nottingham

I need to open a canadian bank account but when I have tried to apply online they all say that you need to be a Canadian Resident.

Can anyone recommend a Canadian Bank that will let me open an account over the internet? or will I need to go in Person?

If I have to apply in person then it looks as though I will have to pop over there for a quick holiday

john fisher

I was in Calgary in June and opened an account with the CIBC took just 30min. Though I had to use my Ontario driver licence to make life easy, you should be able to open one without this though. Take proof of ID.

h_henry

What about HSBC? You can open a foreign currency account, e.g. Canada account for the UK.

dbd33

PC Financial opened an account for us based on our providing $20 cash to deposit. They asked for no documentation at all.

MarkG

Yeah, I now finally have a Canadian dollar account set up with HSBC in Jersey. Took them a while to set it up properly, though!

Basically I had to get someone at the local HSBC branch to stamp and sign a copy of my passport photo page, and send over a bank statement and phone bill. Cheque book arrived a few days later, the PIN to set up the Internet banking took a month, three phone calls and a couple of emails...

Probably not much help if you'll be moving soon and want to use your money in Canada, but if you want to be able to stash away Canadian dollars in case of exchange rate drops, it's useful to have.

john fisher

Not many HSBC in Canada.

steve of 5-0

Do it this way, clear a credit card balance to zero.
Step off the plane using the card to sustain you for a few days.
Go to a big name bank like CICB or TD Canada Trust, with two pieces of ID, we used our UK passports and our then UK licences. Give them an address to work with, they will prepare there at that time of opening the current/chequeing account, your debit card and half a dozen cheques to start you off, they give you that there.
Give them the details of your UK account, 7 days later your money has come from the UK, no stress a???

scrubbedexpat074

Well, there is one in most major Canadian cities actually I think (google HSBC Canada and look at their branch locator). I opened an account with HSBC Canada based in their Halifax branch about 3 months ago, I did this from the UK using their international banking service in London via my branch (oh, you need a uk account first - my branch knew exactly what to do). You need to deposit more than $2000 I think when the account is opened though.

I`ve used the Ottawa branch this week and the service was fine.

Cheers

Mark

john fisher

All the above advice works, you just need to find the one that "suits you sir".

The reason I went with the CIBC is they are big and you will find one in most major town etc. When I get to Canada I'll look out for a better bank, if I can find one. Well maybe one that will suit me better.

The only fault I can find with the Canadian banking system is you pay for everything , apart from deposits.

dbd33

What has amazed me since we started using PC Financial is that at the beginning of the end of the month there is the same amount in the account as there was at the end of the previous month. The accounts at the TD shrink by about $25/month. I have an account for a dormant company at the TD and get into tax problems because it's not strictly speaking dormant if I deposit money each year; I deposit only to cover the shrinkage.

The biggest problem I find with Canadian banks, specifically the TD, is that they don't make much use of technology, I must physically go to the bank in order to deposit money and, since they're rarely open this means my pay cheque gets carted around for a week before I can cash it. (I'd be really distressed about this if it didn't all go in alimony and taxes anyway). Once at the bank there's only one person who can take deposits so I have to wait for the clerk to go to the window and stand in line behind the other clerks in order to get the cheque stamped. It's all a bother and I usually get a parking ticket while all this goes on. The one thing I can say for the TD is that the clerks are mainly slutty young women wearing limited clothing, leering at them passes the time.

Alberta_Rose

I have an HSBC account here and thought would be easy to open one in Calgary from the UK. First my branch said they didn't think I could, then they said I'd need a letter of introduction, then when I said somebody on this board had said it took them a few days and was easy, they said leave your details, we'll get back to you! So I did. They didn't.

Eventually I missed a couple of telephone calls from somebody and when I called back I was told I was through to the wrong place, as they thought I wanted to open an off-shore banking account!, so they gave me another number to ring! Eventually after speaking with this new person I recieved a large envelope of papers and forms to fill in, but they said they wanted a copy of my visa as proof I was really settling there! At this point I had nothing to give them, so I let things lie for a while.

Eventually my husband mentioned to our relocation guy from Canilink that we wanted to open an account before arriving, and he said no problem, give me your details and I'll arrange it for you. A couple of days later a nice Polish lady rang from Calgary TD Bank, and gave us our account number!! Easy! We had an account we could transfer into, and would be activated on our first visit for withdrawals etc. When we went in, everything was all ready, we signed a few papers and were given our debit cards and off we went!

We may or may not stay with TD in the longer term, but I couldn't believe how much easier it was than all the the fuss HSBC made for an existing customer!!!

MarkG

Unfortunately, if the bank staff haven't done it before, they may not have much of a clue. When I first wanted to transfer money to my HSBC account from my current account, the staff in the local branch didn't even know what SWIFT was... whereas in the branch near where I work the guy I spoke to knew straight away what form to fill out and how to deal with it.

Alberta_Rose

That was precisely the problem, but IMHO it was their job to get themselves informed if they didn't know already! If I could get the info off the internet SURELY it would not have been beyond them to find out the correct procedure? Dumkopfs!
Anyway it's all past tense now.