Which Canadian Bank?

Kush

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Next Year, I'm ganna be studying in Canada, so ill need to open a bank account, i was ganna wait until summer to make this thread but was like what the hell, ill do it now. So which bank offers the best package for students? I'll want a credit card too, Fishboy and other friends use Rbc Royal Bank, i heard its good, another friend just told me he uses cibc, they all look promising and offer the what looks like the same package for students, so which has the highest interest rate :laugh: (on deposits) i don't think ill be borrowing because my dad would kill me, and he would just send me the money, thing is, i dont want to kill my dad for extras like iPods etc, i want to get a job there and spend the cash i make on the extras or save it up. Thanks in advance
 
personaly for students i found that TD canada trust is a good bank. they have good rates and for me to get a visa for being a student was great. but thats my opinion
 
cool thats what im looking for opinions, ill check it out now
 
ohh, was also thinking of buying bonds, do the banks in canada do that?
 
My Canadian friend used TD as well as a student, and had no complaints. When I visit Canada, I use Scotiabank ATMs, because I actually get no ATM fees (that dastardly Bank of America in another thread made an agreement with SB so that BoA customers pay no foreign ATM fees), so you might want to check that bank out too. They seem to have a lot of branches in Toronto, if that's where you're going.

Be forewarned: I don't know how banks are in Saudi Arabia, but compared to the U.S., Canadian banks are very expensive and full of unavoidable fees. Unless you're wealthy (and you very well may be, as far as I know), you'll have to deal with that. I think a lot of it has to do with the relatively non-competitive financial sector Canada has; they have a few very large banks, whereas the U.S. has thousands of banks of varying sizes.

Melon
 
but wouldnt i be making money on interest? im not going to be like borrowing or anything maybe just like using the debit card or maybe the credit card online. dont know about banks here, i dont have an account as far as i know my dad has all that stuff sorted out
 
Which city are you going to?
- You might want to look into each bank's fees.
- Choose a chequing account over a savings account as there's generally less fees if you use your debit card a lot.
- Here, TD have better hours of operation but it seems Royal Bank have more ATMs around.
- The banks make a killing on various fees like from using other bank's ATMs and going over your debit card use limit.
- Stay away from those non-bank ATMs as you'll get dinged extra $.
- Use a teller as much as possible as there's been various trends of ATM manipulation.
- Your safest & cheapest bet would be to go into the bank you choose, withdraw as much money you think you'll need for your pay-period, from the teller.
- Credit Unions aren't a bad choice either and tend to have less fees.
 
toronto, um hmm whats the difference between chequing account and savings? just that one i dont get interest?
 
ohh, i can use the debit card online right? like for ebay and paypal
 
I have Royal Bank student service package that costs me 3.50$ a month, with this I get a very plain savings account, a student credit card (no annual fee) and online banking. I have no complaints, but I've never dealth with any other bank so for all I know I might actually be getting the shaft.

To answer your other question, I buy bonds pretty much every year from my bank and with some employers you can actually put some of your paycheck directly into bonds every week (or every other week).
 
can u get me more info on the bonds plz dude?
 
The difference between chequing and savings are mainly the fees involved when used and of course the interest. More interest with a savings account but you get less 'free' transactions. It all depends on how often you would like to use it.
I've got a paypal account setup to take money from my bank account, so yes it's possible.
 
TD from what i hear is good for alot of my friends....... i use TD pretty good for some stuff...i dont think u can use it for Ebay though. not sure if u find out leace a lil msg here
 
Canada savings bond have a program where certain employers will actually deduct money directly from your paycheck and place it in bonds for you, here's a link about their payroll program:
http://www.csb.gc.ca/eng/payroll.asp
Only certain companies offer it and you can only enroll at certain times (once a year I think).

If you're coming to Montreal (or anywhere else in Quebec) you can also get Quebec savings bonds which offer a similar program except this one is done between you and them directly and they just fetch the money out of your account at intervals of your choice, here's a link:
http://www.placementsqc.gouv.qc.ca/english/produits_offerts/plan_epar_peri_reer.jsp

I have done both and never had a problem with either one. Getting your money is pretty easy, you can request it by phone or on-line and they send you a check within about a week.
 
themafia.69 said:
toronto, um hmm whats the difference between chequing account and savings? just that one i dont get interest?

A chequing account (spelled "checking" in the U.S.) is meant for high-volume, everyday transactions. You will need one of these if you want to use a debit card. These do not have interest, generally speaking, and, actually, have monthly fees just to keep one open in Canada. But it's necessary, for the most part, and, hopefully, a student account will have less expensive fees.

A savings account is meant for "savings" purposes. That is, you are limited to a few transactions per statement cycle and is meant, mainly, to keep your money out of your chequing account. It has some nominal interest, but interest rates here are very low, really, so don't expect to generate a lot of interest on a savings account.

If you have money for long-term savings, there's additional options such as Certificates of Deposit (CDs), but they require usually putting in a couple thousand dollars or more and you are unable to touch that money until the term is finished. You get a higher interest rate that way.

That's just a short summary of the most common options. If you have even more money to play around with, there's lots more options in banking that have various risk and interest rates.

Melon
 
TD is what I use, Melon's right though, banks here are chocked full of fees. Basically it costs you and arm and a leg to spend your hard earned money, something just seems wrong with that.

There is also another option, there is a bank here (at least in alberta) called PC Finacial. It is a branch off of CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) and is actually run through a grocrey store (The Great Canadian Superstore). The idea is that they have no real branches, all your banking is done through ATM and Web and therefore you pay no fees. I used this bank while I was is school, but 2 problems I had were the fact that you had to send out a money order to cash foreign currency (which costs you a couple bucks to do) and the fact that since they have no branches there really isn't anyone to talk to. They have a little kiosk in every Superstore with a couple people that can set up accounts but I found talking to them regarding RRSP's, Mortgages, etc. left a lot to be desired so I moved on to TD.

Fact is that if your looking for a simple spending account then PC makes a nice free one, if you want any kind of helpful human interaction then I'd suggest TD.
 
Ohzopants said:
I have Royal Bank student service package that costs me 3.50$ a month, with this I get a very plain savings account, a student credit card (no annual fee) and online banking. I have no complaints, but I've never dealth with any other bank so for all I know I might actually be getting the shaft.

To answer your other question, I buy bonds pretty much every year from my bank and with some employers you can actually put some of your paycheck directly into bonds every week (or every other week).

The amount of online services and features offered by this bank is just awesome. I'm with them as well, and love them.

They are straight to the point, have a 24/7 phone support for any kind of issues, and there's no bells and whistles. The service has always been very good in my case.

If you're like me and do everything online, you'll love that bank!
 
yeah im leaning towards royal banks, will update though if i dont get it in the end
 
jsut get royal bank it's what i have and it's gonna be 2 blocks from our dorms, the others you have to take a bus to get to them either RBC or TD, they are both in the plaza next to our dorm
 
ok i also want to establish a good credit rating right off the bat, so i was thinking and my teacher told me im right. if i buy a computer that costs alot of money, i could have my dad just send the amount that the computer costs and pay it right away, but if i pay monthly installments, then that would be better for my credit rating right? then my teacher told me do that but pay 2 monthly payments in one month thats better and finishes your payments faster. true?
 

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