Hi All,

Hope this is in the right place!!!

Moving to Vancouver 17th March next year!! I currently have some current accounts with HSBC and they have told me that I can open an account in Canada where they wavve all the charges for one year.

Now this is pretty standard for new immigrants by looking at all the bank websites, but what HSBC said to me was that they will also transfer my credit history, which should in turn help me in Canada when applying for credit - and also mean I get a higher credit balance when applying for a HSBC credit card.

Does anyone use HSBC, any good / bad stories?

Thanks in advance

My wife banked with HSBC in other countries including UK. When she transferred a reasonable sum from her HSBC UK account to a Canadian Bank all was well until ten days later when HSBC recalled the transaction - incurring a large loss on us as the exchange rate fell drastically in those 10 days. The reason they recalled was they phoned my wife to query the transaction but rather than state this they started the call with questions about my wife's password so she put the phone down thinking it a scammer and because of this they recalled the transaction. We no longer have any accounts with HSBC anywhere in the world. Financial Ombudsman defended HSBC because in their terms and conditions they have said they may ask for particulars of your password when they call you so its ok - but not for us.

Not sure about the credit history but I believe it does not actually transfer your credit history to the country in question - only to HSBC in that country and kick start your credit history. Someone may correct me there.

We just walked into a CIBC branch in Toronto on a recce visit last year and just opened an account using a foreign address without problem. Now we have banked with them for a short while they have offered us credit cards.

Thanks for that info!

I just really wanted to be set up all ready to go once we landed.... But somethings are maybe not worrth the risk.

The credit history is an internal HSBC gimmick and actually means nothing within HSBC Canada anyway.....

I did use their service and opened a Canadian HSBC account, when we had suitable income I was told that i could not have an unsecured credit card with them due to external credit score.


Two weeks with a decent Canadian bank I got an unsecured credit card and I was shown that my credit score in Canada was zero at the start. Even after 12 months with HSBC.

Please be aware after 12 months the month Canadian account fee will be $25 unless you have $50k in the bank. There could also be a UK account fee but when i closed my accounts they mentioned something about the fee being zero now.

We found with HSBC Canada the interac (think debit card transaction) limit was very low $400 and this can really hamper you when setting up home. My new account had a $2500 transaction limit without even asking. When i asked HSBC to increase the limit they said "we cant do that, your credit score (as in external one) is too low".

Had I known how easy it is to open an account once I landed I would have done that. Some banks actually have schemes dedicated to new settlers.

Thanks - HSBC also want to charge mee £100 for setting it up. Dont think I will bother.

Who did you go with for banking? A friend works for Scotia, and they have the 'StartRight' scheme - but they sometimes get bad press for customer service...

We went with BMO after a neighbors recommendation and the bank representative we deal with has been great.

Just so you are aware about international money transfers; we just made one a big one and it took longer to get it into HSBC account than it did to get into our Canadian account.

Was that ffrom a HSBC UK account?

Sorry, yep from UK HSBC to UK Currency Transfer company to Canadian account. Took longer to go UK HSBC to Currency company and the delay was HSBC account end due to low limits compared to other UK banks.

I banked with HSBC UK and opened a Canadian account with them prior to arriving and everything was set up and working great as soon as I landed.

It also worked as my family were back in the UK for a while and I could transfer money instantly to the HSBC UK account from my Canadian one - I could get a slightly better rate elsewhere but it took 2-3 days to transfer.

I still have them both HSBC accounts open (I don't have any charges with either account) but now do my 'daily banking' with Presidents Choice (CIBC) as the closest HSBC branch for me is 40 minutes away.

Hey

And did that work the other way round too? UK - Canada for you??

If you mean transferring money from the UK to Canada - Yes.

If relatives want to give us money to buy the kids Christmas / Birthdays presents (and save them shipping costs) etc they put it into my HSBC UK account, I just transfer it over and withdraw it from the ATM - with no ATM charge.

arghgh - i've heeard the good, bad and ugly now haha.

Thanks for your advice.

Did you have to pay £100 to set up the account?

I've never had a problem with HSBC and would receommend them BUT as always you'll get different opinions - especially on here - just ask about how good Canadian Affair are....

They mentioned paying something (this was over 2 years ago now) but my UK 'relationship banker' or whatever they are called waived the fee and it was all set up in 1-2 weeks complete with Canadian Credit Card, ATM, Cheques etc free of charge.

Hi we did what you are thinking of doing with HSBC when we moved over a year ago. The good moving money between HSBC UK and Canada was easy and was relatively cheap. The bad we had no Credit score in Canada and are still trying to build one, after a year the account was going to cost us $25 a month plus having an HSBC account in the UK was also going to cost us money, the HSBC branch in Red Deer is open from 9 till 4 Monday to Friday no Saturday or Sunday opening, even with quite a lot of money in our Uk account we couldn't get an unsecured Canadian credit card.
We just set up TD account recently and are in the process of closing HSBC accounts after transfering the rest of our Uk funds over. We found it better to use a global currency company to handle our big transfers as the better rate made it worth while think we used a company called Global fx.

Thanks

I think I might open up an account in Canada and jusst use a global firm to transfer me my money.

I will take enough cash with us to get us starter I think