Where Traditional Business Banking Still Costs You
Canadian chartered banks price business chequing around relationship balances. CIBC Unlimited Business sits at CA$65 a month and drops the fee only when you keep a large daily balance on deposit. RBC Ultimate Business runs CA$100 against a CA$75,000 daily requirement, and TD Unlimited Business is CA$125 against a CA$65,000 minimum. For a freelancer in Halifax or a bakery in Saskatoon, that is working capital sitting in a chequing account, earning close to nothing.
Cross-border work adds a second layer of cost. Currency conversion at the big banks typically carries a markup in the range of 2% to 3%, and outbound international wires through a branch network can run CA$30 to CA$80 per transfer. If you invoice US clients or pay a supplier in Europe twice a month, the spread quietly outgrows the monthly fee you thought was the main expense.
Onboarding is the third friction. Plenty of small operators still sign account agreements in person, and several digital options are unavailable to Quebec-registered businesses, partnerships or trusts. Transfer ceilings matter too: EQ Bank caps outbound Interac e-Transfers at CA$10,000 per transaction with a monthly ceiling of CA$50,000, which handles retainer invoices comfortably but gets awkward when a contractor needs a larger draw.
Comparing the Online Business Bank Account Options
| Provider | Monthly fee | Interac e-Transfer | Currency handling | Best suited to | Watch-outs |
|---|
| EQ Bank Business Account | CA$0, no minimum balance | 50 outgoing and 100 incoming included, then CA$0.50 each | CAD, with interest paid on the balance | Sole proprietors, consultants, small incorporated teams | Not open to Quebec residents, trusts or partnerships; balance cap of CA$500,000 per business |
| Venn Business Account | CA$0 Essentials, CA$40 Plus | Included on the Plus plan | CAD and USD, interest on both | Businesses holding US dollar reserves | Quebec-registered businesses excluded; local transfers require the paid tier |
| Float Business Account | CA$0 Essentials | Card-first account; not the main rail | Separate CAD and USD cards | Teams with staff spending in two currencies | 2.5% fee on currencies beyond CAD and USD |
| Airwallex Business Account | CA$0 Explore plan | Not its strength; built around ACH, SEPA and SWIFT | 20+ currencies with local account details | eCommerce sellers, SaaS, exporters | Fintech rather than a bank; no cash deposits or paper cheques |
| CIBC Unlimited Business | CA$65, waived at a large minimum balance | Confirm allowance inside the bundle | CAD, USD add-on | Businesses that need branches and cash handling | Wire fees CA$30 to CA$80; FX markup roughly 2% to 3% |
| RBC Ultimate Business | CA$100, waived at a CA$75,000 daily balance | Confirm allowance inside the bundle | CAD, USD | Franchises and cash-heavy retail | FX markup 2.3% to 3%; up to CA$25,000 in monthly cash deposits included |
| TD Unlimited Business | CA$125, waived at a CA$65,000 daily minimum | Confirm allowance inside the bundle | CAD, USD | Teller-dependent retail operations | Highest monthly fee in this group |
Deposit protection deserves a separate look. Chartered banks are members of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation, and eligible business deposits are covered up to CA$100,000 per insured category. Digital platforms that are not banks hold client money differently, often in segregated trust accounts under the Retail Payment Activities Act. That structure is legitimate, but it is not the same promise, and it is worth reading the provider's own disclosure page before you wire a customer payment into it.
Setups That Fit Different Canadian Businesses
Service sole proprietors who invoice in Canadian dollars
Priya runs a one-person design practice out of Mississauga. Her revenue arrives by Interac e-Transfer and the occasional EFT from a corporate client, and her costs are software subscriptions. A branch account charging CA$20 a month plus e-Transfer fees made little sense for eight invoices. She moved her operating account to a digital provider with no monthly fee and interest on the balance, kept her old account open with a small balance for the one annual cheque she still receives, and stopped paying for a service she never used.
The lesson here is that a single account rarely covers everything. Cash and cheque deposits still pull most sole proprietors toward a physical branch, while routine inflows belong in a lean online business bank account.
Incorporated teams earning in US dollars
Marc sells through Shopify from Laval. Quebec businesses are shut out of several of the low-cost digital options, so he kept his Desjardins operating account for provincial suppliers and payroll, then added a multi-currency platform for US settlements. His US customers now pay through local clearing instead of an international wire, and the conversion spread dropped from a bank markup to a fraction of a percent on major currencies. He did not close the branch account. He simply stopped routing cross-border revenue through it.
That pattern shows up across the country: a domestic account for local obligations, a second account for currency. Canadian owners who try to force one account to do both usually end up paying the higher of the two cost structures on every transaction.
Retail and cash-heavy operations
A café in Winnipeg or a hardware store in Sudbury still needs night deposits and teller access. For those businesses, the CA$125 monthly fee at TD or the CA$100 at RBC is defensible when weighed against the deposit limits and branch network. The mistake is assuming every business needs that package. A consultant with no cash revenue is paying for infrastructure they will never touch.
Opening an Account Without Losing a Week
Start with structure, not with providers. A sole proprietor registers a business number with the Canada Revenue Agency and can typically open an account with personal identification plus proof of registration. An incorporated company needs articles of incorporation, the CRA business number, and clarity on who the directors and signing officers are, because most digital providers allow only one individual per business to open and manage accounts.
Then match the payment rail to how you actually get paid. If clients send Interac e-Transfers, check the per-transfer and monthly ceilings before you commit. If you invoice US customers, check whether the account gives you local US details or forces a wire. If you deposit cheques, check whether mobile cheque deposit is supported and at what limit.
Run a test cycle before you move everything. Deposit a small amount, send one transfer out, export a CSV and open it in your bookkeeping software. Providers differ enormously on how clean that export looks, and cleaning up a year of bad data costs more than any monthly fee.
Keep a backup account funded with a modest balance at a second institution. Payment rails have outages, and a business that cannot make payroll for two days because of a single provider is a business with a single point of failure.
Local resources worth bookmarking: the CRA page for business number registration, your provincial corporate registry for annual filings, and the CDIC deposit protection list to confirm what your chosen account actually covers.
The Bottom Line
An online business bank account in Canada now costs anywhere from nothing to CA$125 a month, and the difference is rarely about service quality. It comes down to whether you need branches and cash handling, whether you earn in more than one currency, and how much cash you are willing to leave sitting still to satisfy a balance waiver. Most small Canadian businesses land on a split setup: a lean digital account for daily inflow, a domestic branch account for cash and local obligations, and a multi-currency layer only when cross-border revenue justifies it.
Before your next invoice cycle, pull up your last three months of statements and add up the fees you paid plus the conversion spreads you absorbed. That number tells you more about which account to open than any comparison table.
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