Any expats in the house? I will be staying with friends, initially, so my first requirement is for a car as I’ll need one for work. I have savings, but I’d rather not splash them all straightaway on a car, so what is the best way of getting a car without buying outright?

Is it likely I would be able to get a finance or leasing deal from a main dealer?

When we moved to Canada we had to put half down on a car and Ford USA underwrote the other half at 12% for the remainder of our temporary work permit

Was hard to get a credit card too and debit isnt as versatile so you kind of need one

My advice is go to a hsbc before you get here as you can set up a Canadian account etc

Get a phone on contract too as it helps your credit rating

Which province?
Temp foreign worker, permanent resident or citizen?

I leased a brand new Ford Escape within a week or two of arriving, that was about 10 years ago now, things might have changed, had a credit check from the uk which may or may not have helped. Used cars are expensive and you have to pay tax on them, even on a private sale, insurance is also eye watering, this is all BC, might be different elsewhere. find out requirements for maintaining your no claims for wherever you are going, I had a letter saying 10+ years, but they wouldn’t honour it on a technicality, the letter needed more detail.

I don’t recall put anything into it, maybe a couple thousand.

Where in BC rs? We are in Kelowna

Depends on your status, we were temporary foreign workers so has different SIN numbers, it was not liked, wierdly it was really easy to get a mortgage lol

It’s BC, Vancouver to be precise.

Initially, I will enter under a work permit, sponsored by my new employer. However, they will also be applying for permanent residency in parallel, on my behalf. KPMG have already initiated this, I believe.

Same situation as us then(although it was Calgary initially)

2nd hand cars do seem expensive to me

I guess your temp permit will initially be 2 years? If so its a matter of finding something you can get for 2 years, we got a used Ford Escape for 15ish, put 8 down and borrowed 7 for 22 months mainly just to get the credit rating, we did get a small discount for out no claims from the UK so bring it with you

I’ll tell you next week… I leave the uk on Friday

Ditto on the mortgage comment, I move into my new house on Saturday and will be buying two cars on Sunday / Monday

On my last recce trip the VW dealer basically said 75% max of my pay could go on a car loan as a new comer. 25% deposit and sub $100k!!

All I need is my uk credit report, and two wage slips for finance. Mental.

We were in Vancouver too, well, got the car from Coastal Ford in Burnaby, was on a 3 year work visa sponsored by employer too.

Where in Vancouver? car2go and other sharing schemes are pretty popular with city dwellers.
insurance wise, you need a letter from the underwriter I believe, not the agent. 10 years gets you to a max 45% discount on rates. I pay $120/mo fully comp with my max discount.
If you’re the one paying for the car, do your due diligence on invoice pricing, figure out your agreed sale price before negotiating your finance.
used cars are expensive as theres no fleet purchasing happening here liek teh UK. 0% finance on new also bridges that used gap as theres no 0% financing on anything used.
carcost canada, unhaggle for dealer pricing and redflagdeals for what deals other buyers are getting etc

I’ll be working in Vancouver but living in Pitt Meadows, or thereabouts. The car won’t be used particularly for commuting, more for going on site visits and leisure.

I’m in the found it tricky / expensive camp. (Calgary 2009). Credit check didn’t seem to cross the Atlantic but we didn’t expressly bring it with us. Even getting a credit card was a major pain. I had to have it “bonded” where the bank held the value of the card in an account. (They even had the cheek to try to sell me payment protection insurance). This was with a work permit and temporary SIN. Once got PR and “normal SIN” everything was much easier.

If it’s just for in Vancouver then agree Car2Go could be good if your friends are in the right area for it to work.

A friend works in auto industry and leasing is his preferred option but usual caveats apply as if in the UK.

Your about to discover that while lots of stuff is cheaper some stuff is more expensive…. mobile (cell) being another unpleasant surprise.

Are the sites rural? E.g Oil and Gas / mining? Might make a difference on vehicle choice?

I guess the sites could be anywhere, but my company haven’t specified the requirement for a particular type of car, so I imagine it’s not going to be much of a factor.

I am aware of the cell cost, as my friends out there have mentioned it.

Not specifically car related, but I found that the santander zero credit card allowed for cheap-ish use of a home-based card whilst on tour. Would a similar approach (set up before you go) give time to get payslips and what have you in place?

Something like this might be useful. I’m not with TD, so not sure how good they are.
https://www.tdcanadatrust.com/planning/life-events/new-to-canada/products-and-services/index.jsp

You mentioned KPMG earlier, are you working with them? They have an office in Langley, a much shorter commute from Pitt Meadows, I only say that as i’m sitting in the same building as them right now working on a sunday 🙁

No, I won’t be working for KPMG, they are just the immigration lawyers, acting on behalf of my potential employer.

potential employer

Hmmm, you don’t have the job confirmed yet? I don’t envy you!

Erm why pick up on that? When I say “potential” I mean they are in the process of sorting out the offer letter. They have already told me they are covering all the immigration stuff.

I had this back in 2009 – got a suburu on lease for very cheap – great car for the conditions you might face.

Banks/Finacial will be shit for you as a new comer.

I can’t begin to list all the issues I had financially despite being very well paid

I’m so glad I don’t live in that shithole anymore

Erm why pick up on that? When I say “potential” I mean they are in the process of sorting out the offer letter. They have already told me they are covering all the immigration stuff.

Plumber obviously has the hate on for Canada as he offer does when the subject comes up, but this time he’s correct about the banking and financial systems and their bureaucracy will drive you made.
Case in point: I’ve just moved my mortgage from one bank to another and EVERY SINGLE STEP the new. Bank (CIBC) has got something wrong of missed a deadline to do something and have to be chased up to do anything.
They can’t even arrange a simple automated internal transfer from one savings account to another.
At this point, I’ll have to be withdrawing cash from one account at an ATM to pay into the other account at the branch.
So yeah, I don’t envy someone without a job offer letter trying to open a bank account or arranging finance!

But apart from that and a few other niggles (ICBC and the stupid rules about selling alcohol) it’s streets ahead if the UK, so enjoy!

BTW: I don’t think the car sharing schemes extend out as far as Pitt Meadows…

Ohhh. Are we doing banking nightmare stories in Canada then 😀

TD – Mountain of paperwork. In the middle of it a typo where a comma was in the wrong place so instead of a monthly transfer of $1000 it was a transfer of $10000 (which I clearly didn’t have). Now the first month that this happened we can accept this is a cock-up and everybody works to resolve the issue. It happened for 3 more months before they fixed it!!

Jeez, sorry about the typos in my earlier post!

Oh, and to get back on topic, as someone else pointed out, second hand car prices are much higher than you would expect in the UK.

For instance, earlier this year I bought a Subaru Forester. I was hoping to get a 2 or 3 year old ex-lease car and save myself some money but I could only find 1 year old ex-lease, and they were only about $1000 cheaper than a brand new (though slightly lower spec) car, and the new car had better finance options (0.9% as opposed to 3.9%, IIRC).
So I ended up buying new…

The good news is that depreciation is very low once you’ve got a decent car, though that may be a function of the specific car or brand you end up buying.
There are always crazy offers in GM and Dodge/Jeep vehicles so maybe they don’t hold their value well (I never considered buying one so didn’t really research them…)

So yeah, I don’t envy someone without a job offer letter trying to open a bank account or arranging finance!

By the time I get there (land on Canadian soil) I will have a work permit and a job, as well as a permanent residency application ongoing (not that that affects anything at the moment). I wouldn’t apply for anything before that.

Bollocks.

I’ve had an HSBC Account since September, all linked up on Globalview and have been shifting some decent cash about.

As I’ve read this thread, I’ve had an email from my mortgage broker confirming my mortgage application from a lender.

And I don’t have a PR, or Work Permit (yet) – just a job offer (not a job letter) or any pay slips. LMIA is received, in my name, but the banks don’t know it exists.

Car shopping next week, I’ll let you know how it goes with my UK credit report. The Mortgage Lenders were happy with that, and proof of UK funds, so we’ll test the dealers metal

@ Mark – I think that’s partly Subaru who hold their value very well. I went through the same thought process for an Impreza and ended up buying new.

@ Mork – HSBC have improved in 8 years then. When I tried they weren’t interested at all in cross accounts even with their “premier” options. I’m surprised you’re getting things when you don’t have PR or Work permit yet as you won’t have your SIN.

It sounds like things may have improved in the intervening years.

Moving countries is never as smooth as you think it’s going to be ( as oil industry I did a few before settling in Canada). Even though there is a common language with Canada expect there to be a few hiccups along the way and to some extent go with the flow.

You’ll find yourself in these vicious circles where you can’t get x without y but as the same time y needs x. It then depends on the form individual and if they are reasonable / practical / used to dealing with foreign workers.

Basically where I’m going is I’d plan on having to use some of your savings for things (although perhaps not the car) as getting Canadian cashflow going might take a few weeks.

Even if the company is going to be covering things in the end are they putting cash up front or are you claiming through moving expenses?

..

It shouldn’t need to be pointed out but HSBC isn’t a Canadian bank 😉

With a work visa, you are considered a (temporarily) permanent resident anyway.
All you need is a SIN to open a bank account. You can do that the day you land if your timing works out. Plenty of non resident foreign investors here though who presumably manage to bank without status.
I do all my banking, personal and business, with RBC. I can move money around with no dramas. Got a mortgage with them based on my UK credit report and UK savings/income.
I opened an HSBC account here with a view to opening a UK account while sat in a branch in Canada so we could still process UK payments and not have to use forex transfers. Even though they are a global bank, I still would have been required to fly to the UK to sort the UK side so even though they are global, they really aren’t.

The banking system is still weak and you have to pay for it, but thats happening in the UK now isn’t it? The banks here are Canadas largest grossing/most profitable industries and they were well protected from the 2008 financial crisis.. so I guess they’re doing something right

The biggest things that are missing here is well priced internet, well priced mobile phone plans and effective online shipping.. however when you look at area vs population, I totally understand why theres a shortcoming.

Lifestyle is available in abundance – work to live and all that, although Canada has massive consumer debt as everyone want he latest and greatest toys to recreate on but not the job to pay for them 😉

Add: biggest pet peeve.. Canadian drivers 🙂

Worth noting – Amex will take your UK credit history (if you’re a UK customer) as the basis for the cards they offer you in Canada. Which *really* helps with getting a credit card that you can actually, y’know, buy things with. With things being pretty expensive here (weekly supermarket shop exc booze for 2 is about $120ish; mobile phone bills about $100 per month etc), you need all the credit you can get!

As suggested above, I went down the route of buying a secondhand car with some of it on finance. It wasn’t a great deal, but it got us on the road. Something like a Rav4, although basic, would do if you think you need soft-road abilities.

For banks, you’ll get a “new to Canada” deal from any of the main banks, as a way for them to get their hooks into you. Expect to have to pay for *everything* after that – cheque books, ATM deposits, direct transfers, etc.

If you’re ever over in Toronnah, say hi!

10 years over here (Vancouver) and I still forget to mentally add the GST & PST (taxes!) to just about every item you shop for then wonder why the bill is so big…

Yeah, I’ve been every year for the last 12 years and I still forget the tax thing.

biggest pet peeve.. Canadian drivers

Having just been for a ride, and in the interests of fairness, it’s not Canadian drivers. It’s Canadian pedestrians, runners, cyclists and drivers.

It’s why, like Kiwi birds, you very rarely see Canadians outside their natural habitat. They’re just not equipped to deal with other environments, and quickly get run over…