Welcome to my post on low cost banking solutions. Let’s face it, no one wants to get fleeced by a bank charging $10 a month (or more) in service fees so I’ve put together a way to bank, spend and invest that will save you a ton of money in the long run.
It really is surprising how many people keep paying banking fees out of sheer laziness when there are way better banking options out there. Now you might think that these banking fees that you’re paying only amount to $100 or $200 a year so it’s not really much savings for you. But the more places we’re able to save money the quicker we get out of debt and are able to build a secure financial future for ourselves. My view has always been the more savings, the better because “life” is super expensive. If you feel the same, then keep reading.
Please note: As an affiliate ofTangerine and Questrade, this blog receives a small commission for sign ups.
Low Cost Banking Solutions : Tangerine
First off I’ll deal with the banking part. Rather than banking with a traditional bank that charges tons of banking fees, consider switching to online bank that charge no fees at all!
In Canada, the 2 big names in this space are Tangerine and Simplii Financial. I’ve compared these 2 in another post that you can read HERE. For our purposes today, I’ve chosen Tangerine as the best value for No Fee Banking.
Tangerine offers Checking accounts so you can have your paycheck direct-deposited. They offer their signature Savings Accounts that pay a decent rate of interest well above that offered by the big banks. They offer mortgages with pretty cheap interest rates when it’s time to buy that first home. They also offer a no-fee, cash back credit card that I’ve reviewed HERE. You can even open an RRSP or TFSA account with Tangerine. In short, they offer the total banking package and best of all there are no monthly fees!
As a bonus, Tangerine has a referral program that pays $50 per referral. So if you get friends or family to sign up, you could both make a little bit of extra money.
This might all sound too good to be true right? There must be some catch. You might be thinking that the one area where they suck is their customer service…Right?
Surprisingly, Tangerine has great customer service. I’ve had to deal with them before and had no problem getting through to them. You can contact them by phone, email or instant messaging – whatever works best for you.
If you’re worried about access to your money, Tangerine offers access to the Scotiabank ATM network or you can transfer the money from the Tangerine account to another banking institution. That process takes about 2 days.
Related:Scotia Momentum® MasterCard®
My point is that Tangerine offers people a lot of value and can be a great total banking solution for people looking for a complete, no fee banking solution.
CLICK HERE TO OPEN A TANGERINE ACCOUNT
So for all your banking and spending needs, Tangerine has you covered. When it comes to the investing side I think Tangerine needs to continue to build out their investment options.
While they do offer their own menu of pre-built investment options in the form of Tangerine Investment Funds, I would recommend using a low-cost online broker like Questrade. Keep reading and you’ll see why.
Low Cost Investing Solutions: Questrade
I’ve already written a great Questrade Review complete with a Step by Step guide to opening a Questrade account. So I won’t bore you with all the reasons to use Questrade and how to open an account. If you’re interested check out the review and sign up.
Here I’ll just quickly highlight some of the reasons Questrade rocks when it comes to investing.
Only $4.99 to Buy and Sell Stocks!
You can buy and sell stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for $4.99 per trade. Most other big bank brokerages charge $10 per trade or more.
Free ETF Purchases!
This is the big reason to use Questrade. They let you buy ETFs for free!!! That’s a huge bonus because most other discount brokers charge you a fee of about $10 every time you buy. So if you only have $25, $50, or $100 a month to invest your money won’t go very far getting hit with a $10 buying fee. This is best feature of using Questrade and it allows us to build wealth slowly over time by investing relatively small amounts of money for free! If you’re young, take advantage of the power of compound growth by investing a little bit each pay.
RRSP, TFSA and Non Registered Accounts
Questrade offers RRSP, TFSA and non-registered (taxable) accounts.
Improved Customer Service
Questrade’s customer service has dramatically improved. When they first started out I’ll admit that their customer service wasn’t great. It’s much better now, which makes them a great choice for people looking for a low-cost option for investments.
CLICK HERE TO OPEN A QUESTRADE ACCOUNT
I think that Tangerine and Questrade together offer people a really great value for all banking and investing needs. If you’re sick of paying banking fees and high investment fees, my suggestion would be to make the move to Tangerine and Questrade and the invest the savings to grow your money.
Thanks for reading this post on low cost banking solutions.
