Nickola

We are moving to Calgary at the beginning of December and do not have a Canadian bank account yet. Are there any Canadian banks that will let me set up an account electronically from the UK? I have just been to the TD bank but they want a Canadian address. At the moment I dont know where we are going to be staying as we will be renting, the address information will not be available to me until the last minute and I dont want to leave this til the last minute!!

kazbob

Hiya,

I believe that HSBC will allow you to open a Canadian bank account whilst still in Britain.

We are going to open an account so that we can take out a mortgage with them when we get to Canada.

HTH

Karen

Almost Canadian

I was able to open an account with TD Canada Trust in Calgary (Shawnessy) from the UK with no problems at all. PM me if you want contact details

britsnake

I believe that you can also open an account with RBC from the UK. I think there have been posts on it in the past if you do a search.

I opened a savings account with CIBC on a visit to canada, which I'll change over to chequing after I land. This was to avoid charges. They send regular statements to my UK address without any problems. It took only 1/2 hour to open in person and I wlked out with my cash card in hand.

As I bank with barclays in the UK, I can use Scotia Bank cash machines for free which I find quite handy.

As a non resident, expect long holds on any deposits you make prior to landing (even longer for foreign currency cheques).

Mrs Madmac

Before we came out we contacted every bank...... RBC were the only one to say they would open one for me while I was still in the UK.

However I decided to wait until I got here and I opened accounts at the TD Canada Trust...... we were in the same position as you.

Got our money changed into Canadian Dollars via "Moneycorp" and arranged for them to transfer the funds to a Canadian Bank account that I would nominate once I got there. (You arrange the dates and rates before you go so it will be done for you when you get there.... quite simply to do.)

So bring money with you for the first wee while and as soon as you get here open an account...... we looked to see which banks would be the nearest to where we thought we would stay. (Also of note is that we were and are with the Nationwide back in the UK. They offer the best exchange rate on their visa cards...... i.e. you get the business rate which is far better than any currency exchange from travel agents or banks. We have online banking so if we spend our UK credit card we actually save money and then just pay it from our UK bank account.)

Oh and credit cards............ be warned as a new immigrant you need to put up security against any credit cards you want and they want you to spend and use it to try to build up a credit history...... you come here with no background...... utilities can also ask for security up front as well...... just be aware. (Regardless of how much money you bring with you!)

(I worked in Finance back home and they way they do money here has been one of the biggest shocks to me.)

Be prepared for a different banking system though! (They charge for everything and do not pay good interest...... the only place to go for no charges and better interest are the internet based banks like ING or Presidents Choice which is tied into a big supermarket chain......... I suppose like Tesco banking back home.)

Canada Jane

We had an account with HSBC in the UK and they allowed us to open on in Canada over a year before we actually moved out.

It made the whole moving process much easier as far as getting mortgages, credit cards etc was concerned.

4breezers

We transferred our banking to HSBC back in March this year as we understand that once you have had an account with them for 12 months they transfer their credit rating for you to Canada (whether this proves to be true or not we will have to wait and see). Opening the new UK account was an absolute nightmare.....£100 compensation kept us smiling though.

BUT we thought in for a penny in for a pound, and decided to open our Canadian account with them before we went on holiday - didn't have to order travellers cheques, foreign currency etc. Opening the Canadian account was a breeze. Used UK address, and ID etc etc

We were worried that our cards wouldn't arrive in time so the International banking centre arranged for us to pick up our debit cards etc once we reached Calgary. We picked them up when we arrived - no problems.

May not be the best account for us when eventually land (sometime in 2008 - 2009 by my reckoning!!), but will do for now.