We recently had a client who moved to Canada a few weeks ago.  In their own country they have fantastic credit and they assumed because of that, they would have good credit here.

After searching for a vehicle for a few weeks and locating the best deal for our client, we connected the client with the dealership, only to find out that they had no credit in Canada and the dealership required a substantial down payment to make the financing work.  I’m mentioning this because if you have just moved to Canada and are assuming your credit will be sufficient from another country to purchase a vehicle, you may want to get pre-approved from a bank or dealership before you spend a lot of your time looking for vehicles that may not work.

It can take a lot of time to research vehicles, negotiate and test drive, and to find out after all that work that you cannot be financed can be frustrating.  The easiest way to build credit in Canada is to get a credit card from your bank, even if it’s a pre-paid card to build your credit as soon as you move here.

Talking to your bank to find out the best ways for you is the easiest way.