Banking Issues
 

Hi All

I have been through the financial articles listed in the forum with reference Banking, this seems straight forward and good advice.

I will maintain my current UK account and look to open a new account in Canada, the options are HSBC and to be honest not keen based on their criteria.

I notice that the following are options which can be opened in advance and activated on arrival: -

BMO
CIBC
RBC

Can anyone advise if they went down this route and if so were there any specific issues.

Many thanks in advance.

Andrew & Zena

Re: Banking Issues
 

we went with RBC , no issues at all opening or activating the account, very simple

some issues afterwards , but thats another story :) and probably down to a lone muppet rather than RBC in general.

Re: Banking Issues
 

All three are traditional high street fee charging banks. Check out the fee structure carefully.

I guess its convenient at first, but you may want to start something else once you are resident in Canada, before it becomes too much hassle to switch.

Re: Banking Issues
 

Why are you not keen on hsbc? We were out in Canada in October and spent most of the time 'in the sticks'! and the hsbc card was accepted virtually everywhere apart from one place we went to 'an english type pub'!! We will be keeping ours when we eventually move over next year.

DC

Re: Banking Issues
 

Branches are not as widespread across Canada as with the traditional canadian banks.

Fees seem high to me and I dont like to be tied to keeping a minimum balance tied up to get certain benefits. Its my money, not the banks.

HSBC is convenient at first as they operate in both Canada and the UK and are relatively easy to set up due to that (especially if you have a large amount to commit), but I suspect that over time, depending where you end up, either the fees or the gaps in branch availability could start to wear.

Re: Banking Issues
 

If you open up a bank account as someone who lives abroad, they will put you down as non-resident and tell the CRA this and you get an NR4 - although I changed my address to my Canadian address the bank decided that I was still non-resident so this caused me a problem (this was back in the days when Part XIII tax was still levied on non-resident bank interest).

Make sure if you open up a Canadian bank account as a non-resident that you tell the bank you are resident *for tax purposes* when you move here.

Also another tip (at least I think it is) is that the debit cards here are useless, you can only use them at POS terminals unlike in other countries (this is because Canada uses the InterAC system which is proprietary, the idea was to stop Canadians getting ripped off by MC and Visa). Get a credit card, it's more important to have one in Canada than most other countries, so you can buy stuff on-line and over the phone. I never use my bank card, I use my credit card for everything.

Re: Banking Issues
 

Hi

Thanks to all for the comments they are much appreciated.

I agree with the comments on HBSC, not comfortable with their demands as it is our decision where the bulk of our funds sit.

Fully understand the fee structured type banking, will take a bit of getting used to working with cash as opposed to debit cards.

Thanks

Andrew & Zena

Re: Banking Issues
 

There is one bank who now offer a visa debit card....I think it is RBC, not sure...Seen the TV adverts this week. I was shocked when I got our bank cards that we are restricted on online use!!!! Cant even pay bills online hmph!

Re: Banking Issues
 

Hmph! I don't know which bank you deal with but I pay all my bills online and I know the service/facility is available at all the major banks in Canada.

Re: Banking Issues
 

Sorry but that's not true. I use my TD debit card to get cash from holes-in-the-wall in the UK, France, Germany ....

Online banking is also perfectly straightforward in Canada, although I agree that you can't use a debit card for online third party purchases. For that you need a credit card or paypal.

Edit: What's a POS terminal? Perhaps we're not disagreeing after all.

Re: Banking Issues
 

Point of Sale.

Re: Banking Issues
 

Yea, I figured it might be. Hence the edit. So he's saying you can only use a debit card to get cash or buy something from a shop? Doesn't seem much of an issue to me.

Re: Banking Issues
 

Yes, once I set up all the bills through my bank I can do it but cant pay them direct through their sites eg Shaw

Re: Banking Issues
 

So can you use interac to buy stuff in the UK or US? I have never tried, I just presumed it wouldnt work. Same with using it in foreign cash machines.

Re: Banking Issues
 

Fee structures have just changed this month at the RBC.We have been drawing our pensions from the Nationwide in the UK to the RBC in Canada with no problem for ten years with no problems, BUT as from November 1st the charges are huge.

The maximum you can draw is $400.00 at a time, and for each transaction at an ATM, the charges are 2% plus one pound. Purchases are 2% charge only.

This is going to make a HUGE hole in our income as it's the only way we can get at our only income.

I rang the bank's international line last night, and they said that this is because VISA have incurred these charges to the banks.

I'm going to research other banks and I know it will take a while to organise the pension transfers, but I suspect the other banks will follow.

We couldn't sleep last night as this is such a shock to us!