No-fee Chequing Account?

[calculoso]

My bank is going to be changing my chequing account (increasing fees, increasing the minimum balance before fees are waived, etc) and I'm now looking for a different bank to do business with.

I've looked at the Big 5 (Royal Bank, BMO, TD, Scotia, CIBC) and can't say that anything is knocking my socks off. PCFinancial seems to be one that I'm leaning towards at the moment.

Is there anything better that I should be looking at?

Thx in advance!

[Flames09]

I dont pay fees on my student Scotia card, the only reason I'm with Scotia is because of there SCENE card, I watch a ton of movies and spend a lot of money, so might as well get one free with the other. Anyways I dont know why I responded with that because it doesn't help you at all.

[Jing]

ATB has an account where all account fees are waived if you maintain a balance of $1500.

[Draug]

PC Financial is totally free of service fees as long as you dont overdraft your account. If you do, there is a 1 time monthly fee of $4.95. Unlimited cheques, unlimited electronic transactions. There is no minimum balance requirement. They also have 4.25% savings accounts and fairly low interest Lines of Credit.

The only downside to PC is there are no branches and thus no tellers. CIBC bank machines are treated like your home branch. Lack of a branch does not hinder me at all... all internet and ATM banking is much more effecient anyways.

You can still order money orders by mail. There are some CIBC bank machines that distribute US cash too.

If you set up an account with PC, make sure to get the daily deposit limit as high as possible. Mine is $8000, meaning I can deposit up to $8000 and use it right away. They hold everything above $8000 for enough business days to pass so that the deposit can be verified. Nothing is worse than having money and needing to wait for the funds to clear before it can be used.

[Incinerator]

TD's value account is free if you keep a minimum balance of $1000 or more at all times, if you go below at anytime they charge $3.95 for the month.

[Slava]

Manulife Bank has a high interest account that is basically fee free. If you go to their site you can see the list of services charges (its not free for business).

[mykalberta]

I would also suggest PC.

I also have the High required balance Full Service Unlimited ATB account but they recently raised the minimum amount you need to hold in there. $1500 is pretty steep when PC offeres 4.25% savings account.

[fredr123]

I second (third?) PC Financial. Most months the wife and I are pretty broke and keeping a minimum balance was really difficult for a while. We have had zero problems to date with PC Financial and their lack of true branches granted we've only been using them for a little less than 18 months. Any extra cash we do have gets stuffed into their high interest savings account.

Works well for us though your results may vary.

[Fobby]

PC works well for me in Calgary as well. CIBCs are everywhere for deposits, and there's always an amicus ATM in every mac's and 7-11.

Even though the PC bank card doesn't have all the plus and circus symbol on the back.. i was still able to go to Aussie, put my card into an ATM, and pull money out for a 3 dollar fee.

I have been using it since I was 18 years old. Collecting PC points and be able to use it at Superstore is a bonus.

[DAN0383]

I have a "Infinity" account at TD.
$12.95 a month, unlimited transactions at TD machines, and all debit transactions are free. It work's pretty well for me, no minimum balance, and $12.95 isnt that much for that.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by DAN0383

I have a "Infinity" account at TD.
$12.95 a month, unlimited transactions at TD machines, and all debit transactions are free. It work's pretty well for me, no minimum balance, and $12.95 isnt that much for that.

It's still $155 a year that you don't pay at a place like PC and you still get very similar services. Really I haven't gone to a teller to do a basic banking transaction for some time. Last time was to have my wife added to my account after my wedding because we had a bunch of cheques given to us as wedding gifts in both our names.

For your standard chequing account that you're going to pay all your bills out of and want a liquid account PC Financial is a very good choice. You pay nothing for fee's unless you want over draft and will use it. You can use any CIBC Bank machine to withdraw or deposit money and I think that's what sets it apart from other outfits like Manulife and ING Direct. You basically get the same number of bank machines as you'd get with a big 5 bank, but don't have to pay the fee's. They also have similar borrowing products that the other banks have too. And really if you qualify to borrow the money, any bank will give you their best borrowing products to try and earn some of your bussiness.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by Incinerator

TD's value account is free if you keep a minimum balance of $1000 or more at all times, if you go below at anytime they charge $3.95 for the month.

This is how I do mine. Unlimited transactions at TD Green Machines which are widely found. I think there's 5 free cheques a month too. Doesn't included Interac though, so keep that in mind.

I setup our condo corp for Manulife - great interest rate but I'm not so sure how their ATM network is.