Interest rates sound complicated, but they're really not. Think of interest as rent money. When you borrow money (like with a loan), you pay rent to use someone else's cash. So if you borrowed $100 at 10% annual interest, you’d pay ‘rent’ of $10 on that loan at the end of the year. It works in a similar way when you save money (like in a savings account). If you put $100 in your KOHO account today at 3.5% interest and keep it there all year, we’d pay you $3.50. That's it. That's interest rates.

The Bank of Canada sets what’s called the "overnight rate,” basically the baseline rate that influences everything else. When they raise it, borrowing gets more expensive and saving gets more rewarding. When they lower it, the opposite happens. But here's the thing: financial institutions don't have to follow this rate exactly. They can (and do) set their own rates for different products. When institutions have to earn your business, you can usually find ones that offer better deals. That's why shopping around actually matters, and why KOHO is proud to offer among the best interest rates for your savings in Canada.