US Dollar bank account at Scotiabank?

[Ted in Halifax]

Anyone have experience with this? I plan to start one next week and slowly accumulate $US. I see that it is no fee with a $200 min Balance ... any experience?

 

[Tiggs14]

We've had one for about a year or so...however my husband works for Scotia so I know very little about the fee side of the account as we're exempt for them.

The only think I don't like about the account is you can't make online payments with the account. You can write US dollar cheques from the account though.

My only other wish is that Scotia would get a US dollar Visa/Mastercard.

 

[Tower]

Anyone have experience with this? I plan to start one next week and slowly accumulate $US. I see that it is no fee with a $200 min Balance ... any experience?

Hi Ted,
While I have no experience with Scotiabank's US accounts, we currently have a TD Canada Trust USD account for just that purpose. No fees and I currently have just $40 in that account. With the rise of the Canadian dollar, we do plan on first paying off our Disney cruise and our upcoming trip to MK, but anything we can spare will be going into that USD account for future family travels.
We're not fans of Scotiabank. I'm sure things have likely changed since we had a car loan with them 16 years ago, but at the time they could not handle a car loan very well. Whenever we made a principle payment on that loan, the CSR's didn't know what to do with it.

 

[Tower]

The only think I don't like about the account is you can't make online payments with the account. You can write US dollar cheques from the account though.

Not sure about Scotia, but TD allows me to transfer from my CA account to the USD and vice versa online.

My only other wish is that Scotia would get a US dollar Visa/Mastercard.

I've had that tied in to my USD account, but cancelled it after a while. What I REALLY WANT is a Disney Rewards Visa! My Aerogold Visa and it's association with Air Canada really sucks!

 

[kid@heart2]

I agree with ya on the US Visa..that would be a nice idea wouldn't it?

 

[canabrits2]

I have a US Dollar bank account at Scotiabank. It rocks.

I applied for the account through my regular Scotiabank online banking website and set it up without any help at all. I can transfer money directly from my regular cheque account to the USD account whenever I'm happy with the rate. I did open it with the $200 balance but honestly, even when you don't keep the $200 in there, it's only like 0.75 cents per month fee or something small. I can also see all my bank accounts on my banking online home page (including USD one) and it's nice.

Scotiabank does not have a USD Visa, however, so I opened one at CIBC. It's annoying not having that on my screen too, but hey, what do ya do?

 

[House_of_Mouse Fan]

I have a US account at Scotia and it's great. The only downside is that you are charged a fee (I think it's 2.5%) if you complete an on-line transfer from your Canadian account to your US account. I get around this by withdrawing money from the bank machine and depositing into my US account with a teller. No extra fees there...go figure!

I agree about the US Visa. It would be sooooo much easier. I have a US BMO Mastercard instead.

 

[Ted in Halifax]

I have a US account at Scotia and it's great. The only downside is that you are charged a fee (I think it's 2.5%) if you complete an on-line transfer from your Canadian account to your US account. I get around this by withdrawing money from the bank machine and depositing into my US account with a teller. No extra fees there...go figure!

I agree about the US Visa. It would be sooooo much easier. I have a US BMO Mastercard instead.

So basically that explains why when I tried to transfer money today ... I saw a rate of 1.05 .... which looked way too high! So the best method is to take CDN cash out and deposit through teller? Correct?

Thanks
Ted

 

[Salinger]

I'm a big fan of the CIBC US dollar account. There are no monthy fees and no minimum balance, so it works great for me who (for the most part) just saves US dollars for vacations. Often my account has only a few dollars in after I've withdrawn for vacation spending money. The only cost involved is 75¢ per withdrawal. I generally make only 2 or 3 withdrawals per year, so very cost effective. Another great benefit of the CIBC account is the ability to withdraw US dollars from the US account straight from a CIBC ATM. (just look for the symbol that shows the ATM can dispense USD. Many of them have it). I think CIBC is the only bank that allows you to do this.

I link this account with my ING Direct US dollar account. It also has no fees, earns decent interest (for a USD account) and has some of the best exchange rates available when converting. I just do an online transfer from ING to CIBC, then withdraw through the ATM.

This set up works really well for me, and no worries about keeping X dollars balance or monthly fees eating away at my vacation money!

 

[poffles]

Not sure about Scotia, but TD allows me to transfer from my CA account to the USD and vice versa online.

I've had that tied in to my USD account, but cancelled it after a while. What I REALLY WANT is a Disney Rewards Visa! My Aerogold Visa and it's association with Air Canada really sucks!

I had one at Scotiabank (just moved to RBC) and want to caution you against transferring to the US $$ online as it costs .02 cents more above the rate if you go into the Bank. I transferred a few times online before someone else told me this and I thought they were crazy so of couse I checked for myself (pretend transfer to see the rate) vs the posted Scotiabank rate and they were right. Makes no sense that you are charged more to do it yourself!!!!!!! (And I was not comparing to the straight exchange rate, it was .02 above the Scotiabank posted rate.)

 

[Alderbrook]

I second the CIBC account. I opened 1 in Jan & it still has no money in it & it hasn't cost me a thing. 0.75 cents per transaction & I can write US money orders from it for pretty cheap.

 

[House_of_Mouse Fan]

So basically that explains why when I tried to transfer money today ... I saw a rate of 1.05 .... which looked way too high! So the best method is to take CDN cash out and deposit through teller? Correct?

Thanks
Ted

As crazy as it seems, it appears to be the only way around the "extra" charges.

 

[poffles]

So basically that explains why when I tried to transfer money today ... I saw a rate of 1.05 .... which looked way too high! So the best method is to take CDN cash out and deposit through teller? Correct?

Thanks
Ted

You shouldn't have to withdraw from a machine first, just going to the teller and having them move the money gets around the fee. Makes no sense. I never withdrew from the machine first, I just told the teller I wanted XX$$ moved from my canadian account to my US account and they did it however they do it without the extra fee charged online. No money in my hands in between and no added 2 cents.

Go figure!!

 

[Salinger]

FYI, ING's US exchange rate is now 1.015. $100US will only cost you $101.50

 

[squirrel]

I went with RBC.

I have a US chequing account and a CAN savings account. I have it set up so I can transfer funds online. Neither account cost me money. The only way I would have to pay a fee is if I withdraw money twice from the US account in the same month.