Moving to Canada for a year and would appreciate some advice re: banking. Will be earning an income there so would need a regular savings a/c + credit card (with rewards) but would also need to regularly transfer money from bank in Aus (where mortgage is held) for living/travel expenses for the family. Hoping someone may have advice on a local or international bank as well as recommendation on money transfer services?
Banking Tips? Moving to Canada
Mamia on 23/01/2016 - 14:41
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I would suggest opening an account with HSBC, they should be able to help you open up accounts in Canada before you get there and you can do online banking all in the one place.
If you don't like them you can always change when you get there, and use HSBC bank statements etc as proof of address, which is often the biggest challenge when moving countries, I have lived in 3 and it's always a pain!
Thanks will do
ING in Canada I believe are called Tangerine bank.
They're very good here, so might be worthwhile for part of your banking in Canada.Ta looks like tangerine have a fee free 1-2% cashback credit card that looks good.
PC financial has free banking and they also have MasterCard which gives you a certain percentage back to spend at the Real Canadian Superstore. Walmart offers a MasterCard too where you get a certain percentage back to spend in their stores. Both have no yearly fees (they only charge interest if you don't pay on time). If you have a Costco membership, Costco also has a no fee credit card where you earn points and get money to spend in Costco. However, a membership in Costco costs money and you only get the rebate back at a set time each year whereas the other credit cards allow you to spend your cash back at any time once you have met the min amount (I think it was $20 which is easy to reach if you pay all your regular household bills through the credit card monthly). You will find many fee free credit cards in Canada with great cash back rewards. Just remember to pay your bill off on time or you will get stung by the high interest rates.
I was with PC Financial and found them the best. It is similar to ING in that they don't have a physical bank for you to go into but their service through the phone is really good. I transferred my money from them to Australia when I moved here. They are also part of CIBC which is pretty much anywhere so if you want to take cash out of a teller or atm at CIBC it will be free. With ING in Canada, you can sometimes get $50 to open an account when they have the "refer a friend" promotion but you will have to find someone to refer you.
Also, I left Canada about a year and a bit ago and they still did not have awesome phone apps like the commonwealth bank one here. I still can't believe I can take money out at Commonwealth Bank machines with my phone and no card!
Once you have a bank account in Canada, you can use an online thing to transfer money over to Australia. I moved some money in December and used Currency Online. The first transaction is free. It's cheaper than using the banks directly (wish someone had told me this before I moved most of my money here!).
http://www.currencyonline.com/
Hi Mamia,
I'm thinking about moving to canada as well one day. Planning a trip mid this year to check out East coast vs west coast.
Do you have a visa to move there? I don't have any family in Canada so wondering how hard/easy is to migrate there. I heard they're very strict!
Thanks!
My husband is doing 12 months work there and so his work are organising that sorry so am not sure sorry.
I'd look into Citibank Plus - https://www.citibank.com.au/aus/banking/everyday_banking/cit…
Fee free international transfers.