Canadian Citizen

Speaking as a Canadian..............

HSBC is so small in Canada, witrh less than 100 local branches, compared to lets say the Royal Bank of Canada, with 2500 branches, that I have to wonder why so many UK Immigrants are so intent on dealing with HSBC?

I can tell you that opening a bank account in Canada is dead easy, provided that you have 3 things..........

A local address in Canada, a social insurance number and legal Immigration status in Canada. Why? Government regulations.

It is possible to start a bank account from off shore, but it is much more complicated than simply walking into a branch in Canada, with the documents in hand. As a previous poster said, having either a bank draft, a letter of credit, or a certified cheque, will suffice to get you started.

Jim Bunting. Toronto.

iaink

Because they will open a Canadian account from the UK without the three magic ingredients you listed, and are easily accessible in the UK, unlike the usual Canadian suspects. Dunno how long you've been in Canada, but HSBC took over the "Midland Bank" in the UK many years ago IIRC and are very widespread in the UK.


Some people seem to worry about being set up before they get here, and a 10 day wait on a bank draft to clear (a joke in itself, but thats another issue) is a major pain in the rear when you first arrive and need the money to set up a home, buy a car, pay utility deposits etc. You wont even have a SIN number at first in most cases. HSBC may be inconvenient to use once in Canada, but its relatively convenient to set up from the UK at least, so you dont have that headache to add to all the others.

SAW 04

For the reasons mentioned in my earlier post. Pre approved credit cards, mortgage, line of credit and a transfer of behavioral rating (similar to an internal credit rating) None of which I could have obtained by using a Canadian bank.

Biiiiink

They have 3 branches in all Scotland, their branch locations here are a welcome change for some of us

Edit: all this having to provide a void cheque business made me glad I had kickstarted an account long before we got here.

Suzyanne

We too got HSBC in UK to open account in Calgary for us, have had no trouble at all. Was quick and painless and cards and cheque book sent to UK address. We just went into our local branch transferred to Premier No fee and that was it. Branch manager in Calgary has also telephoned to see if all our banking requirements have been met.

achak

The HSBC website says we need a mortgage of at least £200,000 with them or income of at least £75,000. Or you can pay £20 per month for the privilege of having the account. I guess we will have to wait.

bazzz

It's worse than that. You can pay £20 per month IF you earn £75k p.a. but don't have a whopping mortgage/big savings with them.

NovaBoy

For what it's worth, HSBC Canada customers can use Bank Of Montreal ATM's free of charge.

Don't know whether HSBC took over Bank of Montreal or just that they have reciprocal agreements with each other!

chinook

Did exactly the same, tried to open a HSBC account assured that it was easy seeing as we already had a HSBC UK account. Told it would cost me £100 and take about 7 weeks - forget it.

Went to Halifax NS last week opened a CIBC account in minutes and also a HSBC one downtown in Holliis St I think it was. Absolutely no problems with either, nica and easy and for good manners I put $100 in each one.

If you can wait till you do a research trip over here, certainly dont give the UK branch £100 of your hard earned just for an "admin fee".