Where do you exchage your money?

[maggieb9975]

Well I must have got the wrong US account from CIBC because I can't deposit online or withdraw...It shows up on website and I can see my balance but that is it! I have to go in to bank and see a teller to withdraw OR deposit....

They said that is the only kind they have..maybe cause I am in the boonies??

 

[Salinger]

Hi Guys,

Maggie, you're right. The CIBC USD account doesn't allow you to do transfers online from your Canadian account. It's limiting in that sense.

Poffles, I don't know what CIBC's exchange rate is like to be honest, because I don't exchange my cash there. I just use the USD account to withdraw. I also bank with Scotiabank, and they charge a lot extra to transfer your CAD into USD online.

Let me explain my setup, perhaps it might work for you guys too.

So, I have my USD account at CIBC. It's good because there are no minimum balances and no monthly fees. If you come back from the US with some leftover cash, you can just go to an ATM that accepts US deposits and put it in your account. It's in essence a free account except you pay 75¢ per withdrawal.

The CIBC account by itself wouldn't be especially useful, as they don't allow you to transfer money online into it. You either have to go to the teller, or deposit US cash into an ATM.

But along with the CIBC account, I have the ING Direct USD account. It pays .75% interest (not bad these days for a non Canadian dollar account) and as you'd expect from ING, no fees whatsoever. Also, you can move money from your ING Canadian account into your US account and the exchange rates are excellent. For example, right now to buy USD, ING charges $1.067 Canadian. Scotiabank, by comparison, is at $1.0795 and as poffles said, adds another $.02 when you exchange online making it $1.0995.

I keep my money in ING and that's where I do all my exchange when the rates are good. The only money I keep in the CIBC is a little bit I might have left over after a trip that isn't worth the 75¢ to transfer back to ING.

When vacation time approaches, I just transfer from my ING US account into my CIBC US account, and then go to a CIBC ATM and withdraw US dollars.

Sorry guys, I'm probably making this sound much more complicated than it is, but there's really not much to it, and you will save a lot, both in terms of exchange and your time, in doing it this way.

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.

 

[poffles]

Hi Guys,

Maggie, you're right. The CIBC USD account doesn't allow you to do transfers online from your Canadian account. It's limiting in that sense.

Poffles, I don't know what CIBC's exchange rate is like to be honest, because I don't exchange my cash there. I just use the USD account to withdraw. I also bank with Scotiabank, and they charge a lot extra to transfer your CAD into USD online.

Let me explain my setup, perhaps it might work for you guys too.

So, I have my USD account at CIBC. It's good because there are no minimum balances and no monthly fees. If you come back from the US with some leftover cash, you can just go to an ATM that accepts US deposits and put it in your account. It's in essence a free account except you pay 75¢ per withdrawal.

The CIBC account by itself wouldn't be especially useful, as they don't allow you to transfer money online into it. You either have to go to the teller, or deposit US cash into an ATM.

But along with the CIBC account, I have the ING Direct USD account. It pays .75% interest (not bad these days for a non Canadian dollar account) and as you'd expect from ING, no fees whatsoever. Also, you can move money from your ING Canadian account into your US account and the exchange rates are excellent. For example, right now to buy USD, ING charges $1.067 Canadian. Scotiabank, by comparison, is at $1.0795 and as poffles said, adds another $.02 when you exchange online making it $1.0995.

I keep my money in ING and that's where I do all my exchange when the rates are good. The only money I keep in the CIBC is a little bit I might have left over after a trip that isn't worth the 75¢ to transfer back to ING.

When vacation time approaches, I just transfer from my ING US account into my CIBC US account, and then go to a CIBC ATM and withdraw US dollars.

Sorry guys, I'm probably making this sound much more complicated than it is, but there's really not much to it, and you will save a lot, both in terms of exchange and your time, in doing it this way.

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.

I actually find this intriguing. I'm assuming, however, that since there wouldn't be CIBC ATMs in the US that you would still pay fees for using different ATMs but you at least don't pay the exchange. Assume this is where the savings is .. and the convenience? Or do you withdraw only in Canada before you go?

I do like the no monthly fee, Scotia Bank has a fee if under $200 in the account which often happens between vacations which is why I recently decided to close the account so as to not pay the $1 a month for nothing.

Adding another question, can you just have the US account at CIBC or do you also need a regular chequing one too?

 

[maggieb9975]

Hi Guys,

Maggie, you're right. The CIBC USD account doesn't allow you to do transfers online from your Canadian account. It's limiting in that sense.

Poffles, I don't know what CIBC's exchange rate is like to be honest, because I don't exchange my cash there. I just use the USD account to withdraw. I also bank with Scotiabank, and they charge a lot extra to transfer your CAD into USD online.

Let me explain my setup, perhaps it might work for you guys too.

So, I have my USD account at CIBC. It's good because there are no minimum balances and no monthly fees. If you come back from the US with some leftover cash, you can just go to an ATM that accepts US deposits and put it in your account. It's in essence a free account except you pay 75¢ per withdrawal.

The CIBC account by itself wouldn't be especially useful, as they don't allow you to transfer money online into it. You either have to go to the teller, or deposit US cash into an ATM.

But along with the CIBC account, I have the ING Direct USD account. It pays .75% interest (not bad these days for a non Canadian dollar account) and as you'd expect from ING, no fees whatsoever. Also, you can move money from your ING Canadian account into your US account and the exchange rates are excellent. For example, right now to buy USD, ING charges $1.067 Canadian. Scotiabank, by comparison, is at $1.0795 and as poffles said, adds another $.02 when you exchange online making it $1.0995.

I keep my money in ING and that's where I do all my exchange when the rates are good. The only money I keep in the CIBC is a little bit I might have left over after a trip that isn't worth the 75¢ to transfer back to ING.

When vacation time approaches, I just transfer from my ING US account into my CIBC US account, and then go to a CIBC ATM and withdraw US dollars.

Sorry guys, I'm probably making this sound much more complicated than it is, but there's really not much to it, and you will save a lot, both in terms of exchange and your time, in doing it this way.

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks for info! So you can transfer directly, online from an ING US account to CIBC US account? or if not how do you do it?

 

[Salinger]

Poffles, as far as I know you cannot withdraw US cash from your CIBC account in the United States. You have to do it before you leave in Canada. The convenience is, they have lots of ATM's that dispense US dollars, so you don't have to go to a branch to do it. Check the link I posted earlier to see if there's one close to you.

Maggie, that's right. You can move your money directly from your USD ING account (which has the great exchange rates) into your USD CIBC account. Then, as I mentioned, you can withdraw at a CIBC US dispensing ATM.

 

[maggieb9975]

Maggie, that's right. You can move your money directly from your USD ING account (which has the great exchange rates) into your USD CIBC account. Then, as I mentioned, you can withdraw at a CIBC US dispensing ATM.

Thankyou so much for info..going to check out ING NOW

 

[poffles]

Poffles, as far as I know you cannot withdraw US cash from your CIBC account in the United States. You have to do it before you leave in Canada. The convenience is, they have lots of ATM's that dispense US dollars, so you don't have to go to a branch to do it. Check the link I posted earlier to see if there's one close to you.

Maggie, that's right. You can move your money directly from your USD ING account (which has the great exchange rates) into your USD CIBC account. Then, as I mentioned, you can withdraw at a CIBC US dispensing ATM.

Thanks for all your patience and answering all our questions. I have one more.

There are definitely ATMs around me that show US withdrawal option (Halifax area) but can you deposit money to the US account from an ATM too? Either CAD or US money? Don't think I would go ING route but wondering if I could deposit CAD at the ATM and that would do the exchange. I'm probably reaching. For me, opening an ING account would just be too much extra work cause I'd have to withdraw from my regular bank, deposit at ING, then exchange, then transfer from ING to CIBC ... yeesh. Why does exhange have to be such a pain.

 

[maggieb9975]

Just signed up for an ING account! It was really simple except for having to mail them first check...I HATE snail mail...other than that real simple...now I can at switch money ONLINE from my CIBC bank directly into ING whenever I want and then close to my travel date I will put money into my CIBC Account...

you are right Salinger, It sounds more complicated than it is!

Thanks again for all the info...now I just have to get my CIBC US Visa acc't....

 

[Salinger]

Hi poffles. You can definitely deposit US cash/cheques into your US account at an ATM. In fact, most of the CIBC ATM's will allow you to deposit US, even if they don't have the ability to dispense US cash.

I'm not certain if you can deposit Canadian dollars into a US account. That's something you'd probably best check with CIBC. Just call their 1-800 #, they should be able to give you the answer right away. Though, I don't know what CIBC's exchange rate is like or if they'd charge you extra for doing it.

Here's the page on the CIBC account:

http://cibc.com/ca/chequing-savings/us-personal-acct.html

Under the section "Convenient" it says: Deposit funds directly into your account at any CIBC bank machine or branch It just says "funds" not specifically "US funds" so I don't know if that means you can or if it's just careless on their part.

 

[poffles]

Hi poffles. You can definitely deposit US cash/cheques into your US account at an ATM. In fact, most of the CIBC ATM's will allow you to deposit US, even if they don't have the ability to dispense US cash.

I'm not certain if you can deposit Canadian dollars into a US account. That's something you'd probably best check with CIBC. Just call their 1-800 #, they should be able to give you the answer right away. Though, I don't know what CIBC's exchange rate is like or if they'd charge you extra for doing it.

Here's the page on the CIBC account:

http://cibc.com/ca/chequing-savings/us-personal-acct.html

Under the section "Convenient" it says: Deposit funds directly into your account at any CIBC bank machine or branch It just says "funds" not specifically "US funds" so I don't know if that means you can or if it's just careless on their part.

Thanks so much. You have been very very helpful.

 

[Salinger]

Just signed up for an ING account! It was really simple except for having to mail them first check...I HATE snail mail...other than that real simple...now I can at switch money ONLINE from my CIBC bank directly into ING whenever I want and then close to my travel date I will put money into my CIBC Account...

you are right Salinger, It sounds more complicated than it is!

Thanks again for all the info...now I just have to get my CIBC US Visa acc't....

Maggie, do you have cheques for your CIBC US account? I didn't, because I'd never use them and didn't want to waste the money.

ING asks for a cheque from your US account to complete the link, but CIBC can give you a pre-authorized debit/deposit form (no charge) and this is fine for ING. It's what I used and much better than spending $30 on an order of cheques you'll never use.

 

[maggieb9975]

Maggie, do you have cheques for your CIBC US account? I didn't, because I'd never use them and didn't want to waste the money.

ING asks for a cheque from your US account to complete the link, but CIBC can give you a pre-authorized debit/deposit form (no charge) and this is fine for ING. It's what I used and much better than spending $30 on an order of cheques you'll never use.

No I don't have cheques either..called ING about this because I was a little confused as I want to do this...

1.deposit CDN money from President's Choice chequing acc't TO ING US acc't .
2. Transfer ING US acct monies into a CIBC US Acc't..

Yes, as you said ING will do a pre-authorized debit/deposit form once my acc't is set up so I can do #2....

I was SO annoyed with my CIBC US acc't..can't do ANYTHING online OR through ABM..you have to deal with a teller to deposit or withdraw!! NOT convenient at all....

Thanks again!

 

[maggieb9975]

Hey Salinger...one last question...do you get a debit card with the ING acc't? In other words can you withdraw US money from ING directly?

 

[Salinger]

You don't get a debit card automatically with the ING account, but you can request one.

The thing is, it's virtually useless as there are almost no ING ATM's around and they don't have any agreements with any other bank or ATM network. As well, even the very few ATM's they have, I don't believe dispense US cash so the only way to withdraw is to link it to another account.

You may want to double check this with them, but I'm pretty sure that's the case.

 

[maggieb9975]

Thanks! I actually mailed my cheque!! I am usually SO bad remembering to mail stuff...LOL

 

[maggieb9975]

Well, after all that I just cancelled my ING account

I wanted to transfer CDN money from my CIBC acc't into my ING US acc't and then when I needed it , transfer back to my CIBC US acc't for cash for trip....

They took my CDN cheque and deposited into my ING US acc't but now I can't transfer any more funds. They say you have to transfer CDN to CDN and US to US...sigh....

So I am back to square one...driving to bank to deposit money into US acc't...I can't believe this can't be done online anywhere....or even through the ABM...

 

[mollyseven]

O.k now I am confused.
I have an ING account. You know how you can have as many "accounts" with them as you want you just give them each a nickname right. O.k so I have like 4 separate nicknamed accounts with them and one us fund account.
I went to T.D and opened a us chequing account as it has no minimum and no fees. I got the direct depost form from them and faxed it to ING and they linked my t.d acct (us) and my ing accounts.
So I transfer money into my ING canadian savings accounts regularly. When the rate is good I transfer money from my ing savings account into my ing us account. I still get interest so I leave the us money there for now. I did though transfer over 1000 recently into my t.d account and all I had to do was the "move my money" option on the ing account and picked $ from my ing us account and transfered it to my T.D us account.
The T.d will write me a money order for this money (no charge) when I need it to pay my disney balance.

Does that make sense to you.
ING always pays better us conversion than TD so it's good for me, plus the TD doesn't pay interest on the US money so it's better kept at ING anyhow.

 

[maggieb9975]

O.k now I am confused.
I have an ING account. You know how you can have as many "accounts" with them as you want you just give them each a nickname right. O.k so I have like 4 separate nicknamed accounts with them and one us fund account.
I went to T.D and opened a us chequing account as it has no minimum and no fees. I got the direct depost form from them and faxed it to ING and they linked my t.d acct (us) and my ing accounts.
So I transfer money into my ING canadian savings accounts regularly. When the rate is good I transfer money from my ing savings account into my ing us account. I still get interest so I leave the us money there for now. I did though transfer over 1000 recently into my t.d account and all I had to do was the "move my money" option on the ing account and picked $ from my ing us account and transfered it to my T.D us account.
The T.d will write me a money order for this money (no charge) when I need it to pay my disney balance.

Does that make sense to you.
ING always pays better us conversion than TD so it's good for me, plus the TD doesn't pay interest on the US money so it's better kept at ING anyhow.

Thankyou sooo much for info! I called ING back and got someone who could understand me and got everything setup..

I had thought I could transfer funds from CIBC chequing acc't (Pres Choice) directly in to an ING US acc't. Now I know I had to open 2 ING acc'ts...a CDN savings AND a US savings acc't. I had only opened a US ING acc't!

Now that the money is in an ING CDN acc't I can transfer those funds into the ING US acc't then when I need the cash I transfer from ING US acct to CIBC US Acc't....

It shouldn't be this confusing and it really isn't!! It was me being in a hurry and skipping a step! Plus the fellow I talked to earlier today was no help at all! The guy I just talked to was super helpful!

Thanks again and to Salinger too!

 

[Debbie]

Glad you figured it out, Maggie. Oh, and you CAN transfer from the Can$ ING account TO/FROM the US$ ING. It's the transfer from ING to your bricks and mortar bank that can't be in different currencies.

And, , it does seem confusing to write down, but it isn't really!

 

[maggieb9975]

It's the transfer from ING to your bricks and mortar bank that can't be in different currencies.

And, , it does seem confusing to write down, but it isn't really! [/B]

Yep...that is what got me, the transfer from "bricks and mortar bank" had to be in same currency...that is such a good way of explaining it (bricks and mortar)

I am all set..now I just have to actually start saving

Thanks again!