Hi All,

We are in Halifax at the moment and are thinking about opening a non resident bank account. Which banks have given the best service in and around Halifax when it comes to opening this type of account? Are there any minimum balances, conditions etc?

Any help would be appreciated

Thx

There are many different types of accounts, terms & Conditions vary with each account type. A savings account might be the best if you are parking your money for now.

HSBC have a higher interest internet account as do ING Direct.

HSBC having branches all over the world can be useful. If you are bringing funds with you when you move, HSBC are the only in town bank that I know of that offer foreign currency accounts, without first putting the funds into CAD $. So you can pay in a GBP cheque from Britain hold it in your GBP account in Canada, clear the funds, then convert at your leisure.

Custom House Exchange (CHE) http://www.customhouse.com/ hold accounts with HSBC, so if you want to convert funds, usually at a better than bank rates, this makes it relatively easy to convert funds as well, without dealing overseas. You would also need to open an account with Custom House at some point to do the exchange.

I have been referred to HSBC by the UK2NovaScotia resettlement company. They put me in touch with someone at the Halifax branch and they appear to be well informed about Immigration and what is needed. I am confident that things go smoothly when I visit next month.

Many people have reported difficulties when dealing with banks in Canada for the first time. I have been asked to bring along an equifax credit report (available online for a small fee) and a copy of a utiliy bill as well as my passport. It might help if you have at least come of these things.

Ditto what surryexpat says about opening a sterling account. That way you can take advangtage of any highs in the exchange rate instantly (if there are any highs that is).

One thing to remember is that unlike the UK free banking is rare in Canada. One exception that I have heard of from BE (but know little about myself) is PC finance run through Loblaws www.pcfinancial.ca I intend to explore this more - its on my 'to do list'.

Let me know how you get on.

Many Thx

Will let you know what happens.

Any ideas about when the exchange rate will go back in our favour as house sale will complete just as we return to the Uk and dont know whether to hang on until/if a better rate appears or just change when we complete on the 17th?

Free banking is not that rare, I dont pay anything for my HSBC Premier account. From experience stand your ground and refuse to pay the fees. We didn't have to persuade them very hard.

Do you have a lot of savings with HSBC or a large mortgage? I understood those were the conditions needed to get a Premier account.

HSBC are really familiar with dealing with immigrants (as this seems to be their main client base - either brits or Chinese) which makes life a lot easier initially. However they only have one branch in Nova Scotia (located downtoen Halifax) which can be a real pain sometimes. Especially since here you pay a fee of around $1.50 when you use someone else's ATM machine. If you don't live in downtown Halifax therefore then you cant do your banking locally. If I was to open an account for the first time I would probably go with Scotiabank who have branches literally everywhere and a very wide range of services.

Sorry, my crystal ball is at the menders. I plan to just change what I needs and keep the rest in sterling. Don't know that I could call this a recommendation though. Just what I am planning to do

Worth knowing. Thanks

I didn't realise that HSBC was so sparse in NS. I think that I will look at some other. Thanks

HSBC customers can use machines belonging to BMO (Bank of Montreal) and something else called "The Exchange" without incurring any fees.

I know but I haven't founf those to be especially widespread in NS either.

Never had an issue finding a BMO machine. They are in most of the larger Sobeys stores as well.

We qualified for the account in the UK and the international transfer process was quick and efficient. They had a $10,000 Mastercard (unsecured) and a $25000 line of credit ready on our arrival. We do hold our mortgage with them but its not huge by any means.

We opened an account with the Royal Bank of Canada in May and they were fantastic. It was so easy to open and each month they send a statement to our UK address, they have even held off charging us for our account until next year.

We have even got a mortgage with them. Can not fault them.

Hope this helps

Karla x x x