How to pay for rental housing before getting there?

[imatwkrp]

I have arranged employment for a job that starts in August. My husband and I plan to fly up to Ontario next week to look for a rental house near the job. But I am nervous about how to secure the house or pay for the first-and-last months' worth of rent without yet having a Canadian bank account or even credit card. (We have plenty of money in USD, but haven't moved it to a Canadian bank or anything, yet.)

Does anyone have advice or experience with this? It seems such a circular problem. We don't want to leave the States without housing in place, but it's mysterious to me how to get rental housing in place before we leave.

Maybe we need to get a Canadian bank account first?? Confused, because wouldn't a Canadian bank want us to first have a Canadian residential address?

 

[PMM]

Hi

I have arranged employment for a job that starts in August. My husband and I plan to fly up to Ontario next week to look for a rental house near the job. But I am nervous about how to secure the house or pay for the first-and-last months' worth of rent without yet having a Canadian bank account or even credit card. (We have plenty of money in USD, but haven't moved it to a Canadian bank or anything, yet.)

Does anyone have advice or experience with this? It seems such a circular problem. We don't want to leave the States without housing in place, but it's mysterious to me how to get rental housing in place before we leave.

Maybe we need to get a Canadian bank account first?? Confused, because wouldn't a Canadian bank want us to first have a Canadian residential address?

You open a checking account when you arrive, deposit US funds, get some checks from the Bank and then write a check for the rent.

 

[imatwkrp]

Thanks, PMM, but don't most landlords require first and last month's rent before you move in?

 

[steaky]

Yes, they do.

 

[AYEBA]

Hi,

In my case I did a western union money transfer to cover the rental.

Best wishes

 

[jes_ON]

I had a big problem with this - because I didn't bring cash and the bank held my check deposit for 2 weeks. Of course the landlord wasn't too excited about waiting for the money.

Since I refuse to waste money on absurd service fees (e.g. wire transfer), I started to withdraw cash from the ATM (BOA and Scotia had a service agreement where you can use your BOA ATM at Scotia with no service fee) and deposit the cash - avail. immediately. Had to do it over several days tho, because of withdrawal limits (and the high cost of rentals here). Hardheaded, I know...

All I can say is - if you are comfortable carrying large amounts of cash (I am not), that is the best way to open the account and have funds available immediately. Otherwise, unfortunately, a wire transfer is the best (initial) option, esp. if you're transferring a large sum.

 

[fashion murdoc]

You rent a house that you must pay the cash pledge to the landlord.You can ask for a certify for which ,it is more safe to do that.

 

[Anil_Toronto]

TO be honest, its always good to see the place before to put in a deposit and move in. If you are satisfied with the pics of the place, you can send your landlord a small aount - lets say $ 100 as a deposit that you will take the place. This assures the landlord that you will move in once you arrive to canada and he should not rent the place to someone else.

The day you arrive, you can pay the owner with travellers cheques. You can get them made with western union, american express etc. there is a small fee but the thing is these are secured. No one can encash them without your signature on them. I used these cheques when i came down here; you can go to any bank...sign infront of the teller..show your passport and they would encash the money.

 

[imatwkrp]

Thanks, everyone! I did start the whole wire-transfer process, but my bank took tons of paperwork and then said it would take weeks. The Western Union suggestion was the one that actually got me thinking of doing something much easier, and so I resorted to sending the money to my landlady via PayPal. She said it still took a few days because it came in email transfer packets, but thankfully it was so much faster and easier than the bank, and only cost a little more!

PayPal is, indeed, a pal! Thanks to you all for your commiseration and advice.