Not the actual exchange rate itself. I'm talking about what you actually get when you go to exchange Canadian dollars. I went to grab some USD for a weekend trip and I know that the dollar is at about 70 cents. I went to my bank and they tell me that I have to pay 1.45 for a USD. So my dollar is really only worth 55 cents. Our dollar was actually almost 71 cents when I went to do the exchange, so they are making 16 cents on every dollar. That is effectively a 23 percent premium that I have to pay for them to exchange my money. I told them to go screw them selves. I paid 1.42 at an exchange here on Yonge st. Still a rip-off.
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When did exchanging money become such a rip-off?
- Thread starter TO Bandit
- Start date
What it currently trades for on the open market and what you have to pay to exchange currency at a bank are two different things. You will never get the market value as there is a % added for converting the money.
If you are going to be doing this regularly, look into forex trading to help lower the cost of buying and selling currency.
If you are going to be doing this regularly, look into forex trading to help lower the cost of buying and selling currency.
No.
1.45 CAD = 1 USD
1 CAD = 0.69 USD
CAD has rallied a bit these past coupla days, but you're still paying over 1.40 Canadian tomatoes for an American single.
Exchange fee varies a lot depending on where you go. Most exchanges are terrible tourist traps.
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If your joe average, banks offer one of the worst exchange rates. Currency converters off the tourist trail are your best bet. I use Continental Currency, best rate I can find.
They have to offer better rates, they wouldn't be in business if they didn't.
They have to offer better rates, they wouldn't be in business if they didn't.
Was shaking my head till I saw this, then I LOL'd.
Whoa... you might want to give this another edit.
Yep, sorta. The posted exchange rate is for interbank transfers, basically...ie, only the banks actually get that rate. You, the consumer, pay a premium, and on top of that, often service fees.
But...
We travel quite a bit and I've never bothered exchanging money beforehand, opting to just visit a TD Bank in the USA (We are TD customers here, so it's fee-free) and withdraw what little cash we actually carry once we're already across the border. If no TD is available, we go to the local WalMart, buy something on debit, and get cash back - our plan allows for unlimited USA debit transactions as well.
Via either method, with TD at least, you get the interbank transfer rate (so you DO get that "posted rate") with a 250 basis point fee on top for the conversion. In the end it ends up being less than getting money exchanged over here before travelling, and I seldom feel the need to carry much cash, opting to just use our debit card everywhere the same as we would at home.
The struggle is real.
Still trying to figger out what the problem is. If a Canadian $ is worth .7 of a US $ and they want 1.45 Canadian $'s in exchange for 1 US $ then you would multiply .7 x 1.45 to see what you're paying in US $'s to buy US $'s. So .7x 1.45 = 1.015
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theraymondguy
Well-known member
The business I work for is charging $1.51 for a USD. Damn near everything we sell is in USD; if you think we're getting killed by our competition on estimates, you'd be right.
Keeping my options open.
Keeping my options open.
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