Not selling my house in UK, therefore i,m going to Canada with a relatively small amount of cash(approx £10K). Do I just turn up at a Canadian bank with a UK bankers draft to open an account. And would I then be able to use the Canadian account immediately, or do I open a Canadian bank account then transfer money over from uk. Not sure which is easiest or best, any advice much appreciated.

Make sure your draft is drawn on an institution in Canada, otherwise it might be held for a long time (30days? 45days?). My first ever deposit way back when was CAD but drawn on a bank in London and I had to wait. They pay interest, but that's not much good when you need the cash You'll get your bankers card instantly, they don't seem to have names on them here so you just get one issued on the spot.

How easy would it be to transfer money from my UK account to my new Canadian account, and is there a waiting period for this.

you can go to your bank in UK order the transfer on an urgent basis and have the money appear in Canadian account within 24hrs. Canadian bank will charge to recieve money and UK bank will charge to send it.

Chris

Hi
we have used a commercial foreign exchange company. They charge a flat fee of £15 to send money with no charge the Canadian end. If you shop arround you will find this cheaper than a lot of the banks. You have to set up an account with them. To get money into the Canadian bank you have to get a 'swift, ABA and Bank code and account number'. You need to ask the bank for these.

We had difficulty opening a bank account in Canada from the UK but once we arrived it was easy to open one. Most banks in Canada charge for simple cheque accounts, so it is worth shopping around.

Hope this helps.

Hey

What do you mean exactly. Does one have to have a Canadian Bank account in place, in order to do this? I will be doing the same but hopefully a tad more money. Currently, I only have a UK bank account. Is it worth opening a HSBC account or soemthing similar???

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