CASH.TO vs HISA in 2026: Which Pays More on $50,000? (2.05% Net vs 2.75% With Strings)

The Three Yields on CASH.TO's Page — and the Only One That Matters

The short answer: CASH.TO pays roughly 2.05% net right now, and whether that beats your HISA depends entirely on which HISA rate you actually qualify for. On a $50,000 balance, the gap between the best and worst outcome in this comparison is $875 a year — $1,375 at EQ Bank's conditional 2.75% versus $500 at its 1.00% no-strings base rate, with CASH.TO's roughly $1,025 sitting in between.

Start with the number everyone gets wrong. Open the Global X product page for CASH — the Global X High Interest Savings ETF, roughly $6.7 billion in assets, trading around a $50.03 NAV — and you will find three different yields:

• Gross yield: 2.16% (effective April 17, 2026). This is what the fund's underlying bank deposits earn, before any fees come off. It is the headline number, and it is not what you receive.
• Net to you: roughly 2.05%. The fund charges a 0.10% management fee, and the all-in MER including tax is 0.11% (as at December 31, 2025). Gross minus MER is the forward-looking rate a holder earns: 2.16% − 0.11% ≈ 2.05%.
• Annualized distribution yield: 1.80% (as at June 10, 2026). The most recent monthly distribution was $0.075 per unit (as at May 28, 2026); twelve of those against a $50.03 NAV works out to 1.80%. This is what holders were actually just paid, annualized.

The part most people miss: when a Reddit thread or a bank comparison quotes "CASH.TO pays 2.16%," it is comparing a before-fee number against a HISA's after-everything posted rate. The honest comparison is gross minus MER — about 2.05% — against the HISA rate you genuinely qualify for. And the honest range on CASH.TO itself is 1.80% to 2.05%, depending on whether you measure the current deposit rate or the last cheque that actually landed.

The June 2026 Rate Table: CASH.TO vs the HISAs People Actually Use

Every rate below was pulled from the issuer's own page on June 11, 2026, and ranked by net yield to the holder. These numbers move with the Bank of Canada's policy rate — 2.25% as of June 10, 2026 — so treat this as a dated snapshot and re-check on the day you move money.

Read the table by strings, not by rate. With no conditions at all, CASH.TO's roughly 2.05% is the best rate on the board — a full point ahead of EQ's 1.00% base and 0.80 points ahead of Wealthsimple's 1.25%. With conditions you can realistically meet — routing a paycheque, or accepting a 30-day notice period on money you were not going to spend anyway — EQ's 2.75% beats CASH.TO by 0.70 points and adds a CDIC guarantee on top.

The $50,000 Worked Example

Take a Mississauga household holding $50,000 of safe money — a house down payment eighteen months out. Three realistic placements:

1. EQ Bank at 2.75% (direct deposit routed, or 30-day notice accepted): $1,375 a year, CDIC-insured, withdrawable same-day (Personal Account) or on 30 days notice.
2. CASH.TO at ~2.05% net in a brokerage account: roughly $1,025 a year, no conditions, not CDIC-insured, two to four business days from sale to spendable cash.
3. Doing nothing in a base-rate account at 1.00-1.25%: $500 to $625 a year — the silent default that costs $750-$875 against the best option.

The EQ-versus-CASH.TO gap is $350 a year. That is real money, but the bigger gap in this table is between either of them and the do-nothing option. Most Canadians lose more to inertia than to picking the second-best product.

Now the tax overlay, because every dollar in this comparison is interest income — fully taxable at your marginal rate, with no dividend tax credit and no capital gains inclusion break. At Ontario's top combined rate of 53.53%, the $1,375 from EQ becomes about $639 after tax and CASH.TO's $1,025 becomes about $476. At Alberta's 48.00% top rate, you keep just over half. The fix is identical for both products: TFSA room first ($7,000 of new room in 2026, $109,000 cumulative since 2009), then RRSP ($33,810 limit for 2026). Which product you pick moves the outcome by $350; which account you hold it in can move it by $549 to $736 a year at the top bracket — the full tax bill a TFSA makes disappear.

Where CASH.TO Wins

CASH.TO earns its $6.7 billion in assets from one core use case: cash that already lives inside a brokerage account. If you sold a position and have not redeployed, or you are holding dry powder for a market entry, the alternative to CASH.TO is not EQ Bank — it is brokerage cash earning nothing, or a two-step transfer out to a bank and back. Against that alternative, roughly 2.05% with daily liquidity on the TSX is a clean win.

• No strings, ever. No direct-deposit requirement, no notice period, no balance tier, no promotional rate that expires. The same rate on the first dollar and the millionth.
• One product, every account. CASH.TO is eligible for TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, and non-registered accounts. You can hold your safe money beside your index fund portfolio without opening a single bank account.
• It beats every unconditional HISA base rate. Against EQ's 1.00% no-strings rate, CASH.TO earns an extra $525 a year on $50,000; against Wealthsimple's 1.25% base, an extra $400.

The honest trade-offs: the units are not CDIC-insured, selling takes one business day to settle plus another day or two to move cash to your bank, and the yield floats — when the Bank of Canada cuts, your rate falls within weeks. Holders who bought when the gross yield was far higher have watched it follow the policy rate down to 2.16% with the overnight rate at 2.25%. If you want a rate that cannot fall, that is a GIC conversation, not a HISA conversation — our GIC vs bonds vs HISA guide covers when locking beats floating.

Where the HISA Wins

The HISA wins on the two things an emergency fund actually requires: guaranteed principal and same-day access. CDIC insures eligible deposits up to $100,000 per depositor per insured category at member institutions — and the categories stack, so individual, joint, TFSA, and RRSP deposits each get their own $100,000. CDIC's own coverage page is explicit that ETFs are not covered. CASH.TO's deposits sit at National Bank, Scotiabank, and CIBC, which makes the credit risk genuinely low — but "low risk" and "statutory guarantee" are different promises, and an emergency fund is precisely the money you hold for the scenario where the difference matters.

Right now the HISA also wins on rate, full stop, for anyone willing to meet a condition. EQ's 2.75% — via either a $2,000/month direct deposit or the 30-day Notice Savings Account — is 0.70 points above CASH.TO's net yield. A notice period is a trivial constraint for money you are holding on a multi-month horizon, and it comes with the CDIC guarantee CASH.TO cannot offer. The structural comparison between the two product categories — settlement mechanics, insurance, liquidity ladders — is covered in our cash ETF vs HISA guide; this article is the ticker-specific rate snapshot to lay on top of it.

The Halal Note: CASH.TO Fails the Screen Outright

For Muslim investors, this comparison has a one-word answer: neither. CASH.TO's entire return is interest on conventional bank deposits — riba — and a conventional HISA is the same income in a different wrapper. Unlike a broad equity ETF, where AAOIFI ratio screens and purification math create genuine analysis, a fund whose stated objective is to earn deposit interest fails at step one. The compliant alternatives for short-term savings are structurally different products — Manzil's halal savings offerings where available, or accepting equity-market volatility in a Shariah-compliant fund. Our ranked guide to the best halal ETFs in Canada covers the options that pass, and any product-level ruling deserves confirmation from a qualified scholar.

The Verdict

Ranked by net yield with the strings you will actually accept, as of June 11, 2026:

• Emergency fund or guaranteed-principal money: the HISA wins. EQ at 2.75% with direct deposit (or 2.75% on 30-day notice) out-earns CASH.TO by $350 a year on $50,000 and carries CDIC coverage. Higher rate plus a statutory guarantee is not a close call.
• Brokerage cash and no-hoops savers: CASH.TO wins. Roughly 2.05% net with zero conditions beats every unconditional HISA base rate by $400-$525 a year on $50,000, and it works inside every registered account you already have.
• Either way, fix the account before the product. Interest at 53.53% in Ontario's top bracket loses more to the CRA than any product choice can recover. Fill TFSA room first.

And date-stamp everything. Every rate in this article was verified on June 11, 2026, with the Bank of Canada at 2.25%. The ranking holds until the next rate move; the framework — compare net yield to posted rate, price the strings, respect the CDIC line — holds permanently.