Low-cost accounts are personal bank accounts with monthly fees of no more than C$4.00, offered in Canada.
A personal bank account is an account held with a financial institution such as a bank, a trust and loan company, a credit union or a caisse populaire.
Contents |
History
Low-cost accounts came about as a result of an agreement between the Canadian federal government and the banking sector. There are currently eight banks offering low-cost accounts to their customers.
Features
Low-cost accounts have the following features:
- deposits free of charge;
- debit card usage;
- cheque-writing;
- account statement or passbook updated at no charge;
- 8-15 debit transactions per month, with two or more in-branch; and
- monthly fee no higher than C$4.00.
Features missing that might be found in low cost personal accounts elsewhere in the English speaking world
- international money transfers : you can write cheques in any currency you want (within limits) on low coast accounts but doing IBAN or SWIFT transfers cannot be done
- domestic or foreign cheque deposits are still subject to funds unavailability issues as any personal account offered by the bank
Availability
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada publishes a booklet called Low-Cost Accounts (see Related section) which explains the fees and features associated with these accounts.
Where can you open a low-cost bank account?
The following eight banks offer low-cost accounts
- BMO Bank of Montreal
- CIBC
- HSBC Bank Canada
- Laurentian Bank
- National Bank
- Royal Bank of Canada
- Scotiabank
- TD Canada Trust
Under Canadian federal law — subject to certain rules on types of identification — anyone can open an account with a bank. However, other deposit-taking institutions such as credit unions and caisses populaires are regulated provincially and may have different requirements.
Related websites
 |
This Canada-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
  |
This bank and insurance-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
