Getting payments to Canada

[ashleymeadow]

This question if for American owners: What is the best way to pay for the Escape. My local bank has their own exchange rate, which is rather high. I have been trying to think of the best way to get the final payment to Tammy and Reace, but all methods seem expensive. I was courteous to see other US citizens paid for theirs.

Jerry

 

[JeffZ]

We just did a wire payment via our bank.. The wire was free (I think..part of our banking service) and as for the exchange rate, my guess it was competitive.

 

[Texscapees]

We wired the money from our bank (major US commercial bank) to Reace & Tammy's bank. The exchange rate for converting the US$ to CND$ has not been very favorable for americans in recent months. I wish we had paid in full when we put down the deposit.

The fx rate will likely be the same or very similar for all the major american banks. The rates you see by googling them via the internet tend to be quoted as the rate for large transactions (e.g. > $3mm) between banks and not the rate available to an individual consumer such as yourself. Also, Your bank may or may not charge a nominal fee (e.g. $25) for performing the wire transfer.

Brad

 

[ronstew]

Call your local foreign exchange company. They will have much better rates than the bank. I would expect that they can issue cheques. (That's checks, to you.)

 

[Bruce Wray]

I'd recommend shopping and joining a local credit union, depending on which will wire transfer free of charge and help with obtaining the best exchange rates. Our local credit union was a great help, but if you wire, the exchange rate is controlled by Reace's and Tammy's bank.

Bruce

 

[yukonwilson]

There is a very useful online company for transfers of funds in various currencies.

Custom House Currency Exchange > http://www.customhouse.com/. It is used primarily by currency traders but works very well for transfering funds from one currency to another. Very clean, very simple, no lost bank/money orders and e-records of all transactions deposits, balances etc).

~ Set up your account... using your bank acct info
~ Set up recipient(s)... using their bank acct info
~ You pay Custom House (in your currency)
~ Custom House pays your recipient (in their chosen currency)

In my Canadian bank (Bank of Montreal) I can set up Custom House a bill payee, so no charge to pay them electronically. No charge if you do an EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) unless your recipient's bank charges one.

Highly recommend it

Scott Wilson
Whitehorse, Yukon

 

[thoer]

The main problem is what kind of exchange rate you get at what place. It varies hugely I have found. While I love our local credit union and would much prefer to give all my business to them, if I do a wire transfer with them it runs through another service and the exchange rates are bad. I have done some downpayment transfers for our upcoming 17B through Bank of America charging it to my Mastercard. The exchange rates I have gotten have been almost equivalent to the actual wholesale exchange rate between banks. Problem with B of A is that they charge a 1% fee on foreign currency exchanges. I just learned from Consumer Report that CapitalOne has one of the few Mastercards that charge no foreign currency fee, so I got one of their cards. It pays to really shop around and find out how close to "official" exchange rates you can get on a purchase as large as an Escape. The rate has been bouncing all over the place lately - changing as much as 1% in a single day.

Eric