Can a Canadian Financial bank or credit union refuse to give someone an account based on a credit check?

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BRIAN5000
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Can a Canadian Financial bank or credit union refuse to give someone an account based on a credit check?

Post by BRIAN5000 »

I'm going to do some research on this but maybe a FWFer on here knows already. Can a Canadian Financial bank or credit union refuse to give someone an account based on a credit check? Can they actually ask for a credit check if all your doing is opening a saving/checking account?

Google says they can huh!

Supposingly Credit Unions are different and can turn you down if they think the relationship would not be of benefit to them?

From CBA https://www.cba.ca/opening-a-bank-account


Reasons why a personal account may not be opened
A bank does not have to open a personal account for you if:
• It believes that you plan to use the account for illegal or fraudulent purposes.
• You have a history of illegal or fraudulent activity in relation to financial services providers within seven years prior to your request to open the account.
• It believes that you knowingly made false statements in the information provided.
• It believes that opening the account would subject other customers or employees to physical harm, harassment or other abuse.
• You refuse to consent to the bank verifying the identification presented or whether any of the above conditions apply.
• The request is made at a branch or point of service where the only accounts offered are linked to an account at another financial institution.
If the bank cannot open the account, it will advise you in writing and provide you with information on how to contact the regulator.
Last edited by Peculiar_Investor on 23 Feb 2018 10:51, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Split from http://www.financialwisdomforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=120721
This information is believed to be from reliable sources but may include rumor and speculation. Accuracy is not guaranteed
Eclectic12
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Re: Can a Canadian Financial bank or credit union refuse to give someone an account based on a credit check?

Post by Eclectic12 »

This Gov't link says the same thing, for federally regulated banks or credit unions.
https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-cons ... count.html

However, they do say that no job, no money and previously being bankrupt is not a problem.


Looking at the list of allowed refusals ... I don't see how a credit check would reveal any of the allowed reasons, except possibly the "history of illegal or fraudulent activity with financial service providers during the past seven years" one.

AFAICT ... the credit check is pretty much irrelevant.


Cheers
twa2w
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Re: Can a Canadian Financial bank or credit union refuse to give someone an account based on a credit check?

Post by twa2w »

The credit check the bank does when opening accounts does search for fraudulent activity. It does not appear very often but it does occasionally appear.

It also flags for prev past due debts with that bank ( old overdrafts or visa's that were written off etc which may not be on the bureau). The bank can open the account but can use their write of offset to take funds from the new account. It was surprising the number,ber of people who came in that had previous writeoffs, expecting us to open an account. Some folks payup, others decide they want to bank elsewhere.

The ctedit burea also has some employment, address history, etc which is compared to info at time of opening. So it is useful for a number of reasons.
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