Silly American Question

[eeyoregon]

Ok, PLEASE excuse my ignorance. I have only been to Canada once and it was as a child. If I am buying something that costs $28 Canadian dollars and I am paying with American dollars, how much am I paying??

Feeling embarassed

TIA

gina

 

[phillipsphamily]

Most stores are accepting US dollars at par at this time. The exchange rate
on Friday was .97 cents US to buy 1 Canadian dollar.

 

[sympatico]

Technically you'd be paying $27.16 but as Phillip said probably the stores are treating it as par $28.
This might not be too good for you coming to Canada but it's great for us going to Florida. We've gone other years when it took $1.50 Canadian to make $1 US. With it almost par it's great for vacationing in the US.

 

[minnie56]

Yep!
ALmost the same ! Whooooo-Hooooooo!

 

[sk8jdgca]

late friday afternoon (Sept 14) The bank was paying .4 cents on the USD-yep that is less than 1/2 cent per dollar.

 

[101DalmFan]

As others have mentioned, there is a slight difference -- but right now it's very slight, so it's easiest just to treat it as par. If you're buying up here in Canada, though, do keep in mind that our sales taxes are much higher than in the U.S., as we have both a federal sales tax (the GST, 6%) and each province with the exception of Alberta also has a provincial sales tax (PST). For example, here in Ontario, the PST is 8%, so a $10 item actually costs $11.40 with the taxes added.

This is one of the reasons we Canadians are so happy about spending our money in the U.S. right now -- it's almost at par AND we pay less in tax, making prices even better!

 

[ChisJo]

Unless you come to Alberta....we don't have PST - only GST, so only 6% taxes on merchandise.

 

[LittleFlounder]

Here's a great converter to figure out what you'll be spending U.S. dollars:

http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=0&from=CAD&to=USD&submit=Convert

 

[RoyalCanadian]

The American greenback is, of course, not legal tender in Canada and any stores that accept it as payment for merchandise are doing the customer a service. No store is under any obligation to accept foreign currency as payment.

Since currency exchange is such an easy thing -- and customers paying for merchandise in US $ are going to get Canadian change in return -- it is just easier for everyone for visitors to Canada to exchange their money at the currency exchange or visit a Canadian ATM and withdraw the Canadian currency there.