Banking
 

Hi

I am in the process of trying to move to Canada, and I have been reading different threads about banking?

I am over at easter on a reckie but i was wondering would I be able to open a bank account in canada, while still living in the uk, as i a would like to send monthly payment in to this account,as both a saving and a way of building up banking history in canada??? as any one done this? if so was it easy/hard , would you recommend this type of action?

Also my wife live iin the USA for 6 years in the 80"s so we had to apply to the FBI for a crimnal report for the those 6 years , has any one had the same issue as this and how long did it take the " G men" to send the report back?

thanks

Gary

Re: Banking
 

Where in Canada are you looking at?

Yes you can open an account, HSBC offered us one, as did Scotiabank.

Re: Banking
 

sorry to jump on your thread, but who did you open the account with and what did you have to do, did it take a long time? I am looking to do the same thing. thanks :)

Re: Banking
 

Yep, same here!

Thanks.

Re: Banking
 

Unless you know for sure you are going, or have property in Canada there is no point in having a bank account.
Interest rates are lower than here, and most make charges for everything.
You cannot get a good savings account without really having a canadian address.
If you send money you will have to do a draft and it costs about £20 each time, so you will not really be better off.

When and if you know you are definatley going then you can open an account.
HSBC can open one form UK end, BUT they do not have branches in all towns, so until you know where you will be living it is not wise.

We opened an account with Royal Bank of Scotland , as they have branches evrywhere, and we opened it in less than one hour. We needed a passport and driving licence. They wanted something showing our UK address. Also it can be good to take a current utility bill ie. telephone, just to confirm proof of addresss.

We were given temporary bank cards and cheques on the spot, and on our return the new ones were on our doorstep.
We used them because they have internet banking that i can access from UK to be able to pay Canadian Bills I have for property.Having a bank account will not really give you any history unless you are paying out as well as in. Then you need to get a credit card as well and start using it to help build up a credit history. You can't get a credit card without an address in Canada, and Canadian income.

If you don't go to Canada on PR, the bank account will not be much use, unless it did pay better interest than here, or you travelled over a lot to use it.


[QUOTE=gary123]Hi

I am in the process of trying to move to Canada, and I have been reading different threads about banking?

I am over at easter on a reckie but i was wondering would I be able to open a bank account in canada, while still living in the uk, as i a would like to send monthly payment in to this account,as both a saving and a way of building up banking history in canada??? as any one done this? if so was it easy/hard , would you recommend this type of action?

Re: Banking
 

Do you mean Royal Bank Canada (RBC) ? because Royal Bank of Scotland doesn't have any branches in Canada, it only does coroprate business type banking on North America.

I agree that it is good to know where you are going. For example the town I used to live in which is only an hour north of Toronto has no HSBC branches in the entire town so had I pre arranged an HSBC account I would have been stuck. They have branches here in Toronto but are nowhere near as prevelant as the main Canadian Banks:

TD Canada Trust (TD) - the green guys
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) - the dark blue and gold guys
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) - the maroon and gold guys
Bank of Montreal (BMO) - the lighter blue guys
Scotiabank - the red guys.

There are also a variety of different smaller guys that don't have branches like say ING for savings or President Choice Financial which is run by CIBC on behalf of Loblaws the supermarket chain (Presidents Choice is Loblaws own brand for everything). PCF is good as they have minimal charges however they have no branches or live tellers etc, just bank machines in Loblaws stores (and you can use regular CIBC ATMs).

Drew

Re: Banking
 

I do that evey time!!!!!!!!!! as i was also with the Scottish one too!!!!!!!!!!

I am with ING here in Uk, and asked if i could open one there to send money too, and they said No. Although maybe something they could do in future.
Also ING have higher rate of interest in UK, so I'd rather keep my money here.
I believe Scotia bank have been good and quick at opening accounts for overseas customers, according to other posts.

Re: Banking
 

The reason I am after a Canadian bank account is because I will be going as a student, and will need to pay tuition fees plus have cash easily accessible to me for every day stuff, as far as I know having a Canadian bank account would be the best way for me to do this, or am I wrong :confused:

Re: Banking
 

In your case I would say it is a good idea. Then you can get easy access as you say, and make money transfers etc.

We used a UK credit card in one petrol station in the country and it was refused , and the other 3 cards we took. Went to the bank and they said there was no problem with the cards, probably the petrol station machine, not liking our card. But it worried us. So it was one reason we decided to have a canadian account and deposit money in so we would not have a hassle with credit cards, also the card companies charge for each transaction in Uk. We use ours for paying direct debit bills, have a cash card and hope it helps establishing a good rapport with the bank incase we need them in the future.

Re: Banking
 

It might be a good idea to talk to your bank in the UK and find out if they have any partnerships with Canadian ones. This cuts down on the costs of international transactions between the two banks.

e.g. We chose Scotiabank cuz it had an affiliation with BNP in France and we could transfer money from our French account to Scotiabank for free.

Probably the machine as you say. We tried to buy stuff online on a Canadian site with a UK credit card when we arrived. The transaction went through over the net but we got an e-mail the next day saying that the company couldn't complete the transaction as our credit card wasn't Canadian. :confused:

Re: Banking
 

As we have used cards in some of the most out of the way places in the world with no problem, we never thought Canada would be a problem. It did not happen anywhere int he city. I was with HSBC in UK and they were useless. They hadn't a clue what to do without making endless phonecalls and saying it would take weeks. Llyods are also bad.
RBC was amazingly helpfull, although Scotia would have been second choice.
I used RBC as I can do internet banking from uk to pay bills etc.
Now we have a debit card with RBC, we can deposit money in account and use that.
UK banks would not miss a chance to charge for any transaction!

Re: Banking
 

I got a parking ticket in Ottawa and tried to pay that over the internet with my credit card, but no succes. I had to drive into Ottawa (1/2 hr) to pay. My CC was accepted here, but the lady to whom I paid couldn't tell me why this didn't work online. And then 1/2 hr back..... :mad:

Re: Banking
 

On the subject of bank chgarges, SquarePants posted links to a couple of banks that didn't make monthly charges. The President's Choice place was one of them, I think. Worth a search for anyone who doesn't want to pay bank charges.

Re: Banking
 

Several high street banks also don't have monthly charges IF you keep a minimum in your account. ING and President's choice don't seem to have this viewpoint, but all transactions are via the computer, so if you're not comfortable doing that, then they're not for you.
TD Canada (who we're with) have an account named infinity, which allows you to have as many transactions as you want per month, but need to have at least CD$3000 in the account at all time that month, otherwise they charge you for that service. If you can't maintain that level and you do less transactions, there's other accounts such as a basic account which gives 14transactions per month (i think). I'm sure other banks are like this, and have similar accounts.

also for consideration, you basically only take money from your bank's atm unless you want to be charged for the priviledge, rather like the uk about 10 years ago!!!, and banks here are more scattered (well in montreal they are) so don't expect to just grab a tenner and go!