NeW Member

[Mima06]

New member in the process of doing our build sheet for a 19. We are excited! For us that's the easy part. Confusion is the best route to take for our payments? Any help would be appreciated.

[cpaharley2008]

Welcome Bryan and Connie,
Purchasing a custom Escape is similar to having a child, there is the anticipation build up until delivery. We are here to help you deliver a healthy Escape. The only bad question is the one unasked.....

[Bill and Earline]

Originally Posted by Mima06

New member in the process of doing our build sheet for a 19. We are excited! For us that's the easy part. Confusion is the best route to take for our payments? Any help would be appreciated.

We just sent two personal checks in the mail, one when the build began, one when it was completed, and left a thousand or two balance to pay with a credit card when we got there for pick up. At the time they would accept that final payment on a card up to $3,000. Not sure if that’s still the policy.

We may not have gotten the very best exchange rate, but it seemed like we did, relying on ETI’s bank. Our way was simple and essentially no fee other than stamps.

It seems to be very trusting to send all or most of the money before delivery, but knowing this company and the owners the way we do, I would feel comfortable making full payment in advance at any point. The exchange rate would suggest striking while the iron is hot, as one member says.

[cpaharley2008]

and to add to above, when mailing from US you will need double postage. It will arrive within a week for about a $1

[salmo7000]

Originally Posted by Mima06

New member in the process of doing our build sheet for a 19. We are excited! For us that's the easy part. Confusion is the best route to take for our payments? Any help would be appreciated.

I used my credit card to make the down payment, then mailed a cashiers check for what was my best guess on the balance, based on current exchange rate. The ETI folks helped me with that estimate. Then when we picked it up, they figured the final balance, which was just a couple hundred, and used the credit card for that as well. Really easy, no stress!!

[caddoster]

For ours we sent two personal checks. One for the deposit and the other for the bulk of the payment (I just estimated) . When we pick up the trailer we pay the remaining balance with credit card. If you are planning to make any part of the payment with a credit card be sure to double check with ETI on what the max amount you can put on a credit card.

[Loren & Cathy]

Sending a check to ETI will probably get you close to as good of an exchange rate that you will find. As for the fluctuation in the exchange rate, it could be anywhere. Loren

[Upfisk]

Actually, the bank that ETI uses charges a 2% money exchange fee. On $30,000 that is $600. Personally, I would not call that nothing. Look into some of the online wire exchanges, there are discussions about this in the forums.

[padlin]

CC for deposit, personal check for most of the balance (Tammy told me how much to send), CC for what was left when they shipped the trailer. Worked fine for us.

[Onestep]

I paid my initial deposit with a credit card. For the balance I used TransferWise.

[Mima06]

Thanks to all for the quick response on our confusion about paying ETI. The forum has been a tremendous help to us, right down to deciding on slider windows! Taking the leap in a day or two.

[AnnHay]

Originally Posted by Upfisk

Actually, the bank that ETI uses charges a 2% money exchange fee. On $30,000 that is $600. Personally, I would not call that nothing. Look into some of the online wire exchanges, there are discussions about this in the forums.

I even asked Tammy about any fees if I used their bank and was told there were none. Still, I was charged about $600 by ETI's bank. When I complained to ETI, I was told that ETI did not know why that happened, but I also got an email from an ETI employee stating "all banks do that". Well, all banks don't do that. When I contacted ETI's bank, I was told that the ETI owners had signed an agreement with the bank whereby the bank could legally charge that fee and indeed the ETI owners did/do know about that fee. That surely did not sit well with me.

[lesliebooth]

When paying to a Canada bank in US dollars, yes they all take a cut of the exchange rate. They don't usually call if a fee though. The bank is not charging you a fee to cash your check though. Most US to CAD exchanges do not give you the amount of the cut they are taking for their services up front. I read about payments on this forum and was thinking about using Transferwise as they give upfront fees and exchange rates. I ended up using my Schwab account instead and paid by wire in CAD funds. They charged me $25 for the wire, but would not tell me the exchange rate cut $ they were taking for their services, but quoted me their own exchange rate instead. What I did was use the current online exchange calculator to compare the US dollars being taken out of my account. They took out an extra $90 or so from a $20,000 CAD wire payment. Much better than having the ETI bank converting a US dollar check into CAD.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by lesliebooth

When paying to a Canada bank in US dollars, yes they all take a cut of the exchange rate. They don't usually call if a fee though.

All financial institutions world wide have a buy-sell rate. If you want to "sell" your US dollars the bank "buys" them at a certain rate. If someone else wants to "buy" those same dollars from the bank the bank "sells" them at a higher rate than they gave you when you sold them to the bank. That's the way currency exchanges work. Nope, not a fee but their way of making a profit on transactions.

Ron

[Donna D.]

A business won't stay in business for long if they 'give away' their service(s) and that includes banks. Some 'fees' can be outrageous, others pretty dang cheap. It behooves everyone to shop around if you're using any financial institution. Don't you do that if you're looking to open accounts at a local 'bank'? When dealing with foreign currency, it becomes even more important....

[Berndad]

Originally Posted by lesliebooth

I ended up using my Schwab account instead and paid by wire in CAD funds. They charged me $25 for the wire, but would not tell me the exchange rate cut $ they were taking for their services, but quoted me their own exchange rate instead. What I did was use the current online exchange calculator to compare the US dollars being taken out of my account. They took out an extra $90 or so from a $20,000 CAD wire payment. Much better than having the ETI bank converting a US dollar check into CAD.

We are using a cost averaging approach as we have a long wait for our 8/2019 completion date. By sending $5000 a month US thru a Fidelity wire transfer we get a known ~1% charge (also available as an exact figure when making the necessary exchange to Canadian funds prior to the actual wire) and average the ups and downs of the exchange rate over time (never was much of a gambler). Again, a substantial improvement over a personal check to ETI, although not as sweet as the Schwab quoted above! Anyone should be able to set up an account with one of the trading firms and they will walk you thru the process.

[Berndad]

Not to put to fine a point on it, the conversion to CAD $ prior to the wire is what saves you ETI's Bank high "cut". Incidentally, Fidelity does the transfer for no charge other than their discounted (for them) exchange rate.

[Chris & Patricia]

As a former banker, having dealt with issues on both sides of the border, if you are a US customer, probably the worst way of paying ETI is to send them a US personal check which they clear through their Canadian bank. You almost have no idea of what value Canadian you are getting for your US. It is a much time consuming from an operational point of view and therefore expensive process of clearing a US$ personal check through the Canadian clearing process. Escape's bank will charge them a fee, which will reduce the amount of Canadian you will be credited with against the value of your trailer. It should be noted that Escape asks for 60 days for personal checks.

The best way is to go to your own bank and ask them for a Canadian $ denominated bank draft. They charge you the exchange rate at the time, and there's probably a fairly small fee for the service, almost certainly less that what Escape will charge you as noted above. If you are a good customer, you may even get no fee as the bank will make some money on the buy-sell rate noted in previous posts. But you will know exactly how many Canadian $ you have paid and Escape gets Canadian $ as well as a bank draft which they will not require 60 days to clear. There may be other banks who could get you a better FX rate than maybe your bank can, but that may cost you extra fees, but still much better to pay Escape in C$ with a bank draft.

There is also the wire transfer route as several have noted above, but again do the transfers in C$ rather than US$. Then Escape's bank will get the right currency and there will be no fees. Obviously there will be some small fees and for those that are happy to negotiate that process that's great. But not everyone will want to go that way. For those that don't, best to use the C$ bank draft route.

Yes I am a Canadian and have a Canadian bank but when we pick up our new trailer next week, I will still take them a C$ bank draft (purchased the same or the previous day) for the balance and will be able to leave without having to give them a check 60 days in advance.

[Upfisk]

We have a Fidelity account, free wire transfers, great. We made 2 installment payments. Initially we wired US$ to Escape via Fidelity. Pretty easy, then we saw that Escapes's bank had taken a 2% exchange fee, not so good. Next we looked into some of the online wire transfer services and those looked good. They tell you the exchange rate upfront, usually about 1%. Many people have used this method. We decided to use Fidelity and asked for an international trading account so we could buy CAN$ when we wanted. We watched daily exchange rates fluctuate, and bought CAN$ at what was a 6 week low. Paid less than 1% to buy Can$, then again, for free, wired the money to Escape. No conversion fee to pay with the bank, we knew exactly what we owed and purchased that amount of CAN$. Fidelity will also sell you CAN$ for 1% and then wire transfer for free.

The down side to our playing currency trades is the CAN$ slipped some more between our final payment and the day we picked it up. We paid in total about $500 more than that day's exchange rate. We do not have the talent to currency trade. Just get an international trading account, buy CAN$ when you want and send CAN$ to pay off your trailer. Or pay Fidelity 1% to purchase CAN$. Both ways will save you $300+ over just sending a personal check in US$ to Escape. That alone will buy you that bathroom window.

[EdColorado]

Wired full payment last month through my bank, USAA Federal Savings Bank.
They charge $20 for an international wire. They always wire funds in the currency of the receiving country. Then Mellon Bank got involved in someway. They charged me $25. Then TD Canada, the bank ETI uses, charged $18.50.

The banksters all got a shot at me.

No other currency transaction fees. At least none that were disclosed to me.

Given the scope of the entire purchase transaction, this is pocket change.