XE and Bank of America

[Tiggs14]

We're considering using XE to transfer money from our Canadian bank account into a Bank of America account. Our main goal here is to avoid the 2.5% surcharge credit card companies apply to foreign purchases. Now that the dollar is high I've been really thinking about socking some money away to pay for our next Disney trip.

Does anyone else use these services? Have you found this route to be better (cheaper) than having a US bank account and Visa through a Canadian Bank?

I've done quite a bit of research now I'm just trying to get some real life experiences and advice.

 

[mollyseven]

What I did.
I opened at US Chequing acct at my t.d. bank. There are no fees and no minimums. The bank manager that helped me said there would be no fees when I withdraw $.
I put 1000.00 american in there when the rates were crappy.
Now what I didn this week was I linked that acct at the t.d into my ING online accounts and started a us acct. with the ING online. It took minutes online to add a us acct. to my ing acct's. The ING always offers a better rate for u.s money than the regular banks do. It's usually a penny better than the T.D daily, so I won't have to wait until it hits par or 2 above before I get it for that. I figured I would have to wait until it got to 2 over par before I could get par from the t.d..... so I can transfer $ from my cdn ing acct to my usd ing account which by the way they also give interest on (t.d doesn't give interest) and leave it there until I need to pay my CAA Disney trip then I will just go transfer us money from ing to the td acct and go into the bank and get the money out to take to caa and pay the bill.
easy right.

 

[ixmnrs]

What I did.
I opened at US Chequing acct at my t.d. bank. There are no fees and no minimums. The bank manager that helped me said there would be no fees when I withdraw $.
I put 1000.00 american in there when the rates were crappy.
Now what I didn this week was I linked that acct at the t.d into my ING online accounts and started a us acct. with the ING online. It took minutes online to add a us acct. to my ing acct's. The ING always offers a better rate for u.s money than the regular banks do. It's usually a penny better than the T.D daily, so I won't have to wait until it hits par or 2 above before I get it for that. I figured I would have to wait until it got to 2 over par before I could get par from the t.d..... so I can transfer $ from my cdn ing acct to my usd ing account which by the way they also give interest on (t.d doesn't give interest) and leave it there until I need to pay my CAA Disney trip then I will just go transfer us money from ing to the td acct and go into the bank and get the money out to take to caa and pay the bill.
easy right.

I agree with Mollyseven. I also have both CDN and USD ING Accounts where I move money around based on the exchange. Then when final payment is due, I transfer back to my NovaScotia USD account and get a money order and courier payment to Disney or travellers cheques or Cash as needed and pay for all expenses with cash if possible.

 

[BellyBaby]

We have a Bank of America account because we have a vacation home down there. When we transfer money down (even in American funds) they charge about $12 per transfer. So take that into account. We make most purchases with our BMO US credit card, or our B of A debit card.