fourspoon

I've mostly been a long time reader and lurker on this forum but I just wanted to make a post thanking the regular posters for their contributions and time taken to share information.
Knowledge I've gained from this forum has made a great impact on my emigration situation. I'm now 3 weeks away from moving permanently from the UK to Ontario with my family and starting an exciting new life chapter.

The one thing I would like to add to the collective knowledgebase, which doesn't seem to have been well covered before here is my experience with American Express.

It is well documented how newcomers struggle to get credit and finance on things with no credit history in Canada. It has been the same for me - as for example, despite being a relatively high earner, RBC only approved me for a $100 overdraft and $1,000 credit card. And TD wouldn't even give me an account.

Well, American Express state that they have a transfer process for people moving country and take previous history into account. To be honest, I was somewhat sceptical and it sounded like just a ploy to get people to apply for new cards and just approve them for what they would have got anyway, but actually no. After looking at my UK history and going through a very
rigorous proof of ID stage, AmEx Canada have given me a $20,000 AirMiles card right off the bat. Obviously I have a good record with AmEx and I run about £50k a year through the card, so that obviously helps.

So my advice to anyone considering emigrating in the future is get an AmEx card in the UK build up a good credit limit as you might well be very glad of a usable credit card in your first months in Canada...

CanadianSpruce

I can also recommend this. When I moved to Canada from the UK, they gave me a very high limit and it boosted my credit immensely. Until last year they reported the opening date as the original opening date in the UK to credit reference agencies as well, which was a bonus.

dbd33

It's worth noting that, in Canada, AMEX are one of a very few companies that offer what me might call the LL Bean or Costco level of service. Call them and their system recognizes the incoming number and presents your account information to the person taking the call. The conversation can start from "there's an issue with the third transaction on my last statement" not from "but I just typed my bloody number why do I have to be reciting it to you? And it's 'this morning' not 'today morning'".

It's an expensive card to have but, for me, the ability to call someone employed to try and resolve problems, rather than to complicate them, someone with whom I have a common language, is well worth the money.

BristolUK

Or keep your UK credit card. I kept two - came in handy for buying a house load of furniture, signing up for phone/internet - and still use them.

Once I got PR, I gave TD a copy of my transactions and they did the credit card with a low limit that quickly increased and now it's way up.

ChrisBan

yep the Amex transfer service was easy for me too!

Silverdragon102

We tried twice and both times they refused to transfer from UK to Canada despite excellent credit history. Thankfully we had HSBC and had a credit card with them

CanadianSpruce

That's odd, did you ask to speak to the global transfer team?

Silverdragon102

Yep, they kept insisting we complete application form and then turned us down, husband at that time was on excellent pay and shouldn't have been refused. We gave up after 2nd attempt

withabix

I had no problems with the Amex transfer - had a Canadian card within about two weeks of arriving.

Just had to get a letter (Attestation) from my employer, which I wrote and got signed...