Keeping Bank Accounts & Credit cards after move to USA?

[redmen99 1]

They advised over $2800 in fees to move my balances over to a US account (which was way over what I was expecting to have to pay)

Perhaps that was for a same day transfer? They do not charge for eft transactions (takes a few days for your money to get to your other account), but if you want your money transferred within 24 hours, they do charge a fee.

[Chickaflick 0]

I bank with Royal Bank in Canada and RBC Centura in the US. They linked my two accounts so I can log in and transfer money back and forth with no issues. They don't care what country I'm in or wehn as long as I keep my accounts active. I opened my American acct with my local RBC branch before I left to work in the US. They are fantastic to deal with and I'd recommend them any time.

[trailmix 77]

They advised over $2800 in fees to move my balances over to a US account (which was way over what I was expecting to have to pay)

This can't be right, did you choose EFT as method of transfer?

[Flames9_RN 358]

Been using CH since 2005 and NEVER A FEE! Transferred a few large sums of $$$$ EFT and never a fee. If you use their wire service,there is a fee, but you get the $$ that day I think, where as if you do it EFT, it takes 3-7 business days. And of course the rate CH gives you is going to be less than what the market is offering--as thats where they make their $$$, no different than a bank, but their rate is usually better. Soem banks charge a fee plus give a sub-standard exchange rate,other banks may not charge a fee either, BUT again, their exchnage rate is sub-standard when one compares it to CH. Few hundred $$$ doesnt make a huge difference, but if you tx larger sums, then it is! AS well, if u are tx larger sums with CH, call them, they can maybe even get u a better rate than what u can by doing it online!

Yes check with ur bank!! But Presidents choice wanted to CLOSE my acct when i told them I was moving to the USA. So I just gave them my parents addy in SK. I was getting a new card last year in a Saskatoon branch, and made a slip of the tongue about living in the USA, and that rep stated he would have to close the acct, had to back-track,lol

[beans 7]

lol weird pc financial is my bank then again i didnt change the address..but i did change the address on my pc financial mastercard to my us address and never a peep. i made my first custom house mistake though i accidently picked wire..i'm going to see if they can delete the transaction because i didn't want to do it as a wire..oh my brain = easily confused

[Udella&Wiz 325]

The bank I called that told me I would have to close my accounts is PC Financial....so not sure what the rules are with them! Anyone know??

Don't you have your answer then?

[Marilyn. 340]

I still have my bank account open in Canada and I have been here about 5 years... although after about a year of them taking fees out every month I shut down the checking account and just kept the savings account open, they only take fees out when I take money out of the account...

I mostly kept it open for my mom, she deposits money for Birthdays and Christmas etc in there... and then I just take it out at the ATM here using the debit card..

[lgg 2]

I bank with CIBC and PC and when I left Canada, PC made it VERY clear that i could not have an American address with them. That's fine. CIBC on the other hand was more than happy to accommodate my american status. I have my CCs with them as well as all my bank accounts. It's hasn't been a huge problem really. I use Custom house to transfer funds to the American account and if I have to cash a cheque, I pay a small fee and have it held for about a week here.

But as far as I know, presidents' Choice was NO american address. Canada only.

Don't you have your answer then?

[trailmix 77]

The bank I called that told me I would have to close my accounts is PC Financial....so not sure what the rules are with them! Anyone know??

Yes, it's in their terms of service:

moving out of Canada

If you move out of Canada, you agree:

to pay us all that you owe us without any deductions for any taxes and withholdings that your new country may impose.

to close all of your product holdings with us prior to moving.

[Wyatt's Torch 45]

Just have to add a very enthusiastic thumbs up to the RBC Access account. It has been a true godsend for me.

[Wishing 1]

Don't you have your answer then?

Sorry...wanted to confirm if others had experience this or if the person I was speaking with was misinformed........to clarify..... So yes now I do have my answer........

Thanks to all, much helpful information

[zenaxe 22]

Just have to add a very enthusiastic thumbs up to the RBC Access account. It has been a true godsend for me.

RBC? really. hmm I don't think there is a branch in Arizona anywhere...can I get one in Canada and bring it down or would I have to open one in the USA?

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Sorry...wanted to confirm if others had experience this or if the person I was speaking with was misinformed........to clarify..... So yes now I do have my answer........

Thanks to all, much helpful information

We've found that a lot of us don;t get the same answer even when asking the same bank I should clarify that TDCanadatrust told me I couldn't but that I could use my parents address (ok, dumb...but whatever) so they send everything there. Once I had to activate a new card and it said that I had to do it from home...so I did from here in VA. The cust service rep asked if I was at home, I said yes, she paused and then said ok...and away she went. She obviously could see my area code where I was calling from and wondered, but did go further then that.

[Wyatt's Torch 45]

RBC? really. hmm I don't think there is a branch in Arizona anywhere...can I get one in Canada and bring it down or would I have to open one in the USA?

Doesn't matter, really...unless you get a lot of checks you have to deposit manually. You make an appointment in Canada, and set everything up there. Once you're set up on the Canadian end, the U.S. end contacts you and utilizes your Canadian credit history (via your SIN etc.) as the basis for providing you a U.S. credit card. You don't actually start accumulating U.S. credit until after you ultimately get down there and have your SSN...at which point you contact the bank and update them with that, and they go ahead and send it off to the credit agency. It sounds more complicated than it is. You just have to be diligent about making sure all the steps are done on their end...but you're used to that, thanks to the immigration process, right?

[Spoom 8]

FYI, if you want to just transfer your entire balance, you might be able to do a wire directly from a Canadian account to a US one, or vice versa, without the assistance of a third party (i.e. CustomHouse). It seems to vary based on the bank but I know that CIBC (and by extension PC Financial) uses Bank of America as a correspondent bank to do cross-border wires. You just have to make sure that when you're setting up the wire, you give them the correct correspondent bank information (which your bank can give you) and the transfer should go through. This means you can get transfers done either same day or next day if needed.

Don't get me wrong, CustomHouse is great for ACH -> EFT and EFT -> ACH cross-border transactions, but if I'm doing a wire, I just go down to my bank and do the wire directly.