The chequing account that beats your bank

That's right. Our data was collected as of May 13, 2025. The average includes all posted rates of chequing accounts from Canadian financial institutions as listed under Schedule I under the Bank Act. This excludes limited-time and promotional offers, and products that do not offer cheques.

Our interest rates have no set end date and don't end after a limited promotional period, but there’s always a chance the Bank of Canada might change its rates, and if they do, we follow suit. Your interest is an annualized rate that's calculated daily and paid out monthly, subject to change. See here for details.

First off: there are no annual fees! And unlike credit cards, the prepaid Mastercard doesn’t require a credit check or any other qualifications.

And no, you’ll never need to worry about this card impacting your credit score.

We don't charge any monthly account fees or minimum balance fees.

We also don't charge a foreign transaction (FX) fee. Usually, banks charge you around 2.5% to use your Canadian credit card in another country. We, on the other hand, don't do that. There is still a currency conversion rate charged by the payment network (not us) when you make a purchase in another currency.

We also don't charge ATM fees. The ATM might though, so we'll even reimburse any eligible fees of up to $5 each charged by a domestic ATM provider. You can find more about that here, and learn more about using your prepaid Mastercard card here.

In terms of Interac e-Transfer fees, we don't charge those either. You can read more about that here.

Plus, we don’t charge you anything to receive wires, no matter where they are coming from. The ability to send international wires is coming soon. You can read more about that here.

No, but we are a FINTRAC-registered money services business, and we work closely with banking partners to keep deposits safe. This means we can offer a lot of the same perks and conveniences of traditional chequing and savings accounts.

The account comes with both a digital and physical prepaid Mastercard that you can manage right from the Wealthsimple app.

The app lets you manage your benefits and spending preferences, or lock your card if something happens to it. Your balances are all updated in real time, too — even if you’re using the physical card.

If you need a chequebook, you can get one for free when you set up your paycheque to land in your Wealthsimple chequing account. And if you need to deposit a cheque, you just need to take a photo of the front and back in the app and the funds will be processed in ~6 business days. Instant access to part of your deposit is coming soon. You can learn more here.

You can order bank drafts from your chequing account too. Just go to the “more” section when in your chequing account in the app. Once you fill out all details, you can submit your order for a draft. Our team will then carry out a security check and ship the draft to wherever you are with a secure tracking link. Find more information about that here.

The balance in your Wealthsimple chequing account is held in trust for you with members of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), a federal Crown corporation. CDIC protects eligible deposits held at CDIC member institutions in case of a member institution’s failure. 

Note: Wealthsimple isn’t a bank, and we are not a CDIC member. That said, we’ve partnered with a number of CDIC-member, federally regulated Canadian Financial Institutions to effectively extend CDIC deposit protection to Wealthsimple chequing account holders for a combined amount (up to $1 million CAD) in the unlikely event the CDIC members were to fail.

Coverage is free and automatic. Learn more here.

You'll earn 1% back pretty much every time you use your prepaid Mastercard to make a purchase — except cash-like transactions such as refunds, bill payments, or adjustments. The 1% back is automatically added to your balance.

If you want to invest your cash back, you can have your 1% back awarded as a cash balance into your self-directed account (or any other account, for that matter!), and from there you can buy whichever stock you like.

And don’t worry — you can change where your cash back gets deposited anytime in the app. More details here.

You can use your card online and in-store everywhere Mastercard® is accepted.

And since Mastercard is accepted all over the world, you can use your prepaid Mastercard while traveling (with a few exceptions and fees from Mastercard).

You can also use the physical card to withdraw cash at ATMs Canada-wide. We don’t charge any fees for withdrawing cash, but you might get charged a standard ATM fee (usually about $3.00) that we'll reimburse up to $5 per eligible fee charged by a Canadian ATM provider. You can find more about that here.

We've collected data as of May 13, 2025 and calculated the average chequing account interest based on the total interest paid to clients and the number of active chequing account holders.

The fact that we don't charge any monthly or everyday fees, and that clients get their paycheques up to a day early when they direct deposit, means they have more money, and more time, to earn more interest.

Keep in mind, your actual interest earnings may differ.

Unlike most big bank chequing accounts that charge on average $15 per month, Wealthsimple’s chequing account charges no monthly fees, with no minimum requirements, either. By not charging any monthly fees – or any everyday fees, for that matter – we’re saving our clients the $15 per month, or $180 per year, that they would otherwise have to pay at most banks.

All Core and Premium clients are eligible to earn an increased rate of up to 2.75% interest with direct deposits. To qualify and continue earning the 0.5% boost, you’ll need to direct deposit at least $2,000 into your Wealthsimple chequing account within a 30-day period. This can be your paycheque or any other type of direct deposit. Generation clients won’t be eligible for an additional 0.5% boost since they're already earning our highest interest rate of 2.75%.

From June 11 to August 31, 2025 we're waiving the fees on sending wire transfers and ordering bank drafts. Simply follow these steps to order a bank draft, or these steps to send a wire.

Read our full terms and conditions here.