<p>Hi, my son will be attending McGill this fall. He is a student from the US. We are looking to establish a bank account in Montreal for him. What are the rest of you US students doing along these lines?
Would appreciate any advice. Thank you.</p>
<p>I went to Royal Bank and opened up a Canadian and US account. this way i can just deposit my dad's cheques into the US account and whenever the exchange rate is better, i can exchange it to canadian. the only problem with the royal bank canadian account is that it takes away $4 every month as a service charge or something. CIBC won't charge this fee if you have $1500 in your account and bank of montreal is $1000 i think. but all the other banks have the $4 fee.</p>
<p>Thank you, Chai!</p>
<p>TD also waives that charge if you have $1500 in your account. It doesn't matter where your home branch is right..or should I wait till I get to Montreal to open an account?</p>
<p>no prob bklynmom</p>
<p>bittersweet-ya home branch doesn't matter unless you're doing this special cheque thing which i have never heard of and don't understand.</p>
<p>yeah, chai, that's pretty much what i'm gonna do too. did you open up your accounts with royal bank while still in alaska, or how did you do that? by the way, what is CIBC?</p>
<p>pamplemousee-i was visiting toronto last week so i opened it while i was there. lol i don't actually live in alaska. CIBC is this other major bank chain. i forget what it stands for but one of the Cs stands for commerce. CIBC also offers a US account but I read it on the McGill website that Royal Bank is most abundant on their campus so i went with Royal.</p>
<p>ah alright. you had me tricked there with the alaskan igloo thing haha.</p>
<p>hehe i actually live in a cookie cutter house in pennsylvania</p>
<p>yeah RBC is the bank to go if you want convenience cause they have ATMs all over campus. CIBC has one in shatner building tho.</p>
<p>personally i use HSBC for the intl convenience (it's such a global bank compared to the others). it's right across the street from school on the corner of sherbrooke and mcgill college avenue, so it's very easy to get to as well (not to mention branches in chinatown and marche central).</p>
<p>btw, if you're moving into rez AND opening ur bank account and etc all at once, good luck. the wait lines are SO LONG for rbc because they know a lot of students are going to go with them and they designate that ONE part of this ONE branch for student banking and it gets PACKED with worried parents wanting to open joint accounts and etc.</p>
<p>i waited with some friends and it was just hell.</p>
<p>my advice would be to go to montreal early if you're doing this and just stay in a bed and breakfast for a few days to get all that done in advance.</p>
<p>btw, bklynmom, are u from nyc? i would recommend hsbc if you are cause of the intl connection. i opened my montreal hsbc account while i was still at home in hong kong at the intl banking office here in hk. you can probably find out if nyc has one and arrange the banking stuff in advance for your son in nyc so that when you arrive in mtl all you have to do is pick up your atm card and etc.</p>
<p>davidsebastian....what if you wait a week after move in, still long lines?</p>
<p>i think that it will probably be less busy after a week from move in day...but...unno...you need cash during frosh and etc and it's not exactly the best to keep a ton of it on hand or in your room :-P</p>
<p>credit cards have exchange rates if ur from the states or abroad, etc.</p>
<p>oh, and i messed up on the shatner atm. it's scotia bank. whoops. scotia's also across the street from the bronfman building on sherbrooke tho so it's pretty convenient. actually...you could use any bank and it'd be fine considering they all have branches in downtown and have atms scattered around montreal. the rbc atms inside campus and the scotia one in shatner aren't really that big a deal..</p>
<p>... they better have citibank up there.
im in new haven for the summer and cant cash a check because there is no citi for 20 min. : </p>
<p>sorry no citibank...or else i'd use it too</p>
<p>i tried looking up citibank online and i only got one branch in toronto?? horrible eh?</p>
<p>RBC has a special deal with McGill that will let you pay tuition and student accounts directly from any RBC branch-</p>
<p>you can do that with any bank in montreal. all my friends, including me, use our respective banks' online banking to pay our tuition. i don't know anyone who has to go to james administration to pay.</p>
<p>do you really need a canadian bank account?</p>
<p>my parents will add money to my US bank account online, and i can pay mcgill thru that, or write checks of equivalent canadian $$. </p>
<p>Also, if i ever need money, cant i just goto any ATM (i know theres a $2 charge)</p>
<p>well it's nice to have a canadian account for convenience...and it's not safe to carry too much cash with you (if you do withdraws every once in a while). interac (the debit system) is so convenient in montreal...and you'd prolly save money over using a usa credit card's exchange rates.</p>
<p>if you/your parents want to avoid transfer fees for monthly allowances and etc, use paypal accounts to transfer to each other online to each other...</p>
<p>i guess u could just live with a credit card and sporadic withdrawals by using intl atm networks but it's just more expensive.</p>