The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition free banking is not an oxymoron. The Globe's Rob Carrick writes children and students up to and including university age qualify for it pretty much everywhere, and the rest of us can get at least nearly free banking. Monthly fees on chequing accounts can range from $10 to $30 per month. Eliminate or reduce this cost and you have a way of getting back a little of the money you are losing to higher living costs. The official inflation rate is low right now, but hardly a household is immune from higher costs. In Ontario, for example, homes heated with gas supplied by Enbridge face an average monthly cost increase equivalent to roughly $33 per month. At Royal Bank of Canada, you can get your fees reduced or waived if you use several of the bank's products beyond bank accounts, like credit cards, mortgages and investments products. RBC's multiproduct rebates offer partial rebates in some cases and a full waiver of the $10.95 monthly cost of the No Limit Banking account. Note that overdraft protection costs $4 a month on this account, and you are liable for interest charges on overdrafts, too. Seniors increasingly get discounts off regular fees, but not free banking.