Banks in Canada: The Who and The Why

Banks I’ve Used

  • From age 7-15: TD Bank — child’s account, no fees.
  • Age 16 – current: PC Financial — never any fees.
  • My current credit cards are also from those two banks above: TD Visa and PC Financial Mastercard.

Note: I am not being paid by these banks to promote them. I just think they’re the best in Canada.

Other Institutions

  • Scotia Bank — Line of Credit. Not a bad bank, they didn’t get much out of me in terms of interest.
  • TD Waterhouse — For investing. I found them disorganized, but if you just leave your $ in there, it’s ok I guess.
  • TD Bank — Left TD Waterhouse. I use them to invest in funds now.
  • ING Direct — The best for savings (general and TFSA).
  • CIBC — Brief stint with them for a credit card, but it didn’t last.
  • Bank of Montreal — First credit card was from BMO but it also didn’t last.
  • Questrade — Fun money to play around on the stock market.

WHY PC FINANCIAL ROCKS FOR GENERAL BANKING

Note: They don’t really have a physical branch except for some select locations, so you better be comfortable doing online banking.

  • No general fees — they charge you for NSF and all that, but not much else.
  • Free daily banking – online and by phone, 24/7.
  • Free & unlimited transactions — they don’t limit the # of times you put in or take out money.
  • Decent savings rate — Not amazing, but at least it’s better than 0.001% at some banks.
  • Free cheques — Not that it really matters for us paper-hatin’ folk, but that’s a nice perk.
  • Free bill payments, online access and Interac payments.
  • Option for NO paper statements — I check everything online, and I hate paper. So I don’t get it.
  • Did I mention no fees?

WHY PC FINANCIAL MASTERCARD IS THE BEST CREDIT CARD*

*for me.

  • $2000 spent on the card = 20,000 PC points = $20 credit (1% return).
  • Whatever you spend on the credit card, you get points for.
  • I use this card for everything I can, even small purchases under $10.
  • I clear my card each transaction (let alone each month) and I rack up points very quickly.
  • For the month of November I racked up $50 worth of free groceries from paying my hotel on the card.

WHY ING DIRECT IS THE BEST FOR SAVINGS

  • Slightly better interest rate. Not much better than PC Financial, but still.
  • I put my TFSA money there as well under general savings, am thinking I’ll put more in Questrade for stocks next year.
  • I just like it.

WHY I USE TD BANK AND QUESTRADE FOR INVESTING

  • Lesser of two evils.
  • I like TD Bank over TD Waterhouse because they have no load mutual funds and everything is in ONE spot.
  • Questrade’s new platform for investing (QuestraderWEB) is a lot more user friendly.
  • I don’t put very much in Questrade and it’s only under a TFSA that I am playing around with stocks.
  • You could also try Royal Bank for mutual funds. They have some good ones too.

I’m open to suggestions. What do you use for investing and savings?

About the Author

Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver. I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year. Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about my story here, or visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist.