How to 'Save Your Money'

Access Methods

As I mentioned before, one of the biggest differences between all these accounts are the different ways of accessing the money in your account. Try and find the accounts that charge the least for the methods you use regularly.

ATM

Being able to deposit or withdraw your money at an ATM is great, and is offered by most of these banks. Before you get too excited, know that most of these accounts have fees for that access. Also, some banks only offer ATM use in certain areas. The following is a summary of the different ATM networks that are mentioned, which banks offer access, and how much the fees are.

Interac

Every ATM in Canada can access Interac, but only for withdrawals. Many of these are fee-intensive though, and there's every chance that you could end up paying up to $5 of fees for a $20 withdrawal. Where are all those fees going? The ATM operator takes a big chunk ("Convenience Fee"), the Interac people get their share (although Citizens and ING cover that), and sometimes your bank gets a piece as well. Here's the rundown (does not include the convenience fee, which varies according to ATM):

*There's a $1.00 discount on your first withdrawal of the month. If you're interested in knowing what to expect as far as convenience fee goes, check out this chart at the FCAC's great website.

The Exchange
This ATM network is a web of smaller banks across the country that have pooled together all their machines to offer to their customers national coverage rivalling one of the big banks. The deal is, any customer of a bank on the Exchange can use any other Exchange machine for free. To find the ATM nearest you, click here. The paticipating banks and their fees are:

Acculink
This network is quite similar to the Exchange, except they deal almost exclusively with credit unions.

Cirrus/ Plus
Only for withdrawals, the Cirrus (by Mastercard) and Plus (by Visa) are an international network of ATMs that come with plenty of fees (ICICI is a bizarre exception).

*There's a $1.00 discount on your first withdrawal every month.

HSBC

As well as being able to use any Exchange ATM, you can use any Bank of Montreal ATM.

President's Choice Financial / CIBC

You can transfer in between two PC Financial accounts at any of these ATMs but it will not allow you to transfer to another bank. This has to be done either through telephone or online banking. It takes one day to transfer your PC chequing account, or several days to an account with another bank.

Bill Payment

Any business, utility, government, etc. that would mail you a bill will probably accept this form of payment. Once you set up specific bills, it's very simple to send a payment every month. This table shows which banks offer it, and how much they charge:

*There's a $1.00 discount on your first withdrawal every month.

Surprisingly enough, E*Trade allows the use of Bill Payments for deposit into your savings account.

Cheque by mail

Doesn't leave much to the imagination. You mail them a cheque, to be made payable to yourself. This is only for deposits. Some banks offer envelopes that include postage for free. ING does for sure, I don't know about any of the others.

Cheques

Again, very simple. The bank issues you cheques to use on your account.

*There's a $1.00 discount on your first withdrawal every month.

Direct Deposit

A direct deposit is where you tell your employer to send your paycheque directly to your bank account, automatically, every month.

In Branch

Manulife Bank offers free deposits at all Royal Bank Branches. Also, ICICI offers in-branch withdrawals and deposits. They cost $1.50 each. Royal Bank allows in-branch transactions, but at the princely sum of $5.00 each.

Interac Direct Payment

This is when you use your bank card at a store to pay for goods instead of cash. A Direct Payment is accepted almost anywhere in Canada.

*There's a $1.00 discount on your first withdrawal every month.

Automated Transfer

You can set up automated transfers so that a certain amount gets deposited into your account automatically in a certain time period (ie. every month). This is free with every account.

Online Transfer

If you won't be using your high interest savings account as your primary account, the online transfer is the holy grail of all access methods. All you have to do is mail the bank a void cheque from the other account, and voila! If you ever want to transfer between the two, just log on, choose how much, and submit!

This service is offered by every bank listed except Outlook and Achieva, MAXA, and Peoples Trust. Canadian Direct Financial offers it, and the first debit every month is free, but each subsequent debit costs.

Phone Transfer

Similar to online transfers but more time-consuming, phone transfers can either be automated or with an actual person.