Best place to purchase US cash?

[bande]

We are paying someone in US cash for our condo rental and want to use cash on our trip rather than credit card. Since we do all our banking online, we don't have any "real" bank location that we are connected to anymore. I'm trying to figure out the best place to purchase our US cash. We have lots of major banks near us and also a foreign currency "store" at the local mall. Any suggestions?? Thanks.

 

[marilyn23]

I would phone around and check to see the rates. We travel quite a bit out of Canada. For any cash, we take it out from the bank. We usually use credit card though, keeps things simple.

 

[ccudmore]

Many Canadian banks have ATMs that dispense US cash. Go to their web site and do an ATM search and find one of them and do a US$ withdrawal. For example if you use PC Financial for online banking, you can go to any CIBC bank machine that dispenses US$ cash and get cash out with no service charges beyond the normal exchange rate.

 

[Alderbrook]

we just go to the mall & use the foreign currency store. I find everywhere pretty much has the same rates give or take.

 

[corster]

I find the smaller currency exchange places like Accu-Rate, Calforex, or Kantor tend to have fairly good rates...

But some of the smaller ones do charge a higher than normal rate, so just use your due dilligence, and check the market rate (just do a google search for 1 USD in CAD to see the current inverse rate)

 

[networktek]

i find that the banks usually have a bit better excahnge rate and they dont charge a fee to change the money

 

[rjan67]

The exchange at border crossings are fairly competitive.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

You could also go to your nearest post office and have them send the money to the person.

 

[Sue M]

I just go to my bank. I have a US acct, and just have them transfer from my checking to the US acct.

 

[twokids0204]

I find ING has the best rates around.

They have free US savings accounts (no fees).

Scotia has free US (no fee ) accounts, if you maintain a balance of $200.

However Scotia gives you 0% interest on your money. ING gives you 0.5%.

I buy the money at ING when the interest rate is at it's lowest and then transfer it to Scotia, so I can withdraw the ca$h when needed.

 

[corster]

I find ING has the best rates around.

They have free US savings accounts (no fees).

Scotia has free US (no fee ) accounts, if you maintain a balance of $200.

However Scotia gives you 0% interest on your money. ING gives you 0.5%.

I buy the money at ING when the interest rate is at it's lowest and then transfer it to Scotia, so I can withdraw the ca$h when needed.

ING has fantastic exchange rates - occasionally they even beat XETrade.

I do a very similar thing to you, My primary bank is ING and my secondary bank is RBC - I have the RBC US E-Savings Account (No Fee, No Minimum Balance, One Withdrawal a Month) - I save up my USD in ING and then transfer it to RBC to withdraw whenever I'm ready