# Where to exchange large amount of Euros to Canadian



## Jeffrey77 (Apr 23, 2012)

Last week I moved from Europe to Vancouver and I'm looking to exchange about 80,000 to 85,000 Euros into Canadian money. Currently the money is in my European bank account.

Suggestions for where to get the best exchange rate would be very much appreciated!


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## kaede77 (Apr 13, 2012)

Jeffrey77 said:


> Last week I moved from Europe to Vancouver and I'm looking to exchange about 80,000 to 85,000 Euros into Canadian money. Currently the money is in my European bank account.
> 
> Suggestions for where to get the best exchange rate would be very much appreciated!


Hi Jeffrey, this is where I went to exchange sterling to CDN

http://www.vbce.ca/

Have a look around but much better rates than banks for sure!


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

XETrade is also good; I've been using them for three or four years, decent rates, no complaints so far.


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## Sustainable PF (Nov 5, 2010)

brad said:


> XETrade is also good; I've been using them for three or four years, decent rates, no complaints so far.


XETrade isn't bad when you need to exchange a small amount of money but personally I would (and did) use Knightsbridge for large sums of money. I found the quotes from KB to always be a tad lower than XE.


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## Jeffrey77 (Apr 23, 2012)

Thanks for the replies.

I went over to the Vancouver Bullion and they wouldn't give me an exchange rate. Pretty akward since I was talking over a 100k. At RBC Royal Bank I was told they will match or offer a better rate than the Bullion so I'm guessing most banks will.

At Bank of Montreal they were willing to offer a preffered rate of 1.294 instead of their normal rate of 1.25 and a bit.


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

Have you asked your European bank what they would charge to convert it to $CDN and deposit it to your CDN bank account?


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## PuckiTwo (Oct 26, 2011)

Jeffrey77 said:


> Last week I moved from Europe to Vancouver and I'm looking to exchange about 80,000 to 85,000 Euros into Canadian money. Currently the money is in my European bank account.
> 
> Suggestions for where to get the best exchange rate would be very much appreciated!


If you do not want to convert your euros right now and wait for a better exchange rate you could park your euros in a so called euro account in Canada. Only bank I know who offers this service is bank of nova scotia or scotiabank. I hold my euros there.It is quite simple and convenient.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

I'm reviving this old thread because we'll be in a similar situation sometime in the next few months: we're likely to receive several tens of thousands of Euros as a cheque; I don't think a wire transfer can be arranged. Any advice on how to approach this?


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

brad said:


> I'm reviving this old thread because we'll be in a similar situation sometime in the next few months: we're likely to receive several tens of thousands of Euros as a cheque; I don't think a wire transfer can be arranged. Any advice on how to approach this?



i believe the original best answer may still be the nest answer. Interactive Broker has great low forex rates. You'd have to open an account.

otherwise the usual which i believe you know? the big currency conversion service shops, including XE dot com. 

probably a good idea to check with knightsbridge as well, since they have such low competitive rates with USD/CAD conversions. I had been believing knightsbridge specializes in USD/CAD but this may be doing them a disservice. They may also offer low Euro FX rates & they may have expanded their services since last i updated, which was a while ago. Good luck.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Interactive Brokers has excellent rates. But how do you get the pure EUR in? Can this be done without an intermediate conversion?

Very interesting original question.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

The issue for us is, as I mentioned above, the money will be coming via cheque. So that makes using an online forex service a bit difficult. Are there any that accept cheques? I looked at Knightsbridge and it doesn't seem possible, same for Interactive Brokers unless I missed something.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

As you look at options, also consider this one: is EUR/USD a more efficient (lower fee) conversion than EUR/CAD ?

I ask because using the gambit method, you can get from USD to CAD for ridiculously cheap. So if the forex spreads on EUR/USD are pretty good, that might be an easy route, EUR -> USD -> CAD

If you're near Toronto you may want to visit the foreign exchange desk in person at the Scotia Plaza, and try negotiating with the agent. I got pretty good rates on JPY and CHF at that desk.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

brad said:


> The issue for us is, as I mentioned above, the money will be coming via cheque. So that makes using an online forex service a bit difficult. Are there any that accept cheques? I looked at Knightsbridge and it doesn't seem possible, same for Interactive Brokers unless I missed something.



i'd call the currency exchange services, including knightsbridge. This would not be the first time they have faced this issue. You're coming in with a cheque drawn on a major global currency.

if it were myself, i'd contact IB as well. They are a US broker, remember. The parent has a large division in germany servicing the american community there. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that they could accept a cheque in Euros. 

what kind of exchange rate is your regular canadian bank giving you? someone upthread has mentioned scotia, but the TD also does a brisk business in Euro deposits. There's the bank side to TD & then there's the broker side, with its global trading platform. The broker side is likely to have slightly better rates, so it would be worth while to contact both. 

however, i imagine you'd find TD rates at both to be on the steep side. So would scotia's, or any other chartered bank that offers products & services in euros. I imagine that's why folks repair to the currency exchange houses when they have larger amounts of foreign currency.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

Thanks, all good advice! This cheque wouldn't be for me, but rather for my girlfriend, who's French; it's from the sale of the family home over there, of which she was a part owner. IB or Knightsbridge sound like the most promising possibilities, so I'll look into them. Thanks again.


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## houska (Feb 6, 2010)

$100k Cdn (<80k EUR) is the threshold at which HSBC will offer you Premier service, which includes the ability to open (fee-free) bank accounts in i) different currencies, and ii) even different jurisdictions (provided local regulations allow you to have a bank account there). I haven't needed to do so, but I would expect EUR is one of the currencies they would thus be able to hold.

They offer a global transfer service (between HSBC accounts in different countries) which is very useful. They also used to have competitive fx rates for Premiers, but that has proven to no longer be the case. However, you can use Knightsbridgefx etc with your HSBC accounts.

In my opinion, HSBC Premier is not the right tool for the job if this is a one-off related to your move (welcome!) and over time you expect your available money to go down (<<$100k) plus you don't expect to need multi-currency support frequently. However, if your future prospects and financial relationships would mean that you'll have to handle fx for an extended period of time, you can maintain $100k (note amounts invested in securities, mutual funds, ETFs, etc through their discount brokerage count towards the limit), then it might be worthwhile.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

Thanks! To clarify, my girlfriend has been living here in Canada for 27 years now; the family home in France was occupied by her parents until last month, when it was sold. She, her siblings, and her mother are all joint owners, so she will get a share of the sale. This is a one-off thing.


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## the_apprentice (Jan 31, 2013)

I had a similar issue earlier this year, and found that Knightsbridge FX had the best rates available. They often had a spread of $0.01 added to the EUR/CAD Currency Chart.

Also, when I mentioned to my Financial Institution that I was given a specific rate at Knightsbridge FX, they immediately offered to match that rate without hesitation.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

the_apprentice said:


> I had a similar issue earlier this year, and found that Knightsbridge FX had the best rates available. They often had a spread of $0.01 added to the EUR/CAD Currency Chart.
> 
> Also, when I mentioned to my Financial Institution that I was given a specific rate at Knightsbridge FX, they immediately offered to match that rate without hesitation.




(to brad) (if you drop in here) the above is probably the best tip in the whole thread! especially the part about mentioning to your own financial institution ... no need to leave home ...

it's also nice for cmf forum to hear that knightsbridge does Euro & other currencies, i'd been believing that they mostly handle USD/CAD but now we see they're good with other currencies as well


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