Best place to get my US money converted to CAD?

[saddlepatch]

Curious what past Americans used to get their money converted from USD to CAD. The bank wants to knock off about $80 for every $1000 and just curious if we can do better?

I would prefer to have it all switched over before the move, but can wait till after we're in Canada if anyone thinks I'd get a better exchange rate in Canada?

Also are there places in Canada where I can cash an American Cheque? I have a feeling my job will send me my final paycheque's in the mail and not Direct Transfer to my Bank of America account.

 

[Hurlabrick]

Curious what past Americans used to get their money converted from USD to CAD. The bank wants to knock off about $80 for every $1000 and just curious if we can do better?

I would prefer to have it all switched over before the move, but can wait till after we're in Canada if anyone thinks I'd get a better exchange rate in Canada?

Also are there places in Canada where I can cash an American Cheque? I have a feeling my job will send me my final paycheque's in the mail and not Direct Transfer to my Bank of America account.

Try TransferWise. I use TransferWise for all my 'conversions' (normally GBP to CAD).

Because they are not a 'true' FOREX company, they only charge a stated transaction fee, the rate you get is the mid-point money market rate. They can do this because they do not actually transfer 'your' money via the FOREX money markets, instead, they 'match' it with other people wanting to sell CAD and buy USD. So the money is paid direct out of their CAD bank account direct to your CAD account, usually same day.

I have converted £GBP 'hundreds of thousands' by them over the last 3 years and been very pleased with the service and savings.

 

[Hurlabrick]

Also are there places in Canada where I can cash an American Cheque? I have a feeling my job will send me my final paycheque's in the mail and not Direct Transfer to my Bank of America account.

Most Canadian banks also offer the facility to have a separate USD account and you can move money between USD and CAD accounts within the same bank. Problem is, they use the banks own FOREX rates for this. Personally, I would use TransferWise for these transfers as well, as long as you can retain your current USD bank account (I maintain my old GBP bank account in the UK for similar reasons).

 

[subodhp]

Agree, transferwise also takes a % cut but no matter how I dice it, when compared to other agents, I end up saving money relatively with TransferWise

 

[fayfeily]

Hi Guys - How long have you been using TransferWise ? Is it reliable ?

 

[subodhp]

Quite reliable, if you are interested in doing research yourself, there is also xe (PayPal) that you can compare with.

Banks will usually charge wire transfer fee. Xe/transferwise provide better rates while not incurring wire transfer fee.