CDN $ is so low!

[chimo2u]

I still have $2,000 U.S. To pay off on my Halloween trip to wdw -- the $ is just falling! $.78 today and I don't know if it'll get any better! Thankfully I paid off the $5,000 cruise part of the trip when the $ was around $.89 / still worse than I was hoping for, but better than it currently is posting as!!! I wish it would go up again so I could pay off my balance, but I have a feeling it's not getting better any time soon trying to figure out how I can minimize my loss for the final $2,000 I still owe!

 

[bcwife76]

Today is actually our PIF date for our $2500 cruise. We ended up paying it off at the beginning of April when the $ was a tad bit higher (I think a whopping 83 cents or something??) Ugh....sucks though.....

 

[Ima Disnewby]

Yep, it hurts!! We have our WDW & Legoland trip coming up in September and between both I owe about $2500 USD I actually just received my new Chase Amazon Visa yesterday so I think I will pay the balance of the trip off with it to save the 2.5% foreign transaction fee and rack up a bunch of cash at amazon while I'm at it. Gotta find savings where I can, right?!

 

[pacostrano]

Yep It's really hurt... Usually I go to Disney World 2 times a year but because of the low dollar I think it's going to be only one time per year or per 2 year lol I go solo most of the time and paying alone will get expensive lol

 

[pigletto]

Ugh. I hear you. With conversion fees from our credit card added on to the poor exchange rate I am worried about our late January trip. We still have $4000 USD to pay between trip and flights etc, however discounts haven't come out for our dates yet. I'll need to see what I can shave off the total to soften the blow a little.
We might skip the rental car this time since we are onsite. I also think we may ask family to drop us off and pick us up at the airport instead of paying for 10 days of parking. We're lucky to have several people who would do that for us.
And lastly, I am pretty sure we will take cash for spending and tips and stick it on a Disney gift card when we get there to save on the conversion fee on our card. We prefer a daily envelope/spending system over charging while we are on vacation anyway. Keeps us on top of our spending.

 

[xlxo]

Keep you eyes on this link.... https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=CADUSD=X&t=5d

It appears to be levelling off....

 

[Lesverts]

I am not that worried. Just means less trinkets and one or two counter service instead of table service.

 

[canadiankim]

This thread has been one of a few about the fluctuation dollar. We are off in 28 sleeps (can you tell I am excited!) We have everything but the car rental paid for and have spread the cost over 7 months so have had various rates for our dollar.

Fortunately I was able to bank a sizable chunk of our spending money back in December when it was around .89 so we will be taking mainly cash with us and will try not to put too much on the credit card.

That said, I wont nickel and dime too much as this is our holiday and we are not going to spoil it too much worry about an extra few cents on the dollar.

I am not being blaze about money trust me, I just don't want to spoil something I have been saving, and looking forward to for the last 10 months!

 

[bankr63]

Keep you eyes on this link.... https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=CADUSD=X&t=5d

It appears to be levelling off....

I'd set the timeline a little wider. It has been a steady fall since Feb 2013. Looking at a ten day it may appear to temporarily level out, but the trend is still steadily down.

 

[22Tink]

I agree it sure makes it tougher. I have till September to finish paying off my trip. I don't know if I should do it now or wait and hope for a rise in the dollar?

 

[minnie mum]

Well, we've vacationed or lived in the States regularly since the mid 80s, so I've seen the exchange rates MUCH lower than they are now. The only thing this changes for us is the amount of 'stuff' we buy. Or we might not splurge out on big, fancy dinners.

I'm headed down to DLR in a couple of weeks. Airfare and hotel were paid in C$, well in advance. But I'm taking cash with me for everything else. We have had a US$ account for years, and have periodically added to it whenever the exchange rate was decent. Although I usually prefer to use my credit card as much as possible for the rewards earned, this time I'm going to use it only in case of emergency.

 

[TACK]

I have had a US bank account for a few years. Whenever I get a chance and the exchange is decent, then I convert as much as I can. It is my travel fund which has come in handy during the times the Cdn $ is not doing as well. The only problem is that I use it so it never is as much as I wish it could be. It does help with the big ticket items. I don't mind using my credit card for the smaller items just to balance it all out. It hasn't stopped me from travelling to Disney or booking a Disney cruise. Just a different mindset as to what I want and what I need.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We're another family who will keep visiting (we own two timeshare weeks in Orlando, so at the very least, we'll use those on an annual basis) but we'll just look for other ways to cut back.

We are fortunate to have many ways to trim the budget to compensate for the low dollar value. If need be, we can eat more meals in our villa (the kitchens at SVR are better equipped than mine at home, lol!). We can visit the parks less (there is a ton of awesome stuff to do right at the resort). We can use both our weeks back to back, cutting down on the number of flights we need to buy. We cut down on the number of visits we make to the outlet malls .

By nature, I'm fairly frugal about our travels. We take advantage of coupons and discounts from things like email clubs, printable online offers and the Entertainment Book. We buy tickets from Groupon and Livingsocial, often with an added promotion code applied. We book park and fly hotels/car rentals/etc through Ebates and other loyalty reward sites. We buy annual passes to the parks and utilize them to the max (including the AP discounts on eating and shopping). We watch our car rental rate like a hawk, rebooking as the price fluctates downward and locking in the lowest price we can. We use our Visa rewards for travel related expenses, too.

 

[CerysG]

Yes it's crazy but still not as bad as when it was 60 something cents a few years ago. We aren't planning to go back for another two years so I hope it will be a lot better by than. If not we'll keep saving and wait another year. I hate watching the business news as it seems I will never be able to retire and my kids are never leaving home

 

[greenclan67]

We are on route today to Williamsburg Vs for 10 days. I prepaid all hotels, condos, gift cards for restaurants, surfing in Virginia beach. But we are renting a car for the drive. As of this morning picking up the car at Buffalo airport and staying at park & fly in Buffalo. At 10 am it all changed. Got a better Canadian car rental price in Niagara falls, ont in CDN $$ and the hotel is in cdn as well. My buf park & fly hotel was the only one I didn't pre pay. I am a bundle of nerves after that. Grrrr

 

[CerysG]

I was reading the thred about US bank accounts and there seems to be two kinds, one in Canada in US funds and one through a Canadian bank but in the US. The second sounds the better of the two but wondering is there any tax implication for this one as it's in the US. You wouldn't have to file a return with the IRS? Considering doing this to help with US travel.

 

[pangyal]

I was reading the thred about US bank accounts and there seems to be two kinds, one in Canada in US funds and one through a Canadian bank but in the US. The second sounds the better of the two but wondering is there any tax implication for this one as it's in the US. You wouldn't have to file a return with the IRS? Considering doing this to help with US travel.

Definitely not, it's still tied to your Canadian credit file. You couldn't file with IRS as you don't have a SSN and earn money that needs to be taxed (I'm assuming)

 

[CerysG]

Definitely not, it's still tied to your Canadian credit file. You couldn't file with IRS as you don't have a SSN and earn money that needs to be taxed (I'm assuming)

Yes now that you say that I believe you are right.

 

[chimo2u]

Update: it's getting worse by the day! .77!!! I'm scared to wait and see it drop even further! Thinking maybe I should just bite the bullet and pay off the $2K before it falls even more! I wish it didn't feel so much like gambling trying to figure out when to exchange my money!

 

[CerysG]

Saw the business news the other night and they said expect it to hit 70 cents. We aren't planning to go till 2017 so hopefully it will be up by than. If we have to we will wait till 2018 as 30% more for the trip could add up to a lot of money as we like to do a big trip to Orlando every few years. I wouldn't mind the low loonie if it actually did something for the economy but so far trade hasn't increased.