Best methods for paying for items

[Lindaapple]

I am sure this will seem like an odd question but I am wondering what the best way to pay for things such as parking, meals, souvenirs, resort fees, etc.? Do most people exchange cnd for usd before they leave, or do most people use their Canadian credit cards? Is there any issues using credit cards or any extra charges for doing so?
Also, if anyone who watches that exchange rates and trends, do you feel exchanging currencies would be best now or waiting until we leave in May?
Thanks for advice and help!

 

[mort1331]

Exchange rates are as good as going to the slots. So it depends when you want to change.
But for your other questions. I have always paid by CC and sucked up the forex fee. This time we have bought disney GC here and will apply them to our account when we get there. You can apply them early if you think the exchange is good right now to pay for your room, tickets, meal plans. Or once you get there if staying onsite charge to the room. Just remember to go the night before and pay for your room charges with the GC, or overnight they will put them on the CC you left. We are saving 2.5% doing it this way, not a lot, but hey why give that money away. It could add up to a mickey bar...yum

 

[22Tink]

I’ve done cash and cc mostly for other trips but this trip I’m taking Disney gift cards to cover as much as we can

 

[sherilaine]

There are some no foreign fee cards but Amazon has just discontinued their Canadian version - while ours will still be valid when we visit this year I actually get more points by using my regular card than by using the no exchange fee one - so it's close to a wash and I'd rather just use my card. We get some cash - to buy certain things but we tend to use our cards for main purchases like meals, hotel, car rental and our tickets are bought before we leave.

The dollar has been pretty steady for the past few months - I think the greatest fluctuations in the last 6 months is around 5 cents - and the last month is less than 2 cents. Things could happen to see it go down some before May - such as NAFTA getting officially torn up - but honestly I doubt it will get much better than it is today.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I use a BMO USD Mastercard or my Fido Mastercard with 4% cashback on foreign transactions. My Visa is my back up card in the US. Of course, we always take some cash for those times when cash is king.

 

[hdrolfe]

I've used cash and credit card, sometimes in the same trip I will probably have a gift card for my next trip, at least for kiddo's purchases.

I liked using the app to mobile order at the parks, and that I had to use a credit card for.

 

[starvenger]

We use credit cards, but if you're budgeting that's arguably the worst thing to use.

For cash, I try to exchange before hand, and if I'm already there I'll use my debit at a Publix or somewhere and get cash back.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Also depends on if your CC has any relevant travel rewards on it. For example, if you have an AVION card, you earn more points on "travel" purchases.

When the final WDW balance cleared our card when we checked out, it was ALL billed as "travel" expenses in one lump pay rather than multiple gift shops and restaurants. But of course we were charging it all on MB/to the room Account. If we had manually paid, I'm sure the difference would have shown up as a separate line item. But because it was all billed under one large sum, it was "travel" and therefore earned us all the Rewards points we needed for Next Visit's Flight by paying for this past Disney vacation... LOL

 

[Average Joes]

I primarily use a CC with 1.5 net cash back on U.S. exchanges after their 2.5% fee. All my food and item purchases will be exchanged at whatever the rate is when I go. One of the few other options I can think of is to pay about 4% now to the bank to buy U.S. cash. I do not want to carry around a large amount of money or loose 5.5% (4% fee for cash + 1.5% cash back). Another option is to get the dining plan now but that is a poor investment for my family.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Yeah we pulled all our USD cash direct from RBC before we got to the airport ... then we mostly just had the Visa to use anywhere that accepted it....

 

[bankr63]

Credit card is king. DW and I each carry about US$100 in cash when travelling in the US for incidentals, but there are few places that we need to do that (tipping resort staff). If I get down below about $40 I stop at TD Bank down there and top up another $100. But for everything else, a CC is more economical. Even with no perks, Visa and MC cards charge 2.5% forex on US transactions pretty much universally (AFAIK there is only one true no-forex card left). Banks charge at least 2.5% forex on counter exchange except for large transactions. When I checked TD last week I found their counter rate climbing into the 3% range*. So the CC is most often cheaper or a wash. BUT CC's give you more back as well. Most cards now have some sort of associated program that gives you points or %age cash back, making them a generally better option. There are also other purchase protections on cards, and if you lose your card, you can get another (lose your cash and it is gone). As long as you pay off the balance in full before the charges start accruing interest, you will be ahead of the game.

*Note: it's pretty easy to figure out what your bank is charging on the counter rate. For TD I just went to their exchange rates page online (found in the Travel resources) and used their calculator. C$100 will get me US$78.85. Then converting US$78.85 back to C$ gets me C$94.49. I lost C$5.51 on the $100 or, 5.51%. That is 2.76% each way; a bit more than the 2.5% that most CC's charge. The fee is down a little from last week.

 

[mab2012]

If you have to ask (and I don't intend that in a mean way at all), you should probably just use your favourite credit card. There's no reason to expect issues (but always have a back-up card in case your first choice gets blocked for some reason), and the only "extra charge" is the 2.5% forex markup that others have already mentioned. There are ways to do a bit better on exchange rates, but we're talking a few percent at most, and usually less than that. For most people, it's not worth the effort. If it actually is worth the effort for you, have a look at some of the other threads in this forum around credit card choices, US bank accounts, or exchange rates. There's always a few.

I always have a small amount of cash on hand, but usually only need it for tips.

As for when to buy: everyone will have an opinion on this, but nobody knows, including the experts. Currency markets are notoriously volatile, and large currency fluctuations are usually the result of relatively unpredictable national or global events. If you're sensitive to exchange rate fluctuations, the best advice is always dollar cost averaging (ie. buy smaller fixed amounts on a regular schedule in order to average out any currency fluctuations over time).

 

[RipperSB]

I used to use my Canadian credit card but realized I was then stuck with the exchange rate of the day. I bank with BMO and now have a USD bank account and a USD Mastercard. I regularly make transfers to the USD account to even out the wilder fluctuations in the exchange rate. I charge everything with the USD Mastercard and then pay it off with USD account. I also take some USD cash for tips.

 

[kiford]

We typically just use our credit card. DH has a USD bank account which has a small balance and we use it to withdraw cash and we either keep leftover US$ after vacation. If it's a large amount, it goes into the USD account but if it's small we hang onto it. We normally only take a small amount of cash with us mainly for the odd item that we can't charge to our room or for tips such as for bell services. Everything else goes on credit card.

 

[cdnSpinalTap]

I just returned from our trip and we used our Rogers Platinum MasterCard exclusively. Although you are a slave to the daily rate, you are getting 1.5% net back on all purchases. The ease of using a single card and paying it off with CDN dollars far outweighs the hassle of maintaining a US bank account, buying US dollars, maintaining an additional US credit card, etc. - for me, anyway.

We took down about $300 in US cash, but I brought 90% of it home. With the credit card linked to the room and the magic band, it did not make sense to use the cash since I would not have received the extra 1.5% back that I get on the Rogers MasterCard.

 

[efrant]

I am sure this will seem like an odd question but I am wondering what the best way to pay for things such as parking, meals, souvenirs, resort fees, etc.? Do most people exchange cnd for usd before they leave, or do most people use their Canadian credit cards? Is there any issues using credit cards or any extra charges for doing so?
Also, if anyone who watches that exchange rates and trends, do you feel exchanging currencies would be best now or waiting until we leave in May?
Thanks for advice and help!

The best way to pay for things is to use a Canadian credit card that doesn't charge (or that covers) the 2.5% foreign exchange fee. Now that the Amazon Visa and the Marriott Visa have been discontinued, the only three cards on the market currently are: 1) Home Trust Preferred Visa; 2) Rogers Platinum MasterCard; 3) Fido MasterCard.

 

[Sue M]

I have a CIBC USD acct and USD Visa. So when our dollar goes up I buy some USD and put in my USD acct. I pay off Visa using my USD acct.
last year I also bought Canadian Disney Gift Cards from Safeway to use for dining & suvies. You don’t have to pay the 2.5% forex. A small savings but it’s something. When you use the gift cards the amount spent gets converted with what the rate is that day. So I use a combo of methods. I also bring some cash but don’t really like traveling with a lot of cash. Using the combo of Visa and Gift Cards worked well for me.