According to the 2025 TD survey, 92% of new immigrants understand the importance of building credit before arriving in Canada. However, 82% of those applying for credit face immediate barriers. For many, these challenges go beyond inconvenience. They directly affect immigration’s ability to ensure housing, buy cars, start a business and build a life in Canada.
It’s not just money. It’s about inclusion. And if Canada believes immigration is important to its future, eliminating systemic financial barriers must be part of the national dialogue.
one Cultural Change and Credit Wake-up Call
Like many immigrants, I arrived in Canada with economic stability. But the Canadian financial system is not aware of this.
I grew up in India and the Middle East and there is a simple rule: Never buy something you can’t afford. Credit cards are not required and loans are discouraged, while financial independence means living within your means. That worldview shapes my early adult life – until I met my wife who was born and raised in Ottawa.
I remember one of the early conversations we were still living abroad. She was confused about why I booked flights through a travel agency. The answer is simple: I don’t have a credit card. And I don’t think I need one. For her, it was strange. In Canada, credit cards are the default tool for everything from booking a trip to building reward points. For me, it’s a way to buy something I can’t afford. We have no arguments, we just solve the problem from a different cultural perspective.
Eventually, I applied for a credit card and like many people who didn’t use it, I abused my credit card from the beginning. It felt like free money, but the fantasy quickly disappeared. Over time, I have developed a healthy relationship with credit: manage payments responsibly for convenience and collect points for purchase points. When we finally moved to Canada, all this learning was no longer important.
Earn, Savings and Expenditures in Canada: A Guide to New Immigration
Credit history does not travel
This is a fact that most new immigrants know, but few are ready: your financial history is not following you.
Despite a solid financial foundation, I still don’t qualify for a meaningful line of credit. My first Canadian credit card has a limit of $200, which is almost not enough to do half the Costco run. This is not that my credit score is bad. I have nothing at all. It took years to build one from scratch.
The article continues with the following advertisement
x
It’s not just inconvenience. It affects every part of our lives.
We cannot get a mortgage, not because of our income or how much we save to pay down payments, but because of lack of credit history. When we finally qualified, we’ve been in the country for years and have done everything: on time payments, healthy credit utilization, excellent scores from the 800s. However, I still haven’t seen the system’s way of looking at my wife, who was born and raised here.
Even now, after working in Canada for over six years, my chances of getting credit are still limited. I didn’t get a quote for balance transfer, credit line or automatic credit increase like she did. Why? Because she has decades of history, I don’t. The system rewards lifespan, not responsibility.
More difficult than it should
The TD investigation confirmed my experience. Among new immigrants:
- 31% eligibility for only credit is too low to meet basic needs
- 27% work hard to secure housing
- 24% Cannot save or invest in future goals
- 66% of people are worried about their Canadian credit history
- 79% find it difficult to build credit completely
The final statistics are crucial. Not only is it difficult to build credit, but it is also systemically difficult for immigrants. This is the problem.
Even though 92% of new immigrants say it’s important to build credit, they usually don’t have effective tools and no tools.
Yes, the financial services industry is beginning to acknowledge the unique needs of new immigrants, but admitting it is not enough. It’s like going to a doctor to finally understand your symptoms, but there is no treatment. Empathy without action is still inaction.
If Canada wants new immigrants to succeed, we need more than empathy. We need a solution.
