BOOTSTRAPPING PERSONAL CANADIAN FINANCIAL SERVICES

How to bootstrap a Canadian bank account, credit history, and moving to better banking options after the initial bootstrap phase.

Why do this?

In the same way I diversify my investments geographically, by market cycle, or industry vertical; I have a similar strategy for my money and access to financial services. Sure, I could use Wise, but while that gives me immediate flexibility, it does not expand the jurisdictions in which I could register a financial services account from.

For bankers, the fact that I run a Canadian business, is usually enough to justify a personal Canadian account.

Canada is an oligopoly

The most absurd thing you run into in Canada is that most of the banks with physical branches have fees for everything. To start your personal banking journey in Canada as a foreigner, you will need to walk into a physical branch, show enough identification (passport + driver license), and give them a good enough reason why they should bank you (business owner).

I walked into the BMO near the Calgary airport after scheduling an appointment online and went through all of the above. I had enough cash to transfer in ($3k) via Wise to not have to pay fees for their Plus plan; it was the lowest tier plan where I could bypass their fees with a balance.

Bank your business with Wealthsimple … so much better! Once you have a personal banking and credit history we can move that over to Wealthsimple.

Building a credit history

To start a credit history you need a Canadian address and phone number. Use a coworking space, a new address with Anytime Mailbox or iPostal1, a hotel, or a colleague’s apartment. You don’t have a credit history so you’ll need to buy a prepaid phone plan: https://www.koodomobile.com/en/prepaid-plans or https://shop.freedommobile.ca/en-CA/prepaid-plans are you nationwide options as most financial institutions crack down on VoIP numbers.

Given you have zero Canadian credit history, the physical bank you opened the chequing account with will probably be one of the few institutions which will consider extending you a credit card / revolving line of credit.

Some multinational institutions will open accounts for you in your destination country; HSBC used to do this more often. If you have an existing relationship with American Express, you can leverage that to open your first card: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/customer-service/global-card-relationship/

Cleaning up

Once you’ve had the accounts open for a few years, you will be able to open another account. Again, highly suggest Wealthsimple. With the Wealthsimple account open, you can close that high-cost and low-value BMO account and card.