On 18 July 2026, Bremo tracked eleven consumer account welcome bonuses across Canada's big banks, direct banks, and fintechs. Added up at their maximums, they come to $3,950. That figure is a ceiling, not a cheque. It is the sum of every headline offer at its top tier, and no single person collects all of it at once. This report explains what the number really means, what a disciplined switcher can realistically stack in a year, and the caveats that shrink the total in practice.
Everything below comes from Bremo's own bank bonus tracker and its machine-readable open data, captured on the date above. Offers change without notice, so treat the amounts as a point-in-time reading and confirm the current terms on each provider's own page before you apply.
The offers cluster at two ends. A handful of large big-bank chequing promotions carry most of the dollars, and a long tail of smaller fintech and investing offers fills out the bottom. The chart shows every tracked offer at its headline maximum, sorted high to low.
Six of the eleven offers come from the major and direct banks and account for $3,500 of the $3,950 total. The five fintech and investing offers at the tail add the remaining $450. In plain terms: the big money is concentrated, it is the hardest to earn, and it is where the fine print bites.
Sorted by headline value, largest first. The bonus and requirement columns are reproduced from the tracker data as captured on 18 July 2026.
| Institution | Headline bonus | Category | Key requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| CIBC | Up to $950 | Big-bank chequing | Open an eligible Smart Account, set up direct deposit and pre-authorized payments |
| Scotiabank | Up to $700 | Big-bank chequing | Open an eligible chequing account and set up direct deposit |
| BMO | Up to $500 | Big-bank chequing | Open an eligible chequing account and set up direct deposit |
| Simplii Financial | Up to $500 | Direct bank, no fee | Open the No Fee Chequing account and set up eligible direct deposit |
| RBC | Up to $450 | Big-bank chequing | Open a Signature No Limit account and meet the promo terms; includes an Apple Watch offer |
| TD | Up to $400 | Big-bank chequing | Open an eligible chequing account and set up direct deposit |
| goPeer | Up to $200 | Fintech, P2P lending | Sign up on Canada's regulated peer-to-peer lending platform |
| KOHO | $100 value | Fintech, spending | No monthly fee, no credit check, includes three months free, opens in minutes |
| Questrade | $100 in trades | Investing | Open and fund an account, then start trading; the value is free trades, not cash |
| Neo Financial | $25 | Fintech, spending | Fund or make a qualifying purchase, no monthly fee |
| Wealthsimple | $25 | Investing | Fund your first deposit |
Amounts are maximum promotional values in Canadian dollars as published by Bremo on the snapshot date. The big-bank figures are top-tier maximums that generally require a monthly-fee plan and direct deposit held for a set period. Figures match the live tracker and All Bonuses pages.
The $3,950 total assumes you claim every offer at its maximum. You cannot, at least not at once, and the reason is direct deposit. Most of the large bonuses require you to route a recurring direct deposit, usually payroll, into the new account and keep it there for a holding period. Most people have one payroll to route. That single constraint splits the market cleanly in two.
Six offers (CIBC, Scotiabank, BMO, Simplii, RBC, TD) hinge on routing direct deposit. With one payroll to move, these are realistically claimed one at a time and sequenced across the year as each holding period ends. Most are new-client-only, so once per bank.
Five offers (goPeer, KOHO, Questrade, Neo, Wealthsimple) turn on signing up or funding rather than moving payroll, so they can be pursued in parallel. Each still carries its own funding or qualifying condition, and some are credit or value rather than cash.
A disciplined switcher works both halves at once: open the no-payroll accounts in parallel, then move payroll from one big-bank promo to the next as each clears. A realistic first year might capture the two largest chequing promos, CIBC and Scotiabank ($1,650 combined), alongside the full no-payroll tier ($450). Claimed at their maximums, that path reaches about $2,100, still well under the $3,950 ceiling, and even that assumes you hit each promo's top tier and clear every requirement. The honest takeaway: the tracker total measures what the market is offering, not what one household takes home.
Every big-bank figure is a maximum. The advertised amount usually stacks several conditions (direct deposit, pre-authorized payments, a minimum balance, an eStatement). Miss one rung and you earn a smaller tier, or nothing.
Most offers require a recurring direct deposit or a held balance for a set period. With one payroll to route, you cannot satisfy the direct-deposit offers simultaneously, which is why the realistic stack is smaller than the total.
The largest chequing bonuses generally require a monthly-fee plan. The fee is often waived for a promo window, then charged. Unless you downgrade or close in time, the fee reduces what you actually keep.
In Canada, cash sign-up and referral bonuses are generally treated as taxable income and may be reported on a tax slip. This is general information, not tax advice. Confirm your own situation with a tax professional.
Questrade's $100 is free trades, KOHO's $100 value includes three months of its paid tier, and RBC's promo includes an Apple Watch offer. Read each line for what form the reward actually takes before you compare them dollar for dollar.
Most promotions are for new clients only, so each institution is usually a once-per-lifetime claim. That caps how far a single person can stack, no matter how many offers exist.
This is a snapshot dated 18 July 2026. Amounts, eligibility, and deadlines move, and some differ by province. Always verify the current offer on the provider's own page before you apply.
Cite this report as: Voss, Allastair. "The State of Canadian Bank Bonuses, 2026." Bremo, 18 July 2026, bremo.io/state-of-canadian-bank-bonuses-2026. The underlying dataset is published as open data at bremo.io/open-data.
bremo.io is an independent Canadian personal finance site. We may earn a referral fee when you open an account through some of our links, which never affects our rankings or the figures in this report. Bonus amounts, eligibility, and terms change without notice and vary by province, so always verify the current offer directly with the provider.