Best Banks

[Vicrog13]

I need some advice.
I have been living in Calgary for just over a year now and have been banking with HSBC the whole time. I must say that compared to the HSBC banks back in the UK they are very poor to say the least. Is this the same with all the banks in Canada?
I have finally had enough and want to switch.
Alll i want is a current account, credit card and perhaps a saving account.
I have been thinking about opening a TD account
Thank you

[burn_this_city]

Avoid Scotia, I have them and they're pretty crappy.

[Sample00]

be prepared to hear pros and cons from all financial institutions. Sometimes its a trial and error thing until you find the right bank that fits you.

[Suzles]

We came over to Calgary from England 3 years ago and on the advice of our wonderful realtor she advised TD Bank as the way to go - which we did and we have had superb service from them.

[Coach]

I hear TD is the way to go. The only reason I stay with Scotia is the Scene card. I can't remember when I last paid for a movie

[BlackAce]

I have never heard those two words together before... "Best" and "Banks"... A bit of a oxymoron ... All banks will try to screw you at every turn... It's what they do, sorry to say... put your savings in coffee cans and bury them in your yard, would probably work out to be almost as good financially... I am guessing

[REDVAN]

ATB Financial, only because I used to work there.

[cheevers]

I switched from Atb to TD about 4 years ago and they have been great for me. Plus you cant beat the hours.

[Vicrog13]

To start with they had my profile as a "Retired Student," they have spelt my name wrong both my credit and debit cards, when they sent out my replacemtns they told me to be extra careful as they were sending live and working cards throught he post; so if they didbnt arrive in 2 weeks i should contact them directly
After initally being declined a credit card (they wouldnt take my UK credit credit into aco) i received a phone call 6 months later saying i was entitled to a credit card. I made an appointment to go in and sign the papers, waited 2 weeks only to be denied again?? They have now given me a card - first one with the wrong name.
Now they are holding my cheques for over 12 days?????
Oh and soon i will be charged to withdraw from BMO atms - at the moment its free!
They are really bad!

[Burninator]

I have been using TD for that past couple years and it's been fine. They have lots of locations (including a 5 minute walk from my house) and they have really good hours. However I rarely use the teller. I do most of my banking online or at the ATM's so the hours don't really matter to me most of the time. The only thing that I don't like is they are always trying to sell me more banking stuff. They phone my house and try to sell stuff and every time I call to do banking on the phone they usually to sell stuff as well. Not a big deal unless you are impulsive about taking loans and increasing your credit limit.


There is a guy at my office that is from the UK and him and his girlfriend have lots of trouble getting credit cards. I think it took them awhile to get one and it had a really small limit. It also took awhile to get that limit increased. Although I don't believe they got messed around as much as you did.

[FlameCity]

I've been with RBC for about twenty years and always had really good service.

[Rod Hockey]

RBC for 20 years as well with just the normal hicups once in awhile.

[Art Vandelay]

PC Financial. No fees!

I've been with them for 4 years now.

Special requests (money orders etc.) are kind of a pain because you have to go to a CIBC to get them, and you usually have to wait a few days, but for everyday banking, PC is great.

[GoinAllTheWay]

RBC myself. I find them to be a very fair and acommodating bank. They gave me my first mortgage which was quite a milestone for me. For such a big bank, they do seem to look after the little guy pretty well.

[V]

I've used 8 different banks for different services over the last 10 years. Banks are banks. There is no "Best Bank".

[Canada 02]

I don't think your situation with getting a credit card is unique to HSBC. You will have to establish a credit rating in Canada from scratch

having moved overseas, and more recently to the US, I can tell you that one countries credit rating has no help in getting credit in another country.

Each time I had to have a bank account with direct deposit of my salary in good standing for a couple months before the bank would give me the most basic (highest interest rate) credit card with the smallest available credit (~$500). After a year of paying off the balance in full every month, it was very easy to get any card I wanted with plenty of available credit.

[pylon]

I deal with every major bank in Canada on a daily basis, and my reccomendation may surprise you. Without a doubt I would say 1st Calgary Savings if you are in the Calgary area. I deal with them on the dealer finance end, and also personally. They are one of the last banks out there that will give you true one on one service. The staff at my branch has very low turn over, and they know my name when I walk in. Very rare nowadays.

They also tend to do a lot of "relationship" based lending. My guy there is one of those guys where I could pick up the phone and say...

"Grant, its Pylon....I know my TDSR is a little high, but look, I am stuck in South America, and I need 30K added to my HELOC... today. And I can't get into the details."

"No worries... did you wan't me to tell you about our springboard GIC as well today.."

"Um....I only have 12 more seconds on this call... maybe when I get back."

"No worries... have a nice day!"

Great bank, and a lot of my customers swear by them, as do I.

[FlameCity]

Originally Posted by fotze

RBC service is directly proportional to the amount of money you have in accounts there.

then I should be getting pretty bad service from them . . .

[Bill Bumface]

BMO sucks if you have a business. The only way you can transfer between business and personal accounts is at a teller. Their business Mastercard online system is horrible too.

They also suck for mortgages. I've had to threaten to leave twice and call managers to get decent rates and papers completed on time.

[Incinerator]

Another vote for TD, although I find their credit card offerings lacking in terms of what I need.