Each of these five bank fees depends on a choice you can make.

The monthly account fee, paper statements, other banks’ machines, your debit card abroad and overdraft protection. Each one is published, and each one changes with something you choose.

That the fees on it are simply the price of having a bank account.

Each fee belongs to something you chose: the account, a feature on it, or the way you used it. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada says that when you open an account at a federally regulated institution, it must give you information about all the charges on it. If your bank raises a charge or adds a new one, it must give you written information at least 30 days before the change takes effect, if you receive account statements.

So none of these fees is hidden. What they share is that they keep running until you look at them.

FCAC says some institutions waive the monthly fee if you keep a minimum balance in the account. That can work, but the balance has a cost of its own. FCAC says chequing accounts usually do not earn interest on deposits, so money kept there to avoid the fee earns nothing while it waits. How the balance is measured is set by each bank, so ask whether one low day in the month is enough to lose the waiver.

There is a second way to bring the fee down, and it needs no balance at all. Since 1 December 2025, a commitment overseen by FCAC has been in effect. FCAC says fourteen federally regulated institutions, including Canada’s six largest banks, have signed it. Under it, all Canadians can get a bank account with a monthly fee of $4 or less, with at least 18 debit transactions a month and no minimum balance.

For some people the same account costs nothing. The commitment names youth aged 18 and under, students, seniors receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement, beneficiaries of a Registered Disability Savings Plan, and newcomers to Canada in their first year. Each institution that signed must also offer a no-cost account to one of three further groups: Indigenous peoples, people receiving social assistance from select provincial or territorial programs, or people receiving the Disability Tax Credit. Which one depends on the institution, so ask. What happens when the free period ends covers the newcomer year.

FCAC says institutions offering these accounts must display, in branches and online, that they are available, and how to use FCAC’s Account Comparison Tool.

Paper statements. If your statements arrive on paper, ask your bank whether that carries a fee. If they go from the mailbox to the recycling unopened, switching to electronic statements is a setting you can change.

Other banks’ machines. FCAC lists three separate ATM fees. Your own institution may charge a regular account fee to withdraw at any machine. It may add a network access fee when you use a machine it does not own. And the owner of that machine, another financial institution or a private operator, may add a convenience fee. At someone else’s machine, all three can apply to one withdrawal. FCAC’s advice is to use your own institution’s machines whenever you can.

Your debit card abroad. FCAC says foreign currency conversion fees may apply when you withdraw money from an ATM in another country. Before you travel, ask your bank what it charges, and compare it with other ways to pay.

Overdraft protection. FCAC says a financial institution must get your express consent to add it to your account. With basic overdraft protection you pay interest on the amount you go below zero, and usually either a flat monthly fee or a fee each time you use it, depending on the option you chose. FCAC says it can help you avoid declined payments and non-sufficient funds fees. So the question is whether you use it. If your account has not gone below zero in months, a monthly fee buys cover you have not needed, and a pay-per-use option may suit you better.

You do not have to close an account to stop paying for it. You can move to a cheaper account at the same institution, or open a no-fee account elsewhere for your everyday banking and keep the one where your history sits.

If you are thinking about an institution you know less well, check whether it is a member of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation. CDIC says it insures eligible deposits if a member institution fails, with each category, such as deposits in one name or joint deposits, insured separately up to $100,000, including principal and interest. CDIC’s site lists its members.

The video on this page is more specific than this page, in ways the sources checked here do not cover.

It quotes monthly fees, balance thresholds and their past changes, a paper statement fee, machine fees and a foreign debit percentage for named banks, from their own pages. None of those figures was read off a bank’s page for this page, so none is repeated here. The video also says one bank describes its waiver as a minimum daily balance. FCAC’s own page describes a minimum monthly balance, and how it is measured differs by bank, which is why this page says to ask.

It follows a constructed person through nine years of fees, and gives totals for what she paid and what her balance could have earned at 4%. Those totals depend on an interest rate this page did not check, so they are not repeated. The point under them stands: money kept in an account that pays no interest earns nothing.

It says the new commitment includes 50% more transactions than the old one. FCAC’s release confirms the commitment was modernized and the old one dates from 2014, but this page did not find the old number.

And it says nobody is obliged to tell you a cheaper account exists. Under the commitment, FCAC says the institutions that signed must prominently display in branches and online that low-cost and no-cost accounts are available. No source checked here says anyone must ask you whether you want one, so the asking is yours.

Can my bank raise a fee without telling me

No. FCAC says that if your bank increases a charge or introduces a new one, it must give you written information about it at least 30 days before it takes effect, if you receive account statements. The information can be on paper, or electronic if you have agreed to that.

Is my money protected at an online bank

If the institution is a member of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation, its eligible deposits are covered the same way as at any other member: each eligible category up to $100,000, including principal and interest. Check the institution’s name on CDIC’s list of members before you move money.

Every claim on this page was checked against these documents on 26 September 2026.

• Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: Opening a personal bank account: know your rights · Chequing accounts · Low-cost and no-cost accounts · Commitment on Low-Cost and No-Cost Accounts · News release, 1 December 2025 · ATM fees · Using debit cards · Getting overdraft protection
• Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation: What’s covered

Watch · 18:19

5 Bank Fees You Don't Have to Pay (Canada 2026). Published 5 August 2026. Loads on click. Nothing is requested from YouTube until you ask.

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