Moving money back from the USA to Canada

[buhhy]

I think you can get a slightly better rate elsewhere, but I've had no problems with XE, been using them for about five or six years now.

One consideration: I know when I transfer money from my Canadian to my US account (in my US bank in the States), there's a $10,000 annual limit. I believe that is set by the US government as part of the anti-terrorism or maybe anti-money laundering rules. XE keeps track of this for me and tells me how much I can transfer based on how much I've already transferred this year. I haven't looked into whether there's a similar limit for transferring money from a US-based bank account to a Canadian one.

What rate were you getting, if you don't mind me asking?

[brad]

I don't keep track (I only do one or of these conversions per year, usually for amounts under $1,000, and the last one I did was in 2011), but right now they are quoting a rate of .994413 and Bank of Canada right now is .9948.

Maybe not so great after all, but it's convenient.

[marina628]

I use a European poker room deposit usd withdrawn in CAD and I am getting 3% higher than forex rates lol.Just wanted to share this story definitely do not recommend this as an option

[peterk]

Possibly irrelevant, and carries it's own risks, but look into the cash exchange rate at the airport from which you are flying back to Canada. Some airports (at least the few outside NA that I've been to) provide no fee exchange that you might be able to convert some or all of your cash at.

[brad]

Possibly irrelevant, and carries it's own risks, but look into the cash exchange rate at the airport from which you are flying back to Canada.

I don't think they'd convert $10,000, but more importantly even though it's "no fee" there are in fact hefty fees built into their exchange rates. You'd be better off getting it exchanged at a bank -- I avoid those cash exchange booths like the plague.

[yupislyr]

One consideration: I know when I transfer money from my Canadian to my US account (in my US bank in the States), there's a $10,000 annual limit. I believe that is set by the US government as part of the anti-terrorism or maybe anti-money laundering rules. XE keeps track of this for me and tells me how much I can transfer based on how much I've already transferred this year. I haven't looked into whether there's a similar limit for transferring money from a US-based bank account to a Canadian one.

Are you referring to XEtrade's trading limit perhaps? I have never encountered any annual limit to transfer money to the US via XE. XE's trading limit is only for whatever trades you have open at the time. Once any open trades have been processed and the money sent, that room is available again on your trade limit. My trade limit is 10K too and I'm well over 10K in total of money transferred this year.

And it's not a hard limit. You can ask XEtrade to increase/decrease the limit.

[brad]

I have never encountered any annual limit to transfer money to the US via XE.

Interesting, I must have misunderstood their literature and instructions; I thought they said there was an annual limit of $10K due to money-laundering and anti-terrorist regulations but I must have been mistaken.

[humble_pie]

i did notice the supposed 10k annual limitation, too. I don't believe there's any annual limit to transactions between canada & the US. There is anti-money-laundering legislation requiring, among other things, that every cross-border transaction over 10K be forwarded to a federal inspection service. In canada this agency is, i believe, FINTRAC, under the minister of finance. I don't know the name of the US equivalent, but there would be one.

more trivia: it might be useful to mention out that the stated CAD/USD exchange rate posted on XE's website is *not* the rate that a customer is going to get. It is, instead, the wholesale or money-centre bank rate being charged for transactions of millions of $$. In addition, it's a median rate; that is, every posted figure is the median point between the buy & the sell which had taken place only a half-second before.

the retail customer will be offered a rate easily a full percentage point less for his currency purchase or sale.

[brad]

So if one were to draw up a sort of hierarchy of ways to transfer money from CAD to USD or vice versa, would it shake out something like this (from the lowest-cost to highest-cost options)?

The gambit (lowest cost, but with some risk and complication)
XE Trade (higher cost but cheaper than a bank -- there are probably cheaper services out there than XE, someone can add them to this hierarchy)
Traditional bank or credit union (high cost)
Airport or streetcorner bureaux de change (highest cost)

[humble_pie]

good list brad. Perhaps could number it, to make the divisions clearer ?

(on 2nd thought maybe i'd go something like this):


1. Lowest cost.
a) the gambit (some risk & complication; requires a learning phase)
b) forex trading at interactive brokers or elsewhere (requires a learning phase)

2. Higher cost but cheaper than a bank.
a) XE trade
b) Knightsbridge Foreign Exchange

3. High cost: traditional bank or credit union

4. Highest cost: Airport, hotel or streetcorner bureaux de change