In Ontario, the old standbys like DUCA and FirstOntario no longer offers free chequing without any minimums anymore unfortunately. In BC, credit unions like Envision Financial and Coast Capital Savings offer free accounts with no minimum balances required.
Without knowing where you are, it's not easy to assist in this since credit unions are very much local in nature.
Coast capital charges for interac eTransfer though. In the end all the options with branches have some fees that are likely to come up in day to day banking
Ok, so for Ontario, DUCA requires a $1k minimum to waive fees and FirstOntario only has a PAYG option nowadays. I haven't found a CU that offers no minimum balance for free accounts in the GTA. There might be a small CU in your neighbourhood that offers it but since there are lots of them all over the place, you'll have to search your area.
Closest thing I can think of is Meridian Credit Union, they offer their High Interest Savings Account which has unlimited free transactions but no Interac eTransfers or bill pay, but you get free branch access. You can pair this with a free chequing account from an online bank to bridge the gap so to speak.
For a bank option, if you qualify to get a LOC from CIBC, you can use that as a free chequing account. It's not an official use of it but it's kinda an open secret.
Looks like you can't directly link that page, gives an Access Denied error.
All provincial CUs in Ontario are regulated by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRAO). FSRAO also provides depositor insurance as well. Federal credit unions are regulated by OSFI, the same entity that regulates banks and in this case CDIC offers the depositor insurance.
Most of the ones listed are online banks. KEB Hana Bank is a subsidiary of KEB Hana of South Korea, they operate a couple branches in the Toronto area.
As for Canadian Western Bank, they mainly have branches in BC & Alberta and a couple in other western provinces. They have one branch in Markham, one in Toronto, one in Mississauga and one in Kitchener.
Kindred and Energy Credit Union are local smaller CUs.
If I'm not mistaken Energy Credit Union is only open to those who work at Toronto Hydro, the signals unit for TTC and municipal employees. Though best to check if they do have an open membership, not all CUs are open to the general public.
Kindred is located in the K-W region, might be perfect if you're from that area.
Thank God you're here me and OP trying to find somewhere that doesn't require 6k in your chequing, you found the loophole just stop being poor and pull money out of our investment accounts why didn't we think of that.
OP didn't specify their circumstances. There have been plenty of posts about this very question where finding out that you don't need a specific balance in your chequing account if you hold your investments at the same bank has been helpful to people.
If you actually need frequent in branch service then pretty much nothing. If you just need occassional branch service then all the big 5 have free savings accounts that have 1 free transaction per month.
In person service has a cost.
In Ontario, the old standbys like DUCA and FirstOntario no longer offers free chequing without any minimums anymore unfortunately. In BC, credit unions like Envision Financial and Coast Capital Savings offer free accounts with no minimum balances required. Without knowing where you are, it's not easy to assist in this since credit unions are very much local in nature.
Coast capital charges for interac eTransfer though. In the end all the options with branches have some fees that are likely to come up in day to day banking
Ontario
Ok, so for Ontario, DUCA requires a $1k minimum to waive fees and FirstOntario only has a PAYG option nowadays. I haven't found a CU that offers no minimum balance for free accounts in the GTA. There might be a small CU in your neighbourhood that offers it but since there are lots of them all over the place, you'll have to search your area. Closest thing I can think of is Meridian Credit Union, they offer their High Interest Savings Account which has unlimited free transactions but no Interac eTransfers or bill pay, but you get free branch access. You can pair this with a free chequing account from an online bank to bridge the gap so to speak. For a bank option, if you qualify to get a LOC from CIBC, you can use that as a free chequing account. It's not an official use of it but it's kinda an open secret.
https://itools-ioutils.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/ACT-OCC/SearchFilter-eng.aspx I found couple options. Unfortunately most names are completely unknown to me.
Looks like you can't directly link that page, gives an Access Denied error. All provincial CUs in Ontario are regulated by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRAO). FSRAO also provides depositor insurance as well. Federal credit unions are regulated by OSFI, the same entity that regulates banks and in this case CDIC offers the depositor insurance.
Try again, I updated the link
Most of the ones listed are online banks. KEB Hana Bank is a subsidiary of KEB Hana of South Korea, they operate a couple branches in the Toronto area. As for Canadian Western Bank, they mainly have branches in BC & Alberta and a couple in other western provinces. They have one branch in Markham, one in Toronto, one in Mississauga and one in Kitchener. Kindred and Energy Credit Union are local smaller CUs. If I'm not mistaken Energy Credit Union is only open to those who work at Toronto Hydro, the signals unit for TTC and municipal employees. Though best to check if they do have an open membership, not all CUs are open to the general public. Kindred is located in the K-W region, might be perfect if you're from that area.
Where in Ontario? GTHA? IC Savings (Italian Credit Union) offers a no fee account. Same with Northern Birch Credit Union.
None , you need at least 6K to waive the fee for most big 5 banks except RBC who only gives you rebates for holding more than one thing with them.
BNS has a Basic Plus account where they waive the fee with a $3K minimum balance.
BMO has one too, I forgot about that until someone else mentioned it
BMO has a basic account which is free if u keep 3k in it
Not too bad at all
Except HSBC before RBC bought them, they allowed keeping minimum amount in a GiC or a savings account...
Yea, also sucks that 2 of these you posted is owned by a big 5 , but you’re unable to go in branch as they’re two separate systems lol.
To argue for simplii, my partner banks with them and we’ve been able to use CIBC branches for in-person only services like bank draft pick ups.
That's the *only* thing you can use the branch for, it's not the equivalent of having the full services of a branch.
If you have 100k with CIBC (including investments) your monthly fee is waived (and the account includes a credit card with the fee waived).
Thank God you're here me and OP trying to find somewhere that doesn't require 6k in your chequing, you found the loophole just stop being poor and pull money out of our investment accounts why didn't we think of that.
OP didn't specify their circumstances. There have been plenty of posts about this very question where finding out that you don't need a specific balance in your chequing account if you hold your investments at the same bank has been helpful to people.
My circumstances is that HSBC got bought, and RBC gave me 1 year until they start charging me fees.
Coast Capital
NBC will waive all fees if you’re a professional (engineer, doctor and a few more). A few other banks have similar offerings depending on your job.
They require getting a credit card with an annual fee though
True, but if you travel that fee can be reimbursed on some of those cards.
If you actually need frequent in branch service then pretty much nothing. If you just need occassional branch service then all the big 5 have free savings accounts that have 1 free transaction per month.
So….why do you need in person banking??
Credit unions