# USD Accounts: ING vs TD Borderless?



## brad (May 22, 2009)

I travel frequently to the US, and I have a bank account in Vermont with TD Banknorth that I use to write cheques and withdraw cash from ATMs in the States. I also have a Borderless account with TD Canada Trust here in Canada. Typically I deposit a cheque in Canadian dollars to my Borderless account, and then write a cheque in US dollars from the Borderless account and deposit that in my TD Banknorth account so I have access to it in the US. Making a deposit in Canadian dollars directly to my TD Banknorth account is a bad deal because they charge fees on top of a poor exchange rate, plus it can take a few weeks for my deposit cheques to clear.

The only hassle for me in this arrangement is that I have no other account at TD Canada Trust, so I can't electronically transfer money from Canadian to US; I have to physically go to the closest TD branch, which is more than 45 minutes away (thus taking a couple of hours out of my day). So I'm wondering if it makes sense to open an ING Direct US $ account. I already have an ING Canadian $ account, so I could easily transfer money from my Canadian to US account, and then from there to my Borderless account.

As far as I can tell, TD doesn't advertise its exchange rates for the Borderless account. ING currently offers a rate of 1.145 for buying US dollars. Anyone know which is the better deal?


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## Retired at 31 (Apr 20, 2009)

I've found the borderless exchange rate to be quite competitive.

You know you can call banknorth and they can transfer money to or from your borderless account within a couple of hours right?


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

Retired at 31 said:


> You know you can call banknorth and they can transfer money to or from your borderless account within a couple of hours right?


Wow, no I had no idea that was possible!!! I couldn't see any way to do it online so assumed it wasn't an option but didn't consider calling. Is there anything special you need to do to set it up?


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

On the topic of transferring US dollars from TD Canada Trust Borderless account to a TD Banknorth account, there is a very important caveat, which I just discovered to my dismay: your TD Banknorth account has to be in Maine. They cannot do the transfer if your TD Banknorth account is based in any other state. This puts me out of luck, as my Banknorth account's in Vermont!


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## Retired at 31 (Apr 20, 2009)

Sorry about the bad beta. I didn't realize the accounts would belong to different states as I never actually opened mine...

My banknorth account was opened a decade ago as a td waterhouse bank account, then they renamed to td bank usa, then renamed again and changed account/transit numbers to become banknorth.


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