Here's the problem.
Every time that you apply at a bank or a credit union to open a personal savings or chequing account, a personal current ( business ) account or a corporate business account, the bank or credit union will automatically pull a Credit Report. You have made an application to open an account and the bank has to decide whether to accept or decline you as a customer. If the bank believes or suspects that you represent a potential problem to them, such as issuing NSF cheques, running constant overdrafts or laundering ill-gotten gains through your account, they will simply decline your application.
In the case of "rb-n-ma", the fact that you have been out of Canada for over 10 years indicates that you have NO Credit Record which is even worse than having a poor Credit Record. A bank or credit union has absolutely no information about your past credit history. You may currently enjoy an excellent Credit Record with a Credit Score of 800+
but unfortunately the banks and credit unions do not have access to that information because Credit Reports and Credit Scores do not cross international boundaries. That is why so many immigrants to Canada have such great difficulty in establishing credit unless they first acquire a Secured Credit Card for which they make a deposit and in many cases, in return, receive a credit card for a credit limit equal to their deposit. Companies such as Capital One offer this service as well as some banks. People who are declined bank accounts are now using cheque-cashing services and Payday Loan companies such as Money Mart to fill this void.
Pursuant to the Federal Bank Act, if you are in possession of a cheque that was issued by the Government of Canada, all banks must honour these cheques regardless of whether you have an account at that bank ( not necessarily at that branch ) or whether you can produce identification satisfactory to the bank and the bank is forbidden to charge any fees for this service. If it turns out that this cheque was stolen or fraudulently duplicated, the bank's losses will be covered by the Government of Canada. The same does not apply to credit unions because they are under provincial/territorial legislation.
If you are in possession of a cheque issued by a province or territory, the bank or credit union has the option to decline to honour this cheque because any losses suffered by a financial institution are not covered by the respective provincial/territorial government.
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Educating one Consumer at a time