US bonus guides describe a different banking system: a US address, a Social Security number or ITIN, and direct-deposit and spending conditions set by a US bank. Canadian offers use a Canadian address, Canadian identification, and their own qualifying activities. How to read a US guide without applying it to a Canadian account.
Applies in: across Canada
US bank-account and credit-card bonus guides are among the most searched personal finance content in English, and they are among the least transferable. A guide that explains how to earn a bonus from Chase, Wells Fargo, or American Express describes a US account, opened with US identification, at a US address, with US tax reporting. A Canadian who follows the same steps with a Canadian address will usually be stopped at the application, and a Canadian who reads the headline value as a Canadian dollar amount will misread the offer by the exchange rate as well.
This guide is a process and comparison guide. It does not recommend an account, a card, or an offer, and it does not give financial advice. It explains how US bonus guides work, how Canadian offers work, what the two systems share, and where they diverge, so a Canadian reader can tell which country's offer is in front of them.
A US bank-account bonus guide typically describes a new chequing or savings account, a bonus paid after qualifying activities, and a new-customer rule. The qualifying activities are usually a direct deposit of a stated size, a minimum opening deposit, or a balance held for a stated period. The guide quotes a headline bonus, an end date, and the activities in a checklist, and it often combines a chequing bonus with a savings bonus into one headline.
The gate that matters most for a Canadian reader is identity and address. US retail banks ask for a US residential address and a tax identification number. Chase's business checking page, for example, lists a Social Security number, an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number for non-US citizens, or an Employer Identification Number as the tax identification number required, alongside two forms of identification, with primary identification differing for US citizens, permanent residents, and non-permanent residents. Secondary coverage of US personal accounts describes the same pattern: a valid Social Security number or ITIN, a US residential address, and two forms of identification, with a passport and ITIN sometimes accepted in a branch. The details vary by bank, but the direction does not. A US bonus guide assumes the reader can meet US identification and address requirements. A Canadian resident without a US address and a US tax number cannot assume that.
US credit card bonus guides add a second gate: a US credit file. US card applications generally require a US address and a Social Security number or ITIN, and approval depends on US credit history. Secondary coverage of American Express eligibility states the same requirements: age 18 or older, a US address that is not a post office box, and a valid Social Security number or ITIN. Some issuers have programs for applicants with credit history in certain other countries, but those programs have their own conditions and are not the standard application described in a US bonus guide. A Canadian credit file, on its own, does not open a US card.
Canadian bank offers use the same shape, with Canadian contents. A new chequing account, a bonus or a bundle of value, qualifying activities inside a stated window, and a new-customer rule. The qualifying activities are familiar: a recurring direct deposit, recurring pre-authorized payments or debits, and bill payments. The difference is in the dates, the counts, the account types, and the currency, all of which are set by the Canadian bank for the Canadian market.
Two offers live on Canadian bank pages at the time of writing illustrate the shape, and both end on November 2, 2026, which shows how quickly these offers turn over. TD's New to Chequing offer, on TD's own offer page, described up to 750 dollars in value starting with a new eligible TD chequing account. The first step paid 500 dollars for opening a TD Unlimited Chequing Account or TD All-Inclusive Banking Plan by November 2, 2026 and completing two of three activities by January 4, 2027: receiving a recurring direct deposit, setting up a recurring pre-authorized debit payment, or making an online bill payment. A further amount was available for bundling a new savings account and a new TD credit card within 30 days, plus a bonus interest rate on a new savings account. TD's Unlimited Chequing Account carried a monthly fee of 17.95 dollars, waived with a daily balance of 4,000 dollars or more, on the same page.
RBC's offer, on RBC's own offer page, took a different form. Opening an eligible RBC Signature No Limit Banking account, at 16.95 dollars a month, or an RBC VIP Banking account, at 30 dollars a month, by November 2, 2026, and completing two of three qualifying activities within 90 days, a full payroll or pension direct deposit, two pre-authorized monthly payments, or two eligible bill payments, qualified the customer for a complimentary 11-inch iPad, described as 649 dollars in value. The activities match TD's list closely. The reward, a device rather than cash, the account types, and the 90-day window do not match, which is why the headline alone tells a reader nothing useful.
Scotiabank's offer, as tracked in secondary coverage checked on October 26, 2026, described up to 1,000 dollars in cash for a Preferred or Ultimate Package chequing account, with a recurring direct deposit and a qualifying transaction inside 60 days, plus further amounts for a savings account and a credit card. This guide does not state Scotiabank's conditions as fact, because they were not verified on a Scotiabank page at the time of writing. The pattern is the same as TD's and RBC's, and the dates and counts are the bank's own, to be read on the bank's page.
Canadian newcomer packages add a further layer that US guides do not describe. TD's newcomer guidance lists the documents to bring to a branch: a valid passport, one immigration document such as a work permit, study permit, or permanent resident card, and a Canadian address and phone number if available. Online opening requires the age of majority in the province or territory of residence and a valid email address, and TD may still ask the applicant to visit a branch to verify identification. A Canadian resident opens a Canadian account with Canadian identification. A newcomer opens it with immigration documents. Neither path uses a US address or a Social Security number.
Canadian credit card welcome offers follow the same pattern as Canadian bank offers: a Canadian issuer, a Canadian dollar account, approval on a Canadian credit file, and a bonus in a Canadian points currency or cash back, tied to approval and to conditions inside a set period. TD's offer page at the time of writing listed card offers alongside the chequing offer, including an Aeroplan Visa Infinite card described as up to 1,550 dollars in value including up to 50,000 Aeroplan points with a first-year annual fee rebate, and a Cash Back Visa Infinite card described as up to 600 dollars in total value including a first-year annual fee rebate. Those figures are time-limited offer descriptions, not standing rates, and they were effective from the dates stated on TD's page. Check the card page for the current offer before you apply, and read the annual fee, the rebate period, and the spending or account conditions together.
US card guides describe a parallel system. The issuers, the points currencies, the credit files, and the tax numbers are American. The spending thresholds are in US dollars. The annual fees are in US dollars. A Canadian who reads a US card guide and applies it to a Canadian card will misread the currency, the points program, and the eligibility rules at once. The useful comparison is structural: both countries tie a welcome offer to approval and to conditions inside a window, both countries charge an annual fee on premium cards that is sometimes rebated in the first year, and both countries judge new-customer status on their own accounts. Everything else, the issuer, the currency, the file, and the conditions, is local.
First, name the country. The bank name alone does not decide it, because several banks operate in both countries under similar names with separate offers. The address requirement, the tax number, the currency, and the offer page's domain decide it. A guide on a .com US page, quoting US dollars and a Social Security number, is a US guide. A guide on a .ca page, quoting Canadian dollars and a Canadian address, is a Canadian guide.
Second, read the qualifying activities as a checklist with dates. The headline value is earned only when every activity is completed inside its window. A direct deposit that arrives a day late, a pre-authorized payment set up but never taken, or a bill payment made through the wrong channel can each cost the bonus. Write down the end date for opening, the deadline for the activities, and the activities themselves, from the bank's own page, before you open the account.
Third, read the fee separately from the bonus. A chequing account with a monthly fee, a balance that waives it, and a credit card with an annual fee and a first-year rebate is a package with a running cost. A bonus paid once does not remove that cost. Check whether the fee waiver depends on a balance you will actually hold, and whether the card rebate covers one year or the life of the account.
Fourth, check the new-customer rule. Most offers require the applicant to be new to that account type, and some require the applicant never to have held the account or qualified for a related offer inside a stated look-back period. RBC's settled-in page, for example, required the applicant not to have an existing personal banking account and never to have had one or qualified for a related offer during the promotional period or in the five years before it. Opening an account you already hold, or closing and reopening the same account, does not earn the bonus twice.
Finally, keep the evidence. Offer pages are replaced when offers end, and the page that described the offer you opened may not exist when the bonus is due. Save the offer page, the confirmation, and the record of each qualifying activity. If a bonus does not arrive, the question the bank will ask is whether each activity was completed inside its window, and the record you kept is how you answer it.
Not by following a US bonus guide from a Canadian address. US banks ask for a US residential address and a tax identification number, a Social Security number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, and Chase's business account page lists exactly that requirement alongside two forms of identification. Some US banks accept an ITIN and a passport in a branch, and some accept a foreign address alongside a US address, but the rules vary by bank and by account, and a Canadian address alone does not open a US retail account online. Do not assume a US bonus is available to you until the US bank's own account-opening page confirms the identification and address it accepts from a Canadian resident.
A recurring direct deposit, pre-authorized payments, or bill payments, completed inside a stated window after opening, plus a new-account and new-customer condition. The TD offer described in this guide, for example, required opening an eligible chequing account by November 2, 2026 and completing two of three activities, a recurring direct deposit, a recurring pre-authorized debit, or an online bill payment, by January 4, 2027. The RBC offer required opening an eligible account by the same date and completing two of three similar activities within 90 days. The activities rhyme across banks, but the dates, the counts, and the account types differ, so read the bank's own offer page for the offer you are considering.
The shape is similar and the details are not. Both countries offer points, cash back, or a fee rebate for a new card, tied to approval and to spending or account conditions inside a set period. Canadian card offers are made by Canadian issuers, in Canadian dollars, on Canadian credit files, and the points currencies, Aeroplan, TD Rewards, and others, are Canadian programs. US card guides describe US issuers, US credit files, and US points currencies, and US card applications generally require a US address and a Social Security number or ITIN. A US card bonus cannot be earned with a Canadian card, and a Canadian card bonus cannot be earned by following US spending thresholds.
They are describing different markets, different currencies, and different offer structures, not a better deal for the same account. A US headline may combine a chequing bonus and a savings bonus, or a card bonus and a bank bonus, and it is quoted in US dollars. A Canadian headline may combine a chequing bonus with a savings and card bundle, quoted in Canadian dollars, or it may be a non-cash item such as the iPad in the RBC offer described in this guide. Compare the qualifying activities, the fees, and the end date, not the headline numeral, and convert nothing until you know which currency the offer pays in.
Only if you separately qualify for each country's offer, with each country's account, identification, and qualifying activities. TD, RBC, and other Canadian banks operate separately from their US operations, and a Canadian TD account and a US TD account are different accounts with different offers. Holding a Canadian account does not qualify you for a US offer, and holding a US account does not qualify you for a Canadian offer. Each offer's new-customer rule is also judged separately, on that country's accounts.
The offer end date, the eligible account types, the qualifying activities and their deadline, the new-customer rule, the monthly fee and how it is waived, and the credit card annual fee and any first-year rebate, all on the bank's own offer page. Then check that you can actually complete the activities: a direct deposit you cannot move, a pre-authorized payment you cannot set up, or a bill payment you cannot make inside the window means the bonus is not earned. Keep the offer page or confirmation that names the activities and the deadline, because offer pages are replaced when the offer ends.
Where a figure could not be verified on a bank's own page at the time of writing — Scotiabank's bonus amounts and conditions, US chequing and savings bonus amounts, US card bonus amounts and spending thresholds, and American Express eligibility as stated on its own site — this guide says so and points to the bank's own offer page instead of carrying a secondary source's figure. The TD and RBC figures quoted are time-limited offers ending November 2, 2026, and will be stale after that date. Check the bank's current offer page before you open an account. This guide gives no financial advice and recommends no account, card, or offer.