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 Bank accountsWhich bank offers the best account for teens? Street Cents rates student and youth bank accountsJen wanted to know what bank account was best for her banking needs. To answer her question, Street Cents studied the bank accounts available at the major banks in Canada, as well as the new President's Choice banking system. We didn't include credit unions or Internet banks in our comparison. That's because these banks aren't easily accessible by everyone and they vary from province to province. But, it is a good idea to check out the local possibilities, besides major banks, before making a final decision. The six banks Street Cents used in its comparison were: After analyzing the bank accounts, we decided that student and youth accounts are the best options for teens. That's because banks offer special rates and often wave service charges for young people. Yay! With this in mind, Street Cents compared the youth accounts and student accounts at each major bank. Here's how we rated the accounts, from best to worst. Click on the account names to get more information about the account. Youth Accounts:
Student Accounts:
President's Choice didn't make the list of youth accounts, because they're only available to people of legal age in the province. Youth AccountsCIBC Premium Growth Account with special youth benefitsThe premium growth account is a savings account for youth 18 and younger. The upside: Let's face it: What we all want is free transactions. We get this with the CIBC premium growth account with special youth benefits. It gives unlimited free transactions. That includes all teller services, bank machine use and Interac use. It also includes telephone and Internet services. This is also a good account for people who like to write cheques. We'll have to pay for these cheques, but the bank won't charge anything for processing cheque transactions. The interest rate for this premium growth account is higher than most accounts at CIBC and other banks. At the time we wrote this article, the minimum interest rate was 1.5%. It may sound low, but compared to other bank's interest rates, it's not a shabby deal. The flip side: A legal guardian has to be present when we open this account. They will tell the bank whether they want us to have a bank card and how many withdrawals we're allowed to make. They'll also tell the bank whether or not they want us to have cheques. But, they don't have to put restrictions on us. Our guardian can give us full responsibility for the account. TD Bank/Canada Trust Youth AccountThe TD Bank/Canada Trust Youth Account is open to anyone under the legal age in a province. The upside: We pay no monthly fees and pay no transaction fees for Interac, ABM, debit and teller services. We also have full use of telephone and Internet banking services. The interest on this account isn't as great as it is on the CIBC account, but it is still one of the better interest rates around for a basic savings account. The interest is calculated monthly. It depends on the monthly balance what the interest rate will be: $0 - $4,999 = 0.5% $5,000 and above = 1% The flip side: Again, a legal guardian has to be present to open the account. This may not be the best account for someone who writes cheques. Generally, the bank doesn't allow cheque writing on this account. But, the customer service department says the bank will make exceptions sometimes. Scotiabank Getting There Savings Program for YouthThe Scotiabank savings program for youth is for anyone under age 19. The upside: This interest rate on this account is decent. At the time we wrote this account any balance under $500 got 0.5% interest. Anything over $500 received 0.625% interest. We can use cheques with this account, but as with most other accounts, cheques come at an extra cost. The flip side: This account doesn't provide unlimited transactions. Those of us who make very few transactions, may be OK with this account. It provides 40 free teller or non-teller transactions a month. This includes Interac, ABM, teller assistance and online and telephone banking. Those of us who make a lot of transactions a month, may not want to choose this account. After the 40 transactions have been used, the bank starts charging for every transaction made: at a teller, at a bank machine, using Interac, the Internet or phone services. These fees range from $0.40 to $0.80 per transaction. Royal Bank Young Leo's Savers AccountThe Leo's young saver's account is for people under age 19. The upside: As with the other top accounts, there is no monthly fee with this account. We can write cheques on this account, but as usual, customers must purchase cheques at additional costs. The flip side: We only get 15 free transactions a month, no matter if they're at the bank, at a banking machine or at an Interac machine. If we use more than 15 transactions a month, this account could end up costing a bit of cash. Every transaction over the 15 free ones costs $0.50. The free monthly transactions doesn't include online banking. Online banking is an additional cost of $2.95 a month. As well, like other youth accounts, we need a co-signer to register for the account. This co-signer is an older person who basically has control over our banking options. For example, he or she will decide how much money we can withdraw each month. The interest on this account isn't too hot either. At the time we wrote this article this account gave 0.05% interest for a balance of $1000 or less. The interest slowly rises to 0.2% for a balance above $5000. That's one of the worst interest rates of these youth accounts. Bank of Montreal's Chequing and Savings Accounts with instabanking plan for youth and young adultsThe Bank of Montreal offers special discounts to youths who open savings or chequing accounts. If we open an account with the Instabanking plan, we'll pay no monthly fee, which is usually $5.00. Or, if we want to open another general account that offers more services or transactions, we can do this and deduct $5.00 from the monthly fee. Savings and chequing accounts with youth Instabanking plan: This plan gives anyone under 16 a chequing or savings account with no monthly fee. The account includes 20 free transactions a month. These transactions can be self-serve, such as at a banking machine or at a bank teller counter. After the 20 transactions have been used, there is a hefty transaction fee - the most expensive transaction fees of the youth accounts we've mentioned. Savings account: Self-serve transactions - $0.75 Teller-assisted transactions - $1.25 Chequing account: Self-serve transactions - $0.50 Teller-assisted transactions - $1.00 The drawbacks to this account: First, the transaction fees are steep if we go above our 20 free ones. (See above.) If we want to earn interest and be able to use cheques, we'd have to open two accounts here. We can't get both services in one account. That blows. If we're only opening one account, we have to choose what we want more: reduced transaction fees and the ability to write cheques, or interest. The savings account has higher transaction fees than the chequing account. But, it pays a low interest rate that's just as bad as Royal Bank. The chequing account doesn't pay interest, but charges less for transaction fees over the free ones. We can also write cheques on this account. That's not an option with the savings account. Accounts with young adult instabanking plan: These accounts are for anyone 16 to 21. These accounts are almost identical to the accounts for youth except that the 20 free transactions can only be self-serve. There is no free teller-assisted transactions. Teller assisted transactions will cost $1.00 to $1.25, depending on the type of account. Savings account: Self-serve transactions - $0.75 Teller-assisted transactions - $1.25 Chequing account: Self-serve transactions - $0.50 Teller-assisted transactions - $1.00 Drawbacks to these accounts: The drawbacks are the same as the youth accounts at this bank. Another option with the Bank of Montreal: Anyone who opens one of these youth/young adult savings or chequing accounts can open an additional account called the Premium Rate Savings Account. We have to have one of the above basic accounts before we can open a Premium Rate account. But, the Premium Rate account pays 1.25% interest for a balance below $5,000 and 3.85% interest for a balance above $5,000. That's some of the best interest rates we've seen. |
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 original air date: November 5, 2001 Page 01: Viewer Letter & Responce Back: to Episode 04 Street Cents rates youth accountsHere they are, in order of best to worst:
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