Cashing Canadian Bank Checks In The US

[Marilyn. 340]

yeah, I sent some money up to Canada through Paypal and it didn't cost anything...

[Teddy B 17,251]

I have experienced difficulties with Canadian checks coming to the US for years--so much so that I just don't do it anymore. My USC fiance has had the same problems even at his Credit Union.

Canada is happy to receive American money.

America doesn't want anything other than American money.

That's my explanation of it.

I have, for many MANY years dealt with this on a variety of levels. When I deposit a US cheQUE ( ) into my Canadian account I get whatever amount the exchange rate for that day deems it to be worth.

Whenever anything Canadian is deposited into a U.S. account it's a huge deal. My husband and I deal with this in our business on a regular basis too. Huge fees. Even traveling to Canada using his Visa Debit card from PNC. HUGE FEES. But my RBC US account, no fees on my Visa Debit card. So you can see which one we use now while traveling to Canada!

I would ask your family not to send cheques but to buy U.S. money order or bank draft instead if they're keen on sending you money.

It's a pain in the ####### but I don't see how it will change any time soon.

This seems to be the general consensus the more people I talk to. For whatever reason, most US banks don't want to deal with foreign currency.

It's kinda ridiculous because the amount of money is so small, $50 or a $100. They're just birthday or Christmas presents. This last one was a $50 check from my MIL for my wife's birthday. We're not going to bother cashing the check. I told my wife we'll shake her Mom down for the cash next week when we go to Windsor.

Thanks to everyone for their replies.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

I was outraged when this first happened to me but I got over it pretty quickly because really - they are 2 separate countries - unfortunately this is not the European union where things like money are relatively seamless

What always ticks me off is that back in Canada I could go to the bank and get American currency easy peasey. If I were to go to my bank here in VA (close to DC which one would think is pretty international) they freak out - takes them days to order foreign currency and gawd forbid you come back from your vacation with some leftover Canadian and want to exchange it back.

Someday America annoys me (and yes, I am one of them now )

[Teddy B 17,251]

I was outraged when this first happened to me but I got over it pretty quickly because really - they are 2 separate countries - unfortunately this is not the European union where things like money are relatively seamless

What always ticks me off is that back in Canada I could go to the bank and get American currency easy peasey. If I were to go to my bank here in VA (close to DC which one would think is pretty international) they freak out - takes them days to order foreign currency and gawd forbid you come back from your vacation with some leftover Canadian and want to exchange it back.

Someday America annoys me (and yes, I am one of them now )

I had the same experience trying to exchange some Canadian currency I brought home with me at my bank here in Mass. The woman at the bank told me it looked counterfeit. lol She said if I wanted to leave the money there for a few days she would look into exchanging it to US dollars. I just laughed and said no thanks. I went home,put it in my top drawer and used it 3 months later when I went back to Canada.

[3-4D 7]

I am being told that they don't go through the exchange rate, which I thought was strange. I believe that in the last couple years, the Canadian dollar was higher than the US dollar.

We're going to Windsor in a week to visit my wife's family, I'm going to get more info on this because somethings not adding up.

Banks normally charge 5% bankrate for foreign checks of the going exchange rate. So if the CAD 1=$1.05 If you are depositing a 100 CAD, normally you will think the U.S change should be $105. The thing is the bank charges 5% of the exchange rate of 1.05 which is 1.05-0.0525 = 0.9975. So even though you were to receive $105, after the fee you are receiveing 99.75