Morning all,

Does anyone know of a Canadian site similar to the legendary Moneysavingexpert here in the UK?*

I'm trying to find out about the best rates for savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, utilities etc etc, but there doesn't seem to be as much in the way of a consumer web base as there is in the UK?

One caveat to this is www.smartcanucks.ca - but it seems fairly coupon focused, and banks don't generally do a great line in those.

(*...and if the answer is no, then shouldn't we start creating one on the wiki?)

The only site I know of is Red Flag Deals (http://www.redflagdeals.com/) which looks pretty similar to the site you posted.

Different focus, but http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/ has some interesting articles and advice.

Lots of personal finance links there, too, so if that site's not quite what you're looking for...

Unfortunately Canada is not one market like the UK, you might be able to do something for the larger Cities, but thats about it.

Each Province is different in its rules and regulations, governing so many different areas, that it is very hard to generalise about any aspect of Canada.

That's a good point - these regional differences kind of kill off a fair amount of national competition.

Having said that, the milliondollarjourney site is really good - thanks for the link!

There is a Wiki article called Frugality-Canada. It's grouped with other articles in a sub-category of the Wiki called Consumer Topics-Canada. In the Consumer Topics-Canada sub-category, there also is an article called Price Comparisons-Canada. It merely refers the reader to the Frugality-Canada article.

When people are interested in topics and scan the Wiki, they sometimes think of different words. I'm just wondering if I should create another article called Money Saving-Canada or something like that. Like the Price Comparisons-Canada article, this would merely refer the reader to the Frugality-Canada article. But it might serve the person who thought of this topic in terms of "money" or "saving."

Oh yes, the Frugality and Price Comparison articles also have tags that make links to them appear when a reader is viewing the sub-category of Wiki articles called Canada-Financial.

The links to www.smartcanucks.ca and www.milliondollarjourney.com are not in the Frugality-Canada article. I will add them now.
x

That's easy: they're all lousy. I've got a high interest savings account where my money probably devalues as it appreciates more slowly than inflation.

Welcome to Canada !!

My only slight gripe in this country is the lack of competition !

It's really not like back home where you can go onto moneysupermarket, etc etc and find the best deals !

As someone mentioned it might be to do with how the different provinces are set up !

Canadian Population approx 32 million.
Area: 9,093,507 SQ KM

UK Population approx 60 million.
Area: 243,820 km²

Nuff Said?

I don't see how that should affect financial services. Especially as most of these services can be carried out over the internet or the phone.

I don't even find it to be a slight gripe. I really miss that aspect of the UK.

Its the classic of supply and demand, this applies to all services and goods.

If you Google "Canadian Banks" you get 522,000 hits if you Google "UK Banks" you get 3,760,000 hits. More people = more suppliers = lower prices.

Once we fill Canada (or at the very least the lower 200 miles) upto the same population density that you get in the UK. . . . . well you see where I'm going.

I'm surprised that things are as cheap here (Winnipeg) , or cheaper, than the UK for so many things, when we really only have a market of about 1,000,000 people in and around the City to draw upon.

Still doesn't make sense. What's population density got to do with it? If you're internet/phone-based and have a central office in, say, Toronto, you should be able to compete nationally. The population of Canada is certainly of the same order of magnitude as the UK.

Many think that but;

Canada Population: 33,390,141 (July 2007 est.)

UK Population: 60,776,238 (July 2007 est.)

So yes, the same order of magnitude.