Canadian banking options for Canadians

June 27, 2024 10:50 AM

I need a new bank account and have been with TD forever. However, I'm sick of fees. Friends praise Tangerine, Simplii, and others. I realize some of these are "fronts" for "real banks" but with lower fees. What are your experiences and recommendations? Preference given to banks or credit unions that do not charge fees for incoming etransfers. I'm in Toronto if that matters. Thanks!
posted by dobbs to Work & Money (14 answers total)

I love Tangerine and have never been charged for etransfers and I make quite a few of them.
posted by Kitteh at 10:55 AM on June 27 [2 favorites]

Can you elaborate a bit more any specific needs or requirements? I don't think I've ever been charged for an incoming etransfer with my TD account. I use TD for chequing/everyday transactions (convenience of having brick and mortar locations), but keep most of my cash with Tangerine since they have better interest rates for things like savings and GICs.
posted by btfreek at 11:14 AM on June 27

Credit unions are always your best bet.
posted by dum spiro spero at 11:19 AM on June 27 [3 favorites]

My partner and I have a chequing account with Alterna and don't get charged fees for the account itself or to send or receive e-transfers. They used to have a pretty crap interface for banking, but they recently upgraded it so it's pretty seamless. You can also use any credit union's machine to take out or deposit cash with no fees, which makes for way more options than a regular bank does, and the rest of the fees for out of network ATMs are pretty comparable. We also have our mortgage with them and their rates were very competitive.

I also really like them (and other credit unions) as a "bank" given that they're a cooperative rather than a profit-making bank that supports colonialist projects overseas. I hate seeing bank names on stadiums.
posted by urbanlenny at 11:22 AM on June 27 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I don't think I've ever been charged for an incoming etransfer with my TD account.

You pay a monthly fee, though, right? You probably have X incoming transfers included in that. TD charges me $15 a month for all my "services".

Credit unions are always your best bet.

That was initially my impulse, but Meridian, which is the closest to me seems to charge $1.25 for incoming etransfers. I emailed them 2 weeks ago for clarification and got zero response. Not the most encouraging.

I love Tangerine and have never been charged for etransfers and I make quite a few of them.

I don't send etransfers and am curious about incoming transfers. Tangerine's site says they don't charge "unfair fees" but doesn't specify what that means. What are fair fees?

Can you elaborate a bit more any specific needs or requirements?

I'm starting a new website and hope to take subscriptions / memberships / donations, and do not expect a lot of activity but all activity would be etransfers coming in or deposits from Stripe. I want to keep this separate from my personal and existing business accounts, which are with TD. If I end up liking whatever service I choose, I will eventually switch my existing TD accounts.

If said bank has a credit card option that would be nice as well as I can keep costs of the new site separate. Not mandatory however.
posted by dobbs at 11:46 AM on June 27

It appears as though Stripe supports Tangerine Interac etransfers coming and going; Tangerine doesn't charge you for sending and receiving Interac etransfers with your account. I would think if there are any fees, it would be on Stripe's end. Of course, if you have international clients, that I can't speak to.
posted by Kitteh at 1:37 PM on June 27

Tangerine doesn't charge for incoming or outgoing interact etransfer. They make it easy to set up multiple chequing (2) and saving acounts (10). You can only send etransfers out of chequing accounts. They have TFSA etc. accounts also but I don't use them for that. Accounts can also be in other denominations if that is handy for you but they dont have federal account insurance. Also easy free bill pay.

Tangerine deposits my direct deposit paycheque 12-18 hours earlier than my other banks. Simplii often takes exactly 30 minutes to process an outgoing etransfer.

Tangerine offers a credit card but I don't have my card through them.

Cash withdrawals are free at any Scotiabank machine as are deposits. You also can go to Scotia tellers for a pin reset but otherwise everything is internet/phone.

You can link to other accounts to move amounts, with a longer wait, in excess of interact limits. Their app is better for me than either TD or Simplii.

Tangerine is my main bank but I also have accounts with TD for things you need a teller for like getting a cashiers cheque.
posted by Mitheral at 1:57 PM on June 27 [2 favorites]

PS I have never been charged any sort of fee for anything with tangerine including etransfers, deposits, withdrawals, 12 accounts under the same login, or debit card replacement.
posted by Mitheral at 2:00 PM on June 27

Are you able to keep a minimum balance of $5K in your chequing account? If so, you can get the all-inclusive banking plan with no fees. I have this plan and have never been charged a fee for any e-transfers (or anything else, actually). That plan also allows you to get a premium TD credit card without paying the annal fee.
posted by barnoley at 3:27 PM on June 27

I've had an account with both simplii and tangerine for many years, since the days that both had different names. No monthly fees or any other hidden fees, including for receiving transfers. I don't recall ever being charged a fee for anything ever actually, aside from one bounced cheque. I'd slightly prefer Tangerine if I had to pick one of them, but both are completely fine and reliable. No minimum balance. No issues, ever.

Unless you like to keep thousands of dollars in your account regardless, you're effectively still paying a monthly fee in lost interest on that money at a bank that requires minimum balance for a "free" account, besides the return of the monthly fee if you ever actually need to use any of that money.

There's no need to pay fees for daily banking, unless you need specialty services.
posted by randomnity at 4:18 PM on June 27

Just saw the credit card point - both simplii and tan have cashback credit cards, with category-based rewards. The Simplii one is less useful for me than the tangerine one, but depends on your spending.

I think both have some kind of bonus for a referral (Tan definitely does) so make sure you find someone to give you a code when signing up for a few extra bucks.
posted by randomnity at 4:22 PM on June 27

We have a Simplii account and it’s good. I also have a separate account with a “real” bank but use the Simplii account for e-transfers because it doesn’t charge fees for that service and the real bank does.

The only issue with Simplii is the service fees at ATMs. At least it used to be an issue. I … actually can’t remember the last time I took cash out from that account.
posted by Badmichelle at 9:26 PM on June 27

I use both EQ Bank and Tangerine. EQ has 4% interest for a chequing account (they call is a chequing/savings account, but I just think of it as chequeing). In part because of the way that I do zero based budgeting, my chequing account is never under $4k.

EQ doesn't have an ATM network, but they will pay back any fees for using an ATM. I've only used this once, and I did get all the funds back in under a week. It's a slight annoyance that the card account is different from the normal account, but transfers are quick, so I've been keeping like $2-3 in it until I'll want cash.

I also use Tangerine in part because I found out about them before I heard of EQ when I was separating finances from my ex wife a few years back. However EQ's options for RRSP's are only GIC's. Tangerine has some managed investment opportunities for RRSPS/TFSA's, so I'm going to keep this account for that.

Additionally, for the last year+, Tangerine keeps offering Bonus Interest in a savings account that's above EQ's 4%. So I'll have some liquid savings in EQ, Tangerine offers me something between 5-6% for 3-6 months, I'll transfer that chunk there, and on the last day of the bonus interest I schedule a transfer of all of that out. Often 5 days later, I get a notice about a bonus offer to new savings transferred in, so I'll transfer it back in. It's kind of a silly game to play, but it's free money for minimal effort.

EQ does have the Notice Savings accounts (higher interest, with a time delay to remove it), but this so far is less than the bonus interest from Tangerine, and this is specifically my "liquid" savings. Needing 10 or 30 days notice is not what I want, but some people might be fine with it.

Editing to note both don't change for etransfers, giving or receiving. If I'm transferring less than $3k, I do it via etransfer. I also have bank to bank transfer for the larger transfer of liquid savings I mentioned; it takes a day or two to transfer funds, but it's also free. My partner and I regularly transfer money back and forth to/from either of my accounts. No fees, always speedy.
posted by nobeagle at 12:51 PM on June 28

Response by poster: Thanks, all. Went with Tangerine.
posted by dobbs at 10:45 AM on July 4