Newcomer credits his banker for some good advice
Image credit: Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
By Manohar Gupta
Newcomers receive a lot of information that helps them settle in faster and more efficiently on their arrival in Canada. Among the useful advice is one about building credit history. Having good credit history is vital when they want to buy a car and later, when they wish to purchase a home. But to build this credit history, one needs a credit card.
These days, of course, everyone – including high school students – have one. But I am from a generation for which credit was a bad word.
When we came to Canada many years ago, my wife and I were advised to visit a bank to get our Canadian banking underway. There, the very helpful banker sat us down in her office, gave our son colouring books to keep him happily occupied (which was amazing to us as we were used to standing in long lines with an increasingly tired child where we come from) and explained the different account options available to us.
Then she said we should also get a credit card.
“Credit card? I don’t need one,” I said, taking great offence, but trying not to show it. “I have enough money, hard cash.”
I must have spoken more forcefully that I intended to because she hastened to explain that a credit card wasn’t an indicator of how much I didn’t have but a tool to help me build a credit history.
She said that I could use it to pay regular bills such as the ones for phone or our rent, etc. If we did that and then paid back on a regular schedule, it would show fiscal responsibility and help us make larger purchases down the road.
What she said made sense, but my instinct was to refuse. My thinking was that we would only buy what we had money available for or what we had saved up for, never on credit. We left the bank telling her we needed time to think. I discussed the need for a credit card with my cousin who had moved to Canada a few months before us and he said the banker was right, we did need one.
So we went ahead and got our very first credit card and have used it wisely since, instilling the importance of paying back in our children.
What’s your story? Every newcomer, no matter how savvy or where he or she comes from, has a Fresh Off the Plane (FOP) story to share about their early days in Canada. Do you want to share your story? E-mail it to us at canadaboundimmigrant@rogers.com