Silly question? How do you pay??

[xdramaqueenx]

Hey all

I am going down to WDW with DBF in 12 days!! This will be my first vacation without my parents and my first time paying for things in the States...

SO at the risk of sounding like a total idiot I was wondering how fellow Canadians pay for things such as Souveniers and Food...

I have a credit card....I will be getting some US cash.....just wondering how you all do it.

Thanks!!

p.s. isn't the exchange rate AWESOME?!?!?

 

[sean-1966]

We charge everything to the room and than pay it off every few days. It just makes life easier.

 

[SeanK]

I do the same, charge everything to the room and clear it up when i leave

 

[CanadianGuy]

I generally charge a large portion of incidentals like meals, drinks etc back to the room.. and clear that balance every few days with a credit card.

Sometimes I have 'extra US cash' that I won't foresee spending and I'll use that to pay down the room balance before charging to the CC.

Knox

 

[bunnyfoo]

I charge everything to my room as well and then use a combination of cash, traveller's cheques and credit card to pay everything off. On my last trip I did that hoping to get a better exchange rate. It didn't work out as well for the AKL portion of the stay ... They were charging the balance of the account every day to my credit card. I'm not sure why they did that because at the Polynesian, everything was left to the last day.

For some of my more expensive souveniers, I did use my credit card because it has insurance on it to protect purchases.

 

[drag n' fly]

We charge everything to the room and than pay it off every few days. It just makes life easier.

This is exactly what we do. Every three days we review the tab and clear it up. That way if their is any discrepancies we can clear them up then and not on the day of departure when you can sometimes be a bit rushed. We always carry about 200US in cash for tipping etc

 

[Ham Ham]

We charge everything to the room and than pay it off every few days. It just makes life easier.

Excellent idea. We usually charge to the room then use one of our cards that has some kind of rewards.

I wish there was a Canadian Disney Credit Card with rewards.

 

[cdnSpinalTap]

Hello,

What I have done is obtained a US$ credit card from a Canadian bank - BMO has a great no fee US$ mastercard. I have also opened a US$ bank account at BMO.

The main benefit of this is that you do not pay the extra surcharge that CDN$ cards charge you to convert US purchases to CDN$ when they post the transaction. This is usually in the 3% range but can be a lot higher with some cards. You only end up paying the exact exchange rate on the day the transaction was posted.

The second benefit of this is that you can pay the credit card directly from your Canadian bank account. If you had a US credit card from a US bank you would have to send them a money order, which can be a big hassle.

I use the US bank account to "store" money for our trip and to pay off the balances on our US$ credit card. For example, we have a trip booked for January. Since the dollar is so strong right now I am buying US funds and putting them in the US account for later on when I have to pay the final balance on our trip and for spending money when we get there. Also, with my accounts at BMO I can transfer money to this US account right online, and pay off my US$ BMO credit card, all at no charge.

I will charge everything to the room card, and clear the balance on the US$ credit card every few days.

Just some thoughts. This works good for me.

-Dean

 

[Ham Ham]

Hello,

What I have done is obtained a US$ credit card from a Canadian bank - BMO has a great no fee US$ mastercard. I have also opened a US$ bank account at BMO.

The main benefit of this is that you do not pay the extra surcharge that CDN$ cards charge you to convert US purchases to CDN$ when they post the transaction. This is usually in the 3% range but can be a lot higher with some cards. You only end up paying the exact exchange rate on the day the transaction was posted.

The second benefit of this is that you can pay the credit card directly from your Canadian bank account. If you had a US credit card from a US bank you would have to send them a money order, which can be a big hassle.

I use the US bank account to "store" money for our trip and to pay off the balances on our US$ credit card. For example, we have a trip booked for January. Since the dollar is so strong right now I am buying US funds and putting them in the US account for later on when I have to pay the final balance on our trip and for spending money when we get there. Also, with my accounts at BMO I can transfer money to this US account right online, and pay off my US$ BMO credit card, all at no charge.

I will charge everything to the room card, and clear the balance on the US$ credit card every few days.

Just some thoughts. This works good for me.

-Dean

When you pay BMO's US card with a transfer from your Canadian account doesn't the bank hit you with a conversion fee?

 

[ChisJo]

We are a little different....we have a time share that we switch weeks for, so we only have to pay a minimal fee for that transfer, so we stay off site, therefore, we don't charge anything to our room.

We put money away with every check that we get (right now I am transfering $100 biweekly to an account that I am unable to touch without doing a little bit of work). That money is never missed because I am used to it not being there. Then, when the dollar is good, we transfer money to our american account and use that money for souvies and food. We ensure that all the plane tickets, park admission tickets, and car (plus extra nights in a hotel) are all paid off before going. We budget for just the 2 of us around $75 a day for food (of course, if you add bevies into the mixture, it will be more ). Keep in mind, we don't eat fast food (DBF has a cardiac disorder...bad food=bad for the heart!), so we always have better meals, which usually means more money!

We buy really specific souvenires...usually not so much the trinkets that you see around the parks...But, we will buy things at the Art of Disney, I collect Cinderella figurines (i.e.: Bradford exchange) - so those things we budget for accordingly. But, most of our spending money we bring down in travellers checks....If we don't use it all, we just put it right back into our american account. I try my best not to use my credit card as the canadian cc companies charge you an extra fee to convert the money to canadian dollars. I like the sound of the american credit card though.....with the amount we travel, we should use that....

 

[cdnSpinalTap]

When you pay BMO's US card with a transfer from your Canadian account doesn't the bank hit you with a conversion fee?

Mine does not charge fees with my plan, but I would imagine you would have to check with your bank and the plan you are under. We have everything at BMO - mortgages, all my business accounts, etc - so we do not pay too many fees for day to day banking (they get us everywhere else

 

[cdnSpinalTap]

We are a little different....we have a time share that we switch weeks for, so we only have to pay a minimal fee for that transfer, so we stay off site, therefore, we don't charge anything to our room.

We put money away with every check that we get (right now I am transfering $100 biweekly to an account that I am unable to touch without doing a little bit of work). That money is never missed because I am used to it not being there. Then, when the dollar is good, we transfer money to our american account and use that money for souvies and food. We ensure that all the plane tickets, park admission tickets, and car (plus extra nights in a hotel) are all paid off before going. We budget for just the 2 of us around $75 a day for food (of course, if you add bevies into the mixture, it will be more ). Keep in mind, we don't eat fast food (DBF has a cardiac disorder...bad food=bad for the heart!), so we always have better meals, which usually means more money!

We buy really specific souvenires...usually not so much the trinkets that you see around the parks...But, we will buy things at the Art of Disney, I collect Cinderella figurines (i.e.: Bradford exchange) - so those things we budget for accordingly. But, most of our spending money we bring down in travellers checks....If we don't use it all, we just put it right back into our american account. I try my best not to use my credit card as the canadian cc companies charge you an extra fee to convert the money to canadian dollars. I like the sound of the american credit card though.....with the amount we travel, we should use that....

That is great planning and discipline - good for you for being able to stick with it!