7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

Hi,

7 weeks on Friday we fly from Scotland to Toronto - eeek - cant wait! Have been planning this for years, and now its finally almost here!

We feel like we are going round in circles at the minute, and was wondering if anyone can help with a couple questions?

1) Medical records. We've been told its £50 per person for a copy of our records. Do we really need them, or can we register with a Doctor in Canada without them?
2) Banking is a bit of a head scratcher for us. So we cant set up a bank account whilst still in the UK - so how do people get their money over to Canada? We've asked our bank, and werent particularly knowledgeable/confident. They reckoned it was £25 for a wire transfer. Is this the best way? Once we've sold our house, we'll have quite a bit of money to come over - do we need to declare any of it, like on the goods to follow list??? We will bring some cash/travellers cheques with us, but 90% will be wired over :unsure: Are there any issues if we get our parents to transfer the money to us?

Think thats it for just now. Thanks so much for any help or advice.
Back to the packing & logging of items to be shipped.....looking forward to finally 'landing' and hopefully having a bit of a break!!!

Thanks, G

Re: 7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

1) you do not need to bring your UK medical records. If any of the family have experienced serious medical issues you should probably make an exception in their case. Canada has a shortage of GPs so you may have difficulty registering with one initially. However there are quite a few walk-in clinics around which can cater to your needs.
There will be no issues on transferring your funds including having your parents doing it for you. When you've sold your house ask on this forum how others did it and got good exchange rates. You will receive good advice/responses.
Good luck with your move and Best Wishes for a happy life in Canada

Re: 7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

Doctors notes are unnecessary. Even with a medical condition docs here make their own assessment. If the doc here needs them (never did in our case) you can always write and request the notes form the UK later. Registering with a doctor may be an issue, not many take new patients, you may have to settle for a walk in clinic.

Banking is straightforward. Deposit your funds in the UK account, you can write yourself a a cheque to deposit the funds. You could also use an FX broker and do the trade, some take payment by debit cards, some by CHAPS.

Re: 7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

Thanks so much Aviator & plasticcanuck - really appreciate your help.

Awesome news re. medical records - just saved ourselves £100!!

And good to know about transferring funds.

Thanks again, G

Re: 7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

Of course you have questions....thousands of them no doubt! Don't be afraid to ask, one way or another, someone or another on here has experienced most things.

Very best of luck with the move...and, yes, definitely take a bit of time off for a break from all the madness!

Re: 7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

This. I think we can all remember what it was like to be you, that feeling of having so much to do and sort out and not knowing what needed to be done, what could be left and where to start. Its a miracle any of us arrive here sane.

Good luck, and ask away with the questions! Its what the forum is here for.

Re: 7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

[QUOTE=GMS_AMS;11338411]Hi,


2) Banking is a bit of a head scratcher for us. So we cant set up a bank account whilst still in the UK - so how do people get their money over to Canada? We've asked our bank, and werent particularly knowledgeable/confident. They reckoned it was £25 for a wire transfer. Is this the best way? Once we've sold our house, we'll have quite a bit of money to come over - do we need to declare any of it, like on the goods to follow list??? We will bring some cash/travellers cheques with us, but 90% will be wired over :unsure: Are there any issues if we get our parents to transfer the money to us?


Hi

Something I can help with. You can open up a bank account from the UK with Scotiabank Canada. Their terms are that you have to be moving to Canada within 6 months. You can do it all on-line too ! take a look at their website its all on there

Good luck :thumbsup: and I am green with envy

Bemsee

Re: 7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

Hi GMS_AMS. We leave Scotland for Vancouver Island in less than 3 weeks! Eeeek!

My GP told me they would print a summary of our medical records for us, (no charge) which would include things like immunisations, or anything major.

As for a bank account - I'd ask around the various banks and see what they say. We opened an account with RBC last year when we were there for a visit. Although we were told they could put all our details into the system before we got there, we couldn't actually use it until we had arrived in Canada and signed all the paperwork. But they do a newcomer package so you might want to check that out - that might allow you to open one from here. I'm a returning citizen so I don't count as a newcomer!

As for transferring money, I would check out the FX companies - TorFX, Halo, Currencies Direct, to name a few. If you transfer direct from your bank in the UK to a Canadian bank, you are likely to get a much worse rate that you will get from the FX companies. If you're transferring large amounts, from the sale of a house, for example, then a tiny change in the rate they give you can add up to thousands of $, so it's well worth shopping around.

Re: 7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

Thanks everyone :-) really appreciate all the help & advice.
We are SO excited, but its kinda ridiculous how much there is to do. We started selling/binning/charity shopping stuff months and months ago, and yet, with 3 weeks left in the house, there still seems so much to do. One tick off the list is replaced with 4 more.......
Good luck prairiechicken - hope your move goes well.
Gx

Re: 7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

General +1 to everything that's been recommended here so far, particularly with regard to banking.

There's another thread going on right now about credit history for newcomers, have a read - http://britishexpats.com/forum/canad...comers-838887/

Most of the banks will open up a chequeing account for you when you land, just DO NOT request any overdraft up front, as that requires a credit check. I opened my first account with PC Financial, because there was no overdraft required they didn't run a credit check, just opened a chequeing and savings account and set me up with a debit card. Cheques arrived in the mail about a week later - super convenient, btw, because cheques with them are free whereas there are fees everywhere else. So you can start with them, or walk into any of the other big banks and see what happens. As long as you aren't requesting overdraft you should be just fine.

As for transferring - yep, same with prairiechicken, and if you do a search on the forum you'll find BUCKETS Of threads on recommendations of who to use. Basically, just don't use the banks. Their fees are ridiculous. Use one of the other companies. (We used Oanda - fees are higher but transfers are guaranteed and insured while in transit I believe up to £50k; f you have more than that then just do the transfers in multiple chunks.)

And as everyone else as said, post when you have more questions! THat's why we are here. :)

Re: 7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

ooooh, thanks SchnookoLoly - will check out that other thread.

I'd heard that we defo need a cheque book - havent written a cheque in the UK in YEARS, but apparently they are used all the time in Canada. Ok, no overdraft :-) thanks for the warning.

Yeh, we'll have quite a bit of money to transfer, so might need to look into doing multiple transactions.

Re: 7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

I'll point out cheques aren't really used for payment, it's more used as a verification of bank details. I think I've written two cheques for actual payments, and both of those were for wedding gifts.

All the other cheques have been to sort out stuff wtih bank details. Work needed one to set up my direct deposit. Amex needed one to set up my pre-authorized payment. Canadian Tire Financial, PC Financial, and Tangerine all needed one to link to my BMO account. All of those were just void cheques, or one-off cheques with monies on them to set up savings accounts. Pretty basic.

Re: 7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

Yup, I know what that feels like! We moved out of our house nearly 3 weeks ago. I'd been getting rid of things for months, but there was still loads to do at the end.

You can expect to feel totally exhausted (I'm still recovering actually!) but you will get there one way or another. Good luck!

Re: 7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

Wow, that's very different to us, we've been through three books of cheques in two years. At work, even though we are a small company, we go through an average of 40 cheques per month...we wouldn't get all sorts of services without cheques here.

Re: 7 weeks till we fly - eeeek - so many questions
 

Wow, interesting! Just goes to show how different it is!

I asked my Mom about this after I saw your post, but she said she basically uses cheques the same way I do - just uses them when various places ask for them as more of a verification of account details, etc, or when giving gifts. She'll also occasionally use cheques if she owes someone a lot of money. She knows she has the email money transfer option but sometimes the recipient prefers a cheque instead of this electronic-fangled stuff. :P

It also occurs to me that my rent while in university was paid with post-dated cheques.