Canadian Money Saving Tips

[Staceroo]

Yes. The cruise was $3000 U.S. When I wanted to book it. She told me I had the choice of paying it off gradually in U.S. Funds or I could convert it to Canadian now and that way the amount wouldn't fluctuate depending on how our dollar was doing. You don't get the choice when booking directly on dcl website, but whatever company she booked me through had the option. I chose to pay in Canadian funds from the get go so I knew the total amount right away.

 

[mevelandry]

Yes. The cruise was $3000 U.S. When I wanted to book it. She told me I had the choice of paying it off gradually in U.S. Funds or I could convert it to Canadian now and that way the amount wouldn't fluctuate depending on how our dollar was doing. You don't get the choice when booking directly on dcl website, but whatever company she booked me through had the option. I chose to pay in Canadian funds from the get go so I knew the total amount right away.

The difference I see is that the CC company won't charge you fees for the conversion. If you pay cash or by cheque, you don't get fees unless your bank is charging you fees (Paying in full when the conversion is acceptable is always the best choice)...

 

[Oswald the Canuck]

I've always wondered how much more expensive it is to purchase something with my Canadian dollar credit card and then pay the conversion fees vs putting on a US$ card and then converting funds at the bank. Found out the answer a few months ago (April 1/15).
I made two US$ 2000 payments towards my upcoming cruise.
Payment A was put on my US$ VISA. The same day I converted CA$ into US$2000 to pay off the VISA. Cost CA$ 2592.00.
Payment B was put on my RBC MasterCard. Converted cost CA$ 2605.34.
So it cost me $13.34 more to pay with my Canadian Dollar credit card. Not too bad as I got WestJet points with that card.

 

[tinkerone]

I've always wondered how much more expensive it is to purchase something with my Canadian dollar credit card and then pay the conversion fees vs putting on a US$ card and then converting funds at the bank. Found out the answer a few months ago (April 1/15).
I made two US$ 2000 payments towards my upcoming cruise.
Payment A was put on my US$ VISA. The same day I converted CA$ into US$2000 to pay off the VISA. Cost CA$ 2592.00.
Payment B was put on my RBC MasterCard. Converted cost CA$ 2605.34.
So it cost me $13.34 more to pay with my Canadian Dollar credit card. Not too bad as I got WestJet points with that card.

unless this all happened on april 1st you may be looking at an untrue comparison. coming from a banking background (32 years) i can tell you that most, not all, credit card companies charge you a 2.5% exchange fee plus some, again not all, charge a separate conversion fee. i have found people confuse the two fees and think that their cc companies don't charge them a exchange fee where as its really the conversion fee they don't pay.
i can tell you, from the bank of canada site, that on april first the b of c rate for u.s. was 1.2626, on the second it was 1.2564, the third was a bank holiday, the sixth it was 1.2478. it had been going down so if your cc company applied the fee on any day other that the day you purchased the cash then your going to see a smaller difference. banks also pay a fee for purchasing the money from the bank of canada which is to say that while the bank of canada says the rate of the day is 1.2626 the bank cost is a percentage more and they sell to you for a percentage more. so, on the first the bank of canada rate was 1.2626 but you paid 1.2960 for your cash transaction.

it could be that you just got lucky with only having a $13.34 difference. my point really is that you may want to not think of your experience as a sure thing every time.

a good rule of thumb is to expect to pay the 2.5% difference. anyones best bet is to do what you did and have a u.s. master card and purchase the cash to pay it off. does your u.s. visa offer you any points programs? my us cc gives me air miles so win win.

 

[Oswald the Canuck]

I have a Scotiabank US VISA with no points program. Which card do you have?

 

[tinkerone]

I have a Scotiabank US VISA with no points program. Which card do you have?

bank of montreal u.s. master card.

 

[1Winston]

We go in Jan and although we got a great deal on expedia for flights out of detroit (we live two hours from there)to miami, 740 canadian return for all four of us return!! The exchange is killing us. We just got our cc bill after paying the remanding of our cruise and our exchange is 1.39!!!! Brutal when you are looking at 6k american. Thank goodness for cheap flights. Missing the days where our dollar was closer.

 

[1Winston]

We normally fly into orlando for 200/ticket out of buffalo on jet blue or cheaper on southwest. If you are close enough to fly out of the us and can book on expedia and pay canadian dollars it is super helpful.

 

[Oswald the Canuck]

Thanks Tinkerone, I'll look into that.

As far as the excahnge goes, I just booked 2 nights at Disney pre-cruise. It's costing me $1000 more Canadian than it would have one year ago.

 

[tinkerone]

We normally fly into orlando for 200/ticket out of buffalo on jet blue or cheaper on southwest. If you are close enough to fly out of the us and can book on expedia and pay canadian dollars it is super helpful.

which expedia do you use? expedia.ca, expedia.com, i have used expedia.uk for wdw rooms and gotten excellent deals. never thought about using expedia for flights but will look into that.

 

[grantclaire]

We always book onboard then transfer the rez to a TA that will match the OBB. We have used Dreams Unlimited. When the CDN $ is low we will also take shorter trips or avoid excursions and just have a self guided tours or beach days. Have to cut back on shopping as well!

 

[1Winston]

which expedia do you use? expedia.ca, expedia.com, i have used expedia.uk for wdw rooms and gotten excellent deals. never thought about using expedia for flights but will look into that.

We use Expedia.ca. Good luck.

 

[go oilers go]

We book onboard, use airmiles for flights and park passes (Safeway knows me by name), stash money in our U.S. Account, use our U.S. MasterCard in the U.S., and pay things off on days the dollar looks a little better...most of our upcoming trip is paid off except car rental, spending money, food, and universal passes. We will pay these off when we get home with that stashed money in our U.S. Account.

This will be our last trip for a while until the dollar gets better! Lots of great Canadian staycations . Love Disney but we need some discounts thrown our way!

 

[mama2lilprincesses]

Just booked our flight from Toronto - Orlando for a family of 4. Used a westjet credit card I received in the spring and saved $700 thanks to the $99 companion fair, the first timer cash bonus and no fees for luggage.

 

[tinkerone]

Just booked our flight from Toronto - Orlando for a family of 4. Used a westjet credit card I received in the spring and saved $700 thanks to the $99 companion fair, the first timer cash bonus and no fees for luggage.

hmmm that card sounds interesting. is there a fee? i still love flying from our nearest us airport because its so tiny and person is a hot mess but for the right price……

 

[mama2lilprincesses]

$99. But I thought that was minor in light of the savings.

 

[tinkerone]

$99. But I thought that was minor in light of the savings.

thank you for the information. i have a world elite master card and i get an employee rate on it so i don't think the west jet would be a good fit….sadly. i would also have to pay $49 for a second card for dh which makes it even more expensive but he does have the purchases so it would be necessary.
again, thank you for the information. i guess i need to just hope the us rate goes down again. i also get a staff rate on my us money purchases so that helps a bit as well.

 

[erk711]

I have a Scotiabank US VISA with no points program. Which card do you have?

I have an Amazon.ca Visa. It's Cdn but doesn't charge conversion fee. Get money rebates depending on amounts charged. Extra 'points' for buying from Amazon.

 

[Chrisey]

Loving all of these tips! Costco Travel has just become available in Canada... When booking a Disney Cruise you will get 9% back on a Costco gift card!

I also applied for a Amazon.ca Visa as was suggested above (thanks for that tip!), you will get 1% cashback.

I was also in the States this weekend and applied for a Target Red card, I haven't been approved on that yet, but if I am then I can buy Disney gift cards at 5% off.

 

[tinkerone]

Loving all of these tips! Costco Travel has just become available in Canada... When booking a Disney Cruise you will get 9% back on a Costco gift card!

I also applied for a Amazon.ca Visa as was suggested above (thanks for that tip!), you will get 1% cashback.

I was also in the States this weekend and applied for a Target Red card, I haven't been approved on that yet, but if I am then I can buy Disney gift cards at 5% off.

I had a target red card cc and I will warn you of a few things. the first was the credit limit that is given is only $500. since I don't make it to the u.s. but maybe every three four months it didn't do a lot for me. also, I would buy the gift cards and pay the bill right there. I received a notice from target saying they felt I was purchasing the gift cards for re-sale which is against their policy and if I continued to do so they would cancel my card. I called the 800 number given and talked to the department in charge of this and they suggested maybe I purchase something else every once in a while. doing that of course meant I could not purchase $500 in gift cards. could I up the limit, no because I was Canadian.

I eventually called and asked about making a large payment in advance and doing a purchase that way. no problem they said. I went to target made a $2500 payment and the gift cards would not go through. the cashier said wait till tomorrow, it takes a day to process. okay, we were on our way to myrtle beach anyways. couple days later I tried again. no luck. the cashier called to the credit department and they said no, making a large payment flags the account and I could not make a purchase and if I wanted my $2500 back they would mail it to me IN THREE WEEKS. just so they could be sure nothing rejected.

once I received my funds back in the form of a target cheque I called and cancelled the card. it was way to much of a hassle. so, what i'm trying to say is be careful of what they tell you. if getting $500 at a time is good for you then it should work out great.