question about bank accounts

[alok4best]

this must be bank specific, or perhaps one of you is a canadian citizen with credit history and it's a shared account? in my experience with my bank i am not eligible for a credit card due to lack of credit. even having my name on our mortgage for the past 6 mo. has done nothing to build my credit. it seems my *only* option is to get a secured credit card.

Not sure which bank you bank with. But I know for sure that TD, Scotia, CIBC and RBC give credit cards to new comers. And these are 4 major retail banks in Canada. My wife and I are Indians by nationality, and we moved from Germany to Canada. So no, neither are we Canadians nor we have a credit history here. However as I said, we got a small credit limit of 1000 dollars.

 

[alok4best]

yes, that is probably why. if a pr is connected to an account with a resident with history with the bank, then i think the credit card is issued based on that person's credit, not the pr. At least this is my experience. i have yet to hear of a pr who has gone to a bank alone with no history in canada and be approved for a credit card, unless it is secured.

Well, I have already told you one such case, i.e. mine. And I know a number of other PRs just like me, who got bank accounts and unsecured credit cards the very next day of landing. We just walked in with our passports and COPRs. Did not even had an address then as we were staying at frnds for a week.