Banking in Canada and the US

[James661 1]

I live in Canada and my girlfriend lives in the US. And were just starting our journey together.

One thing we have been discussing between us is getting a bank account in the US that we can both deposit extra money into as a savings between the two of us to be used towards application fees, trips, etc.

Its not neccesary to have both of our names on the account but we would both want to be able to deposit into the account.

Does anyone else do something like this or similar? Any suggestions on what US and Canadian banks to use that work well?

Any governmental forms we would want to fill out or special processes we would have to go through? Especially regarding the money I would be sending as I dont want to be paying income taxes on it in Canada AND then have it be counted towards her income and her having to pay taxes on it in the US. Being taxed once is enough.

[CanGirl 95]

You should open a bank account with both of your names on it. It is good for evidence of a bonifide marriage – Documentation showing co-mingling of financial resources. Even if it is just a savings account it will help you in the long run through your journey.

I opened a bank account with my husband while I was visiting him in the USA. They didn't need any ID from me except for my passport, you don't need a SSN or anything like that. Any bank should do it. You don't need any special forms or anything like that and you shouldn't be taxed on it to the best of my knowledge.

(I'm Canadian and he's American)

Edited April 30, 2014 by CanGirl

[James661 1]

So how do you make deposits into the account?

[CanGirl 95]

I don't make deposits to the account from Canada so I don't have any experience with that sorry. Maybe someone with more experience can chime in here.

You might want to post this in the Canada subforum as you will get more responses from Canadians there.

[americangirl717 1]

we have debit cards to our joint us acct so that we can both use the money but possibly you could do direct deposit or wire money through your canadian bank to your american joint acct? also there is always pay pal which you can set up transfers of funds but not sure about exchange ???

[KayDeeCee 4,893]

~ Moved from K-1 Process to Tax and Finances During US Immigration - topic about bank account, not K-1 process ~

[mtlguy 59]

RBC has cross border banking packages.

check it out here

you can access the account from both places.

[Karebear 13]

I think TD has US/CAN accounts also you can look into

http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/products-services/banking/cross-border-banking/

[sharda 8]

Myself and Husband open a saving and a chequeing account in the US .... I am Canadian and my husband USC. We open it when I was there visiting, I only provided my passport and my debit card from Canada ( TD bank ) and I was ask a few question like where I work and my position and a Canada telephone number.

The cheques we have are in both of us name and my husband address in US.

The TD bank in Canada and US is not the same, it different I found out via by financial advisor TD bank in canada.

I do western union to have funds put in the account and my husband tranfers from his other chequeing

, there is lot of fee to do wire transfers

[sharda 8]

We did it via Chase bank and we have 2 debit cards, one i have with my name and one my husband has with his name

[NikLR 13,227]

I have the RBC bank accounts and love them. It's super easy to send the money back and forth.

[James661 1]

So we opened up a set of RBC accounts today. Really simple. Just needed our IDs a few signatures and an initial deposit and we were set. And with no fees other than currency conversion rates/fees to transfer between the accounts its looking great so far.

Edited May 3, 2014 by DKTaika

[rowanheather 23]

My husband (Canadian) and I (USC) have TD banking accounts in both Canada and the US. We can transfer between accounts with a simple phone call and do not incur any charges for the transfers. This has worked well for us.