We use RBC for our main joint account and a savings account. Our mortgage is with TD bank and Hubbs has a creditcard from Presidents choice (we also both have RBC creditcards).

They are all pretty much the same - but if you are lucky enough to be able to afford it, don't put any more than the federal guarantee in one institution (except for credit unions in bc which are backed provincially up to any amount I think)

We bank with Royal Bank of Canada, they opened an acounr for us whilst we were on our Recce, makes it handy for savings for our settlement funds/deposit for when we get PR!

Thanks for all your replies

Coast Capital Savings. And I can actually say, i ENJOY being placed on hold when phoning them!

I use RBC, they are okay but the local branch I use is not the most customer friendly branch out there, but they have always been good on the phone.


I'd prefer to use Citizens Bank of Canada (owned by Van City) its an internet based bank with no branches, but to open an account they wanted to hold all deposits for 14 business days which isn't acceptable, so no business from me.

My ex-wife used Coast Capital (if your in BC) and although a credit union, does have probably the best customer service I have ever seen, and low fees, and basic chequing account for personal use is free and unlimited transaction, best deal out there.

Vancity have been awesome for me and my fiancée from the start. They've been super efficient and brilliant to deal with. I booked an appointment once I arrived and had a chequeing and savings account set up straight away and left with the activated cards at the end of it, no waiting for things in the post. Also as I have no credit history they said I could make a $500 deposit (held for one year) and have a Visa Credit Card with a $500 limit on it (which is more than enough for me needs, If I needed more I just needed to make the deposit bigger). The lady explained everything to me and talked me through the best options etc, honestly they were fantastic.

Recently (I have no idea as I'm super safe) my card got skimmed and I had $300 withdrawn from my account and the scammers had also made a false ATM desposit of $1300 (which was actually a blank envelope). I got a call from Vancity to say they had detected this and frozen my account temporarily to be safe and asked me to go to a branch asap.

I went into the branch 15 minutes later and had a new card embossed and activated and while I waited (took 5 minutes) with completely new credentials. Meaning my old card details were now invalid and useless to the criminals. They refunded the stolen $300 instantly to my account and removed the false desposit of $1300 (though I did say they could leave it in there ). I just had to fill in and sign a short one page document. The whole process from phone call to complete resolution in branch took 1 hour. I was very impressed with them.

Also there online banking is much better than Abbey who I use in the UK and everything is much more personal, friendlier and overall easier. I couldn't recommend Vancity high enough.

Oh and there are no monthly charges for my account as long as I always have a balance above $1000.

Coast Capital are excellent
Great service and the staff are brilliant

PIN numbers are setup and can be changed in the actual branch - no long waits for the post.