The monthly fee is never the real number
A business chequing account priced at $5 or $6 a month looks harmless next to the revenue on your invoices. Then the per-transaction line items show up. BMO's Essential Business Account sits at $5 and includes six outgoing Interac e-Transfers, with $1.50 charged on each one after that. Scotiabank's Right Size account charges between $1.00 and $1.25 per transaction depending on your tier. CIBC's Basic Business Operating Account adds a $1.50 fee plus a $1.00 self-service charge on transfers, and $2 for each CRA payment made over the counter.
Add a few contract payments, a payroll run, and quarterly GST/HST remittances, and a modest account can quietly cost more than a digital alternative charging nothing for the same activity. That gap is the whole argument for looking at online-only providers first, before defaulting to whichever bank holds your mortgage.
Four friction points Canadian owners keep running into
Interac e-Transfer ceilings
Most small Canadian businesses collect money by e-Transfer, not wire. The ceiling on those transfers decides whether a single invoice can be paid in one shot. EQ Bank's business account allows $10,000 per outgoing transfer, $30,000 weekly and $50,000 monthly, with $25,000 per inbound transfer. RBC's Digital Choice package includes ten free outgoing transfers monthly and charges $1.50 after that. Read the limits before you commit, especially if your average invoice runs into five figures.
Paying the Canada Revenue Agency
Every incorporated business files GST/HST, payroll source deductions and corporate tax. Some accounts treat those payments as ordinary bill payments; others charge $2 each. EQ Bank processes CRA payments with no fee, up to $100,000 per payment. BMO charges nothing online but $1.50 for assisted payments. Run the math on your filing calendar: twelve monthly remittances plus quarterly instalments adds up.
Cash and paper cheques
This is the honest weakness of digital-only banking. A contractor paid in cash, or a retailer with a float, still needs a way to deposit bills. Digital accounts generally handle cheques by photo, and EQ Bank accepts cheque deposits up to $100,000 per item, but notes on its own fee schedule that it issues no paper statements and offers no overdraft. Businesses with heavy cash flow often keep a branch-based account alongside a digital one, using the branch for deposits and the digital account for payables.
Getting paid in US dollars
Freelancers and e-commerce sellers billing American clients eat a conversion markup at the big banks that rarely gets quoted upfront. Wise Business charges a one-time $55 CAD setup fee rather than a monthly fee, converts at the mid-market rate with fees starting around 0.48%, and issues local account details for receiving money in more than twenty currencies. That structure suits exporters; it does not replace a chequing account for domestic payroll and CRA filings, which is why many owners run the two side by side.
Side-by-side comparison
The table below reflects published fee schedules from providers as of late 2026. Rates and included transactions change, so confirm current terms before opening.
| Account | Monthly fee | Interest on balance | Outgoing e-Transfers | CRA payments | Works well for |
|---|
| Wealthsimple Business | $0 | Up to 2.25% | Unlimited | No fee | Solo owners, digital-first businesses |
| EQ Bank Business | $0 | 2.25% | 50 included, $0.50 after | No fee | High transfer volume, no cash handling |
| Wise Business | $0 plus one-time $55 setup | Not published | Pay per use | Not supported | US and international clients |
| Venn | $0 | 2% | Unlimited | Not published | Startups parking operating cash |
| Float | $0 | 2.5% on CAD | Unlimited EFT | Not published | Teams needing card controls |
| RBC Digital Choice Business | $6 | None | 10 included, $1.50 after | Not published | ATM access, remote cheque deposit |
| BMO Essential Business | $5 | None | 6 included, $1.50 after | No fee online, $1.50 assisted | Low volume, occasional cash |
| TD Business Digital | $6 | None | 10 included | $2 each | Owners with existing TD credit |
| CIBC Basic Business Operating | $6 | None | $1.50 plus $1.00 self-service | $2 each | Uneven monthly activity |
| Scotiabank Right Size | $6 | None | $1 each | Not published | Very low transaction counts |
Interest rates on these accounts are variable and can shift with the Bank of Canada's policy rate, so treat the figures as a snapshot rather than a promise.
What the decision looks like in practice
A two-person design studio in Toronto billing American agencies does not need an ATM network. It needs USD receipts, clean bookkeeping exports, and no per-transfer charge on the twelve invoices it sends each month. Wise Business for collections plus EQ Bank for domestic payables and CRA remittances often costs less than a single $6 account with per-item fees, once volume climbs.
A Calgary trades company tells a different story. Crews get paid by cheque and customers hand over cash at the counter. That business usually keeps a BMO or RBC account for deposits and remote cheque capture, and treats the monthly fee as the price of physical access rather than an error to be optimised away.
A Halifax Shopify seller sits closer to the middle. Revenue lands through a payment processor, expenses go out by card, and the balance earns interest while it waits. Float or Wealthsimple, both at $0 monthly with published rates of 2.5% and up to 2.25%, handle that pattern without a branch visit.
A five-step checklist before you open anything
- Pull three months of statements and count every debit, e-Transfer, bill payment and CRA remittance. Compare that count against each provider's included limits.
- Confirm whether your average invoice clears the per-transfer ceiling. A $10,000 cap on an account where invoices hit $18,000 creates a workaround you will resent.
- Check the integration list. QuickBooks, Xero and Wave all sync with several of these accounts, and that sync saves hours of manual entry at year end.
- Gather documents. Providers typically ask for government-issued photo ID plus a business registration document such as Articles of Incorporation, a Certificate of Existence, or a Master Business License. RBC also requires sole proprietors operating under their own name to hold a business account, while some institutions only require it when you trade under a business name.
- Register for Interac e-Transfer Autodeposit with your business email domain, so client payments land without a security question and without you chasing them.
One practical next step
Open two browser tabs. In the first, pull up your current bank's fee schedule and add up last quarter's transaction charges. In the second, put the comparison table above beside it and pick the two accounts whose included limits clear your real numbers.
Running a second account for a month costs very little and answers the question faster than any calculator. The account that fits is the one whose fee schedule disappears from your monthly review because nothing on it surprises you.
研究の知恵