Okay so today was a very eventful day, we left the house at about 9.30am and didn't get back till 6.00pm.
We have concluded getting our sin, Alberta health card and then opened an account with Rbc(we decided to open a joint one in one bank and single accounts with scotia).pls note that when obtaining the sin, we were warned not to disclose this nos to anyone to prevent identity theft and that its only alberta health registry and banks(for credit card purposes) that we should disclose it to.Also when you secure an employment, your employer is allowed to have this info.Note that no other company is allowed to ask for this and when they ask just tell them you can't give it out.Emphasis was made especially on phone companies and we were severely warned not to give any phone company our sin nos as when this enters their database, then you know that the whole world as access to your sin and can easily steal your identity.
Usually the banks would want to verify your addy and if you have not received any mail on that address you give then you might have to show then your sin paper with your address on it but please do not allow them make a copy(scotia bank requested and we declined) and they proceeded with the account opening anyway.
When we stepped into Rbc we were warmly received and the atmosphere was fantastic, we were attended to and we opened a joint co-signatory checque account with no charge for a year ;D,however Rbc does not give new immigrant a secured/unsecured credit card for this account would need to verify tomorrow if this is possible for a sole signatory account(don't think so though).the exchange rate we got for our US dollar conversion was1.034thereabout which was fantastic compared to what scotia was offering.We asked all the necessary question as we had been severely warned by our relative to ask this and possible bargain/negotiate as there maybe some hidden charges that won't be disclosed.FOr instance usually Rbc does just 6mnths free banking for new immigrant but we were able to negotiate for a yr ;D ;D.plus we got a free safe box for 6months .
So we then proceeded to scotia to open our individual accounts and the very irst shock was that we couldn't be attended to cause we didn't have an appointment
f or money wey I dey bring oh.I was totally shocked at the poor customer service sha but my hubby persuaded the lady to see if anything could be done and alas she scheduled us eventually.The main reason for wanting to open with scotia was to get the credit card so we cold start building our credit rating.So we opened our accounts got their debit card, was promised a free seve card in which you generate points for any purchases made at a particular cinema(this card would be mailed to our address).SO it came to lodging our dollars and pounds and we were shocked that the exchange rate was way lower than Rbc so we would eventually be loosing some dollars more so if the money to be deposited is high.ANother strange thing that occurred after we had lodged in our money was that the head of the teller came out and said they needed proof of the source of the money
.WE told them we didn't have proof and that we are new immigrants and it is expected that prior to landing we should have a stipulated amount of money and that this was declared at point of entry(recall that after filling the declaration card no ne asked me anything)but the lady insisted that we should have a receipt for any amount of money above 7000$
.Na so they return our money oh but they wanted to retain our pounds na so we tell them to pls give us every thing oh
but we were happy as the rate was bad anyway and we didn't have hassles with rbc. So if you would have above that amount ask at the point of entry for a receipt or bring your statement from Nigeria.
I would use this tomorrow or probably as my Naija account officer to help generate a receipt of withdrawal, i didnt get this in gtb , should have collected the copy of the dollar photocopy made, this would have ben easier to show as proof as I would still need to deposit some amount in there cause the account is in existence any way.
So we have technically opend a zero balc account with scotia 8)don't know if previous landed snrs experienced this and how this was averted so that newly landed immigrants don't experience same.
Tomorrow bank runs continues as this would need to be sorted and between Rbc and scotia we spent like 6hrs.We didn't waste time at all getting sin and signing up for Alberta health.
Also it's important that you keep your documents as you do all this registrations as we were told that a newly landed immigrant misplaced their passports, copr and sin during the process of trying to get all their registration done.They forgot the documents on the train and till date they are yet to find them.This incident occurred in March
and the family of 5 is currently distraught.So pls pls guide all this document with your life.
Guess that's the update for now, hopefully someone would pick a pt from this and would learn from us.
Ciao.
