how much cash?

2gypsies wrote:
Don't take travelers checks. People don't even know what they are anymore.

Obviously we don't get out much. Now that we are retired, I hope to change that pretty drastically!

Thanks for all the great replies! I don't wonder that folks do this trip more than once. With the learning curve involved, seems a shame to waste all that learning on one trip! Happy Camping!

Just remember....if you take more than $10,000 into Canada you have to report it! :)

As soon as we crossed we went to a Canadian bank and got $300 in cash, including various denominations of coins.

We planned on staying at Canadian Provincial parks and Yukon's parks and many have a fee box for a campsite with no attendant.

We used our Visa card wherever we could (no transaction fee on ours). We didn't use a Master Card or Discover. We found everyone took Visa. We paid for fuel with Visa.

Don't take travelers checks. People don't even know what they are anymore.

After three months we still had some of that $300 left and we used what we could on fuel. We entered near Glacier Nat'l Park and the banks there wouldn't redeem Canadian for U.S. so we dropped the remainder in the park's donation box.

Yeah, always have cash. The telecommunications infrastructure isn't solid here and it isn't uncommon for systems to go down, sometimes for a short while but sometimes overnight or for a day.

Plastic won't work, no how. Not even at the bank. So always have some cash, just in case you need to buy fuel or grocery shop, or whatever. It isn't amusing to get into town for some groceries and being told at the store door that it's cash only that day.

Dick_B wrote:
Not every establishment honors Discover so I would take an additional Visa card. Also, we just had a card cancelled due to theft and if that happened to your only card it would be trouble.
We get cash at Walmart when we get groceries. Is there a Canadian Walmart equivalent?

Not much in the way places that take Discovery up here. Gave me a laugh but equivilant to Walmart up here is... Walmart

My 1st trip up the Alcan....'72 or '74 can't recall...it seemed like $1500 was a good amount...or that was all that I had to my name at the time, not sure. In any case, that always worked for the next 25 years and circa 20 trips. Never found a place that wouldn't take either Visa or MC in Canada since circa early 80's, but I never ventured too far off the Alcan and wasn't RV'ng, so maybe one needs the right amount of cash even now.

I'd second Joe's suggestion: If you're out in Bush Alaska...even on the remote parts of the road system that pretend to be Bush Alaska, take some cash. Even in recent years, when I fly around SC Alaska, I always carry at least $1000 in cash "just because".....

Cash is an interesting product in rural Alaska and probably in rural northern Canada. Cash is king and not always easy to obtain in the rural villages. When I would be wandering around the state in my Piper Super Cub, which burned about $50 to $80 an hour in aviation gasoline, it was all paid for in cash.So it wasn't too unusual for me to have somewhere in the range of $5,000 cash with me, at the start of a trip.

Many of the rural men, would work summer jobs out of the village, as fire fighters, equipment operators, labors, whatever it took to make a living. So when they returned home in the fall, they brought their summer earning back in cash, no local banks available. But by Thanksgiving time, the money had been handled so much it looked more like a used green kleenex with writing on it, than it did a bill of legal tender. LOL One village where I lived, Koyukuk,350 miles west of Fairbanks,the store keeper was also the post master. So after about the first of the year, when people came in to cash checks, social security or whatever, they got back postal money orders instead of cash. There simply was not cash available. Most people ran a book at the store for groceries, so cash was not used and the book was to be paid up each fall when the folks had cash.
So at times when I was going to fly into Fairbanks for some reason, the store keeper, a good friend of mine, would often make out a check to me to cash for her and bring back for her store use. These checks were often for $20,000 or more. Was a reassuring feeling as I figured if I crashed my plane, more people would be interested in looking for me if they knew I had that kind of cash with me. LOL Postal money orders were used just like cash if cash wasn't available. The were not make out to anyone and just circulated around and around.

Once you get up into northern Canada, you will from time to time find places that don't take credit cards. Many local artists don't accept them and at times, the lodge's card machine is down, they aren't accepting them either, for for fuel, a meal, etc. it is cash or wait till the data line comes back up for the merchant. I have had this happen several times over the years I have been driving to/from Alaska. Also as mentioned by someone, most of the governmental campgrounds don't accept plastic, they want cash only, whether it is a CG with a host collecting the money or one run on the honor system where you fill out the card, attach your money and drop it in the pipe.
Along the US-Canada border, plastic rules on both sides but once you get north, it is a different game. The last time I was at Boya Lake Provincial Park in northern BC, a older guy and his daughter came by selling fire wood at what I thought was a fair price. No way he was set up to accept plastic as payment for his nice dry fire wood. LOL

I suggest going to your bank and opening up a Canadian dollar account attached to your account and/or a US credit card attached to your regular account. For travelling in the US, we have a separate US CC attached to our normal account. We also have debit cards for use in the US which we typically use for gas purchases.

Debit and credit cards in Canada require the use of PIN numbers except for small purchases at stores, you can sometimes tap the cards. No signing of CC slips here. VISA and Mastercard are the two top cedit cards in Canada and I *think* American Express might be in third place.

I highly recommend that you have two credit cards (your regular one and a Canadian dollar one) with you in case one gets compromised somehow and leaves you stranded. The US CC we have has a small limit on it for use in the US so if it every gets compromised, the crook(s) won't get much and we have the use of or regular one. We've been compromised several times in the US in the past few years. Never let your card out of your sight.

Talking to your bank is recommended otherwise you could find some hefty charges for the exchange rate or transactions in Canada. Also check the benefits some cards have like towing and medical or travel insurance. Exchanging currency at a bank or currency exchange outlet can cost a lot and you are better off to have it set up with your bank and attached to your regular account(s).

Cash isn't used a whole lot these days but is accepted everywhere (must be by law). I haven't had cash in my wallet for years now. Personal checks ("cheques" in Canada), money orders and travelers checks have fallen by the wayside. "Plastic" money is the norm nowadays. Pennies disappeared here several years ago and cash transactions are rounded to the nearest nickel.

Never cross the border with over $10K in cash (not many would tho.) without declaring it and having a solid reason for having it.

TD would be a good bank to use as they are Canadian and have branches throughout the US.

If you don't do it now, setting up online banking is a good idea so you can keep an eye on transactions and balances anytime you want from anywhere (as long as you have a PC and internet access).

Here are some tips for Americans using credit cards in Canada:
http://gocanada.about.com/od/canadatravelplanner/qt/Tips-for-Using-Debit-Cards-In-Canada.htm

tonymull wrote:
I have found places in BC that don't take VISA but do take MC and some vis-versa...merchant fees, I was told.

I have never encountered that here. DW is an accountant and we use our VISA CCs for buying virtually everything (USA or Canada) because we get 1% cash back at the end of the year, double the warranty on items and a few other perks. VISA is one of the most widely used cards in Canada. A few grocery stores (smaller ones) take debit cards or cash only. Some stores, usually small places don't want to accept any CC because they have to absorb a high merchant fee but I have found this to be infrequent in the past couple of years. Or a store might want to spend a min. amount before accepting a CC.

rag-ftw wrote:
Additional thoughts:
1. Check with the issuer of your credit cards to see which ones charge a "foreign transaction fee", some do and some don't.
2. Call all your credit card issuers and advise them of your itinerary so they don't shut your card off while you are in the middle of Canada and have to pay $1.69 a minute cell phone time while on hold waiting to get the issuer to reauthorize your card.
3. Estimate how much cash you think you will need and then take twice as much! You never know when you will have a breakdown and need some extra cash.

X2
That "foreign transaction fee" can add up quickly when using credit or debit. Ask your card company and make sure they know you are traveling.

Also ask your cell phone company if they have a Canadian add on plan to keep cost down. You usually can cancel when you get home.

An aside to the cash story.I have a brother in law that doesn't travel much and on a trip to Hawaii along with a visa takes $4000.00 Us. cash in a big roll in his pocket.You wouldn't believe how many places would not take his cash when he hauled out the big roll.They didn't trust him or his money.Finally changed to carrying smaller amounts.We all offered to carry some but nope.

When you cross the border, go to a bank and convert US dollars for CA, you should get at least $500CA for expenses such as restaurants, tips, emergencies, etc and have either a MasterCard or Visa. ragftw above has everything nailed down quite well. The exchange rate right now is almaost 20%, $1.00 US equals $1.20 CA, so it's best not to pay with US funds if you can avoid it. However, by nest summer the exchange rate will probably be more favorable and the US and CA dollars might even be at par. Make sure you notify your CC companies of your travel plans so they don't cut you off.