (see Deposit insurance).

When you deposit money in an account, the financial institution may pay you interest. Different institutions usually pay different rates of interest, and interest is higher on some types of accounts than on others. That's why it's important to compare and choose the account that best meets your needs.

• Savings accounts can pay higher rates of interest than other banking accounts, but they may have extra charges when you take money out of the account.
• Chequing accounts pay low interest or none at all, but you can write cheques or make withdrawals at any time.
• Chequing/savings accounts combine some features of both types of accounts.

You pay for your banking transactions with a fee, usually a set number of transactions for a flat monthly fee or a fee for each transaction. (See Banking accounts and packages for more on fees.)

When you deposit a cheque to your account, financial institutions will normally hold the money for several days before they let you withdraw it. This gives them time to transfer the money from the cheque writer's account to yours, and to confirm that there is enough money in the account to cover the cheque. You may be able to ask your banking institution to reduce or waive the delay.