I’m planning to open a new chequing account in the near future, and I’m contemplating bailing on RBC. I’ve been with them for a very long time, and one possible outcome is that I’ll just open a new RBC account and be done with it. That’d be… fine.
But for a variety of reasons (including my satisfaction with RBC trending steadily downward), I’m thinking about opening this new account elsewhere. I don’t have a ton of hard requirements, and I’m not really sure what to look for in a bank, but the following would be nice:
- Good online banking experience, particularly desktop (RBC is shockingly bad at this)
- Good credit card; easy to make payments from the new account
- Minimal fees
- Easy e-transfers
- Real security (another thing RBC is terrible at)
- Neat rewards would be cool
- Low-fee, low-friction investing would also be cool-- I don’t really do much investing, but I’d like to be able to
Any suggestions would be great, including anti-suggestions if you happen to know of a bank that I should avoid.
When I had my moment of questioning the banking situation, I discovered that credit unions in Ontario are regulated to be nonprofit. I chose one of the larger ones - Meridian - and opened an account. I haven’t had a problem since. Every interaction with them has been pleasant. I also have an account with their subsidiary bank - Motusbank. I did that because I wanted to get a mortgage promo they offered. At the time of signing up with Meridian, their mortgage rates were lower than my employee mortgage rate at TD. Which makes sense. If there’s no shareholders to funnel profit to, they can offer lower interest on loans and higher interest on deposits. There are no monthly fees. E-transfers are cheap. They’re free with Motusbank. The web interface is simple and easy to use. It doesn’t have a lot of features but it does well what it can. The mobile app is pretty decent too.
I’d inquire at your local credit unions. Unless I had specific business needs, I’d never go back to a bank.
Credit Unions are really bad on the tangibles like locations, hours and range of products offered.
They are great for intangibles like not hard selling you on high management fee mutual funds or people that just want drop the call as quick as possible. Really just feels like you’re talking to a real human being trying to help you.
I can provide some info about TD, Simplii, Tangerine, EQ, and Wealthsimple (more of an investing service than a bank):
Online Banking Experience:
- TD: Webapp works but is not pretty. App is more polished.
- Simplii: Webapp is similar to TD in lack of polish. Mobile app is similar to the other two above.
- Tangerine: Webapp is a bit better than the above two. App is more polished.
- EQ: Webapp is a bit more polished like Tangerine. Mobile app is a little worse than the above but still fine.
- Wealthsimple: Probably the best webapp and mobile app experience.
Credit Cards (Ease of Use):
- TD: Many credit card options and can automate payments for it from any institution (I believe).
- Simplii: They have a free card that has 4% back on restaurants which is pretty cool. Can be automated from other institutions.
- Tangerine: They have a very cool free credit card (2% back on 2-3 user selected categories). Annoyingly though, you can’t automate payments using another institution.
- EQ: No idea about credit cards.
- Wealthsimple: I believe they just released a new credit card. No idea how good it is.
Fees:
- TD: They have an account that if you keep a minimum $5000 in it, there are no fees and you get some extra perks (free premium credit card, etc.). Other than that, the free account with no minimum is pretty limited.
- Simplii: Free accounts and credit cards.
- Tangerine: Free accounts and credit cards.
- EQ: Free accounts. Not sure about credit cards.
- Wealth simple: Free account. Not sure about credit card.
Etransfers:
- TD: etransfers have a fee but is waived if you hit the minimum in the account.
- Simplii: free
- Tangerine: free
- EQ: free
- Wealth simple: no idea. Don’t think they allow etransfers.
Security:
- TD: Security is okay. They have a standalone authenticator app, so they need to step it up, but sadly they are still one of the better ones in Canada.
- Simplii: Meh security. Normal passwords and SMS 2FA.
- Tangerine: Awful security. Your password can only be a 6 digit numerical pin. Thankfully they require 2FA but only using SMS.
- EQ: Meh security. Normal passwords and SMS 2FA.
- Wealth simple: Good security. TOTP available and I believe passkey is here or coming? Not sure about that last part, but I wouldn’t be surprised with how ahead of the curve they are in this area.
Rewards:
- TD: Rewards depend on the credit card here.
- Simplii: Rewards are just in credit card.
- Tangerine: They have various rewards throughout the year. Usually temporary boosts to the interest on their savings account.
- EQ: Nope.
- Wealth simple: Nope.
Investing:
- TD: No idea.
- Simplii: no idea
- Tangerine: no idea
- EQ: Can buy GICs here but no idea otherwise.
- Wealth simple: The best since it’s an investing service.
Misc:
- TD: Great customer support and very established. Has lots of options for accounts, cards, etc.
- Simplii: No in person access.
- Tangerine: No in persona access. Security is abysmal but the other services are pretty good.
- EQ: Typically has the highest interest rate of all Canadian banks for the savings account. No in person access.
- Wealth simple: Great for investing and a good service!
What I do: I have my everyday banking with TD, savings with EQ, and investing with Wealthsimple. When Tangerine gives a promo, I move my savings there until the promo expires, then I move it back to EQ. I have credit cards with a bunch, but the one I’m considering ditching is the Tangerine one since payments cannot be automated through another institution.
Wealthsimple Cash covers most of what one might be looking for in a chequing account.
- 4.5% interest if you deposit your paycheque into it. 3% otherwise I think? It’s quite high
- you can send e-transfers from a Cash account, or you send money using WS Cash to other Cash users. Both workflows are easy
The Cash card also has 0.5% cash back on purchases IIRC and is essentially a prepaid credit card / debit card. I love WS Cash, the only reason I don’t use it more often is that I have an Amex.
4% before any direct deposit bonuses.
It’s pretty decent for a cash / emergency / short term savings account.
It lacks features though (recurring transfers in/out from other institutions is the main one for me).
