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Old 04-04-2016, 06:31 AM   #61
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exchange rate

Ralph,

Thanks so much, that is great news. And that is a good question, did you check to see if the exchange rate from Vanguard was comparable to that given by others? I would guess that it was.
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Old 04-04-2016, 03:51 PM   #62
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Ralph,
how good was the exchange rate you received when exchanging at Vanguard? Did you compare it with XE or others on the same day?
We were very happy with the rate. Our rate on Feb. 12, 2016 was $1.3675CA per US$. Looking at XE history, it says $1.385CA per US$ is the close on Feb 12th, so about 1.25% difference. I know we checked a few other places, I believe including what ETI could get, and they were all in the 3-4% range.
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Old 04-04-2016, 04:25 PM   #63
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Man, I'd be thrilled with that rate. Ours was $1.245 last March.
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Old 04-04-2016, 09:04 PM   #64
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Originally Posted by Ralph & Paulette View Post
We were very happy with the rate. Our rate on Feb. 12, 2016 was $1.3675CA per US$. Looking at XE history, it says $1.385CA per US$ is the close on Feb 12th, so about 1.25% difference. I know we checked a few other places, I believe including what ETI could get, and they were all in the 3-4% range.
Ralph, I have a brokerage account with Vanguard and called them. The rep told me to download a the wire transfer form and on it it says this:

International wires
International wires will be sent in U.S. dollars.
To send an international wire in U.S. dollars, you must provide the name of the U.S. correspondent bank used by the international bank and the U.S. correspondent bank’s SWIFT code.


Did you find another way to get Vanguard to wire funds in Canadian Dollars?

Thanks!
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Old 04-04-2016, 09:24 PM   #65
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Didn't have to download a form with our account- M.S. bought foreign currency with our funds and had it banked in our account. Then when we needed to wire it they did.
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Old 04-04-2016, 11:07 PM   #66
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I guess our experience was unusual compared to all the methods described here. I wrote a check (yes, a personal check), and mailed it. Escape received it about 4-5 days later, and the next day I got a revised build sheet showing the amount paid in CAD after Escape's bank did the conversion. Done. Could I have gotten a better rate with a different method? Don't know. Escape's bank gave me a very favorable rate compared to the current exchange rate I looked up online. And, no hassle is equal to money in my book.
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Old 04-05-2016, 08:35 AM   #67
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That's exactly what we did Robert. The goal is to have good timing, and writing your own check is simple, easy and timely.
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Old 04-05-2016, 01:26 PM   #68
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This probably won't affect anyone using FXC to hedge and buy Escape in a year. But I learned that FXC does come with some load fees of 0.4% which is about $100+ or so in costs per year for the price of an Escape trailer. So, if you are planning to use FXC to hedge and save CAD for longer terms, this may be a bad idea.

For those who have experience with Forex, what is the commission fees like per trade on USD/CAD ?
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Old 04-05-2016, 04:24 PM   #69
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The rep told me to download a the wire transfer form and on it it says this:

International wires
International wires will be sent in U.S. dollars.
What's the form number you're looking at? I didn't have to use a form, but I searched for a form on Vanguards website and found this one https://personal.vanguard.com/pdf/s140.pdf?2210090300 that has a box that says "Type of currency If no currency is provided, the wire will be sent in U.S. dollars":
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Old 04-05-2016, 04:47 PM   #70
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Originally Posted by Ralph & Paulette View Post
We were very happy with the rate. Our rate on Feb. 12, 2016 was $1.3675CA per US$. Looking at XE history, it says $1.385CA per US$ is the close on Feb 12th, so about 1.25% difference. I know we checked a few other places, I believe including what ETI could get, and they were all in the 3-4% range.
As expected from Vanguard, that looks to be a good rate similar to XE.com .. I believe the XE history is just the mid-market rate, not actual consumer rates we'd get.

I called a broker selling forward contract.
The pros: leverage (10% down), good rate, asset/agreement stays in your name, you can continue to earn with other 90% of funds
The cons: minimum $30,000 USD contract... which may be over what we'd need for Escape, taxable if there are gains, possibly more funding requirement if CAD gets too weak

In the end, I think the best option for me is to open a CAD$ account in foreign country, use XE or similar service to deliver CAD to that account, and then electronically wire money to ETI when time comes.
The pros: asset stays under my name, ability to wire electronically to ETI, low costs of < $100 wire fees, good rate, not much taxable gain possibilities
The cons: CAD$ interest is a measly 0.6% vs 0.9% USD, 100% of funds outlay now to lock in rate

Thanks all for your help!
I know all this may be a headache for some folks, but it's a learning experience for me to understand this possible class of future investments. while minimizing risk and making sure I don't have unexpected gains which could mean losing certain tax-sheltered benefits.
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Old 04-06-2016, 11:25 PM   #71
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We had the same issue after we ordered our trailer last Friday. My first thought was to send the money to relatives in BC and have them change it and store it in their bank until needed. Fortunately, I'm married to a very smart woman. Her first thought was "call Morgan Stanley (our broker) and see what they can do". What they can do is buy CAD at the current exchange rate and hold the money for us in a CAD account, with wire transfer to ETI as needed. The cost to us is 3 basis points (0.03%, or about $9), which is about 1/25 of the next cheapest cost I found. The downside is that the CAD account will pay pretty close to 0% interest but since USD cash accounts are paying practically nothing anyway, who cares.

We are long term good customers of this broker, so I suppose that could make a difference in what he is willing/able to do for us.
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Old 04-07-2016, 09:22 AM   #72
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We used the credit card for the deposit with the initial order, and then to pay the miniscule balance due when we picked the trailer up. In between:
Since liquid funds earn almost no interest, we elected to send a couple of big checks to ETI, whenever we saw the exchange rate moving up in our favor. The result was that ETI had the use of those funds for several months, and we were fine with that. Why should the banks get the float, when Reace and Tammy could.
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Old 04-07-2016, 09:36 AM   #73
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I had a pleasant surprise when I called our local credit union and was connected with someone with lots of experience. They ultimately reduced the stated international wire transfer charge for me and figured out how to transfer directly to ETI's Canadian bank in CAD. My credit union said that they can make the wire transfers immediately, as I call in to them. They did stress that there is no way for them to get the "official" exchange rate you see listed on financial sites as those are only available to some sorts of high level bank transactions ( I didn't ask for a complete description - sorry)

I also spoke with Kathy Davis the Manager of Accounts Rec/Payable at ETI who said based on what she has observed in payments coming thru, that paying the higher wire fee to have funds transferred in CAD was more than made up for in savings of not using their US bank as intermediary.

And Kathy, like everyone I have ever dealt with at ETI was amazingly helpful!

PS I totally agree with your last sentence Don and Teresa
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Old 04-07-2016, 09:59 AM   #74
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We just setup an account at XE.com for free, took about 10 minutes. Put our bank info in and ETI mailing address as recipient. You can accept their rate when ready or make them a offer of what rate you want. When accepted offer they pull the money out of ur account, convert to CAD at accepted offer rate and Mail a check to ETI in CAD. ETI would receive the check in about 4 days. Best part is there was never any fees for any of this and it is so simple.
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Old 04-07-2016, 12:55 PM   #75
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There are clearly several ways to do this. I just spoke with Vanguard, where I already have a brokerage account. It is simple to buy the FXC ETF and hold it for however long, and when ready to send a payment to ETI, simply sell shares of FXC and Vanguard will send a wire transfer for the amount in CAD to ETI's bank account. Vanguard does the conversion at the current rate and does not charge a wire transfer fee. Vanguard also has a voice authentication verification service, which expedites the process.

From speaking with ETI, I get the idea that for 2017 Escape orders, they only want to receive the deposit in 2016, and not receive payments on the rest of the balance due until 2017, or at least until closer to the production date. So this is a way to get the USD-CAD rate now by purchasing FXC, and holding for a future transfer date. Since FXC has an annual cost of 0.40%, this will cost about $100 for the price of an Escape trailer (less the deposit) to wait until 2017.

Of course the USD-CAD will change in the future, so will it be more favorable to USD holders in the future? Who knows?
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Old 04-07-2016, 07:21 PM   #76
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...The cost to us is 3 basis points (0.03%, or about $9), which is about 1/25 of the next cheapest cost I found. .
Wow, 3 basis points.. that's like no fee. but i'm sure they are making in other wealth management areas

Inspired by you, I did some additional search for US banks that offer foreign currency accts. To my surprise, there's a handful of them now! I'm glad we are making progress as a country.

For those that want a CAD$ account, look at the online bank EverBank.com, I'm really impressed by their offering/rates, and straight forward disclosures. Very unlike traditional banks.
EverBank offers no interest for CAD$ acct currently. You can choose to use XE to wire CAD in..or use Everbank to exchange. They said the acct is free of charge and the exchange cost is 0.75% of their exchange rate which sounds lower than XE... but they aggregate all requests from their customers to exchange once per day to try to get better rate. And their outgoing international wire is just $30 (free incomings) or we can choose to ask for a bank check/draft in CAD$ for free. If there's anything else I've missed please share the info with the rest of us.

I'm glad that so many people have so much confidence in ETI.. it sounds like a great company and great people. However, in my experience, the key/secret of why dealing with smaller businesses is so risky is that small company is so dependent on the health and well-being of its owners. This is the inherent risk of dealing with smaller companies.
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Old 04-08-2016, 01:17 PM   #77
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I just opened a FXC account at Vanguard to cover the cost of our April 12 ETI 19. Net cost .76 Canadian per US$. Hope this locks us in at a good rate. With the price of oil going up I figured that the Loonie would go up. Getting ready to sell our Casita soon also. Come on April '17.
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Old 04-11-2016, 11:12 AM   #78
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Anyone can call Tammy as I did and ask her this question directly. Her answer, ETI's bank does not charge a 3-4 % fee to convert CAD to US Dollars.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph & Paulette View Post
I know we checked a few other places, I believe including what ETI could get, and they were all in the 3-4% range.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph & Paulette View Post
If you do the exchange through your bank, or if you wire the money to ETI as US dollars, your bank or ETI's bank will convert them to Canadian, but will charge you a fee - typically 3 or 4%. Eliminating that fee could easily save you $1000 in exchange fees.
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Old 04-11-2016, 09:49 PM   #79
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Anyone can call Tammy as I did and ask her this question directly. Her answer, ETI's bank does not charge a 3-4 % fee to convert CAD to US Dollars.
It is not a "fee" per se. But if you contact ETI and find out what the current US/CAD exchange rate is, then compare it to what you find online at places like xe.com, etc., you will find that the rate from ETI's bank is about 3-4% worse. This spread is essentially their "fee".
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Old 04-11-2016, 09:55 PM   #80
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The exchange rate online does not represent what the ordinary person will get at any financial institution.
It is likely what the Bank of Canada gets from US Treasury.
We just don't have the clout.
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