I'm in Canada too and a couple years ago my regular bank sent me a notice saying they needed to increase my fees on my account plan by $1 making it a total of $

I'm in Canada too and a couple years ago my regular bank sent me a notice saying they needed to increase my fees on my account plan by $1 making it a total of $16 per month IIRC. I already thought $15 was a total ripoff and trying to squeeze the extra $1 a month out of me got me annoyed enough to go looking for alternatives. I got a free Tangerine account for free unlimited debit transactions. As a bonus I can withdraw cash with no fees at Scotiabank ATMs in addition to my normal bank. They also give you a VISA debit card that can be useful as a backup card for important online services (as long as you keep some money in it). I also got a free (prepaid) Stack Mastercard. They give you a virtual credit card number you can use online plus a physical card. The main benefit though is 0% (or near 0%) foreign exchange fees. Most online services bill in USD and my normal bank charges around 2% extra in fees for the foreign currency conversion. Then I reduced my normal bank account to the bare minimum $4 per month plan. So instead of squeezing an extra $12 per year from me, my bank gets $132 less per year now. However, that shows you why it works. Even if 9% of their customers do what I did they still make more money and I'd bet a ton that barely anyone reevaluates their banking because of a $1 per month increase in prices.