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title: I Moved My Direct Deposit to Wealthsimple Chequing — Here's What Actually Changed
description: I moved my everyday banking to Wealthsimple's no-fee chequing account. Here's what the interest tiers, the prepaid card, and the fee list actually look like once you're using it daily.
---

# I Moved My Direct Deposit to Wealthsimple Chequing — Here's What Actually Changed

I moved my everyday banking to Wealthsimple's no-fee chequing account. Here's what the interest tiers, the prepaid card, and the fee list actually look like once you're using it daily.

When I finally moved my direct deposit over to Wealthsimple's chequing account, it was mostly out of curiosity — I wanted to see if a fee-free account could actually replace the big-bank chequing account I'd had for over a decade. It has, and the switch turned out to be more mundane than I expected, which is honestly the best thing I can say about a chequing account.

The pitch is simple: no monthly fees, no fees to move money, and interest on top of that, which is rare for a chequing account. Wealthsimple sets the rate in tiers: 1.25% on the base Core plan, 1.75% on Premium, up to 2.25% on Generation — and there's an extra 0.5% bump if you route at least $2,000 in direct deposits into the account every 30 days, which I do anyway since it's my main account. None of that requires me to do anything once it's set up; it just accrues.

The fee list is short because it's mostly empty: no monthly fee, no foreign exchange fee, no ATM fee anywhere in the world (they reimburse it), no fee on e-Transfers. I paid for a debit card and international ATM withdrawals at my old bank for years, so getting all of that back has been a real, if small, cost-of-living win.

## The card itself

The account comes with a Visa Platinum Prepaid card, in both physical and digital form. Because it's prepaid rather than a line of credit, there's no credit check to get one, and using it doesn't touch my credit score either way — it just draws down whatever's actually sitting in the account, the same way a debit card does. That's a meaningful difference from the actual Wealthsimple Credit Card, which is a separate product with its own approval process and cash-back terms; I use the prepaid card for day-to-day spending and think of the credit card as a completely different tool.

## What I'd flag

It's still not a full bank. There's no cheque-writing, which barely matters to me but might to some people, and if you need in-person service or a more complex product like a mortgage, this isn't that. For me it's replaced most of what I used my old bank chequing account for, with less friction, and I haven't missed the rest.

**Referral Code**: LTHNZA — [Get $25 Bonus](https://www.wealthsimple.com/invite/LTHNZA)

If you're thinking about moving your direct deposit somewhere with fewer fees, the referral link above gets you the same $25 bonus I got when I opened my account.

*This post shares my personal take and isn't financial advice — see my [full disclosure](https://wealthsimplereferral.ca/en/disclosure/) for details.*

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Source: [Wealthsimple](https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/chequing)

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