USD accounts and ATM's in the States

[TreesyB]

So I was told today by my bank, TD, that I was not able to withdraw cash from my USD account in the United States. I had to either transfer money from my USD account, to my checking account and then withdraw it, or buy travellers checks.



So I said to them... let me get this straight. I opened up a U.S. Dollar account that I can't access in the United States, and you don't see anything wrong with that?

So is this the same with other Canadian banks?

 

[dancin Disney style]

I'll tell you how it was explained to me. I also have a USD account at TD. They told me that an ATM in the US only knows that the card is drawing funds from an account at a Canadian bank. It can't distinguish the currency( USD or CAD) that the account might me in.


How about getting a USD credit card with a pin number so you can withdraw money at an ATM?

 

[CanadianGuy]

You have this correct.

Knox

 

[son3disfan]

Yep....that's correct.

Just did the whole US account ( CIBC ) and US credit card ( BMO ) thing...

I cannot access the US account , even through the bank machines here. It was set up as an additional account, ( I don't even have ANY other accounts with CIBC) , but whatever.

All I know, is I deposit money in to my account, use my US credit card to purchase things in the US, then withdrawl from the account to pay the credit card bill. The whole idea is that the US money can sit in the account, while the exchange rate is so good.

If there is an easier way, I'd love to hear.......

 

[CanadianGuy]

With the exchange rate as high as it is.. I just came back from a trip where I paid:

Airfare
Hotel Costs
Charges to Room

All on my Canadian credit card. I estimate I paid probably 11$ in exchange rate fees... maybe. Many of the charges were dangerously close to the same amount in Canadian $ as American $. My airfare was booked a while ago and was actually cheaper.

I think people can spend way too much time worrying about this. These days, at the end of the day, it's a small amount of exchange fees.. even on a LARGE $ amount.

 

[satman1962]

Yep....that's correct.

Just did the whole US account ( CIBC ) and US credit card ( BMO ) thing...

I cannot access the US account , even through the bank machines here. It was set up as an additional account, ( I don't even have ANY other accounts with CIBC) , but whatever.

All I know, is I deposit money in to my account, use my US credit card to purchase things in the US, then withdrawl from the account to pay the credit card bill. The whole idea is that the US money can sit in the account, while the exchange rate is so good.

If there is an easier way, I'd love to hear.......

Royal Bank has RBC Centura, Multiple branches through-out Florida

Open an account and with a minimum balance you get a US Visa debit card. You can withdraw funds easily at US ATM's. Plus you can easily transfer money into the account from either your RBC Canadian or US acounts via web banking. You can track everything on-line.

Plus you can use the RBC Centura account to pay US credit card bills electronically (such as Macy's, Kohls etc.) Often you get to save as much as 20% on the day of purchase if you apply for a card at the cash. Canadians welcome!

 

[happycamper83]

I have a USD account with RBC (Canadian RBC) and can't access it via ATMs either. I usually just withdraw the cash (spending money) I need from it and put anything else on my Canadian $$ credit card.

The only reason I opened up the USD account in the first place is that I have a shop with CafePress and they pay you in USD... so I didn't want to exchange that to CAN$ just to turn around and change it back to USD every time I go to the US. So now it just sits there in my "trip fund" until I'm heading back down south.