Hello, we are soon to emigrate to Alberta and would like to know the best way of transferring our State Pensions to Canada to give us the best rate of exchange. The DWP state they will not transfer to a Third Party, so I guess that rules out the FX firms, so it looks like the banks. Can some kind person point out the bank that may give the best rate or shall I trawl through them all?
Talking of FX firms. We are assuming that it is ok for us to deposit the proceeds from our house sale in one of these firms until we open a bank a/c in Alberta. Will this satisfy the CBSA when we land in Calgary in a few weeks?
I do apologise if I've asked this before, but the old grey cells are "slightly overloaded" just now, it's getting near to panic stations time!!

You are fine (and should use) with a Forex company for your house sale money. Once you open a Canadian bank account you can have the Forex company deposit it directly into that account for you.

Just to be sure, you are aware that once you have your State Pensions paid into a bank in Canada, they will be 'frozen' at whatever amount they are at that time. You will no longer receive any index linked increases in them. Yes?

You will have to call and advise the Pension Agency that you want your pensions paid into your Canadian bank account. So you will need to have opened a Canadian bank account before you make that call.

You will also have to call the UK Tax Office and tell them you want your status changed to 'Nil Tax' so they will not tax your pensions and you will then declare and pay your tax in Canada. You will have to get Revenue Canada to send them a letter saying you have arranged to pay tax in Canada before UK Revenue will be willing to make that change in your tax code status. Don't worry, once you start the process they will tell you what to do and you'll manage to do it. It will be a pain in the butt though.

All the banks will exchange the funds they receive from the Pension Agency at the same rate.

Have you opened an acccount already with a Forex company? It takes a few weeks to process as they need to do some checking on you to make sure you are not money laundering etc.

That's great, thank you. Yes, we are aware of the "frozen pension" and yes, we have opened an account with a FX company. I spoke to both the DWP and a FX company yesterday, so am comfortable with those aspects. Thank you also for the advice re the UK tax man and the Canadian Tax Man. I'm looking forward to it already
Many thanks, Gordon and Eileen.