The daycare payment we took off our calendar

Our household calendar used to have a reminder to pay daycare. The reminder would come up, and then one of us still had to open the banking app and send the e-Transfer.

Now I schedule those payments in Wealthsimple. The daycare payment has a date and a repeat setting, and we no longer need that reminder in the calendar.

It is a small change, but a very practical one: one less recurring job to remember and do manually.

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Wealthsimple lets you choose a future send date and make an e-Transfer recurring. Set the recipient, amount, date, and frequency, then review the instructions.

This is useful for a payment that stays predictable. If daycare fees change with attendance or credits, review the invoice before the next payment. Keep the account funded and check that payments complete.

In my TD setup, avoiding a $30-plus monthly fee means keeping $6,000 in chequing, earning very little. I prefer to keep my chequing balance lean and invest the surplus.

Wealthsimple chequing has no monthly account fee and no minimum balance requirement. That removes the fee-waiver balance from this part of the decision.

If you already qualify for a fee waiver, this is about freeing cash from that condition. It is not an extra monthly fee saving on top. Compare any bundled benefits you would give up, too.

My wife and I share a Wealthsimple joint chequing account. I am the primary holder, and I schedule our daycare e-Transfers and bill payments from it.

I also use a portfolio line of credit, secured by my TFSA investments, as an overdraft backstop. That is an optional part of my setup. Borrowing costs interest, available credit can fall, and the collateral carries risk. The payment schedule itself does not require taking out this loan.

Yes, if your landlord accepts e-Transfers and you agree on the amount and timing. My own example is daycare; rent is another practical use for the same feature.

Check for an existing automatic payment before adding one. Leave time for processing, and update the schedule when the arrangement changes.

CIBC, Scotiabank, Simplii, and Desjardins also document scheduled or recurring e-Transfers. The useful comparison is the whole routine: fees, required balances, payment options, and how easily you can manage it. The provider comparison and official source links are below.

For me, the combination is straightforward: scheduled household payments, a joint account, and no balance to maintain just to waive a monthly chequing fee.