Thank you:) very informative but just one more thing....can you mention the banks which-give you 50 dollars just for opening a student account and another 50 for applying for their credit card (no fees). Some will accept you in a lucky draw for 1000 dollar and the draw is each day.
Thank you very much sarah
Sarah,
Most banks have deals for students at the semester start time. Each bank has different deals.
Last fall (Sep 2011): 50 + 50 dollar deal for international students was in TD Canada. 1000 dollar lucky draw was in RBC.
It is good to open student bank account in 2-3 different banks since:
1. There is no fees for doing so (since you are a student)
2. There is no fees for maintaining your account till the time you are a student status.
3. There is a transaction limit of 25 free transaction per month. After that you have to pay for each transaction. If you pay for your coffee using your debit card, it is a transaction. So is when you withdraw cash from ATM.
4. If you try to withdraw cash from different bank ATM then it will cost you 3 dollars extra.
My recommendation: Open account in CIBC, TD Canada and RBC and distribute your funds among three. Safe and easy to withdraw cash and you have 75 transaction in three cards.
Of course, once you get you TD credit card then use it all the time. It gives 1% cash back (the rebate card, not the green card). So if you spend 1000 dollar from it, you get back 10 dollars.
GS