US to Canadian dollars

Walmart does cashback as well.

Order it from your local bank before you leave.

Check what their fee is first. My bank would have hosed us if I wasn't paying attention.

BTW I found out the hard way, your CC company will likely charge you exchange fees for every transaction.

Check with your CC company. Capital One has numerous cards that don't charge fees.

Pay as much as you can on a no-fee credit card, even if it means getting a new one just for the trip. Use ATMs and/or check with the Canadian banks in the area you will be in and get their exchange rates. All exchange facilities will charge a fee. Definitely use the cash back option in stores if available.

I have found that the best rate was at a Canadian casino.

Tom N wrote:
I have found that the best rate was at a Canadian casino.

The duty free shops at the border also have VERY good exchange rates, they want to draw people in and favourable exchange rates is just another way of doing that.

John & Angela wrote:
Any Canadian ATM anywhere. Stick your card in and ask for 300 Dollars. It will spit out the cash and debit your account in American dollars at a reasonable rate.

X2

Just be sure to call your credit card company and your bank where the ATM card is from. Otherwise, they will cut off your card at its first use.

ATM in Canada works just like the US!

Coincidentally, My wife and I stopped today at the Currency Exchange that our Credit Union is linked to in Southern California. We are leaving in 2 weeks for our 3 month trip. We had 2500 dollars cash US and asked for it to be converted to Canadian. I am looking at the invoice right now. We gave them 2,498.05 and received 3,280.00 cash Canadian. The bills are so odd looking to us that the wife is going to have fun showing them to the grand kids. Not used to seeing bills with transparent portions.

Thanks for all the suggestions. We have a Capital One CC that does not charge an exchange fee. We have already used it on this trip to make some reservations at a couple of Canadian National Parks. I will have to check my debit card bank. We hardly ever use it since we earn a little cash back on our Capital One card.

ford-willy wrote:
Coincidentally, My wife and I stopped today at the Currency Exchange that our Credit Union is linked to in Southern California. We are leaving in 2 weeks for our 3 month trip. We had 2500 dollars cash US and asked for it to be converted to Canadian. I am looking at the invoice right now. We gave them 2,498.05 and received 3,280.00 cash Canadian. The bills are so odd looking to us that the wife is going to have fun showing them to the grand kids. Not used to seeing bills with transparent portions.

Today's Bank of Canada exchange rate is 0.732 so if you were to get that rate you would have gotten $3412 C$ and change. Canadian banks charge about 2.5% above the BOC rate to do an exchange. I would check your CC's actual exchange rate buried in the transaction to see how it compares to the BOC rate plus 2.5%.

Probably not a big deal for a one off but for us Canuks it is a bigger deal for us converting C$ to US$ going south for the winter, I use a service that gives us US$ at 0.5% above the BOC rate.

almcc wrote:

ford-willy wrote:
Coincidentally, My wife and I stopped today at the Currency Exchange that our Credit Union is linked to in Southern California. We are leaving in 2 weeks for our 3 month trip. We had 2500 dollars cash US and asked for it to be converted to Canadian. I am looking at the invoice right now. We gave them 2,498.05 and received 3,280.00 cash Canadian. The bills are so odd looking to us that the wife is going to have fun showing them to the grand kids. Not used to seeing bills with transparent portions.

Today's Bank of Canada exchange rate is 0.732 so if you were to get that rate you would have gotten $3412 C$ and change. Canadian banks charge about 2.5% above the BOC rate to do an exchange. I would check your CC's actual exchange rate buried in the transaction to see how it compares to the BOC rate plus 2.5%.

Probably not a big deal for a one off but for us Canuks it is a bigger deal for us converting C$ to US$ going south for the winter, I use a service that gives us US$ at 0.5% above the BOC rate.

Thanks for the info. Ya, sales at the Lake Havasu City Az. resort that we are owners at have slowed from Canadians because of the exchange rate I believe. They still rent by the droves though.

Fwiw on the advice of my bank officer,,
I use Money exchange place that always has better rates then my bank..

Its located in Devonshire mall,Windsor, for anyone visiting from Detroit MI..