Top 7 Free Chequing Accounts In Canada

We all need a free chequing account with unlimited monthly transactions at no fee, right?

How about you’ll also earn the daily interest on your free chequing account? Remember, the interest you’ll earn might not be much but still, it’s free money for the account you hold. Sounds fun right. Yeah, it is.  

We all use our debit cards for all sorts of purchases and transactions, be it at the local grocery stores, shopping for daily needs, gas stations and so on and so forth. 

For every transaction on your debit card, you will be charged a per-transaction fee associated with your bank. Usually, Canadian banks have a limit of certain transactions free each month. Once you are done with the free transactions in a month you’ll be charged for every transaction that occurs on your debit card until the end of the transaction cycle (1 month usually). 

In this article, I am listing out 7 of the best free chequing accounts in Canada. Mind you, these are all legitimate banks and financial institutions in Canada. So you can be safe about banking with them and your hard-earned money. 

All right then, let’s get started. Here’s the list of the best free or no-fee chequing accounts in Canada In 2019. 

What To Look For In A Chequing Account?

So, here’s the thing – I’ll give you the list of the 7 best no-fee chequing accounts. 

But before we look at the actual list – How will you decide which of the free chequing account is the best for your daily needs? I mean the parameters you look for. Each and every person has different needs he or she looks for. 

Now, then, before we get started with the actual list of free chequing accounts, let’s look at what are the possible things you need to look at before you decide which is the best no-fee chequing account for you.

The best no-fee chequing account for you will depend on what your needs are.

Top 10 Reasons To Switch For A Free No Fee Chequing Account In Canada

Below are some of the main factors I’ll consider when choosing a free no fee chequing account in Canada: 

• No Monthly Fee 

• Unlimited monthly free transactions

• No minimum balance to maintain throughout the month (daily balance)

• No-fee access to ATMs

• Good customer service and support 

• Good Mobile App – Nowadays we are all cell phone addicted, so a good no-fee chequing account coupled with an excellent iOS or Android App with basic facilities like cheque deposit should be fine. I am not asking for facial unlock like the big 5 banks. But a descent login screen should be fine. Remember you are saying close to $10 in monthly fees compared to Big 5 banks, so a little compromise goes a long way in saving $100’s of dollars every year.

• Easy and free Interac e-transfers. Now then we all use Interac every now and then to transfer money to friends and family, usually lunch split bills, sharing purchase cost so on and so forth

• Maybe we all get some interest earnings on our daily account balance. Will get to this in just a bit

• Also, some free cheque leaves just in case so that you can give it to the mortgage agent. 

• Deposits insured up to $100,000 by CDIC. So that your money is safe. 

Big 5 Canadian Banks And Chequing Account Fee

As you all might know or for those living in Canada; none of the big five banks offer anything free for the services they provide. 

All the services, not only limited to a chequing account, be it any account; the big five banks charge a fee per transaction made. 

The advantage you’ll get banking with the big five is – larger presence in Canada, ATM’s almost at every look and corner of the city, very good customer support, security, ease of mind. 

It’s very similar to the big three Canadian cellular services – Rogers, Bell and Telus. They usually charge a bomb for the monthly services but the service provided and cellular reception are the best in class.

The good news is they all have subsidiary child companies or MVNO’s (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) which are low is monthly fees, share the same cellular towers and you’ll end up getting more data or loyalty plans too towards hardware upgrades. 

Fido from Rogers, Koodo from Telus, Virgin from Bell, are a couple of child companies from the big three cellular companies. 

Similarly, the big five banks have subsidiaries as well. We’ll get there in a bit and these banks offer free chequing accounts as well. 

The big five banks usually charge anyway between $10 – $35 dollars towards the chequing account service fee monthly. On average. 

How To Avoid Paying The Service Fee With The Big Five Banks? 

• Maintaining a minimum daily balance in your chequing account – you need to maintain anywhere from $3000 all the way up to $10000 to get the monthly fee rebate.

• Pre-authorized payments and opening more than one account with the bank – The first rule still applies here – you’ll need to maintain the minimum daily balance, along with that you’ll also need to have certain pre-authorized deposits (minimum of 2 mostly).

• Now the pre-authorized deposits can be anything such as monthly rent payments, cell phone bills, work pay deposits. Also, you may have to open a TFSA, RRSP, RESP account with the bank in-order to waive off your monthly fees. 

If you are good and ok with doing so, you can still bank with the big five and pay no fees towards your chequing account. 

Top 7 Free No Fee Chequing Accounts In Canada 

With all that said, let’s now quickly jump into the topic you are here today. Here are the best free chequing accounts in Canada In 2019. 

I’ve mentioned the Bank’s or Institution’s name along with the product and the key features and benefits. 

What Are The Benefits Of The First Calgary Financial No Fee For Me Chequing Account?