Hi all,

Its probably been asked before but here gores.

When we leave the UK will our credit score follow and can we use this for a mortgage or does it all get wiped clean and we have to start again.

If so can we open a bank account whilst we're in the UK and say monthly credit an account so our credit rating will be better.

Thanks in advance

EVY

It will be wiped clean but you may need to obtain your UK Equifax report to be able to show your Canadian Mortgage company (we did) but it will not usually help with obtaining credit cards etc.

Whether they will be interested in your UK Equifax report is likely to depend upon how much you are putting down. We got our mortgage based on my UK salary which is why we needed the report.

You can open an account whilst still in the UK and you may be able to obtain a credit card. If you do your credit rating will only improve if you use the card - having funds in an account does not help your credit rating at all - as you have not used credit.

HTH

Can't hurt getting your credit rating from the UK - I think it's free for 30days.

Remember that on a mortgage part of the interest rate is your "risk premium" - the more you can reduce this the better you'll be.

Thinking about it, make sure you can change your mortgage provider as your risk premium should reduce after a few years in Canada!

Thanks guys!

Doea anyone know of any banks who will open an account in the UK for savings in Canada?

EVY

HSBC

Thank you MandyG

Evy

I also read on this forum somewhere (dont recall who posted it) that having a letter from your UK bank basically attesting to the fact that you've been a customer for X years and that they've not had any probs etc etc will help too.

Some of the big name banks in Canada (other then HSBC already mentioned) are: Royal Bank, Toronto Dominion (which I think is now TD Trust, think there was an amalgamation between two banks a few yrs back), CIBC (dont recall what it stands for, think its Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce but may be wrong!), Bank Of Montreal, Bank Of Canada.

Most of the big banks in Canada have FAQ's or a section to 'ask a question/email' on their websites. Here's a website that has links to Canadian Banks (just click the name) http://www.businessjeeves.ca/Banks.html

One thing you should bear in mind when looking to open a bank account in Canada, banks charge a 'per item' fee, in other words... they charge each time you use an ATM, each time you go to the counter to do a transaction, plus the standard "bounced cheque NSF" type fees on top of that.

It pays to do your homework with the banks and figure out which one's charges/policies suit you best, many banks offer a "package monthly fee" which entitles you to X amount of ATM withdrawls/deposits etc, I had a $5/month package with the Royal Bank which entitled me to 20 ATM withdrawl/deposits/cheques per month.

Read the small print, alot of banks want to distract potential new customers from finding out how much of their clients money they will be taking each transaction, if there's no mention of it, ASK before you sign up to anything!

It may not help, but we opened an account with the local Credit Union when we visited last year, and took out a mortgage with them on a small property that we rented out so it wasn't actually costing us anything although we needed a 25% deposit.

The reason we did it (apart from enjoying the benefit of the rising property prices) was that a Credit Union mortgage counts towards your credit rating whereas one from the bank doesn't, at least in BC, maybe it's different elsewhere.

Another thing that you can do is take out an American Express card in the UK, you can change over when you get to Canada and it helps a little with having a credit history.

bad.andy