Snowbird Banking

Td bank...in Canada and Florida...no international fees.
We used it on our trip to Newfoundland/Labrador quite successfully...only issue was that we had to take out enough money to get us from Gros Morne area to Labrador, over gravel road, and down quebec 389 (that was REALLY a ride) to quebec city. We ended up taking too much out and had to trade in Canadian for American.

We use our TD debit card in place of a cc now that it has the Visa symbol. That way we only pay the exchange not the extra 2.5 percent. We also use it to get cash back when we are shopping. I can only think of one time in the last few years that I used an atm.

I tried to use my CIBC Visa debit card at Sam's Club in Yuma a couple of years ago and it did not go through so I have no idea if you posters are talking about US bank debit cards or special debit cards from your Cdn banks. I just take enough cash to cover travel expenses on the way and then American Express travelers cheques which I can cash at any Wells Fargo bank or any of the major grocery stores, wally world, Sam's club etc.

I am just signing up for the TD card, you only have to keep $200 in there and there are no fees. Only disadvantage is all their US ATM's are on the east coast.

Albertaguy, its a US account that Canadian's can have and provides a US dollar credit & debit card. You can pre-feed it before you go

We just found out yesterday that TD in Canada has finally connected with TD in the USA so after setting up a borderless account we will set up a savings account in the TD in Kissimmi via the TD hotline,put our American money into it and in turn they will send our debit cards to us here in Canada so we are all set to go for November,thanks to all for your inputs!!

Red Green:
As you get older, you realize you can't always get what you want,
but if you try sometimes, you can get yet another financial setback.

When we were there in May - late JUne, TD Canada did not have access to our records...so is it correct that now they will? WE could still use the atm's to withdraw though.

almcc wrote:
I finally got around to getting a US$ credit card from my Canadian bank last winter (I'm a slow learner!) to eliminate those hidden fees buried in the exchange rates when using a Canadian $ CC.

What am I missing? You still pay a fee to convert from $CDN to $US. Are you saying you can do that for less than the CC company charges?

joebedford wrote:

almcc wrote:
I finally got around to getting a US$ credit card from my Canadian bank last winter (I'm a slow learner!) to eliminate those hidden fees buried in the exchange rates when using a Canadian $ CC.

What am I missing? You still pay a fee to convert from $CDN to $US. Are you saying you can do that for less than the CC company charges?

There has been lots of discussion on this issue.I feel I'm farther ahead using a US$ card, if I buy something at $100 US, I get charged $100 US on my card. When it comes to paying, I'm getting a bank rate (not a CC rate) converting C$ to US$ with no bank fees. When I convert on-line I get a rate that is good for 60 seconds, I can take it or wait for a better rate (perhaps tomorrow). I also have the flexibility of waiting to pay the balance off until a couple of days before the due date to get a better rate (bearing in mind that there is a one day or so delay in processing the transaction, probably a money laundering check). Finally, you can use some US$ income to pay the card off if you have it (US$ stock dividends for example), without going through the buy/sell bank spread.