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Where to get the best exchange rate to buy a big USD bank draft in Toronto?

winston — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:05:47 -0800

How do I get the best exchange rate when I have Canadian dollars in hand and want to make a large payment in US dollars? I'm in Toronto and the recipient is not flexible with regards to payment methods so I need to end up with a certified cheque or bank draft to send. The money is currently in a President's Choice account and they can get me a USD draft but their premium on the exchange rate seems to be 2.5%. Currency exchange businesses usually advertise better rates than that but is there someplace I can walk into with a draft in CAD and walk out of with a draft in USD? Or is there some other option? I'll only need to do this once.

What was a million francs worth in 1953?

b1tr0t — Sun, 31 May 2009 20:01:04 -0800

Where can I find old historical exchange rates? Right now I'm looking for the crosses between British Pounds, US Dollars and French Francs in the mid-1950s. Monthly or yearly exchange rates would be fine. Bonus points if you can find currency data that goes back more than 50 years.

I'm reading Casino Royale (which is surprisingly good, by the way) and trying to get a handle on the cash figures being thrown around.

AUD to...what, exactly?

nicolas léonard sadi carnot — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:12:05 -0800

I´ll be doing some traveling soon, and since I´m in Australia, it seems expedient that I change my currency as soon as possible. What´s the best bet, Euros or USD? I´ll be leaving in about two months, and visting both Europe and the US.

As a Canadian living and working in the US, should I pay off my Canadian student loans ASAP?

picea — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 08:57:14 -0800

I'm a Canadian living in the US with an outstanding Canadian student loan. Getting paid in US dollars was working in my favour with regards to making monthly payments on the loan, but not so much anymore with the Canadian dollar on the rise. Is it predicted that the Canadian will stay up and keep rising in value, or this a temporary blip? I'm wondering if I should bite the bullet and pay my loans off now, in one go, or ride it out for a few months to see if the US dollar manages to pick itself back up. I realise that there is no one, scientific answer for this question, but educated guesses are appreciated.

Best UK/US exchange rate for a one-time deposit?

whataboutben — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 07:54:02 -0800

What is the best way to bring a one-time deposit of about $5000 from the US to the UK? My US bank was going to give me an exchange rate of about 2.03 $/£ on a bank draft drawn in pounds. This would cost me about $168 (compared to the exchange rate on Yahoo listed at 1.90). This is not a huge amount of money, but I am reluctant to pay for a service that costs the bank nothing.

Would it be better to bring US dollars and exchange currency once I get there? Are there any other methods I'm not thinking of?

Background info: I will be there for about 10 months, and I will be opening a new bank account. I don't want to use a credit card (that I'll pay for from a different, US Bank account) too much, because it has a 3% fee on every currency conversion. Getting a new credit card with a lower fee just for this purpose is not something I want to do. I also don't want to use ATMs to withdraw from my US bank account because of the (I think) $5 fee.

how to deal with U.S. compensation for foreign freelance work?

scody — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 18:31:27 -0800

I am a US citizen and resident, contracting with a European organization for a freelance project that won't be over until near the end of the year (we're still ~~fighting over~~ discussing the actual due date, but that's another issue). I requested a certain fee in US$. They agreed to that fee, but they want to pay it in Euros, based on today's exchange rate. Is this common practice? I would prefer not to sign a contract that locks me into a specific compensation amount in Euros based on today's exchange rate, because of course I don't know what the exchange rate will be at the end of the year (and in the case of significant weakening of the dollar, I could lose quite a bit of money in the exchange). How unusual would it be either to insist on being paid in dollars or to request that the payment in Euros be based on the exchange rate at the time I submit my invoice to them? (I've had one foreign [not EU] freelance gig before, and they had no problem paying me in dollars, though in that case it was for a much smaller fee.)

Any other feedback/tips from other U.S. citizens who've earned money abroad similarly would be helpful, too. This has been a mid-sized nightmare just to get to this point in contract negotiations, so I guess I won't fight it if it's actually common practice. (I still need to duke it out over the due date as well as get clarification regarding whether or not I will be liable for European taxes -- from what I understand of the contract, I won't be, but it's still not entirely clear.) Thanks!

UK -> US money transfer

normy — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 02:29:06 -0800

Transfering money from the UK to the USA: When? Suppose a guy has a sum of money temporarily sitting in a UK bank account. He lives in the USA and wants to transfer the money to his bank account there. It's not riches, but a big enough amount that for the first time in his life he's paying attention to the exchange rate. A 0.1 difference amounts to what could be a worthwhile difference (to him) in the dollar amount after exchange. He can move the money any time in the next few months or so.

Do it now, or wait a bit? Is the Dollar vs. the UK Pound likely to be stronger or weaker in, say, three months time?

Feel free to assume that the question is from someone who obviously knows next to nothing about exchange rates and international personal finance, because that would be a correct assumption.

Notes: This isn't a question about the mechanism of transfer, just the timing. Also, leaving the money permanently invested in the UK is not an option.