seeking smart USD advice on paying for cruise...

[CdnMom2]

Again my head is spinning. (Sometimes doesn't take much! )

Watching our $ rise is making me so anxious. I don't want to remember how much the rate was on our last trip to WDW!

13 months from now we are going to be on the Wonder cruise along with a week prior at WDW. I could pay for the cruise entirely right now (not due until Oct'05). Put on AmEx for the $ rebate. Can pay off immediately with current chunk of $ available. Fully refundable until some months before.

BUT that seems insane to pay so far in advance. We're booked with Dreams Unlimited & don't have USD bank account. Should I open one? Is it as simple as transfering $ into it from your current account on a good exchange rate day? Then later writing a cheque to whoever in the U.S? Does Disney accept such cheques drawn on foreign banks. I just HATE giving my bank more for service charges than they already suck out of us.

Perhaps I should be buying some ParkHoppers or something now from 1 of the US ticket brokers? They never expire & always go up in price, right? Then there's the hotels... Stock up on USD Traveler's Cheques? Never used those before.

What to do? What to do? Obviously the giant chunk of cash for the cruise is the one I'm most thinking of!

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Scratch42]

Open Up a USD Account NOW!

This way you can put a little something away while the going is good!

If you want the rebate then go ahead and pay for it!

If not wait but if you have the USD Account you can use that to pay off the cruise.

Every little bit helps!

Scratch

 

[KLondon]

Good questions! A few comments for you:

- my preference is to pay off asap. I just don't want to think about it too much when vacation-day approaches. That's just me.

- I tend to use my Amex card for this kind of thing. The various incentives (cash-back and/or airmiles) are worth it to me. I use them for cruises, pre-purchase of ParkHoppers, etc.

- USD bank accounts could make this easier - but it depends on your bank. Some bank's USD accounts offer chequing that is negotiable in the US (i.e. they have a real US-bank partner or subsidiary) and some do not. In general, a USD bank account will give you a better exchange rate than a credit card, but you really have to check on this.

- I have used Traveller's Cheques in the past, but tend not to use them anymore. At Disney, I use cash or charge to my room (for example). Traveller's Cheques can sometimes be a pain - i.e. may not be able to cash them where you want is the amount is large, many places (even hotels) now charge a small fee to cash them

Hope this helps.

 

[mom_rules]

I've had a U.S. Chequing acct for about 6-7 years now. There is only a fee when you withdraw/write cheque ($.50 per transaction) but not for transfers and deposits. It earns interest based on the US money market fund and is credited to the account in US dollars. My advice, open a bank account -we deposit a small amount each week and when our $ is doing well we transfer over more. When it comes time to pay for our vacations and to purchase travellers cheques you just take it out when you need it and earn a little interest on the side up until then.
I have never had a problem cashing amex trav cheques anywhere in the US-even at the little stands/wagons in the theme parks (did have a prob with a visa trav cheque once though). Guest services will cash trav. cheques (I think up to $200 per day) for you with photo ID.

 

[MECH8T7]

Originally posted by CdnMom2
I could pay for the cruise entirely right now (not due until Oct'05). Put on AmEx for the $ rebate. Can pay off immediately with current chunk of $ available.

One thing to take into consideration is the spread between the Amex fx rate and the bank rate to exchange. The amount you would lose through a poorer exchange rate with Amex could easily exceed the value of the Amex rebate. (I heard that CIBC is the target of a class action in connection with fx conversion rates under their Aeroplan Gold Visa card....does anyone know anything about this?)

We've had a USD bank account for years with our Canadian bank and recently got a USD mastercard through our Canadian bank (USD$25 annual fee).

 

[CdnMom2]

I see on the other thread with the rates that there are some banks that let you do a Tf of your $ to a USD account over phone. Our enormous bank is not so convenient & does not do this I just found out. Still investigating practical possibilities for us. My AmEx adds 2.25% -- better than our bank's Visa foreign exchange charge of +2.5%. Again, while taking it into consideration, I'm not so ruffled by the charge now that I'm aware as the Cdn $ rate is SO much better than when we booked this trip or than when we went last time. But thank you for pointing out that the actual Rates could be different. Still working out what to do, DH forgot to get the info on minimum balances/service charges, etc. for a USD account. Thank again for the input so far. Very intriguing that one can get a US credit card! I didn't know that was possible.

 

[mom_rules]

Now if we could only convince the Disney Visa people that it would be a good idea to let us Cdns participate in their US Disney Visa program........

 

[Tiger926]

MECH8T7- Can you provide a little more info re: US Mastercard that you mentioned in your earlier post?

Thanks, Tiger

 

[MECH8T7]

Originally posted by Tiger926
Can you provide a little more info re: US Mastercard that you mentioned in your earlier post?

BMO offers a USD mastercard (two flavours - Gold and standard) but you can't apply online. You have to call BMO mastercard (try 1-800-263-2263) or go to a branch to get a paper application (it may take a while for someone in the branch to find an application for the USD card). The limited features of the card (this is not a Mosaik credit card) are described on the brochure. I faxed the completed application to BMO mastercard and got the card at my home within a week and a half. Picking BMO was a bit of a no-brainer for us because all our accounts are there and we can pay the bill using USD from our BMO USD bank account via telephone or internet banking.

CIBC offers a USD Visa with a comparable annual fee ($25). It is described on the CIBC website.

There may be others but I wasn't finding much on the website of the Canadian banks when I was looking for one a few months ago. My guess is that, to the banks, the USD credit cards are a pain in the a**. So, you probably have to specifically ask for it and will likely find that none will be offered in conjuction with any of the credit card loyalty programs like Mosaik or Aeroplan, etc.

 

[mom_rules]

RBC offers a US RBC Rewards card but the annual fees are $65 US primary and $25 for co-applicant. $90 U.S. seems a little steep.

 

[CdnMom2]

I took the big plunge after Mom_rules very helpful post today on the "Cdn $ doing well" thread -- phoned Credit Card to get the rate they were charging. 1.18 today (will be charged on day posted though) plus their 2.25% convenience fee for the exchange. Worth it to me at this point. Simple phone call to pay it & I've been giggling all day! No dealing with my bank, service charges, negligible interest if any and the whole PITA experience as can not be done over phone or on internet with them -- and still sketchy on whether a cheque would be accepted in U.S. I'm actually for once in agreement over a finance/service charge. As crazy as it is to pay such a chunk so far in advance it is fully refundable & I can't believe the difference in the exchange rates from when we went before!

Now need to check out our Park Hoppers...

 

[mom_rules]

We're working on annual passes now! For those in the "know"-the Disney stores charge in U.S. dollars?

 

[MECH8T7]

BMO offers a USD mastercard (two flavours - Gold and standard) but you can't apply online. You have to call BMO mastercard (try 1-800-263-2263) or go to a branch to get a paper application (it may take a while for someone in the branch to find an application for the USD card). The limited features of the card (this is not a Mosaik credit card) are described on the brochure. I faxed the completed application to BMO mastercard and got the card at my home within a week and a half. Picking BMO was a bit of a no-brainer for us because all our accounts are there and we can pay the bill using USD from our BMO USD bank account via telephone or internet banking.

CIBC offers a USD Visa with a comparable annual fee ($25). It is described on the CIBC website.

There may be others but I wasn't finding much on the website of the Canadian banks when I was looking for one a few months ago. My guess is that, to the banks, the USD credit cards are a pain in the a**. So, you probably have to specifically ask for it and will likely find that none will be offered in conjuction with any of the credit card loyalty programs like Mosaik or Aeroplan, etc.

Just wanted to update a post from last year to say that the US$20 annual fee for our BMO USD Mastercard is waived if you are a BMO account holder under many of their service plans. (I actually paid the annual fee last year and I just noticed that it is covered under several of the BMO plans. So, I am following up with BMO to figure out if we are covered.)

 

[Louise-Montreal]

What is the advantage of having an American credit card? Is it so you avoid the conversion fees?

Just curious,
Louise

 

[MECH8T7]

What is the advantage of having an American credit card? Is it so you avoid the conversion fees

All credit card issuers charge a spread to purchase foreign currency between the bank exchange rate and the what they charge you. Having a USD credit card just allows you to purchase (or accumulate) USD on your own an avoid paying the credit card issuer's spread. We use ours in conjunction with a USD bank account.

Also, if a US-based merchant has to refund money to you, you get "dinged" with the spread again to convert the refund back to Canadian currency and, if the CAD has weakened against USD between the date of purchase and the date of refund, you will have suffered a foreign exchange loss.

It wasn't a big deal to me until this year. I was intentionally double-booking myself into WDW resorts for our upcoming trip. When I began cancelling some of the duplicate bookings, WDW would not "transfer" the deposit for the cancelled reservation to the remaining reservation and, instead, credited my CAD credit card. It got hit with conversion fees both ways. If we wanted to apply that converted refund to our remaining reservation using our CAD credit card, we would have been hit with conversion fees one more time to purchase the USD to apply against the remaining reservation. If we had a USD credit card at the outset, we would have avoided having the credit card issuer charge us a premium for converting foreign currency three separate times.

 

[Louise-Montreal]

Thanks for the quick answer. I have a US account, and was wondering if a US credit card was worth getting. Would be able to put my airfare on (as we use Jetblue) and I could put my DVC dues on it too.

Will have to crunch the numbers!!

 

[eleanor]

I have a US account at the TDCT and I can transfer money over the internet , when the rate is good I just toss a few bucks in. If you have a 1000. balance there are no service charges for withdrawals.It is really convenient.

 

[BLBCB]

CdnMom2

I have also heard that the sooner you pay your cruise in full, the better your chances are for a free upgrade.

 

[CdnMom2]

So glad I asked. Such a difference among the bank services here.

Cruise is all paid for. And as of this weekend so is the week before in Orlando -- yay skyauction! Not sure how I'd feel about an upgrade -- doesn't that sound silly. We booked an obstructed-view verandah & a Cat 11 opposite room. Wouldn't want to end up on a different floor from each other or something. Now 2 upgrades together or you know... The Disney Suite would be nice!

 

[StuartMI]

We booked an obstructed-view verandah & a Cat 11 opposite room. Wouldn't want to end up on a different floor from each other or something. Now 2 upgrades together or you know... The Disney Suite would be nice!

Ya, too bad you need the budget of a small nation to afford a Cat 1. I don't know how people do it. At any rate, congrats on paying your trip off in full. You are lucky to get an obstructed view verandah - those go almost as quick (if not quicker) than the secret porthole rooms. I am assuming you're talking about the cat 7's that are really cat 5's or 6's??

See if there is a Cruise meets thread for your dates!