Which banks are best for exchange?

[snickerboo]

I bank w/ RBC and I'm finding they're the absolute worst. They're charging the exact live rate, right down to the 1/4 cent. A few weeks ago some of you were saying you had found better shopping around. Where do you find it slightly better.

 

[maryrego]

Im interested to know as well

 

[snickerboo]

You know, when I check RBC's website, it's nowhere near the live rate. It says it will cost me $129 CAD to buy $100 USD. That's not 78 cents on the dollar!

BTW: It's down again. 78.3 cents right now.

 

[LittleFlounder]

I bought my U.S. money last week at the currency exchange place in our mall (http://www.continentalcurrency.ca/company.html). There's locations all over Ontario. They have very reasonable rates. The day I bought my US dollars, our dollar was at .85.. they charged 1.15. It cost me $463 to buy $400 US.I thought that was okay.

 

[DutchsMommy]

Just wanted to clarify a few points here:

1) Generally speaking all Banks will have the same FX rates - likely to within less than a cent.
2) The reason why the Banks do not exchange at the rate that is posted on websites/quoted on the radio is because that is the rate the Banks and extremely large companies buy and sell at - you get a better deal if you buy in Billions of dollars LOL. The Bank must add a premium on to account for overhead (i.e cost to obtain actual cash, cost to store, employee costs etc). That is why you see a slight difference. Also, things like travellers cheques/money orders usually have a slightly better FX rate because the overhead is lower (i..e it costs less for the Bank to have TC than cash on hand).
3) I am not really familiar with FX dealers in Malls and such, but personally I wouldn't be bothered going somewhere special - the difference on $500 would be maybe $1 if you are lucky. It is interesting that little company mentioned by LittleFlounder would offer the Bank Rate - makes me wonder how they would make money?? - which is the bottom line for any business.

 

[dishguy1977]

You know, when I check RBC's website, it's nowhere near the live rate. It says it will cost me $129 CAD to buy $100 USD. That's not 78 cents on the dollar!

BTW: It's down again. 78.3 cents right now.

1/$0.78=1.282 So that would be $128.20 for $100 - pretty darn close to $129...

 

[snickerboo]

Yeah, but I posted that at the start of the day when the dollar was almost 80 cents. I just don't like being told I'm being charged the exact live rate, when I'm not. If they said, 'the live rate is what we pay so the customer has to pay a little more, " I could understand that but I was speaking with a manager and he said we charge you the live rate, exactly whatever it is trading for at the moment. That's the Royal Bank for you. The reason I was speaking to a manager was because the customer service person at the customer service desk couldn't answer any of my questions about basic currency exchange.

 

[brighteyes]

I know last summer when I went to exchange money at TD, the teller and I were joking how long we should stand there and wait. One minute she would say, now it's .8501, (or whatever it was then) oh and now it's...., oh it just went up, ok and now it is down to whatever.....I was there a good 10 minutes or so and she kept telling me different rates. It was quite funny. We joked that if I stood there maybe half the afternoon I might come out ahead five dollars.

Stephanie

 

[davidsprincess]

When I went to the bank the other day I had to place an order for my money as it was over a certain $ amount. I asked if I would get the rate for that day I placed the order and she said "no. the rate changes every 7 minutes and when you get your money, you will get the amount at what the rate is when you pick it up." Sadly it was a little lower than when I had placed my order and that ment having to pay more than what I would have the day before

Yesterday I went in and payed $134 for $100USD

 

[glenpreece]

I bought my U.S. money last week at the currency exchange place in our mall (http://www.continentalcurrency.ca/company.html). There's locations all over Ontario. They have very reasonable rates. The day I bought my US dollars, our dollar was at .85.. they charged 1.15. It cost me $463 to buy $400 US.I thought that was okay.

i too like to get my US cash here i go to the Oshawa Centre for it.