Where branch-first banking stops making sense
Most Canadian small business owners start with a Big Five account because it is what they know. Then the statements arrive. A business chequing account at a major bank often carries a monthly fee of roughly $5 to $125, and the only reliable way to erase it is holding a minimum daily balance somewhere between $15,000 and $80,000.
Run the arithmetic on that. Parking $65,000 to dodge $1,500 in annual fees costs about $1,800 in interest you never earn, especially with business savings products now paying above 2%. The waiver is a discount that quietly charges you more than it saves.
Transaction charges add up in the same understated way. Interac e-Transfers run about $1.50 each once the monthly allowance runs out. Cash deposits are billed per $1,000, with RBC, for example, charging $5.00 per $1,000 at a branch and $2.25 per $1,000 at an ATM. Paper debits cost $2.50 each on some plans.
Foreign exchange is the line item that actually hurts. A 2.5% to 3.5% markup on conversions is normal at the big banks. On $500,000 of foreign revenue, that is roughly $15,000 a year, more than every other fee on your statement combined.
Two other realities shape the market. Deposits at federally regulated banks are eligible for CDIC protection up to $100,000 per insured category, which matters more than any perk when you are holding tax money in the same account you pay suppliers from. And access is uneven: EQ Bank and Venn both exclude Quebec-incorporated businesses, so owners in that province end up comparing National Bank, Desjardins and the big banks instead.
What the main online options cost
| Account | Published monthly cost | Built for | Details worth checking |
|---|
| RBC Digital Choice Business | $6, no minimum balance | Self-serve owners who still want branch and ATM access | Unlimited electronic transactions, 10 outgoing e-Transfers included, unlimited mobile cheque deposits |
| BMO Essential Plan | $5 | Cheapest branch-backed entry point | Unlimited electronic transactions, 6 e-Transfers included, FX markup roughly 2.5% to 3% |
| TD Business Digital | $6, not waivable | Domestic volume with paper and cash | 10 e-Transfers included; the Unlimited plan costs $125 and needs a $65,000 daily balance to waive |
| Scotiabank Right Size | $6 or transaction fees, whichever is higher | Very light transaction volume | Per-item pricing around $1.00 to $1.25 |
| National Bank Premium Business Package | $100, or $80 with a card | Quebec businesses needing bilingual service | Fee waived at an $80,000 daily balance |
| EQ Bank Business Account | $0 | CAD-only operations, sole proprietors and small teams | 2.25% interest, 50 outgoing and 100 incoming e-Transfers, no branch or cash deposits |
| Venn | No-cost entry plan, $40 Plus tier | Multi-currency work with cards and bookkeeping sync | Flat 2% interest on CAD and USD balances, CDIC protection through a partner bank, no Quebec |
| Airwallex Business Account | $0 Explore plan, $12 per spend user on Grow | Invoicing clients outside Canada | 0.5% markup on major currencies, $20 to $35 per SWIFT payment, funds held in segregated trust accounts rather than CDIC-insured deposits |
| Float | Plan-based pricing | Teams spending in CAD and USD on cards | 2.5% interest on CAD and 2.75% on USD cash, 2.5% fee on currencies beyond those two |
Fees and tiers shift, so treat the figures as a starting benchmark and confirm on each provider's fee schedule before you apply.
How to read that table like an owner
Start with volume, not headlines. Under 30 electronic transactions a month, per-item pricing rarely beats a flat fee. Past a few hundred, an unlimited plan wins almost every time, which is why the TD Unlimited tier and RBC Ultimate package exist despite their steep monthly costs.
Then look at where the money sits. If you routinely hold $100,000 in operating cash, the gap between a 0% chequing account and a 2.25% or 2.75% platform is thousands of dollars a year. That single variable can justify an online business bank account even when the monthly fee is identical.
For freelancers and consultants, the Interac e-Transfer allowance deserves a closer look than the interest rate. Fifty outgoing transfers at EQ Bank covers most solo practices. Six at BMO does not, and the overage charge of $1.50 per transfer adds up quietly across a busy quarter.
Cross-border work needs a different lens. Dev, who runs a small outdoor gear shop out of Edmonton and sells into the United States, kept converting USD to CAD and back. Holding US dollars in a multi-currency business account and paying American suppliers from that balance removed a double conversion he had been absorbing for two years. A 0.5% markup instead of 3% is the difference between a rounding error and a real expense.
Quebec changes the shortlist entirely. Priya, who operates a translation studio in Montreal, found that the two cheapest digital accounts would not take her incorporation papers. She ended up weighing National Bank's bilingual support against a Desjardins business account, and the deciding factor was French-language service on a Friday afternoon rather than the fee.
Cash is the honest limitation. No online-only account accepts a deposit of bills. If you run a café, a market stall or a trade that gets paid in cash, you need either a branch or a credit union with teller access, and the digital account becomes a second, interest-bearing home for reserves.
A setup sequence that avoids rework
Pull three months of statements and count electronic debits, credits, e-Transfers and cheque deposits. That number decides your pricing tier before you talk to anyone.
Gather your documents: government-issued ID, articles of incorporation or a master business licence, your business number, and confirmation of who can bind the company. Online applications take minutes, but most big banks still require a branch visit to verify identity and activate, so budget for one trip.
Open the account, then connect QuickBooks or Xero the same week. Bank feeds and CRA-ready categorisation are the reason most owners move away from spreadsheets, and the connection is easier to set up at the start than after six months of transactions.
Test the edges early: send an e-Transfer at your limit, deposit a cheque through the app, and make one bill payment to CRA. Problems surface in week one, not at quarter-end.
Track your idle balance for 90 days. If it consistently sits above $50,000 earning nothing, you are paying for the privilege of a fee waiver you do not need. If it stays under $5,000, the interest rate matters far less than the transaction allowance.
One last check before you commit: confirm where your money sits. A CDIC-eligible deposit account and a trust-held fintech balance are not the same promise, and knowing which one you have makes the choice calmer when markets get noisy. Open one account, run it for a full quarter, then decide whether the second one is worth it.
研究の知恵