Best Free Checking Accounts in Canada

We were unable to find a great many free checking accounts in Canada. There is only a few of Canada’s checking accounts that have an honest no fee checking account that doesn’t have extra mandatory fees nestled in with the deal. As you will see within this article, most banks are not fee-free by nature, in most cases, you will need to sign up for extra or stick to the minimum balance each month before they will accept your application for a free checking account.

Tangerine Bank

Tangerine offers fee-free checking and savings accounts, they also pay a small amount of interest, and you can set up an online too. It has a no minimum balances, and you only need an opening deposit of $250. As it says on their website, there is no minimum balance, and you have the option of opening up a savings, investing and borrowing account too. They give you access to 3500 of their own ATM machines for free, and you may use ScotiaBank ATMs for free too, and there are around 50,000 ScotiaBank ATMs that are spread among 40 countries.

There are fees that go with your account, but none of them are maintenance fees. Your bank does come with a dormancy fee of $40 if it has had no activity for 2 years, and there is a 1-year inactivity fee of $10.

RBC Royal Bank

RBC Royal Bank checking account is best known for having the lowest banking fees in Canada. They offer free and unlimited interac e-transfers, free personalized checks, and 12 free debits per month. It comes with a daily checking account,.and it has the monthly fee that is waived if you join the RBC financial products such as their MultiProduct Rebate.

You can apply online, or you can visit a branch by booking an appointment online. RBC has a number of different banking services, and even though you are looking for free checking accounts in Canada, it may be worth looking at their different banking options, especially since you can sign up for different products and maybe have your monthly maintenance fees rebated. Here is their fees schedule for anybody interested in their bank accounts.

Scotia Bank

The Scotia One Checking Account offers Canadians a checking account if they are willing to pay a monthly fee of $9.95, but your fee can be waived off if you maintain a regular balance of $4000 or more as your daily closing balance. Their Scotia One Checking Account doesn’t have a great deal of options when you compare it to other banks in nearby countries. For example, you can have your fees waived, but a closing balance of $4000 is a little high for some people. You get unlimited self-serve and teller transactions for free, but you only get two Interac e-Transfers per month. They have two freebies and one of them is a spend and save ScotiaCard debit card. The other freebie is their automatic saving function that draws money out of your account at set intervals during the month, (obviously, you set the intervals).

TD Canada Trust Accounts

TD Canada Trust is one of the biggest banks in Canada, and it has the option of five checking accounts. It also has a free checking account that has been created just for seniors. TD Canada Trust is a lot like Scotia in that it also has a deal where your fees may be waived if you keep to required balance minimum. TD also offers a free checking account for students too.

If you opt for the TD minimum checking account, then you may have your fees rebated if you maintain a minimum closing balance of $2000. You also get twelve free transactions per month that includes two full-serve transactions. There are no monthly fees at all for people who fall into these categories:

[O] People who are 60 years or older and are collecting Guaranteed Income Supplement
[O] Disability Savings Plans are free
[O] Students enrolled full-time at a college or university
[O] If a person is under the age of majority in their province of residence

Coast Capital Credit Union

This account is for people living in British Colombia. Here are all the other things you need to know before you sign up. At the moment, there are around 314,000+ people who have joined and signed up with Coast Capital Credit Union. With Coast Capital, you get a free checking account, and you are allowed free withdrawals and deposits at 4000+ ding-free ATMs. There is no minimum balance either.

There is no monthly fee, and you get free and unlimited day-to-day transactions. You may make free in -branch, phone and online payments, you get free e-statements and free online check images. They also offer overdraft protection, but most banks do, and it just means they will allow your account to overdraw if you do not have sufficient funds for your most recent transaction. Here is a list of Coast Capital’s fees if you want to see the small print before you sign up.

President’s Choice

President’s Choice offers free daily banking in Canada with no monthly fees, unlimited transactions, and free unlimited checks. PC Financial allows customers access to all the CIBC bank machines for withdrawals, bill payments, and all deposits are free. You can go to kiosks and get extended banking services, and some of the kiosks are located in Loblaws superstores around Canada. In addition, you may bank online. With the President’s Choice no free checking account, you may join their loyalty program within which you may earn PC points. This will help you so when you shopping for groceries at your local Loblaws store where you may earn and use your PC points to make shopping a little cheaper. You will also earn interest the balance in your account.

There is no maintenance fee, and you may use any PC Financial or CIBC ATM for free. They offer free unlimited checks and free mobile banking. You get free unlimited Interac® Debit and Interac® Flash purchases, free transfers between accounts, free bill payments and free withdrawals at any CIBC bank or PC Financial machine. In addition, their overdraft protection is optional, so you may opt out of it and save yourself from overdrawing when you have insufficient funds in your account.

BMO – Bank of Montreal

The Bank of Montreal offers a reasonably good deal, but the only problem is that they may ask you to visit a branch to confirm your identity, and that may mean a very long train ride if you do not live near a branch. The Bank of Montreal is one of the most popular and longest-running banks in Canada

BMO has no maintenance fees, but you must maintain the balance of $3,000 with their Plus account, or $2000 with their Practical account. The practical account has a monthly fee of $4.00 if you do not maintain the $2000 balance every day, and you are limited to 12 transactions per month before they start charging you for them. You get unlimited Interac e-transfer transactions. The plus account will cost you $10.95 per month, unless you maintain a minimum balance of $3000. With this account, you get 30 transactions per month, and unlimited Interac e-transfer transactions.

If those do not take your fancy, then there are others you can choose from, such as their performance account, their premium account, and their air miles account. However, you cannot have your fees waived if you pick the air miles account. Here is a quick rundown of the accounts that the Bank Of Montreal offers.

Conclusion – I Told You That Finding A Free Checking Account In Canada Was Tricky

The whole minimum balance issue seems to be a big deal in Canada. There are banks in the US and Europe that require minimum balances in order to waive fees, but they are usually specialty accounts that have extra features. People in Canada do not seem to be getting a good deal with their banks.

Choosing a free bank account in Canada is not easy because on the one hand there are very few banks that offer free bank accounts, and on the other hand the banks that do offer free accounts will usually have strings attached, such as an insistence on you maintaining a minimum balance. If none of the banks above suit your needs, then maybe consider a paid account, since it may be better to suffer a few fees here and there rather than having to put up with a bank that is unsuitable.

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