How to search efficiently for financial institutions, credit cards, etc (At least in Canada)?
Searching for Banks or Credit Unions based on their high interest accounts is likely to be a giant waste of your time. The highest you might find is 1.5% not clearing inflation. For anything less than 100k youre better off putting it in a money market fund until you know what you want to do with it, which you can find anywhere.
"Wait a minute, this is a huge clickbait statistic.  From the article:   &gt;  Total overdraft fees totaled $33.3 billion in 2016, just shy of the $33.8 billion financial institutions collected in credit-card interchange fees  They're comparing the _total_ sum of overdraft fees to the _total sum_ of interchange fees.    While interchange fees have gone up over time, all the statistic in the story tells us is more people are using credit cards for transactions than ""before"".    Merchants also have a huge choice in what sort of fees they pay, the processor they use (it's a surprisingly large market), and the rates vary by processor, type of merchant, risk to the merchant, type of business, type of card, and so on.  As a note, the ""type of card"" is not just ""visa"" or ""amex"", but different cards from different issuers can have different interchange fees.  That airline rewards card has a higher fee than that ""rebuild your credit"" secured (read: backed by a deposit) card.    In short, this is a nonsense article that provides no useful comparison." "The amount can vary by car rental company and geographic location. I did a Google search using the search term: ""enterprise credit card hold"" The range went from $100 to $500. There is also mention of Jamaica for $1500. The benefit of a credit card in this instance is that the hold is on a virtual balance versus a debit card that will actually hold the money that is in your checking account." Are financial institutions less likely to lend me money because of my age Yes.  But they are especially unlikely to loan you money because you have little income.   or because they know I avoid interest by paying things off aggressively? This won't affect them.  But you might ask yourself how much credit history you have.  Credit history can include all of loans, credit cards, rent, utilities, etc.  You mention three loans.  But you don't mention rent or utilities.  You may simply not have much credit history, even if what you do have is good.   But again, the biggest thing that they will look at is your income history.  If you have a small income, then it doesn't matter what your payment history is.  They don't want to loan money to people who need money.  They want to loan money to people who don't need to borrow but are instead bringing a future purchase into the present.   The ideal recipient is someone who has a high income and spends it all every month.  Such a person is likely to borrow heavily but be able to keep up the payments.   Obsessing about your ability to borrow is probably the wrong approach.  Instead focus on how you can meet your goals without borrowing.  Eventually your ability to pay will catch up.  Then they'll offer you money.  Of course, you might not need it then.   Note that when I say little income, I'm talking about their perspective.  You may be fully on track and making decent money or even very good money for your age.  But they're looking for people who are mature in their careers and regularly bringing home large sums but who spend it faster than they can get it. Other answers here cover some of the basics, but this is also a great time to start establishing a credit history and developing good financial habits to carry throughout your life. In addition to opening a free checking account with the local credit union, establish an overdraft line of credit on that account. Never close this account or this line of credit as it will work to increase the average age of your accounts when you apply for credit later in life. If you are disciplined with your use of credit cards, you may also want to apply for a low limit credit card through the same credit union for the same purpose as above. Never carry a balance on this card, but make minor purchases with it each month, never more than 20% of the balance, maybe just buy gas with it. Start tracking all of your spending and make a monthly budget. There are a lot of online tools that make this very easy. Establishing the habit now will help you make informed financial decisions in the future. Open a Roth IRA and put at least 10% of your money away for retirement. In the future your income may increase enough to put you in the 25% tax bracket. If that ever happens, open a Regular IRA and put the money there instead. Also when you have employers that offer 401k matching do the same thing with a Roth 401k account. Keep your money invested in a low cost index fund. If you have access, factset and bloomberg have this.  However, these aren't standardized due to non-existent reporting regulations, therefore each company may choose to categorize regions differently.  This makes it difficult to work with a large universe, and you'll probably end up doing a large portion manually anyways. I don't think that there's a specific  number or index that gives you what you're looking for. I think the closest thing to it would be the velocity of money, which is a measure of how often money changes hands.  Also, for what it's worth, I believe that this concept is controversial in some circles. I would like to establish credit history - have heard it's useful to   gain employment and makes it easy to rent an apartment? Higher credit scores will make it easier with landlords, that's true. As to employment - they do background checks, which means that they usually won't like bad things, but won't care about the good things or no things (they'll know you're a foreigner anyway). Is it safe to assume that this implies I have no history whatsoever? Probably, but you can verify pulling through AnnualCreditReport, don't go around giving your personal information everywhere. Is taking out a secured loan the only way for me? No, but it's one of the easiest. Better would be getting a secured Credit Card, not loan. For loan you'll have to pay interest, for a credit card (assuming you pay off all your purchases immediately) you will only pay the credit card fees (for secured credit cards they charge ~$20-100 yearly fees, so do shop around, the prices vary a lot!). If you're using it wisely, after a year it will be converted to a regular credit card and the collateral will be returned to you with interest (which is actually very competitive, last I heard it was around 2%, twice as much as the online savings accounts). As to a secured loan - you'll be paying 4% to CU for your own money. Doesn't make any sense at all for me. For credit cards you'll at least get some value for your money - convenience, additional fraud protection, etc. The end result will be the same. Usually the credit starts to build up after ~6-12 months (that's why after a year your secured CC will be converted to a regular one). Make sure to have the statement balance in the range of 10-30% of your credit limit, to get the best results. Would it make much better sense to wait till I get a job (then I would   have a fixed monthly salary and can apply for a regular CC directly) You can apply, but you'll probably be rejected. As I mentioned in another answer elsewhere, the system in the US is such that you're unable to get credit if you don't already have credit. Which is kindof a magic circle, which you can break with the secured credit card as the least costly solution. "First paragraph is very true. But you also have to take into consideration that the adviser and the company are 2 different ""things"" to look into. For the adviser, quickest and easiest way is to do a Facebook search. The point of this is to see how transparent they are with their personal life. Even companies are now relying on Facebook to see how they ""really"" are. I wouldn't care if the person has lots of photos with booze and girls, but I would be concerned if they are using FB for spamming purposes, have pictures with drugs, or hints that they don't like their job and want to move on to something else.  Second paragraph is spot on as well. But I would rather want to know if the company cold calls or not... which leads in to your last statement.  For one adviser, more than 100 clients is a red flag. This could mean that they push savings plans left and right, they don't contact their current clients, and/or they may not have the ability to assist clients should they get many queries.  A few good questions to ask:  1. How do you make your salary?  2. Besides this plan you are selling me, what other types of products do you work with and show me several examples?  3. How many other advisers are in your firm?  4. How many clients does your colleagues and boss have?  5. How often do you cold call?  6. Who else cold calls in your office?  7. How does your company get new clients OTHER than referrals?   Go interrogation style and ask the above questions several times using different phrases."