Best way to transfer Canadian funds to the US

[Texanadian 10]

The nice thing about Custom House is that you can do live on the spot trades (they tell you what the rate is, you can refresh as many times as you want until you see a good rate.) Or you can pick you own rate and Custom House will wait until that rate happens. At that time they'll transfer your money.

Is the exchange rate 1.04 and you want something cheaper? Enter in 1.35. You may have to wait a few days or even a week or two. But that is the rate you will get.

[pegbert64 0]

The good part is that you have complete online access to your Canadian account and U.S. account and can transfer money between the two, online.

That's what I did. I had been a long-term client of Royal Bank in Canada. So when I saw the RBC sign outside a bank in NC, I went in to find out if I could get an account with them. I got a "Royal Embassy Account", which is a US based account only available to Canadians. They also gave me a Visa and a line of credit to boot!

The best thing is that when you sign into onine banking, you see two tabs: one for your RBC US account, and another for you RBC Canada accounts. You can transfer money back and forth to your Canada / US RBC accounts at no additional charge (other than your normal account charges); you just get charged the exchange rate. When my parents wanted to give me a monetary gift, they could just go to their local RBC in Canada, deposit $CAN into my account, and they would not have to deal with exchange, etc. Then I'd go online and transfer the money to my Centura account. Easy peasy! Conversely, if I needed to pay a bill in Canada (a few straglers), I could transfer money from Centura to my Canada account, and pay the bill online. Done!

[pegbert64 0]

On a similar note: what do y'all do when you get a check from Canada, in $CAN? Do you shop around for the best rate to cash it, and then put it where you will? I just cashed in some of my RRSPs, and since I'm out of the country they are mailing me a check. I figured I'd just deposit it into my local RBC US account.... but I'm wondering how to get the best exchange?

[Flames9_RN 358]

I gave my parents my Cdn bank card. so if I got any cdn checks,just mailed them back!

Keep in mind, when one selects the desired rate you want from CH, its not a given that rate will ever come available! But I imagine you know that,lol

[Cdn_Ali 11]

I'm another fan of Custom House. In my job, I have to keep tabs on large deposits coming the other direction (into Canada) and I cannot tell you how many times we've had wire transfers from the USA and the UK go 'missing' in transit...not a good thing!! Of course, the money always turns up eventually, but try calming down a client who has just sent a $50,000 wire transfer and no-one knows where it is. Plus, they usually pay $20-$30 in fees for the privilege. I always recommend Custom House - they are so reliable and easy to deal with. And for large sums of money, you can save hundreds of dollars in exchange because their rates are usually better than the banks.

I have a personal bank account in the US & I'm set up for online transfers. The money goes right from my Canadian bank account to my US account. I don't usually transfer more than $1,000 at a time though. But when I sell my apartment, I will use them to transfer the proceeds.

One final thing - tighter anti-terrorism/money-laundering laws came into effect in Canada on June 23 (FINTRAC) so you may have to provide a little more ID verification than you're used to when setting up new accounts. Nothing to be concerned about...just new 'pain in the ###' rules that have to be followed.

[Flames9_RN 358]

Ya, I recall getting an email from CustomHouse this summer something about new regulations, blah blah, blah, didnt pay much attention to it,lol

[Sheriff Uling 3]

http://www.customhouse.com/

Absolutely the way to go.. it takes a little to set up- so once you have your US banking info you should set an account up - but it's simple, very easy and best of all NO fees to do a straight EFT

Thanks for the info! I'm going to check it out too...

Cheers!!!

Sheriff Uling