USPS Money Orders and renting from Canadian Owners

[Canadian Disney Mom]

I was not sure where to post this so I thought this would be as good a place as any.

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up to be sure when sending rental payment to your friendly neighbors to the north that we will be able to deposit/cash the payment. Standard USPS money orders cannot be cashed in Canada.

When I rent, I like to get Money Orders or Certified checks so I can deposit them in my USD bank account. I am kind of leery of personal checks and Paypal stinks because I cannot add my USD bank account so I have to convert any USD payment to Canadian when I deposit it in my account then change it back to USD with my bank to get it in my USD account. I end up getting hit with conversion fees both ways.

I have had renters tell USPS the money orders were going to Canada but the post office gave them ones that were only negotiable in the USA for some silly reason. I received the money orders and tried to deposit them at my bank but they could not take them and I had to send the payment back in the mail to the renters.

The money orders do say "Negotiable only in the US and Possessions". My renters assumed it was fine because they told USPS it was going to Canada and this is the order they received. Apparently there is a different International Money Order that you can use to send to many other countries, including Canada.

I will be letting my future renters know that only USPS International Money orders will work if that is how they are paying. I would recommend my fellow Canadian owners do the same. I have never had this issue with money orders or checks from other vendors/banks in the past.

I really wish Paypal would allow me to add my USD bank account to my Paypal account - it would make renting a lot easier!

 

[lisaviolet]

I was not sure where to post this so I thought this would be as good a place as any.

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up to be sure when sending rental payment to your friendly neighbors to the north that we will be able to deposit/cash the payment. Standard USPS money orders cannot be cashed in Canada.

When I rent, I like to get Money Orders or Certified checks so I can deposit them in my USD bank account. I am kind of leery of personal checks and Paypal stinks because I cannot add my USD bank account so I have to convert any USD payment to Canadian when I deposit it in my account then change it back to USD with my bank to get it in my USD account. I end up getting hit with conversion fees both ways.

I have had renters tell USPS the money orders were going to Canada but the post office gave them ones that were only negotiable in the USA for some silly reason. I received the money orders and tried to deposit them at my bank but they could not take them and I had to send the payment back in the mail to the renters.

The money orders do say "Negotiable only in the US and Possessions". My renters assumed it was fine because they told USPS it was going to Canada and this is the order they received. Apparently there is a different International Money Order that you can use to send to many other countries, including Canada.

I will be letting my future renters know that only USPS International Money orders will work if that is how they are paying. I would recommend my fellow Canadian owners do the same. I have never had this issue with money orders or checks from other vendors/banks in the past.

I really wish Paypal would allow me to add my USD bank account to my Paypal account - it would make renting a lot easier!

I was aware of that. And like you I have still had some renters being led to purchase the wrong one. Despite my instructions on the difference between the two in wording and the colour difference of the actual cheque.

I have gone down and cashed the erroneous money order at one of the larger USPS locations in Buffalo. No issue whatsoever.

I have only lead people to USPS because a few people have seemed like they have high anxiety about dealing with bank drafts and a Canadian transaction. It makes me smile since for the majority of Canadians I know, well we are beyond used to dealing with International money orders/bank drafts.

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I do have a US based bank account but they stopped being super simple with ATM cheque deposits and went to remote banking for such deposits.

 

[Canadian Disney Mom]

Wouldn't it be awesome if we could do etransfers via email with folks in the US like we can do here? They are so easy and secure.

I am only about 2 hours from Maine and I did call a few USPS locations to see if I could sign the money orders over to my husband so he could drive down and cash them and I was told I could, BUT they said they start their day with $100 in the till and now that everyone pays by credit and debit, they doubted they would have enough funds in the till to cash it, even at the end of the day. They said we could not call ahead like a bank to alert them we needed to withdraw X amount of dollars. Everything gets deposited at the end of every day and the next morning they start over with $100. I guess most people in the US must deposit right into their bank accounts and not bother cashing them at USPS. I called some banks in Maine too but they would not cash it unless we had an account there.

I will definitely be making it very clear to my future renters if they are using USPS to make sure to get an International Money order and if it is another form of payment to check with their banking institution. I recall receiving a Western Union money order once and did not have an issue. I also never have problems with certified or cashier checks.

 

[mort1331]

I don't know why Paypal is a problem for you. I have a RBC US account and have Paypal linked to it. Works very easy and I can pay my dues there monthly. Yes it cost 3.95 per month, but I like the idea of paying my dues monthly so worth the cost to me. Check it out, I believe TD has the same thing.

 

[DougEMG]

I really wish Paypal would allow me to add my USD bank account to my Paypal account - it would make renting a lot easier!

The exact same thing was happening to me. When I contact PayPal about it the told me that when making a withdraw from PayPal to a bank account, the amount is always deposited in the native currency of the country that the bank account is. So I ended up setting up a RBC Bank account in the US to which I now make all my PayPal withdraws. Then I just do a transfer between my RBC Bank account in the US and my RBC US account in Canada. No conversions happen then.

 

[DougEMG]

I don't know why Paypal is a problem for you. I have a RBC US account and have Paypal linked to it. Works very easy and I can pay my dues there monthly. Yes it cost 3.95 per month, but I like the idea of paying my dues monthly so worth the cost to me. Check it out, I believe TD has the same thing.

That's the same thing I do. Works great. Although they did raise their fees from $2.95 to $3.95

 

[lisaviolet]

I don't know why Paypal is a problem for you. I have a RBC US account and have Paypal linked to it. Works very easy and I can pay my dues there monthly. Yes it cost 3.95 per month, but I like the idea of paying my dues monthly so worth the cost to me. Check it out, I believe TD has the same thing.

Not the OP - and a bit off topic - but I have had that RBC US-based account for over ten years and I have never taken Paypal because of advice on this board at the time. There were some small business owners that have warned against it because of customers disputing charges, and feeling like Paypal was not a support in these instances. And money was held up while determining the conclusion to the dispute.

Also, there was a long time DISer on here at the time that felt certain that Paypal was the reason for her identity theft. Obviously, that can happen to any of us, at any time. But once again felt that there was a lack of support in conversation with Paypal in general and I believe trying to close her account down.

**None of these comments would have stopped me using Paypal if I regularly rented out my points. The ease of using it would have trumped rolling the dice when there are a huge amount of successful transactions every single day.**

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Thank you DougEMG for the added information on Paypal on US-based accounts. That will help if I ever decide to use David's. I hardly ever rent. It is just when plans go south. Just not the south that I have wanted.

 

[Canadian Disney Mom]

My USD account & visa are not based in the US. They are through Canadian CIBC so they cannot get added to PayPal.

 

[Canadian Disney Mom]

Also forgot to mention I used to bank with RBC exclusively but had issues with their customer service and their handling of my accounts. I took all of my backing to CIBC many years ago and will never consider RBC for any future products