Meridian Credit Union is Ontario’s largest credit union, with over 375,000 Members and $28.8 billion in assets under management.
It offers various innovative and low-cost banking services to individuals and small and large businesses.
And in 2019, Meridian Credit Union launched one of Canada’s newest digital banks, motusbank.
This Meridian Credit Union review covers some of its main service offerings and the benefits available to Members.
Who Is Meridian Credit Union?
Meridian Credit Union is the second-largest credit union in Canada and the largest in Ontario. It has 75 years of banking history and services more than 375,000 Members.
Meridian offers its members a full suite of financial services through a network of 89 branches across Ontario and is a member of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA).
Meridian cardholders can access over 43,000 surcharge-free ABMs in North America through The EXCHANGE Network and the Allpoint Network in the US.
Banking transactions can be conducted online, via their mobile app, or by phone at 1-866-592-2226.
With the launch of motusbank, Meridian’s digital national bank, non-Ontarians can easily access competitive high-interest savings, mortgage, and personal loan rates online in all provinces except Quebec.
Meridian Credit Union: Personal Banking
Meridian offers a variety of accounts to Members, including savings, chequing, mortgages, investing, credit cards, personal loans, insurance, and more.
Meridian Credit Union Mortgage Rates
Meridian offers competitive fixed and variable mortgages with the following benefits and privileges:
- Preapproval with a 90-day rate guarantee.
- 20% lump sum prepayment and 20% regular payment increase which means you can pay down your principal balance up to 20% combined per year without penalty.
- Skip-a-payment allows you to skip one month’s mortgage payment per year.
- Flexible repayment schedules including weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, or accelerated weekly and bi-weekly payment plans.
- 3% cash back program – this is available on some of their fixed and variable rate mortgage loans.
You can complete your Meridian mortgage loan application online without leaving the comfort of your home. If you prefer, mortgage specialists are also available to speak with you via phone or in person.
The current fixed mortgage rates (closed) as of August 8, 2023, are:
- 1 year: 7.04%
- 2 year: 6.79% (6.19% discounted rate)
- 3 year: 6.69% (6.09% discounted rate)
- 4 year: 6.59%
- 5 year: 6.49% (5.99% discounted rate)
Savings Accounts
Meridian’s high-interest savings account comes with:
- No monthly fees and no minimum balance
- Unlimited free transactions, including transfers and withdrawals
- Automatic savings plans
- Free access to more than 3,600 ABMs
- Deposit insurance by DICO
You can open a general non-registered high-interest savings account or use it for your TFSA, RRSP, or RRIF.
Other savings account options available to Members are the Advantage Savings Account and Youth Savings Account.
Take a look at the best savings account rates in Canada.
Chequing Accounts
Depending on your needs, Meridian offers seven different chequing accounts, including Pay As You Go, Limitless, Convenience, Electronic, Convenience Plus, Senior, and U.S. Dollar chequing.
Meridian provides personal loans, line of credit, and home equity line of credit (HELOC) loans. Visit their website for more details about credit cards, investments, and insurance packages.
Meridian Credit Union: Business Banking
Small business owners can use Meridian to manage their business savings, chequing, investing, business planning, and financing.
Business Advantage Plus Savings Account
Their high-interest business savings account comes with:
- No monthly fee and no minimum balance
- Unlimited free transactions
- Interest paid on every dollar
- 24/7 access
Members also have access to a Business Advantage Savings account and an AgriInvest savings account.
Here is a list of some of the best business savings accounts in Canada.
Guaranteed Investments for Small Businesses
Meridian offers a variety of Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs) designed for businesses that want to maximize their returns without taking on the potential risk of losing their capital.
The minimum investment for GICs is as little as $100, and term lengths vary from 30 days to 5 years.
For more information on business loans, lines of credit, mortgages, and business planning, visit Meridian Credit Union.
Is Meridian Credit Union Safe?
Meridian Credit Union is a member of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA).
FSRA protects your insurable non-registered deposits (such as savings accounts, chequing accounts, and term deposits) up to $250,000 per person.
They also guarantee all (100%) deposits in registered accounts such as TFSA, RRSP, RRIF, and RESP.
For questions about your privacy, you can call them at 1-866-592-2226 or email: [email protected].
Meridian Credit Union vs. motusbank
Meridian operates in Ontario only, and they offer various banking services and packages to individuals and businesses worth checking out.
As a Member of Meridian, you can vote for your wishes and benefit from the profits earned by the credit union.
motusbank, a subsidiary of Meridian, is an online-only bank, meaning they have no brick-and-mortar locations. With the absence of physical locations also comes lower overheads and costs.
As such, motusbank can offer great rates on savings accounts and mortgages, and even pay interest on your chequing account balance!
If you are looking for some of the best high-interest savings accounts available in Canada, read my EQ Bank vs. motusbank comparison.
Related Reading:
- Canadian Credit Union Guide
- 20 Best Cash Back Apps in Canada
- Free Chequing Accounts in Canada
- Best TFSA Savings Accounts Rates in Canada
- Best Chequing Accounts in Canada
- 15 Best Personal Finance Apps in Canada
Meridian Credit Union Review
Overall
Summary
Meridian Credit Union is Ontario’s largest credit union with more than 340,000 members. Check out this review for their great savings, mortgage, and GIC rates.
I’m not very happy with Meridian. They gave me a cash bonus (fine) but steered me towards Credential Securities to hold my investments. the admin fees at Credential Securities ending be ALOT more than the cash bonus. Meridian didn’t tell me I had the option of using Qtrade instead.
Meridian Credit Union are not competitive! Their wealth team cost me a lot of money as mainly steer you towards mutual funds, that cost more money to mange. A lot of their branches are so old fashioned, like walking back in time.
Horrible experience! Needed my mortgage discharge paper to sell the house but the bank didn’t provide it in time, resulting in an escrow. Unresponsive and unhelpful on the closing-in day, despite being advised weeks in advance. Unprofessional and unethical company!
Meridian mortgages are a joke. I spent 9 months trying to renegotiate the mortgage, first in branch, then through the call centre. In the end, they wanted to close down all my other lines of credit and were unwilling to provide any separate line of credit to me beyond the mortgage. And they wanted to take another few months to get the job done. In the end I took my business elsewhere and got it all handled in a few days. Meridian, you should be ashamed of how poor your mortgage business is, your model is completely broken.
Great at taking your money, lousy at returning.
Placed a 100K CD with Meridian for my mother who subsequently passed away.
Went in with a probated will to request a bank draft to the estate in four days.
They contacted me to tell me that their estate people were very busy and might not make my requested date.
Then they called to say that they wouldn’t make the date and would get back to me “in due course”.
A couple of days later they called to demand some kind of notarized documents to release the funds.
Probated wills are already notarized.
They would not give me a contact number or let me talk to anyone in the decision process and just “passed it on to estate”
It took 10 days of increasingly aggressive calling to finally get the bank draft owed to me.
I really resent being put into a situation where the only recourse is to be increasingly unpleasant to the front line staff but that was Meridien for you.
Don’t count on getting pay your own money back in any kind of a timely fashion. Delay, delay, delay seems to be their modus operendi.
I ended up with Meridian by sheer bad luck. I would recommend anybody to stay far away from this pathetic excuse of a financial institution
When I first moved to Ottawa in the late 1970’s I opened an account with the Province of Ontario Savings Office, which had been serving Ontarians since 1922. It was located on Sparks Street, a very convenient location. Although the POSO had been always profitable, the Harper government decided in 2003 to privatize it, purely for ideological reasons. It was sold to the Desjardins co-operative of Credit Unions.
Desjardins moved to the corner of Bank & Albert, expanding the services that POSO provided and generally improving them. Then in 2011 Desjardins sold the Ontario Branches to Meridian, and the problems started. I was refused a line of credit (twice) and a mortgage, my account was erroneously frozen for months, depriving me of access to my own money, all my direct deposits from the different sources within the government of Canada became only identified as “Canada”, instead of Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Old Age Security (OAS), Public Service pension, and all the benefits administered by the CRA, such as Ontario Trillium Benefit. This created an enormous waste of time trying to identify each source every time such an identification was needed. For eight years – you read right, eight years – I tried regularly to have these payments duly identified in my account. I received all sorts of excuses and assurances that things were in the process of being solved. One of my 2024 New Year’s decisions was to start moving all my financial needs and activity to a more responsive and responsible banking institution. I wrote a final message, announcing my intention to get out of Dodge. Their “system”, if their pathetic lack of concern can be called that, indicated that I should receive a reply within two days. Needless to say, nothing happened in a week. Not an apology, not an acknowledgement.
I used to be a strong supporter of all cooperatives. Meridian, the poor excuse for a financial institution made me reconsider.