Here in Canada, major retail banks are increasing service fees. This means we might have to pay a little more for the same everyday banking services. I heard ScotiaBank has already done it, CIBC also increased their fees in April, and I got a letter from TD earlier this year that states they will start charging higher fees starting August this year.

For TD, whom I bank with, some changes include raising the fee for additional transactions from $0.65 to $1.00, and increasing the service fee of one of their checking account from $8.95 to $10.95 a month. Food, energy, rent, gas, clothing, insurance, property tax, and just about everything else is becoming more expensive in Canada, so I guess it only makes sense to also pay more for bank services. Yup, inflation can be a large PITA sometimes. From what I’ve heard, so far 3 out of the 5 major banks in this country are raising fees this year, which they haven’t done for many years now, so maybe the other 2 banks are soon to follow?

To avoid getting charged these higher fees, one option is to look at alternative banking solutions like online banks instead of the big 5. For example PC Financial has a free checking account, uses CIBC bank machines, and has CDIC protection backed by the government. ING Direct has their THRiVE checking account which is also free. There is another way you can save money from these banking fee hikes. It is quite long to explain so I will talk about that in another post.