were you depositing/cashing out directly from poker site or using MB?

If you have Stars send a check will it come in usd form?

Damn Piranha that sucks. I was really pulling for you. Pretty lame they except you with no problems and then conveniently close your account after you basically gave them $3500 for nothing. I'm going to HSBC tomorrow. Will report back.

piranha--

maybe not completely due to poker (although the conversation you describe would make one think it is)?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...googlenews_wsj

edit: on second thought pretty sure this article doesn't apply but I'll leave it since I'm not completely sure one way or the other.

I was using MB, transferring 6-9K at a time and then wiring to my US account through HSBC online banking. They limited me to $9500/Day for my wires and in total I wired around 110K before they shut me down.

I wouldn't get an Advance account. I don't know if that had anything to do with them shutting down my accounts but I upgraded to Advance about 3 weeks ago. It's possible they monitor those accounts more closely like they do with Premier.

I just went to TD Canada Trust told them exactly what I was doing, answered a bunch of questions, and the rep talked to her manager for a while before they agreed to open accounts for me. We'll see what happens with that since I'll have a similar amount of money going through there in the next six weeks or so.

Good luck with everything, I hope HSBC goes smoother for you.

I actually think there's a decent chance this does have something to do with it. If the Fed is cracking down on HSBC, I'd imagine they're being super strict with US citizens.

Thanks, and gl to you too. Sounds like it could be mo money mo problems. I will be cashing out about 12k/month and only wiring like 5-6k/month to my US accounts. Maybe I will go under the radar.

Yea interesting read...and bad timing.

Maybe that's why I got denied, for seemingly no reason, to HSBC premiere last week

Just go with TD guys. you can open two chequing accounts, USD, so you shouldnt ever get nailed with double conversion.

this

I am relocating soon and plan to play on stars as well as the bigger euro networks. I am totally confused on all of the banking issues such as exchange fees and money bookers etc.

I've read that most people are using moneybookers for their transactions. Are you depositing AND withdrawing via moneybookers and for what purpose exactly? Should a moneybookers account be opened in US or CAN $? Like other posters I plan to have two Canadian Bank accounts, one in USD one in CAN.

Are the euro networks (party, ongame, ipoker) in euros or do they use dollars? I'm assuming euros so what's the best way to avoid getting crushed on the exchange fees?

I have read through pretty much all of the posts but I'm still kind of confused since I don't have access to any of the poker clients, nor have I set up a money bookers yet. If someone could explain everything to me and map it out I'd be greatly appreciated.

I'll try my best but someone correct me if I have something wrong (Ive been here less than 3 weeks).

Exchange rates and fees are going to be painful. You want to minimize this as much as possible. I would start by getting your moneybookers account in USD. And yes get both a CAD and USD checking account at the bank. TD has worked well for me so far. It has taken me about 2 weeks to go from scratch to moneybookers VIP (no outgoing transaction limits). I started by verifying my address (with a bank verification form (the bank stamps and signs this form MB gives you)), then verified my credit card (this card from TD which is an actual VISA (separate from the chip debit card)). You cant actually use this cc for gambling purposes, and you cant load money on to MB with it and then deposit. Me verifying my cc with MB was only to give my account more legitimacy and it also upped my limits some. The next thing I did was send MB a bank transfer for a small amount of money so they had my bank account linked (this also upped my limits). I was still getting the run around about VIP until randomly the person I talked to that day gave me VIP's email address and told me to ask them what I needed to qualify.

MB VIP email: vip@moneybookers.com

Phone number I use for MB: 1800 238 9984 press 1 at the first set of options, then 0, then someone will usually answer very quickly. The person who will answer has the power to transfer you to a VIP rep I just recently found out.


So I emailed them and asked what I needed to do to get VIP. And they said:

Due to security enhancement after the different events which occurred in the USA, in order to remove all the limits from your Moneybookers account, you will need to be fully verified and prove your residency in Canada. To achieve this, could you please send us the following documents:

1. CERTIFIED/NOTARIZED copy of Passport (no driving license, health cards, etc...).

2. CERTIFIED/NOTARIZED copy of Canadian residence permit. If you do not have a residence permit, please explain the reason why.

3. CERTIFIED/NOTARIZED Address Verification (Only bank statements showing transaction history or Utility Bills allowed) Business address is NOT accepted at all (i.e. suites, P.O Box etc...). If you do not have a utility bill, please send us a certified copy of your rental agreement.

Certification MUST be done by CANADIAN authorities such as a Registered Notary /Embassy/ High Commission or Consulate or local municipality official/ a local police department. NORMAL COPY OF DOCUMENT WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

*Note I had mine done by a lawyer. Any Public Notary will work.

After you become VIP you can open another account in a different currency. The accounts are "linked" and you have the same privileges in both but you must log into each account separately.

As a VIP customer you have the possibility to open a second account in a different currency. If you wish to do so please follow the procedure:
1. Go to www.moneybookers.com
2. Use a new e-mail address (never used in Moneybookers system before) and open a new account
3. Please ignore the pop-up saying "you already hold an account", click to confirm it is the only account
4. Please send me an e-mail with old and new account details and I will link the accounts, give them the same privileges. You will be able to add the same credit cards and bank accounts to all linked accounts.


Regarding the currency of other sites, I opened a CAD MB first and deposited with that so I'm not really sure. My ongame, and ipoker are in CAD (although ipoker has euro tables), my entraction is in euro, everleaf is in USD, and stars is in USD, idk about party. But I would guess for ongame and ipoker it matters what you deposit with? CAD or USD.

Hope this helps

I have heard that you can extend your stay in CAN for another 180 days (for ~$75)..
Can someone confirm or deny this?

Being able to only stay in Canada for 180/365 days out the calendar year was one of the deterrents for me not relocating to Canada..

thanks

Thanks for taking the time writing that informative post curiousso. If you couldn't deposit to MB using your CC from TD, how did you get money online? And what's the main purpose of using MB, can you not just withdraw via E-check to your canadian bank account?

you can deposit from your bank-->MB-->poker site

using MB kind of disguises the fact you are making online poker transactions since your payments to/from the site will be via MB. Banks much less likely to give you hassle if you use MB imo.

According to this it looks like it may be possible - http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/extend-stay.asp

np. I had a bunch of money sitting on merge, so I cashed it out from there to my MB. Pretty sweet too (other than exchange rate and fees), the longest cashout from merge to MB took like 36 hrs. But yeah you can transfer from your bank to MB and it takes a few days.


+1

Ahhh okay, thanks LT. Can anyone tell me what this is from toocuriousso's post? : 2. CERTIFIED/NOTARIZED copy of Canadian residence permit. If you do not have a residence permit, please explain the reason why.

"2.) I don't have a residency permit, as I only wanted to come for 6
months as a tourist (and play online poker professionally). But while
crossing the border they did give me, stapled in my passport, a piece of paper stating the details of my allowed stay in Canada. This is also notarized and attached to the email."

ty toocuriousso1.

after you completed some of the verification steps what did they raise your account limits to? (prior to becoming a VIP). I just want to know if it's worth the hassle of getting everything notarized to become VIP.

I think they started me at like 1k when I opened it, moved it to 10k when I had my bank stamp and sign MBs bank verification form (this verifies address), gave me another 5k or so when I verified my cc, then gave me another 5k or so when I made a bank transfer to them. So like low 20s total (90 day limit).

Getting your stuff notarized isnt a big deal. It'll cost you less than $100, and takes like an hr out of your day. I used my lease and my passport. Its been less than 3 weeks for me and I have everything set up and running smoothly. And fwiw, Ive managed to do everything without an exact utility bill that I received in the mail.

Do you guys think its feasible to commute from Chicago-Windsor? I'm mostly worried about crossing the border multiple times. I would hate to rent a place only to be told that I'm denied entry to Canada. Is anyone commuting? Most people in this thread seem to have a semi-permanent spot..

Ideally I would be able to move to Vancouver or Toronto but that won't be possible for another 10 months.

So I opened HSBC today with no problems but just got the standard account with USD and CAD linked. They also only let me do savings so I wasn't able to get a visa. She tried pitching premier to me at the end but I said it's not something I need immediately.

I know one of the things you have to do is verify your debit/credit card to get your moneybookers limits increased. Since I didn't get a card with HSBC, I tried using my CIBC Visa. After adding my CIBC card to moneybookers, I had to verify the amount they debited from my CIBC account. I saw $1.90 as the amount and entered that into moneybookers. The problem is it has to be in USD (my moneybookers account is in USD but CIBC only let me open a CAD account). So this $1.90 debit is in Canadian and they want me to enter the amount in USD (even though they sent it in CAD). Based on today's conversion rate $1.90 CAD is exactly $2.00 USD so I am praying that if I enter $2.00 instead of $1.90 tomorrow, it will work. Otherwise, I will have to open another bank account just so I can get a debit card verified by moneybookers just so I can get my limits increased.