Hsbc
 

Hi,

As we have received our medical requests I thought it was time to open a bank account in Canada. I had already opened a HSBC account here as I had heard it was easy to transfer across. I called HSBC International and they have just sent through the paperwork. It is like a phone book. They want £100 fee for setting it up, an opening balance of 1500CAD (paid by bankers draft), proof of our reason for wanting to open the account and a list of how many deposits/withdrawals will be made every month.

This all seems a touch excessive to me. Can anyone recommend another bank to deal with that will make settling in NS easier. I really would like it set up now so I am organised.

Thanks

Angela

Re: Hsbc
 

Angela,

I have just done this a few months ago & was told the exact same info re £100 fee BUT then when I spoke to someone else they advised to contact

0207 9917278 International Banking Center - no charge

or just walk into the local branch in Canada

I am yet to open the Canadian Bank A/c as only just swapped stuff here to HSBC so not sure if correct,,, let me know how you get on as I cannot pursue anything until I have that shiny visa....

Michelle

Re: Hsbc
 

Hi
We've transferred all of our stuff to HSBC, and they've set us up with bank accounts, credit cards - the lot. No fees!
I'd go back to them and ask them to rethink!

Re: Hsbc
 

Hi,

We'd banked with HSBC in the UK for about 15 years before we moved to Canada, but they were such a pain with regards to opening an account in Canada from the UK that we gave up and just opened a CIBC account on arrival instead. You can't do it from the UK, though.

Alex

Re: Hsbc
 

I just closed everything in England and had all my money in travellers cheques... i walked into Royal Bank (RBC) and opened the account in Canada and had no issues at all.

Re: Hsbc
 

We considered them, but they wanted us to jump through hoops. In the end we went to our local RBC when we visited and set up an account. No problem getting a credit card with $2000 limit(what we asked for, might have given us more). Offered same choices as anyone else.

The manager and staff have been very helpful and we get offered increases in Credit limits similar to what we had in the UK, after only a year in Canada.

Not saying not to use HSBC, but there are lots of choices.

Re: Hsbc
 

Thanks

Did you go into a branch and organise it?

Re: Hsbc
 

Yep, we organised it via the Milton Keynes branch initially, then we spoke to International, and finally the Kelowna branch.

Re: Hsbc
 

You going to Kelowna too??

Re: Hsbc
 

The problem with HSBC is that once you get to Canada, they are not exactly on every corner. Other banks are far more common.

Plus the fees seem steep, even by canadian standards.


What do people hope to achieve by opening accounts in advance anyway? It doesnt help credit rating at all.

Re: Hsbc
 

We had to have the proceeds of our house sale in the UK in a Canadian bank account for 10 days before the mortgage company would issue the extra funds we needed to buy our house in Canada. There was competition for this place so we needed to complete as quickly as possible and so bought beore we left the UK, so that the house was ours from the day we moved out here.

I guess if you're coming over and renting for a while, then no, there's no rush to open an account.

Re: Hsbc
 

Hi

We opened up a HSBC Premier account a year before moving to Canada and found them to be wonderful. The whole process was painless and hassle free. We had accounts, credit cards with $10k limits and line of credit for $25k pre approved for our arrival. We still to this day dont pay any banking fees and whilst I agree with others that there are not many branches, we can use BMO atms for free. I would ask them to reconsider, remember banking is a highly competitive industry. If they dont want your business there are plenty of others who do!

SAW 04

Re: Hsbc
 

I don't think HSBC Premier accounts are available to just anyone. I believe you have to fit certain criteria and are "invited" to open an account.

Re: Hsbc
 

We were certainly not invited to apply. We qualified as we deposited a reasonable chunk of equity from our house sale. Our salaries were above average but not huge. They are very flexible regarding the premier criteria.

Re: Hsbc
 

SAW - same as you - deposited house equity and got Premier that way.
Steve 666 - yep, off to Kelowna too. When do you go?