Bonsai

Hi,

Could anyone provide some much needed advice on the best way to set up an account in Canada prior to landing?

We have no address in Canada as yet and our house here has just sold.

We have tried HSBC but we seem to be going around in circles being passed from our branch to a call centre, back to the local branch and back again!!

G77

Did you try going into your local HSBC? I was in there recently to get a draft and they were keen to open an account in Canada for me, but I don't need it just yet...

Bonsai

G77,

Thanks - yes we did!! We went in to two local branches as we are current HSBC customers - but to no avail.

G77

Hmm, not very reassuring, I was hoping to open an account with HSBC before I go, as I've been a *reasonably* happy customer of theirs for 20ish years (from the Midland bank days).

Maybe point them at their own website?

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/personal/h...zzoY:12c58sh8k

bazzz

There's very little to be gained from opening an account before you go, and honestly, you'll probably be able to get a better deal from someone other than HSBC.

Opening a bank account in Canada is very simple. A surprising amount of stuff is still done in person at branches, so you might want to choose a bank that is convenient for you.

We opened accounts from HSBC before we arrived; I wish now that we'd waited until we got here.

cneldred

Where are u going to settle in Canada? If Ontario i posted something in a thread last summer with the contact details of a guy at RBC in Toronto, he sorted everything out for me to open an account prior to our landing. Do a search through my previous postings

Chris

steve666

I too opened a HSBC account in Canada from the UK last year, as we already had one in the UK. Local branch had to give us forms, we filled them in and they opened it up within a week, all our money from the UK went into the Canadian account via HiFx at a goodly rate, HSBC exchange rate is terrible. However, HSBC don't have the coverage of banks in Canada as they do in the UK, only 2 branches in the whole of Ottawa, and their accounts are expensive to have. We've just changed to Scotiabank for various reasons but to get our money over in the first place HSBC was an easy way to do it.

Bonsai

Dear all,

Many thanks for the advice. We are relocating to Ontario - Ottawa to be precise so the advice is very relevant and very much appreciated.

Regards,

Peter

chriskatie

We opened an account with RBC before we bought our house. It was classed as a non resident account and was very straight forward with a personal touch that puts British Banks to shame. If we need anything we can ring or e-mail our account manager at our branch in Barrie, no ringing a cental number and getting a different person everytime.

The one thing we did have to do was get a referral letter from our bank in England, basically to prove we were trust worthy customers and not money launderers. Getting this letter however has proved difficult and drawn out. Until we have this we can't get our RBC bank card although we can transfer money in and out of the account.

Chris

YYZlover

CIBC requires you to have a SIN and work permit to open an account from within Canada. They have told me that opening account from abroad is possible (although, emailing and asking them that they say the contrary).

Co-Writer

If this is true then it is a new rule. We opened an account a couple of years ago with CIBC whilst on holiday, very simple and no problem. I use it occasionally from here and all the time when in Canada.

Silverdragon102

We have just opened an account with HSBC in Canada from the UK and did it all over the phone. Spoke to someone in branch and they arranged for the International branch to ring us and complete paperwork over the phone and they sent the forms and we had to nip into local branch with ID and they sent the forms. Biggest headache we had was getting money transfer sorted but once we had it sorted money transferred in 2 days and impressed with the rate we received

YYZlover

Well, I was in there a couple of days ago and she first said yes and then going through the process stumbled on the SIN boxes to fill so yes translated to no.

However - I am going to call and schedule appointment for a meeting with business banking for information reasons so will ask again.

johnh009

To the best of my knowledge, HSBC is one of the few banks that operate in the UK and Canada (apart from just savings banks such as ING). If you open an account with HSBC in the UK (as G77 and others say), when you get to Canada, you can go to your local HSBC here, open an account, and they will transfer your money for you (well, for a fee).

But, as Bazzz says, wait until you get here, open an account with who you please, and then transfer your loot.

Kul

Hello. We called telephone banking with HSBC, their international office sent us the forms. We filled these in and took them to our local branch who then checked IDs and took us through the forms and explained anything we had had trouble with (well they phoned the international division number), it was all sorted within a couple of hours. We also transferred money via HiFX. What all this meant was that when we arrived in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago we could go to the branch and pick up debit and credit cards and we had money in the account which we could access immediately.