snowman365

Dear Forum

Hope you are all well!

Well, I am off to Canada in less than 2 months now - woohoo!!! - and I am just starting to think about Bank Accounts, and I have a coupld of questions I was hoping someone may be able to help me with:

1. Can anyone recommend a good Basic Bank Account to open i.e. one which is preferrably free, or does not charge much?

2. Does anyone know of an Account which can be opened from the UK? I seem to remember reading somewhere that some Accounts can be opened from the UK.

Any ideas / advice would be much appreciated!!!

Cheers!!!

christmasoompa

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Banking-Canada

moondevil

yep link to rbc

http://www.rbc.com/canada/financial/accounts/open.html

gooding

Presidents Choice which is part of CIBC is an internet only account, that is free. Downside is you have to be near a Canadian Superstore to open an account, and use the ABM to withdraw or deposit. It is OK if you just need to withdraw, get paid by direct deposit, but has its down side. Scotiabank have a new to Canada account, with some perks for first year. However they do not have as many ABMS around as RBC ( I have just finished working for Scotia) I used the RBC from England and was best for internet banking.
Does not take more than an hour to open an account here. Just come over walk into a bank and make an appointment. You need two pieces of ID passport and driving licence are best. RBC were very accommodating for us.
best to open an account near where you will live, as they are a bit behind the Uk, and tend to be keen on getting to know you. They tend to like paying by cheques here for pay, and will hold cheque for up to 6 days if not drawn on their branch. Until the banks get to know you will have cash back limit of about $200 for up to a year depending on where you work or who you work for.
You can easily change banks once you get settled.


Supermarlet

The4BellsLondon

Hubby and I set up joint HSBC account on sat in London Uk - am popping back in tomorrow to get the duplicates for the Vancouver one -all v simple

emmae

Did you have to pay them £100 to open it with HSBC?

lucieg

Hi,

Are you going out with Bunac? I know that they have a deal with TD (in Toronto anyway) where you don't pay fees for the first few months...and in fact one of my friends argued with the bank after that time had run out that he shouldn't have to pay monthly fees as he was British and we don't do it like that over here. Made me laugh...but he got his way and they didn't charge him.

I've always found TD very helpful and they have really long opening hours.

With regards to opening from the UK, you can do it with HSBC but I think unless you have the premier account (i.e you have thousands and thousands in the bank) it's not much benefit. The other bank you could use is Citi.

Opening up accounts here is very simple, you get your card, pin and temporary cheques when you go in. You don't have to wait for them to post you them like you do here so it's not really a big hassle waiting to open an account when you come over.

Hope that helps!

deeb81

I opened an RBC Day to Day bank account from here (the UK) a few months ago.

Email this guy: [email protected] and he'll tell you what you need.

He emailed me an application form and I had to send it to him with notarised pieces of identification (think it was copies of my passport and driving licence)...that was as complicated as it got!

I've been transferring money into it for the last few months without problem.

The4BellsLondon

nope !

MarkG

We use PC Financial and Scotiabank; no problems with either other than only having one Scotiabank branch in town that's open on Saturdays.

Almost Canadian

You can use CIBC to service the PC account if you need to. You can also use CIBC's ABMs to make withdrawals on your PC account with no charge

snowman365

Hi!

Thanks for your reply and thanks to everyone else also!

Yes I was looking last night at the RBC day to Day Account - is there a charge for this Account do you know?

Cheers!

G77

The £100 is the charge if you're not a HSBC Premier customer - I had to pay it as I wasn't and didn't meet the criteria for Premier....

It's free however to setup an account with HSBC within Canada - though it is more difficult to get your history in the UK transferred/referenced I believe, you need to find someone familiar with openinga "Passport" account.

The4BellsLondon

oh right ... I set up a premier one - oooh get me ! only the house money will go in there x

deeb81

Hey,

There is something like a $5 charge per month as long as you have 15 transactions or less. Not sure of the exact numbers but it was really small.