These are short-term, low-volatility options people use instead of leaving cash idle. They are not all the same kind of thing — some are ETFs that hold Treasury bills, one is a bank savings account wrapped as a fund, and one is a guaranteed term deposit. That's why yield alone doesn't tell the whole story — currency, taxes, and how easily you can get your money back all matter too.
The comparison
| Fund / account | Currency | Approx. yield | Annual cost | What it actually holds | Backing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JPSTJPMorgan Ultra-Short Income ETF | USD | ~4.5% | 0.18% | Actively managed — short-term corporate bonds & asset-backed paper, not just government debt | Not government-backed; investment-grade credit risk |
| SGOViShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF | USD | ~3.8% | 0.09% | US Treasury bills maturing in 0–3 months only | Backed by the US government |
| BILSPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF | USD | ~4.2% | 0.14% | US Treasury bills maturing in 1–3 months | Backed by the US government |
| ICSHiShares Ultra Short-Term Bond ETF | USD | ~4.6% | 0.08% | Actively managed — mostly investment-grade corporates, ABS & some Treasuries | Not government-backed; investment-grade credit risk |
| RBC Investment Savings AccountSeries A, fund code RBF2010 | CAD | ~1.8% | None stated | A mutual-fund wrapper around a bank savings deposit | CDIC-eligible, combined with your other RBC deposits, up to CDIC limits |
| PSA.TOPurpose High Interest Savings ETF | CAD | ~2.2% | 0.15% | Deposits held at Schedule I Canadian banks + short Canadian T-bills | Bank deposits + government T-bills (not itself CDIC-insured) |
| CASH.TOGlobal X High Interest Savings ETF | CAD | ~2.1% | 0.11% | Deposits held at Canadian chartered banks | Bank deposits (not itself CDIC-insured) |
| RBC GICsNon-redeemable & cashable terms | CAD | ~2.2%–3.1%1-yr cashable ~2.2% · 1-yr locked ~2.7% · 5-yr locked ~3.1% | None | A fixed-term deposit — you lend RBC money for a set term at a locked rate | CDIC-insured up to CDIC limits |
"Approx. yield" for the ETFs is each fund's most recently published 30-day/SEC-style yield, which moves with interest rates and is not a guaranteed or fixed return the way a GIC rate is. GIC and savings-account rates are RBC's posted rates at the time this page was last checked.
How these are taxed (general info, not tax advice)
None of these get the tax breaks that Canadian dividends or capital gains get. With one partial exception (currency swings on the US ETFs), the income from every option on this list is taxed as regular interest income, at your full marginal rate, in a non-registered account.
The registered-account shortcut
Hold any of these inside a TFSA or RRSP and the interest isn't taxed by Canada at all while it stays in the account. If you're choosing between these purely on an after-tax basis, where you hold them usually matters more than which one you pick.
GICs: you're taxed every year, not just when you cash out
The US-listed ETFs (JPST, SGOV, BIL, ICSH) as a Canadian resident
Three things work differently here than with a Canadian fund:
1. It's still fully taxable interest income to the CRA — being a US fund doesn't change that. Your Canadian brokerage will issue a slip converting the income to Canadian dollars.
2. US withholding tax generally does not apply to this kind of US government/short-term interest income paid to a Canadian resident, under the Canada–US tax treaty's treatment of interest — unlike US stock dividends, which usually do have US tax withheld. Brokerage practices and edge cases vary, so check your actual account statements rather than assuming.
3. Currency movement is a separate, second tax event. Because these trade in US dollars, the exchange rate between when you bought and when you sold or received a distribution can create its own foreign-exchange capital gain or loss — taxed differently (and separately) from the interest itself.
USD vs. CAD: does the currency matter more than the yield?
Quick correction first: the "simplest option, in Canadian dollars" pick above wasn't a currency call — it was about paperwork. Holding CASH.TO means one T-slip and no cross-border questions. It says nothing about which currency is going to do better. That's a completely separate bet, and it's worth looking at on its own.
Where CAD has actually been, the last two years
Two honest observations from that chart, not a prediction:
1. Over the past 12 months specifically, you'd have been right. USD/CAD is up about 0.3% over that stretch, so a Canadian holding SGOV picked up a small currency tailwind on top of a much higher yield than CASH.TO. That's the bar chart above — almost the entire gap is the yield, with currency doing very little either way this particular year.
2. But look at the shape of that line — it's a round trip, not a straight climb. USD/CAD spiked from about 1.35 to 1.46 (up ~8%) between late 2024 and February 2025, then gave almost all of it back by mid-2025. Someone who'd converted CAD to USD right at that February 2025 peak and converted back today would have taken roughly a 5% currency loss — enough to erase two-plus years of the extra yield USD funds pay over CAD ones. The direction you happen to buy and sell on matters more than the general trend.
Why USD looks stronger right now, and why forecasts lean the other way
The mechanical reason USD has had the edge is simple: the US Federal Reserve's policy rate (currently 3.50%–3.75%) sits well above the Bank of Canada's (2.25%). Higher rates tend to attract money into a currency, which is part of what's kept USD firm. As of September 2026, most bank forecasts (a five-bank consensus) expect that gap to narrow gradually through 2027 as the Bank of Canada's rate rises back toward 2.75–3.25% — and if that happens, the textbook expectation is a gradually strengthening CAD (a falling USD/CAD line), the opposite of the bet you're describing.
So: you're not wrong that holding USD has worked out fine lately, and the current rate gap is a real, identifiable reason why. But it's a genuine currency position layered on top of the cash decision, it can run against you as easily as for you, and the people paid to forecast it are currently leaning the other way. If you want the yield pickup without taking a currency view, that's exactly what a Canadian-dollar-hedged option or simply accepting CASH.TO's lower yield buys you.
Top picks, by situation
These are general starting points, not a recommendation for your specific situation.
Near-identical products. Compare current yield after fees before picking one — the gap between them moves around.
SGOV and BIL hold only short-term US government debt — about as low-risk as it gets. JPST and ICSH take on a little more credit risk for a higher yield.
The rate is fixed and guaranteed, but you give up access to the money (and the chance to earn more if rates rise) until the term ends.
A cashable GIC trades a lower guaranteed rate for the ability to break it early if you need to.
How to update the numbers on this page later
You don't need to know any code to do this. Open cash-investment-comparison.html in a plain text editor (TextEdit on a Mac works, as long as you use Format → Make Plain Text first so it doesn't turn it into a formatted document).
Use your editor's Find feature (Cmd+F) to search for the fund name you want to update — e.g. search for SGOV. You'll land on a line that looks like this:
Only change the number between the > and < (in this example, ~3.8%). Leave everything else — the <td> and </td> parts — exactly as it is; those are just invisible instructions telling the page "this is a table cell," and deleting one will break the table's layout.
Also update the date badge near the top of the page (search for Rates last checked) so it's clear how fresh the numbers are.
Once you've saved your changes, you'll need to re-publish the file to the live site — ask me and I'll walk you through that step whenever you're ready to update it.