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.

  • nbaileyEnglish
    2·
    3 months ago

    My advice would be to weight your decision on which bank has a branch within walking distance. I know that sounds like boomer advice, but it’s genuinely saved my butt a few times. I was with RBC for a while, but they’re generally terrible so I agree with that decision.

    In my opinion, all a bank does is hold onto my paycheque until it can go to rent/mortgage, credit card autopay, or into the TFSA/RRSP accounts. If I look at the records for my chequeing account there’s usually 4-5 transactions per month.

    The important decision, to me, is which credit card and investing account to get. These are the ones that actually matter.

    For posterity, here’s what I use at the moment:

    • chequing/savings accounts at Libro credit union (3 minute walk away) and TD (backup, 15 minute walk away). Lowest account “tier” and bare minimum in each to get the fees waived.
    • credit card: some visa with a high limit and cash back because I don’t like “points”
    • investing: TFSA and RRSP at wealthsimple because there aren’t any fees on ETFs.

    The nice thing is that these can all be decoupled. If I change any component, it’s just adjusting the autopay info on its dependants.

    • Rose56
      2·
      3 months ago

      My advice would be to weight your decision on which bank has a branch within walking distance. I know that sounds like boomer advice

      It does not, because while online banking and support sounds good, there will be always a time where people will need in person help. And I believe this what most of the people are looking for.