ColdAsIce

hi,
when opening a bank account in Canada...is your bank card visa debit? If not then how does one book flights / buy things online? As I don’t want a credit card and only want to spend my own money and not someone elses.

Also what is the best and biggest bank to bank with in Canada?

Thanks
Cold As Ice

snowshoveller

your bank card will work as a debit card for in store purchases (up to a daily limit) for online purchases you need a separate visa card, which as a new resident can be an issue. You can get a secured card fairly easiliy, but you have to put a sizeable chunk down (and then only have access to 75% of that)

After being in canada over a year and having PR card, and a reasonable earnings (although self employed) they wouldnt let me have a starbucks card

bets bet is to keep a uk card for immediate use, I was able to register my first direct account to canada address.

I think hsbc are still doing their passport for new residents, which might help!

scrubbedexpat091

Canadian banks have not evolved enough yet to provide Visa or Mastercard debit cards (even US banks are more advanced here) and make us use the interact system which is pretty useless online, although a small selection of websites to accept it if you bank with the big 6.

Money Mart, Much Music and a couple others out there have pre-paid Visa/Mastercards, you pay a small fee for the services, no credit checks or deposit needed, you just load it with $$ and can only spend whats on it.

Still more a pain since it can take a couple days to load money on it from ones bank account.

bodgerx

Did you get a UK AMEX in the UK before you left for NS and then switch it? Quite a few on the forum have done that and it has worked fine. This is what mcfc98 is on about.

Aviator

There is no best bank, all about the same depending on who you talk to. We've been with Royal Bank for 15 years and they have been OK, use the VIP account and this includes pretty much all charges and a couple of Visa cards for the monthly fee. Also use ING as a holding account.

Tried a few others along the way and not got on too well with them, HSBC being the worst. Some of the lower cost accounts, such as Presidents Choice (run by Loblaws grocery chain) require a bit of inconvenience as they have no branches so anything out of the ordinary is not easy to do.

No Visa debit as has been said, but then if you pay your balance off each month and keep enough in an account to do so, what's the difference? Credit cards also offer purchase protection insurance and some rental car insurance if you need it and also extending manufacturers warranty on purchases by up to a year. Some also offer travel insurance.

It is pretty much impossible to function without a credit rating, even the banks do a credit check when you open an account, as do utility companies and so on.

We don't own anyone anything, but still pay everything we can on credit card then pay it off monthly. The insurance & warranty benefit has come in handy a couple of times.

Also run an Amex, but this is not as widely accepted, useful in Costco though and get 3% cash back. Buggers would not let me pay for my new aircraft on it though, that would have been a sweet deal.

Silverdragon102

Yes we both had AMEX in the UK for several years but wouldn't switch when we enquired once we arrived in Canada

Brownstar

This is a prime example of why its not easy to recommend as we have had an excellent experience with HSBC so far.

Rob_999

You're going to need a credit card - its the only way to make reservations, shop online, hire cars etc etc. If you don't like credit you can get a pre-paid or 100% secured visa card.

As for banks - RBC/TD/BMO/CIBC are the big four round these parts

bodgerx

Strange. They even have a facility to do it online:

http://www.americanexpress.com/globa...nsfer_en.shtml

JonboyE

I have been recommended to this site http://www.bankrate.com/can/ for comparisons of financial products available in Canada. I have not checked it out in much detail yet, so proceed with caution, but it looks useful.

mumof2

I tried UK AMEX to switch to Canadian AMEX, now have both.

HSBC also had a bad experience.

Aviator

The real acid test is when something goes wrong, how do they fix it and how easily do they fix it. If you have to argue the point to get what you want or do they do it willingly. Both my daughter and I have had problems with them, in the UK and Canada. The worlds local bank that cannot communicate with an overseas branch any easier than Royal Bank can with Barclays.

Silverdragon102

That's the number we rang but I think the person on the other end of the phone was a complete idiot

bodgerx