The best Canadian bank for new comers??

[Adin.blr]

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone could suggest good banks for Canadian new comers. Also what exclusive offers do these banks provide??

 

[One_Topsy]

RBC (Royal bank of Canada)
They give you a 2% chatrgeback, no fee mastercard
They have reasonable monthly fees on chequing accounts
and they are currently doing a promo for newcomers - you might get an IPAD

 

[ttrajan]

RBC and TD Bank.

 

[bonhomme]

RBC (Royal bank of Canada)
They give you a 2% chatrgeback, no fee mastercard
They have reasonable monthly fees on chequing accounts
and they are currently doing a promo for newcomers - you might get an IPAD

RBC also offers free interac etransfers from your personal chequing account. You can also enjoy rebates on your monthly account fee via multi product rebate (rebate you get for having multiple products i.e chequing acct, credit card and investment or mortgage)

 

[anandg12]

Just to go against the trend here, Scotia bank! They have a StartRight program for new immigrants and with their Scotia One account, you get free checking and unlimited transactions if you maintain a $3500 CAD balance. On top of that, they will also deposit $100 into your account after 3 months of account opening, maintaining a $3500 balance and few other requirements! Also give $2000 credit card limit to start off with. This is the best program for new immigrants, IMHO.

 

[Adin.blr]

Thanks a lot for the info guys!!

 

[CDNPR2014]

I've heard RBC and Scotia Bank have good packages for newcomers. I'm not impressed with TD Bank. I use PC Financial because it doesn't have fees.

 

[mf4361]

PC Financial

No fee everything, CIBC ATM network, ATM at superstore/Loblaws

 

[ozlis]

I've had fairly bad experiences with RBC - have switched to PC Financial.

 

[CDNPR2014]

I've had fairly bad experiences with RBC - have switched to PC Financial.

mind if i ask what happened with RBC?

 

[ozlis]

Any time that we needed anything slightly out of the ordinary, it was a total hassle.

Had a huge problem getting my letter from them for my PR application and the resulting complaints process was terrible.

I find them to be very sales oriented also, pushing products that I don't need or want. You will also get unsolicited phone calls which keep calling until you answer to sell you a product.

And then finally they charge fees for pretty well everything which is not competitive in the market with several no fee options around.

 

[aircanada]

CIBC/RBC/TD/Scotia/BMO all have the same deals more or less. None of them are particularly better.

 

[CDNPR2014]

Any time that we needed anything slightly out of the ordinary, it was a total hassle.

Had a huge problem getting my letter from them for my PR application and the resulting complaints process was terrible.

I find them to be very sales oriented also, pushing products that I don't need or want. You will also get unsolicited phone calls which keep calling until you answer to sell you a product.

And then finally they charge fees for pretty well everything which is not competitive in the market with several no fee options around.

ugh... sounds annoying. thanks for the insight, i was considering them to help with paying us bills and to get a credit card. sounds like i'll just stick to PC financial.

 

[frankhurt]

Coast Capital

 

[Tri-Cities]

@frankhurt

Not 100% sure but I believe Coast Capital is only available in the Lower Mainland and south of the border - coast-ish. I heard they're about to open up branches in Kelowna though.

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The bank system in Canada is definitely way behind. I was and I still am disappointed about the small service and the cost for their overall service. RBC is one of a group of banks where you can make e-transfers, but it will cost. And not every bank (Coast Capital doesn't) is part of that group & service. Where I come from it doesn't cost a lot, we don't have any cheques anymore (thank god) and there is no such thing as clearing funds.

So, for a newcomer it might be interesting how things work in general. I agree with the statement that they all offer pretty much the same service, more or less.
And bad experiences...well, I guess you can get bad reviews for every single one of them on the internet.

cheers!