
Discover more from 🇺🇸 to 🇨🇦
“The Big Five”
Traditional big banks, ranked in order of their size
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)
Toronto-Dominion (TD)
Bank of Nova Scotia
Bank of Montreal
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC)
“Online-only” Banks
Online banking arm of the Big Banks and the new upstarts. These usually have low or no fees but lack physical presence and don’t offer as wide range of financial products.
Tangerine Bank (Owned by Bank of Nova Scotia)
Simplii Financial Bank (Owned by CIBC)
How to choose your bank?
2️⃣ Types of Bank Accounts
Chequing (is that correct, eh?)
Savings
💸 Fees
Monthly maintenance
Cheque (yes, that’s correct) book
Wire transfer - domestic and international
Non-bank ATM withdrawal
Interac transfers and Debit card
Safety deposit box
💰Interest Rates
Rates differ on Chequing vs Savings account
Online only banks offer higher savings interest rates, EQ bank offers as high as 2.30%
🤔 Other Considerations
Multi product benefits (auto loan discount, mortgage rates)
Credit card reward programs
Presence outside Canada (e.g. RBC, BMO have branches in the U.S.)
Ability to open an account from the U.S. before moving to Canada
⏱ Making a decision
Depending on your goals, first choose between a big bank or an online-only bank. Since you’ll be new to Canada, it’s likely that you’ll need access to other financial products which online-only banks may or may not be best suited to offer.
If you’re opening multiple accounts, consider opening one with the big bank and other with online-only to get best of both the worlds
Definitely choose at least one that offers you credit card so you can start building credit history