Ratehub.ca Launches Canada’s First Fee-ranking Chequing Account Comparison Tool
Ratehub.ca—Canada’s leading financial comparison site for mortgage rates, credit cards, banking and insurance—today added a Canadian chequing account comparison tool to its site, becoming the only platform in Canada to compare chequing accounts by fees. Ratehub.ca users can input the volume and type of monthly banking transactions they perform, and the tool will dynamically rank accounts by the total estimated monthly cost.
The tool ranks 71 accounts from 15 providers, allowing Canadians to easily and comprehensively compare options side-by-side and see results geo-targeted to their region. Ratehub.ca users can input the number of debit purchases, ATM withdrawals, bill payments, cheques, Interac e-Transfers, and teller-assisted transactions they make each month. The comparison tool then calculates the monthly cost associated with each account and ranks them accordingly.
“There are dozens of chequing account products offered in Canada, and each come with different fees and services. It doesn’t make sense to pay for features you don’t use when there might be a better option out there, yet with so many variables it’s hard to determine which account will be the most affordable,” says Alyssa Furtado, CEO, Ratehub.ca. “We encourage Canadians to compare multiple chequing accounts before selecting the one that best suits their banking needs at the most affordable price.”
There are four Canadian providers with no-fee chequing account products: PC Financial, Tangerine, Alterna Bank, and Canadian Direct Financial. Base monthly fees for accounts from other providers vary from $3.95 for a basic account with 12 (limited) transactions to $30 for premium accounts. The minimum balance requirements to waive monthly fees range from $1,000 to $6,000 and can be increased at any time by the provider. There are also over 12 types of transactions a provider may charge for—above and beyond a monthly account fee—which range from $0.60 to $2, with the highest are typically for in-branch transactions or bill payments. Ratehub.ca’s tool accounts for all of these factors when ranking the best chequing accounts for a user.
Relevant statistics
- On average, Canadians spend up to $220 per year on bank fees
- Only 17% of Canadians have switched from one financial institution to another in the past three years
- 87% of Canadians trust online banking, compared to 39% for mobile payments and 35% for contactless payments
- 70% of millennials use online banking on their mobile device, compared to 51% of generation Xers and 22% of boomers
- Loyalty to financial providers is strong amongst Canadians: 12% of millennials, 25% of generation Xers, and 59% of boomers have held a particular bank account for 20 or more years
- While loyalty is high, 59% of Canadians don’t believe their primary financial institution offers the best rates
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