Best Children's Bank Accounts in Canada (2026)

Opening a bank account for your child is one of the most tangible financial lessons you can give them early. A real account — not a piggy bank — makes money concrete. Children who see a balance grow over time, watch interest accumulate, and experience the consequences of spending develop savings habits that compound over a lifetime.

In Canada, every major bank offers a youth or children’s savings account with no monthly fee. The differences between them come down to interest rates, when a debit card is available, what tools exist for teaching money skills, and whether branch access matters to your family. This guide covers the best options in 2026, the tax rules you need to understand, and how to use the account as a teaching tool as your child grows.

Best Children’s Bank Accounts at a Glance

All of the accounts below carry no monthly fee and require a parent or guardian as a joint holder or trustee.

Account Reviews

RBC Leo’s Young Savers Account

RBC’s Leo’s Young Savers is the most feature-rich children’s savings account among the Big 5. It earns a base rate of 0.50% with a bonus interest rate of up to 1.50% on the first $500 deposited per month — a deliberate incentive designed to reward the habit of regular saving rather than just a lump-sum balance.

Beyond the rate, the account includes goal-setting tools and savings challenges accessible through RBC’s online banking for parents. These are genuinely useful for children in the 7–11 age range who are motivated by visual progress toward a goal (a new game, a bike, a trip). The parent is listed as the joint holder and has full visibility and control over the account.

The debit card is available at age 12, which is standard for the Big 5. If an earlier card is important to you, BMO or the Mydoh prepaid card are better fits.

Best for: Families who want the most structured savings incentive and educational tools in a Big 5 account, with branch access.

BMO Young Savers Account

BMO’s standout feature is the earliest debit card access among the major banks — parents can request a debit card for children as young as 6, with customizable spending limits. For families who want to introduce real-world spending decisions earlier than age 12, BMO is the only Big 5 bank that accommodates this.

The savings rate is modest (0.01–0.25%), and the account lacks the bonus interest structure that RBC Leo’s offers. But if the priority is giving a young child a card to use with supervision at a store or online, BMO is the practical choice.

Best for: Families who want to introduce a debit card to a child under 12.

TD Youth Account

TD’s Youth Account is structured as an all-in-one product rather than a pure savings account — it includes chequing features (25 free transactions) alongside the savings component. This makes it more flexible than a savings-only account for children approaching their early teens, who may need to pay for things independently.

The savings rate is minimal (0.01%), and TD does not offer bonus interest or savings challenges. The account’s value is convenience and integration with TD’s broader banking ecosystem rather than any savings feature. For families already banking with TD, it is the natural home for a child’s account.

Best for: Existing TD families who want a single account that can grow with a child from early savings through early teen independence.

Scotiabank Getting There Savings and CIBC Advantage for Youth

Both Scotiabank’s Getting There Savings Program and CIBC’s Advantage for Youth account are functional but unremarkable. They offer $0 monthly fees, parental joint holding, and debit card access at age 12. Neither offers bonus interest incentives or goal-setting tools. Their primary appeal is integration with their respective family banking ecosystems — if the rest of your family banks at Scotiabank or CIBC, keeping the child’s account at the same institution simplifies things.

Best for: Families who already use Scotiabank or CIBC and want a simple, no-friction account for their child.

EQ Bank (Held in Trust)

EQ Bank does not offer a dedicated children’s savings account, but a parent can open a personal HISA in their own name and hold it in trust for a child. This gives access to EQ Bank’s 2.00–3.00% interest rate — far above anything the Big 5 offers for youth savings — with no monthly fee and no minimum balance.

The trade-off is complexity. There is no debit card for the child, no child-facing app or savings tools, and the account structure is less straightforward than a dedicated youth account. It also requires the parent to manually track contributions and interest for tax purposes. For parents who simply want to maximize the growth of funds set aside for a child over many years, the higher rate makes this worth the extra administrative effort. For parents who want the account to be a teaching tool, a dedicated youth account is more useful.

Best for: Parents who want to maximize savings growth for a child and are comfortable managing the account themselves without child-facing tools.

Meridian Credit Union Youth Account

Meridian, Ontario’s largest credit union, offers a youth savings account with up to 2.00% interest on the first $500 per month — a bonus interest structure similar to RBC Leo’s but at a higher rate. Meridian also offers branch access across Ontario and lending products for families. For Ontario-based families who prefer credit union banking, Meridian is the strongest combination of rate and in-person service.

Best for: Ontario families who prefer credit union banking and want a competitive savings rate alongside branch access.

Prepaid Cards and Money Apps for Kids

For children younger than 12 who are not yet ready for a traditional debit card, or for parents who want more granular spending controls than a bank account provides, prepaid cards and dedicated money apps are a useful middle layer.

Mydoh (by RBC)

Mydoh is the most fully featured children’s money app available in Canada. It gives children aged 8–17 a prepaid Visa card, a simple spending-tracking app on their own device, and a parent app where you can set limits, assign chores with linked allowance payments, and see every transaction in real time. The parent and child see the same transactions from their respective apps, which creates natural conversation points about spending decisions.

Mydoh is free for up to two children ($2.99/month per additional child). It does not earn interest — it is a spending and budgeting tool, not a savings account. The most effective approach is using Mydoh for spending money (allowance, chore payments) while maintaining a separate savings account at a bank for money being set aside.

Other Options

KOHO and STACK both offer prepaid cards that teenagers (13+) can use with a parent as a joint holder. Neither is purpose-built for children the way Mydoh is — they lack the chore-tracking and child-specific features — but they are functional alternatives for older teenagers who want a no-fee prepaid card.

For children under 8, physical cash and a physical jar system remains the most age-appropriate approach. Abstract digital balances are harder for young children to connect to real-world trade-offs.

How to Open a Bank Account for Your Child

What You Will Need

The documentation requirements are similar across all major banks. The child’s SIN is required because banks must report interest income to the CRA, and a T5 slip is issued if the account earns more than $50 in interest in a calendar year.

If your child does not yet have a SIN, you can apply through Service Canada — online, by mail, or in person. Processing typically takes a few weeks. Most banks will allow you to open the account and provide the SIN once it arrives.

How to Open

In-branch opening is the most straightforward approach for children’s accounts, particularly for children under 12 who need the parent to be physically present. Most Big 5 banks can open the account during a single appointment, often with no wait if you book ahead.

Tangerine and Simplii allow joint accounts for older children (12+) to be set up online. EQ Bank’s in-trust approach is fully online.

Tax Rules for Children’s Accounts

Understanding the tax treatment of a child’s savings account prevents unpleasant surprises at tax time. The key concept is CRA’s attribution rules, which determine whose tax return the interest income appears on.

If a parent contributes the funds: Any interest earned on those deposits is attributed back to the parent and taxed at the parent’s marginal rate — not the child’s. This applies even if the account is in the child’s name. Parents cannot reduce their tax bill by shifting investment income into a child’s lower tax bracket.

If a grandparent or other third party gifts money: Attribution does not apply to gifts from non-parents. Interest earned on funds gifted by grandparents, aunts, uncles, or family friends is taxed in the child’s hands. A child with no other income pays very little or no tax on interest income.

If the child earns the money themselves: Allowance income from employment (babysitting, lawn care), or deposits from the Canada Child Benefit, is the child’s own income. Interest on these funds is taxed in the child’s hands.

Practical implication: If you are depositing the Canada Child Benefit into your child’s savings account each month, the interest is the child’s income. If you are depositing money from your own paycheque, it is yours.

In-Trust Accounts vs Joint Accounts

Most children’s accounts at the Big 5 are structured as joint accounts with the parent as co-holder. An alternative structure — less commonly used for everyday children’s banking but worth knowing — is a formal in-trust account.

In a joint account, both the parent and child are named on the account. In practice, the parent controls it until the child is old enough. In an in-trust account, the parent holds the account as trustee for the child as beneficiary. The child legally owns the funds, and when they reach the age of majority, the account belongs to them — the parent cannot reclaim the money.

This distinction matters more for larger sums. For a child’s savings account with $500–$2,000, the practical difference is minimal. For a parent accumulating $20,000–$50,000 for a child’s future (as an RESP alternative, for example), the in-trust structure creates clearer ownership.

Teaching Kids About Money by Age

A bank account is most valuable as a teaching tool when it is used intentionally at each developmental stage. The goal shifts as children grow — from simply understanding that money exists and accumulates, to understanding trade-offs, budgeting, and eventually credit.

Ages 0–4: The account is for parents at this stage. Open it, set up regular deposits, and let compound interest and time do the work. You can show very young children the balance on a screen, but abstract numbers have limited meaning.

Ages 5–7: Introduce the physical act of depositing. Letting a child hand over coins or a birthday gift cheque at the bank counter makes the savings concept real. Show them the balance before and after. Talk about what the money is for.

Ages 8–10: This is the ideal age to introduce savings goals. RBC Leo’s goal-setting tools, or Mydoh’s visual interface, work well here. Tie allowance or chore payments to deposits. Introduce the idea that money grows on its own when it sits in a savings account — even if the interest rate is modest, the concept is the lesson.

Ages 11–12: Get a debit card. Introduce the discipline of checking the balance before spending. Let them make small purchases independently and discuss the decisions afterward. This is also the age to introduce the idea that spending now means the balance goes down and the future goal gets further away.

Ages 13–15: As teenagers start earning their own income — babysitting, part-time work — introduce direct deposit and the idea of automatic saving. Talk about bank fees, why people choose certain accounts, and how interest compounds over time. Consider upgrading from a youth account to a no-fee account like Simplii or Tangerine, which have more features.

Ages 16–17: Introduce credit basics. A secured credit card or a student credit card with a low limit teaches responsible credit use before the stakes are high. Discuss credit scores, what a credit history is, and why it matters for future renting and borrowing.

Related Resources

• Best Student Bank Accounts Canada
• Best Youth Bank Accounts Canada
• Best Savings Accounts Canada
• Best No-Fee Chequing Accounts
• Best HISA Rates Canada
• TFSA Contribution Room Calculator
• Banking Basics Hub: Accounts, Transfers & Banking in Canada