Credit card for foreign workers

[goldbank]

Hi All,

Can temporary foreign workers apply for credit card?
If we can, when and how?
Are there any requirements?
Do you think it will be an advantage?
How about to open a bank account? Are there any minimum initial deposit and
maintaing balance, are there any charges?
Thank you all for your replies.
Have a good day.

Gold

 

[BOYZONE2]

Hi All,

Can temporary foreign workers apply for credit card?
If we can, when and how?
Are there any requirements?
Do you think it will be an advantage?
How about to open a bank account? Are there any minimum initial deposit and
maintaing balance, are there any charges?
Thank you all for your replies.
Have a good day.

Gold

First time i applied for credit card when i was still a foreign worker thru capital one and via a dept.store credit card like presidents choice and hbc master cards, then afterwards thru td bank.
you have to open a bank account 1st to established your credit, just show your working permit, valid canadian id if you have and your passport when applying for a dept.store credit card. gooduck!

 

[ThreeSquareImm]

Technically you are eligible able to get a credit card. However, Canadian financial institutions are not always the fastest at handing out credit cards to temporary residents. It won't really matter the credit rating you have in your home country as you will be starting fresh when you arrive here. I don't have experience with them personally but I know that you can obtain "Secured" Credit Cards which are those that make you put a security deposit on the credit card and allows you to use it in order to build/rebuild your credit. Check out www.capitalone.ca for more information about that.

About Bank Accounts, you are able to open one and Canadian institutions don't have a minimum bank balance. Some bank accounts have free chequing accounts, particularly the smaller credit unions. Try a Google search.

 

[computergeek]

There are three options that you can consider:

A prepaid debit card (looks like a credit card, but is "loaded" with cash).
A secured credit card (you make a deposit and your credit limit is linked to that deposit) - Capital One, Des Jardins, People's Bank, Van City (Citizen's Bank), TD Canada Trust, CIBC, Scotia Bank, BMO, etc.
Assistance from your bank in obtaining one - HSBC will help you with this, for example.

If you go for a secured credit card, watch out for fees and interest rate. It really is ridiculous to pay 20% interest to use your own money. If you want a high limit credit card, check with Scotia Bank - they will issue high limit cards; otherwise many banks have a $5,000 limit for a secured card.

After you have established credit for 24 months, you will find you can qualify for an unsecured card. Some cards will release the security deposit (Van City worked that way) while others will not - in which case you can just close the account after you qualify for a regular unsecured card.

One thing to keep in mind is that in order to get your credit score high you don't want to use more than 15% of your available credit line. Thus, if you have a $5,000 secured card, the best credit score will come from keeping your spending on it under $750 in aggregate.

 

[lotus_abbey]

You can have a secured credit card. These cards are funded with security funds with a minimum $300. These cards are great if you're just starting to build or establish your credit scores

 

[supa-g]

I'm temporary foreign worker. A few days after I came to Canada, I got my SIN. Same day, I went to TD bank and applied for TD visa card. That was unsecured card with initial credit line of 1000$. So answer is: YES you can apply for regular credit card, even though you don't have any credit history established in the country yet.

 

[mczapla]

Hi Supa_G - did you have to present any additional documents to get the unsecured card at TD. I will be going through the same process Monday in Montreal and want to ask how you have done this ?

Thank you.

 

[maplelove]

Hi Supa_G - did you have to present any additional documents to get the unsecured card at TD. I will be going through the same process Monday in Montreal and want to ask how you have done this ?

Thank you.

In my experience, I have a savings and checking account with TD. After 5 months they contacted me and offerred me an unsecured credit card with $1000.00 credit limit.
They did not asked for any other documents.

 

[karanJ]

Scotia bank has start right program which offers credit card along with bank account and it is free for 1st year .