How to pay up (to Canada) - Page 2

Cathy, Midwest U.S. · 01-24-2012, 10:11 PM

Paul, you note that credit unions will not do foreign transfers. CUs, however, may have good card terms. Most banks will charge 3% for a foreign use fee. On top of that, they often have a very bad exchange rate.

Escape takes MasterCard and Visa and people have used cards to buy their Escapes. If a credit union has a good exchange rate and it charges a 1% foreign use fee, that beats the heck out of banks who hit you doubly hard on both the fee and rate. There are some cards that have no foreign use fee. If you have a card with no fee and it also has a good exchange rate, that's the best deal you can get.

As for the tax, Liz, I am hopeful that when we get to that, the market has not turned upside down as it is starting to do, in which case we hope they make a mistake on the number they are supposed to use!

Steve correctly pointed out that when the market is bad, the dollar is good. This is due to large U.S. corporations who do a great deal of business overseas, maybe even the majority of their business. If the dollar is strong, they cannot bring their profits into the country without losing a lot of dollars. When the dollar is weak, they get more dollars in exchange. Stocks go up when the dollar is down. At least that's the way I understand it.

It is to their benefit to have the dollar weak whereas it is to our benefit to have it strong when buying an Escape. The biggest factor in how a purchaser does may not be the card or method used but where the exchange rate generally is when he buys. In the last couple of months, the rate was in our favor enough not to lose, even with the fees. Now it's a bit of a loser. Can change again any time or get worse. A real bear to figure out and get the best deal.

rvomaha · 01-25-2012, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Braun

Just to day I saw that my Fidelity retirement account offers foreign wire transfers. I did not know this and do not know the costs. If you have a brokerage account somewhere it may be an option to explore.

With respect to Fidelity, we also have accounts through them, and have always had great service with them. For this reason, and because they have a local office where we could go in to do our currency transfers in person, Hubby first did his best to check out their rates over the phone, hoping to find out Fidelity's transfers would be a good deal for us. It was, however, a struggle to get an answer, even on a hypothetical trade. When Hubby finally got a number from Fidelity that he could compare to XE Trade, we found that XE Trade was a significantly better bet. At least that is my recollection. If you can summon the patience for it, it is prudent to make price comparisons of your own.

Also, if I recall correctly now, wire transfers are more expensive that having an actual check sent through the mail. We saved money by having XE Trade withdraw funds directly from our checking account, and they then issued a check of their own to Rease. I got temporarily concerned that Rease and Tammy might not be able to identify just which customer was making a payment if the check was an XE check, but Tammy reassured me that the XE checks identify the original source of the money.

captmath · 01-25-2012, 04:24 PM

When I got my fiver last summer the exchange rate was terrible. I did not mention the currency when I registered in VA.

Dick

rvomaha · 02-01-2012, 08:34 AM

Here are some more considerations about paying taxes and fees on your new Escape in the U.S.A. Although I'm sure every jurisdiction is different and has its own quirks, here is what I've encountered so far where I live. If you are taking ownership of your new Escape when it is finished, but not taking possession of it promptly, you may encounter some extra "fun."

Here's what our situation has been --

1. Our Escape was completed in early January. We won't be picking it up until April, but we own it and insure it while it sits in Chilliwack those extra months.

2. We are required by local law to pay our sales tax, registration and licensing fees, and wheel tax within 30 days of buying a vehicle.

3. We succeeded in paying our sales tax within 30 days without having brought the Escape into the U.S., but the rest we could not do because we don't yet have certain required documents that we can receive only at the border crossing. (The paperwork Tammy sent us wasn't enough to meet our local requirements. Maybe it will be sufficient where you live.)

4. Failure to meet the 30-day deadline would normally result in a fine against us. So we wrote a letter to the controlling governmental entity, explained the situation, and asked for a written waiver of any penalty we would incur by being late. Voila! In a couple of days we had our a promise of no penalty plus kind words for being so proactive.

I must give credit to the very helpful personnel at the county treasurer's office who spent nearly an hour sorting this out and who came up with the letter idea.

I'm hoping what I learned helps somebody else.

--Liz

medora · 02-22-2012, 02:23 PM

FYI, regarding XE Trade -- we had a pretty complicated issue with them while paying for our Escape, one which ended up requiring many many hours on the phone and some concern over possibly lost funds. The whole process took well over a month.

Our experience is hopefully just an anomaly -- but if you go with XE, MAKE SURE you get COMPLETE AND ACCURATE account info from Tammy, and be aware that the money is going into a credit union account (not Citizens' Bank of Canada).

Good luck!

Vermilye · 02-22-2012, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rvomaha

Here are some more considerations about paying taxes and fees on your new Escape in the U.S.A. Although I'm sure every jurisdiction is different and has its own quirks, here is what I've encountered so far where I live. If you are taking ownership of your new Escape when it is finished, but not taking possession of it promptly, you may encounter some extra "fun."

Here's what our situation has been --

1. Our Escape was completed in early January. We won't be picking it up until April, but we own it and insure it while it sits in Chilliwack those extra months.

2. We are required by local law to pay our sales tax, registration and licensing fees, and wheel tax within 30 days of buying a vehicle.

3. We succeeded in paying our sales tax within 30 days without having brought the Escape into the U.S., but the rest we could not do because we don't yet have certain required documents that we can receive only at the border crossing. (The paperwork Tammy sent us wasn't enough to meet our local requirements. Maybe it will be sufficient where you live.)

4. Failure to meet the 30-day deadline would normally result in a fine against us. So we wrote a letter to the controlling governmental entity, explained the situation, and asked for a written waiver of any penalty we would incur by being late. Voila! In a couple of days we had our a promise of no penalty plus kind words for being so proactive.

I must give credit to the very helpful personnel at the county treasurer's office who spent nearly an hour sorting this out and who came up with the letter idea.

I'm hoping what I learned helps somebody else.

--Liz

I guess I was lucky. In NY they had the same 30 day requirement, however they had no problem completing the registration (they did take my money for the sales tax based on the Canadian bill of sale) with the standard documents form Tammy. I took the plates with me to Chilliwack & picked up the trailer with no problems.

holo · 03-06-2012, 12:29 PM

I hope new buyers read all of this thread before sending US payments to Tammy.

I thought I did and tried to get a wire transfer through my credit union, in Canadian dollars. The bank employee tried and said she couldn't do it in CAD so we went with USD. Bad mistake on my part for not going to another employee. I am in constant contact with the branch manager now but that's another story.

The wire transfer in CAD would have cost me $40. Not bad for the convenience.
The WT in USD will cost me MUCH more! Probably the cost of a WD hitch or LED lights. Sigh.
I am not a happy camper. But I will be when I pick up our 17B next week!

Eric

thoer · 03-06-2012, 02:28 PM

i sure would be nice if this whole process could somehow be simplified. Seems like in today's global market place, etc. that there should be a much less cumbersome method for this. Maybe Tammy and Reace could open a bank account in the US? Probably some tax or other reasons why they can't...

Eric

medora · 03-06-2012, 03:07 PM

Eric T, as usual you are on to something. When we rented a campervan in New Zealand recently, we were able to send a check directly to the company's US bank account. No fees, no confusion. It took about 5 minutes to calculate the exchange, write the check, and walk it to the mailbox.

This was a small family run business, so it couldn't have been that onerous for them ... I don't know if the tax rules are different in Canada though.

LeonW · 05-26-2012, 08:58 AM

I just used XE.com, had a slight problem because I entered the name of the receiving bank incorrectly. But it has been straightened out and The payment should be sent from XE on Monday. I had hoped to use Electronic Funds Transfer because that would avoid the wire fees. XE's web site says that is possible but I couldn't see an option for it when I processed the payment. All that said, the exchange rate was significantly better than I could get through my US bank, and the process was relatively painless. My only regret is that I did the trade on Tuesday rather than waiting until Wednesday when the Canadian dollar fell a couple more cents.

gocamp · 05-26-2012, 03:19 PM

Great info Leon, thanks. Been watching and hoping the USD/CAD rates will creep up to a one year high.

Codeman · 06-19-2012, 06:56 PM

Howdy!

We are setting up our account to pay through XE.com, and I was wondering if anyone could send me some screen shots of exactly what they entered into the Recipient section of the account setup. Tammy sent me two pages of account information, but I'm not at all sure where to put it all. She suggested I put a post out here to see what others have done. Seeing exactly what was entered by someone who has successfully sent a payment would be very helpful!

Thanks,
Coby

gbaglo · 06-19-2012, 07:20 PM

Suggest you exchange emails and not post screen shots on the forum.

baglo

daveandsandyclink · 06-19-2012, 09:04 PM

Our process went pretty painlessly. We bank with Wells Fargo, so we did a US wire transfer directly from our bank to Tammy's bank and paid only the $45 wire transfer fee. We were able to skip the step that would go through the Wells Fargo International Bank in New York. They told me a Canadian wire transfer would cost more. We pick our 5.0 up July 3rd. Since paying for our trailer we have added a window in the bathroom, so we will have to go to a bank up there when we arrive and exchange money to pay for the window or get a Canadian bank draft. In all, it went very smoothly.

DaveandSandy

182king · 06-20-2012, 07:15 AM

Coby,

I also found the recipient setup in xe very confusing and had trouble filling it out. So I filled out the recipient info with Escape's name and address. Had them send a check instead of wire transfer.

The check option is cheaper and only takes an additional 3-4 days for the check to show up in the mail.

cpaharley2008 · 06-20-2012, 10:41 AM

My initial credit card deposit of $500 had a $19 foreign transaction fee. since then I have mailed weekly checks to Escape, the first one took a little longer because I only put one stamp. Canadian postage is about $.80 so the second check got there in 6 days, mailed on a Sat, thurs delivery. The interesting think is when the $30,000 was deposited and cleared, I got credit for another $900 by Escape due to the exchange rate, so I'm not complaining about the $19!!!

Jim Bennett · 06-20-2012, 11:32 AM

Man, $900 more to spend on extras, nice..... Definitely go for the heated toilet seat.

gocamp · 06-20-2012, 01:13 PM

For XE, do you deposit money into your XE account first then transfer to Escape, or are they a middle service that just transfer money between your own bank and escapes bank?

182king · 06-20-2012, 03:25 PM

gocamp,

It is basically and middle service that exchanges your money.

Once your account is set up with XE, you have an account that is linked to XE. In my case it was my checking account.

When you want to pay Escape trailer you log into the XE Website. Enter the amount you want send to whomever in what currency. They give you a quote that is good for about 60 seconds. If you confirm you want to continue, your money is taken from you linked account, i.e. checking and sent to whomever in the currency you selected.

You can also play the market now. If you think the market is going to move in your favor. Enter the amount of money you want to transfer and at what exchange rate you want this transaction to occur. If the market moves and that rate occurs, your money is withdrawn from your linked account and sent to whomever you specified.

Hope this helps?

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