US to Canadian dollars

[junmy3]

DW and I will be going to Canada in August. We will be entering at International Falls going to Winnipeg and on to Saskatchewan. We plan to use of charge card as much as possible but already know a couple of campground that require cash. All were is the best place to exchange $200-$300 US dollars for Canadian dollars?

[garyhaupt]

I paid 1.21 yesterdy in Princeton, BC. At 1.15 in Penticton.

Gary Haupt

[almcc]

Depends on where you are in Canada and if you are running on gas or diesel. We spent the winter in the US where diesel is more expensive than gas, I filled up back home here in Ontario (at $1.00/liter) it was still more expensive than in the US taking into account the exchange rate etc. California was a possible exception but both California and BC have carbon taxes so it probably is still more expensive here in Canada.

[enblethen]

Gas is not that high when you do proper conversions. At least, we didn't find the case in our travels in our friendly neighbor to the north.

[John___Angela]

JaxDad wrote:

enblethen wrote:
Best way to convert coming back into the US is to count it up and pump it into the fuel tank in Canada.

Considering Canadian gas prices are nearly double those in the US I don't think that's a very cost effective way of doing it.

Wow. Unless gas is crazy expensive in Ontario the calculation may be off a bit. Gas is 1.09 a litre here in the interiour of BC. That's about 4.14 a US GALLON. So in American dollars that is about 3.03 US dollars. When we came through Washington Oregon and California a couple months ago gas was about 2.90 to 3.05 US per gallon. So not much more.

[JaxDad]

enblethen wrote:
Best way to convert coming back into the US is to count it up and pump it into the fuel tank in Canada.

Considering Canadian gas prices are nearly double those in the US I don't think that's a very cost effective way of doing it.

[enblethen]

Best way to convert coming back into the US is to count it up and pump it into the fuel tank in Canada.

[2gypsies1]

We got the best rate at a Canadian bank just after we crossed. We were going to use Provincial Parks and Yukon parks a lot on the way to Alaska so we got $300. We also used it for incidentals. We returned with $40 and no one would convert back to U.S. So we just donated it to the Glacier Nat'l Park when we went there - a good cause.

We use a Visa card (no fee) as much as we could.

[free_radical]

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..

[ford-willy]

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.

[almcc]

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.

[junmy3]

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]

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.

[DownTheAvenue]

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!

[JaxDad]

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.