Seniors accounts options | General comparisons | Discussion forum

I hope your optimism proves correct.

Although I can't, at this late date, quote them specifically, a few years ago, when the banks first started fiddling with seniors accounts and inroducing fees to them which were not previously there, several high-ranking banking officials were quoted as saying that the banks couldn't afford to keep giving seniors a free ride because there were getting to be too many of us due to the demographic Boomer bulge.
These comments were made within the last 10 years, more likely within the last 3 to 7.

If they have changed their minds since then, I haven't heard, but perhaps they realized the folly of their ways if they started losing customers.

My own seniors accounts are grandfathered and have always been free.

My advice still stands, however, to take advantage of whatever good seniors account you are interested in, because it will not necessarily be available next time you look.

DavidAlta13, I usually share your optimism, not sure in this case. The link you provided shows one CIBC account and it appears there are still transaction fees. I looked (briefly) on RBC site and found an account that waives the monthly fee for seniors but it also appears to have transaction fees.
In the old days Loonie refers to the big banks generally had no-fee accounts for seniors for day-to-day banking, and from what I can see they're gone. There are accounts with discounts for seniors but the completely fee-free ones are gone. I use the same TD account I've had for decades, as long as I keep $2K minimum balance (was $1K until a few years ago) there are no fees. A teller once suggested I make it joint with one of my kids so they can continue the benefits of this no-longer available account when I'm gone, I haven't done that.

I've got the same TD account and another benefit is when you move funds from a CDN to a USD you get a slightly better exchange. The teller found this about by surprise on day I was buying USD.
For me it's a little lower of a return as I usually keep 7500 as the 2500 is that buffer as I never want to get dinged and too many bill paymets for me are auto deducted.
Once I dipped below the 5000 by $1 just for a few hours as transfer out went before incoming and was dinged $29.95. They reversed it after I went in but told me in future their discretion on these things is getting more limited by the day.
But I agree with the big banks the more assests you have the more privilege you get.

Interesting you say that about getting dinged when you went below the $5K for a few hours, moneyman. Same thing happened to me about 10 years ago and TD did same for me - reversed transaction fees for the month when I went to branch but said they probably can't do it next time. About 2 months ago I again went under the (in my case) $2K limit for a few hours, I transferred money from a line of credit as soon as I saw online it had happened. I went to the branch again, telling them what happened 10 years ago and that I'd be coming in again at the end of the month when I got dinged to get it reversed. They said that I wouldn't get dinged because it looks at day-ending balance, not moment-to-moment balance. I doubted it but they were right. So it appears things have changed.

Big banks agree to provide low-income seniors, youth with no-cost accounts
By Julian Beltrame, The Canadian Press
Published Tuesday, May 27, 2014 11:44AM ED

Although the banks already had no-cost accounts for seniors and others in 2014, many customers incurred fees due to the banks' minimum balance requirements and/or the limit of 8 monthly debit transactions.

Effective Jan 1, 2015, minimum balance requirements were eliminated and the limit on monthly debit transactions was increased to 12.

Loonie is correct. The "Big 5" banks, particularly, are eliminating traditional no-fee and perk-laden seniors' chequing accounts. David, you are reading an old article on Scotia Plus. Scotiabank grandfathered it about 2-3 years ago, I believe, and replaced it with a Seniors Discount of the lesser of the monthly fee or $4.00 from any Scotiabank chequing account and increased the eligibility age from 59 to 60. Additional services, including free cheque books and bank drafts, were eliminated.

TD Canada Trust, the first out of the gate more than five years ago, eliminated its seniors' account and replaced it with Seniors Discount like Scotiabank ultimately did. However, I see now they've even further scaled that back on the TD Minimum Chequing Account, requiring you be eligible to receive & receive GIS. They have a discount on other chequing accounts still but no "free" chequing account.

RBC Royal Bank has a Seniors Discount in the form of their Multi-Product Discount but you need to hold an active credit account (i.e., one purchase or refund transaction per statement period or per calendar quarter, can't remember which) and an investment account with at least $15,000.

CIBC and HSBC Bank Canada still offer completely free seniors' chequing accounts (including free cheque books) but the latter doesn't offer free bank drafts (unless you're a senior with HSBC Premier).

I've not looked into BMO Bank of Montreal and National Bank of Canada.

The credit unions, for the most part, all do offer free chequing accounts for seniors. 🙂

Cheers,
Doug

DavidAlta13 said
Big banks agree to provide low-income seniors, youth with no-cost accounts
By Julian Beltrame, The Canadian Press
Published Tuesday, May 27, 2014 11:44AM ED

Although the banks already had no-cost accounts for seniors and others in 2014, many customers incurred fees due to the banks' minimum balance requirements and/or the limit of 8 monthly debit transactions. …

A no-cost account one has to pay fees for. Was that supposed to be funny?

DavidAlta13 said

So to summarize TD's senior options:
If you are wealthy, it's easy to get free banking, whether you are a senior or not.
If you are a senior with $2000, you get your banking for free.
If you are a senior on GIS, you get your banking for free.
I guess they haven't eliminated free banking for seniors after all.

For those determined to justify their claims and prove me wrong, go for it!
Please, just provide factual proof, not opinion.

We are not on the same page as far as what "free" is.

A plan or account isn't free if one has to put up $2,000 or $5,000 for it.

As Bill and Doug pointed out, only the $3.95 monthly fee on the TD Minimum Chequing Account is waived for seniors who are eligible for GIS. The $1.25 per transaction fee, after the first 12 transactions each month, is not waived.

GIS eligiblity currently ends at income of $17,784 per year for single seniors and at $23,520 per year for senior couples. Even if the TD Minimum Chequing account were all-inclusive with a $2,000 minimum monthly balance, I don't think a senior couple living on around $25,000 a year, exceeding modest GIS maximum income limits, would necessarily have $2,000 just sitting around to meet that minimum balance with. Those are not high income levels.

In contrast, this is the grandfathered TD Plan 60 account from TD's About our accounts and related services (October 30, 2017) document. It is an example of what I consider to be a free account:

Agree with Norman. The grandfathered Plan 60 is the one that is truly free. It was originally available to anyone who had reached age 60, hence the name. I'm fairly sure it is the one that was withdrawn in 2012 as per article cited above by Norman.

Norman1 said
Yes, it was the TD Plan 60 account. Over two million holders apparently. $20 million a month of waived fees if the value were $10/month:

…
Canada's second-largest bank has forestalled a backlash by allowing more than two million current holders of its no-cost Plan 60 account to maintain the status quo. But clients who turn 60 now have to pay fees of $8.20 to $22.45 a month after discounts unless …

  

They're taking the really long game, evidently, basically by putting Plan 60 into run-off mode, effectively. As their account holders die off, the number of holders shrinks each year. While I'm surprised that article managed to get the number of account holders out of TDCT (that's a lot, more than I thought!), I'd be curious to see how many are in the following age brackets, which would give us some idea of how long they plan to maintain it. As the number of holders shrinks markedly, they can migrate existing holders to a current current account (no that's not a redundancy, I'm using "current account" in lieu of "chequing account" ):

60-65 ... ?
65-70 ... ?
70-75 ... ?
75-80 ... ?
80-85 ... ?
85+ ...... ?

Cheers,
Doug

Footnote #1: Yep, Loonie, Plan 60 was the one eliminated. You're right. I remember when TDCT grandfathered it. Read the press release same day. 🙂

Footnote #2: Thanks for looking up BMO's current "senior account" option, Norman. Thought I should mention Canadian Western Bank's attractive Gold Leaf Plus Package Account (essentially like Motive Financial's free chequing account but with in-branch access to CWB's branches, free cheque orders and free bank drafts).

Per http://www.cwbank.com/personal.....us-package.

Plus, it starts at age 57. Geez, I'll be there in only 23 years. Scary! 😉

Cheers,
Doug