Personal Banking 101 for Newcomers to Canada

Feb 8, 2026 · 5 min read
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Disclaimer: This article is strongly opinionated based on personal experience. I am not a certified professional who can provide financial advice. Please do your own research and due diligence as your mileage may vary. I am not affiliated with any financial institutions. Any referral links I share here are generally available to all clients of the service provider.

When I first moved to Montreal, I had no idea about the financial systems in Canada. I randomly picked one of the big banks and opened an account with them as soon as I got my Social Insurance Number (SIN). It turned out to be quite a mistake, which fortunately didn’t cost much, and I was able to move things around and optimize my personal finance setup over the years. I hope this post will help you if you are new to Canada. 🍁

🏦 Your First Bank Accounts

Unlike in Singapore, where most people use a savings account for everything, there is a big difference between chequing and savings accounts in Canada:

  • 💵 Chequing account: Day-to-day transactions, e.g. salary deposit, pre-authorized bill payments, sending money (Interac e-Transfer) etc. Comes with a cheque book (might not be free). Negligible interest.
  • 💰 Savings account: Higher interest rate but limited usage. Transactions are usually charged with a fee, thus unsuitable for daily transactions. Transferring fund to chequing account on the same bank is free.

Almost all banks charge a monthly account fee 💸, but you can get it waived if you maintain enough daily balance.

Based on personal experience, here is what I would do:

  • Start with one of the Big Five banks, avoid credit unions or local/provincial institutions. It’ll make your life easier if you move somewhere else.
  • Review all available chequing accounts of the banks to understand their fees and benefits.
  • Banks are competing for customers, so be sure to take advantage of their newcomer offer / bonus.
  • If you have enough cash to maintain a high enough daily balance, pick a high tier chequing account to combine with a decent credit card 💳 and get the annual fee waived (more on credit cards below).
  • You don’t really get much interest from their “high interest” savings account, but you can open one for free anyway. There are better ways to earn more interest, which I will elaborate later.

💳 Credit Cards and Borrowing

Personal Finance 101: You should only use credit cards if you can pay them fully each month!

When you first arrive in Canada, you have no credit history. Building your credit history is very important as it is how financial institutions assess your ability to repay loans. Without one, you won’t even be able to take a mortgage to buy your first home. Getting your first credit card is usually the first step to get your file opened with the credit bureaus (Equifax and TransUnion). After that, you should use your card(s) regularly (and pay them off, of course) to start building your credit score.

As you have no credit history, you’ll have to use your job offer to proof to the bank that you have the means to pay your credit card bills. Banks can also look at household income, so the accompanying spouse should also get their own card even without a job, in order to start building their own credit history too. It is worth noting that supplementary cards have no affect on the spouse’s credit history, they need to have at least one card under their own name to get the credit file rolling.

You can easily start with a no-fee credit card but the benefits are usually minimal. If you have a high tier chequing account, like I mentioned above, and meet the income requirement, you can then take advantage of a better card from the same bank. Shopping and dining in Canada is mostly cashless, so if I’m going to pay, I might as well pay it with a credit (not debit) card and rack up some rewards (cashback or points).

Some of my favourite cards for daily spending:

Depending on your life style and needs, you can get another card that is more for traveling with free insurance coverage etc. However, I would focus on getting rewards from basic needs first (groceries, restaurants, utility bills etc.).

🪙 Getting the Best Bang for the Buck

By now, hopefully you’ve settled down and have your accounts and credit cards with a brick-and-mortar bank. Most likely, you’ve also seen ads on some of the online-only banks, such as:

They can be a good alternative to earn higher interest for your savings, and sometimes you can also get another credit card from them. The downside is you can only get customer support via phone, online chat or email, and some banks like Tangerine doesn’t support international wire transfers (SWIFT/BIC). Because of this, I would not use them as my one and only bank. Please do your own research to analyze if a secondary account on these online banks is ideal for you. Personally, I don’t mind managing more accounts to take advantages of the benefits, but there are others who want to keep the number of accounts minimal for simplicity and peace of mind.

📈 Investments

Once you have enough savings accumulated, it’s time to think about investment for retirement.

I will write about investments in a separate post as there are many different types of accounts involved. But to get started, you can look into Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) to see if it is right for you. As a newcomer, you normally should not start with a non-registered (taxable) investment account.

🌐 More resources

I hope this post has been helpful to you. You can find a lot of guides online, such as:

Finance
Eson See
Authors
Eson See
Full-Stack Developer
Full-stack developer with nearly 20 years of experience building online services, multiplayer systems, and tools for AAA games. Passionate about solving complex problems, optimizing workflows, and crafting reliable, high-quality features.