Ian Wallis

I am emigrating to Canada soon and wonder how do you get a credit card.

Presumebly you cannot use your UK cards for long due to billing issues etc. How do you get a card if you have no Canadian credit record, no accomodation history in Canada etc?

Equally, how do you rent accomodation when you first arrive with no Canadian residential record, references, bank account etc?

How do you get a bank account? etc

Help!!!

Butch Cassidy

Ian where are you going in Canada?
Not that it makes a big difference to the answers to your questions BUT I may be able to recommend people who can help you settle when you arrive.

Butch

dalehouse

Hi
If you happen to have a bit of cash now (maybe from house sale or something) then you can set up an "HSBC Premier Account" in the UK - they will then set up a similar account for you in Canada
Using this method we have managed to get a Canadian Mastercard 6 months before we actually land

While it seems difficult/impossible to transfer your credit record, HSBC Canada will apparently take into account your UK History "internally" that you build up with HSBC UK

We were informed by HSBC Canada also that if we use our Canadian Mastercard a few times (even while we are in the UK) and make sure it is paid off on time, then that helps to build the Canadian credit history before we land

For what it's worth (and I have to tell you this is only what I was told), the HSBC guy also warned against making too many minor attempts for credit in Canada because, apparently, too much "noise" on the credit record is not necessarily positive - so he advised against too many attempts at taking out store discount cards, loyalty cards etc
Hope this helps

britishvixen21

I have not officially landed yet but i have two credit cards, i have a mastercard capital one secured credit card that i paid for, and a CIBC Visa that they gave me when i opened my new account. Most Banks will do this I bank with CIBC and they told me that I could go in there give them $2000 and they would give me a credit card with a limit of $2000 if after a year you have been good with teh card they will give you that back in additional credit. Once you have one credit card its fairly easy to get another one. if you open a new account now with a major bank and keep it active with deposits and such there shouldnt be a problem once you get here to apply for a credit card as they will see a good banking history.

oxocube

My wife and I are looking at a slightly different way of building credit history when we move over later this year. In the UK we took out a Nationwide Credit card which is one of the only cards I know of that does not charge you for transactions. It is servicable via their website and we are keeping a UK account open with some money in to cover minor things. We will probably use this if needed for the first 6 months there (settling, getting jobs and regular money into current account) so we can build a credit history to get the card in Canada.

That's the plan for the moment anyway....Plus having a brother who works for RBC might help a little as well

dkvl

Hi. From our experience, opening a bank account here was not a problem (we're with RBC). Without a job, they were willing to issue a credit card providing we put down the credit limit amount as security. Once a job is in place, a credit card shouldn't be a problem. We still have a couple of credit cards from the UK to use at the moment, with some funds left in the UK for payments - just check which credit cards will allow you to have an overseas address for billing/correpondence (EGG won't, First Direct and Virgin will).

Hope that helps.

Deborah

TrishP

Opening a bank account was easy - went along to the bank, went through all the details, etc with the customer services woman and opened the account then and there - it helped that we had some cash to deposit.

Spoke with her about getting a Scotiabank visa, had to arrange a letter of "good standing" from our bank in the UK and we were issued visas with no fixed time deposit as collateral.

It helps when you live in a small place and there are only 2 banks in town - they know you can easily up-sticks and go to the other one!! This will certainly help when it comes time to get a mortgage!! Heheheheh!

dbd33

I have and use a Barclaycard VISA. I also had a Lloyd's bank Access card until a few years ago, I didn't bother paying the balance on time as it was less than the cost of a money order; the bank eventually cancelled the card.

I've lived outside the UK since 1981.

NewCalgarian

We used our UK credit cards here and had no problems paying them off - just have to keep an eye on things. To get Canadian credit cards, we had to deposit cash in the bank as a security - that reminds me, we can get that back soon!

R2D2

We had no probs getting a Canadian credit card through our bank and we still have UK that we use occasionally aswell. Just pay it off with funds from the UK current account we keep going aswell. All our UK family puts money in our UK current account for birthdays, Christmas etc and we spend out here using our debit cards ............... easy peasy

Biiiiink

I've still got all my UK ones - some of them come with extras that I didn't want to give up just yet. I've told all of them I've moved and they're all happy to send bills to me in Canada. In fact RBS even has pre-printed airmail envelopes so it must be something they do often.

peterb

Hi

If you take out an Amex card in the UK, prior to leaving for Canada tell them and they will automaically issue you with a Canadian one without any problem.

Peter

Mike Gas

The best thing you can do is get an American Express card while still in the UK use it as much as possible before you depart and make sure you pay in time. Then when you land and have a permanent address get them to transfer your card to a Canadian version we did this and they gave us a $15,000 limit without any hassle at all and we have not landed yet but have received PPR, someone did mention that MBNA will also transfer there cards but I haven’t tried this to confirm.

http://www.americanexpress.com/globa...nsfer_en.shtml