Freaking out about the USD/CAD exchange!

[Sue M]

Went to the Disney Store today and bought a gift card for DL trip at end of the month. Starwars theme of course! Couldn’t help myself, bought Starwars tee too.

 

[lizzyb]

Although I really hope the US rate does not go any higher or actually hope it goes lower, I can't do anything about it as I need to pay for my cruise with my credit card in order to get my travel insurance.

 

[Mumketeer]

Went to the Disney Store today and bought a gift card for DL trip at end of the month. Starwars theme of course! Couldn’t help myself, bought Starwars tee too.

How does that work, if I bought a card here could I use it like cash at Disney World to buy anything food too. I guess it would get converted there to U.S at whatever rate Disney wants to give. Hmmm

 

[Sue M]

How does that work, if I bought a card here could I use it like cash at Disney World to buy anything food too. I guess it would get converted there to U.S at whatever rate Disney wants to give. Hmmm

Yes, I use the card primarily for dining. It gets converted to USD at what ever the bank rate is that day. What you save is the 2.5% Forex fees when you go to the bank to exchange your money.

 

[Mumketeer]

Thanks!

 

[hdrolfe]

How does that work, if I bought a card here could I use it like cash at Disney World to buy anything food too. I guess it would get converted there to U.S at whatever rate Disney wants to give. Hmmm

The rate fluctuates based on the closing rate (I think from the night before?). You can lock in the rates if you have a Disney card from the US (I have one I redeemed movie points for, it was $5 USD). I combined all the CAD cards I bought onto the USD card on the manage your Disney gift cards site, and it locks in the rate in USD, so it doesn't change any more. I found that helpful when trying to plan things and know how much it will actually be worth. You can also use the cards to pay for tickets, or the Disney hotels, packages, cruises, online or over the phone (or through a travel agent if you use one). Hopefully that makes sense

 

[Lexx1214]

RBC rate is at 0.76505 this morning. Anytime it gets above 0.75 we transfer what’s in our savings to our US account. I don’t have much faith that it’ll get above 0.80 but 0.75 is what we are comfortable with.

 

[Yahweh]

Expect the Canadian Dollar to keep rising!

 

[hdrolfe]

Expect the Canadian Dollar to keep rising!

That's usually what happens when I get back from a trip so I'd agree!

 

[Mumketeer]

That's usually what happens when I get back from a trip so I'd agree!

Oh yeah! Let's hope so!

 

[Mumketeer]

Expect the Canadian Dollar to keep rising!

That's usually what happens when I get back from a trip so I'd agree!

There that is what I meant. Hope the Loonie jumps!!! Sorry bad editing.

 

[mousetrailer]

Had to get USD for the trip today as we leave on Friday. Got $1500 USD which made it a little over $1900 CAD at the local exchange rate store. The Canadian dollar is just brutal right now

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

Expect the Canadian Dollar to keep rising!

I hope so. But i guess there is no way of knowing

 

[Sue M]

Had to get USD for the trip today as we leave on Friday. Got $1500 USD which made it a little over $1900 CAD at the local exchange rate store. The Canadian dollar is just brutal right now

I found my bank exchange rate was better than the Exchange store at the Mall.

 

[Sue M]

The rate fluctuates based on the closing rate (I think from the night before?). You can lock in the rates if you have a Disney card from the US (I have one I redeemed movie points for, it was $5 USD). I combined all the CAD cards I bought onto the USD card on the manage your Disney gift cards site, and it locks in the rate in USD, so it doesn't change any more. I found that helpful when trying to plan things and know how much it will actually be worth. You can also use the cards to pay for tickets, or the Disney hotels, packages, cruises, online or over the phone (or through a travel agent if you use one). Hopefully that makes sense

Huh! I didn’t know that you could do that. Transfer Canadian GC to US GC.

 

[DavidL]

Huh! I didn’t know that you could do that. Transfer Canadian GC to US GC.

The gift card thread has been discussing the topic. It's a pretty darn cool way to avoid the 2.5% forex fee on credit cards, and it also allows the locking in or at least averaging of the dollar. I had a US$ gift card that I bought a couple months ago. I had emptied the card by using the entire balance as a deposit for an upcoming stay at Pop Century in August. I was able to successfully reload that $US gift card by transferring a $CAD gift card that I'd bought at Shopper's Drugmart. Whoever came up with the idea was brilliant

 

[Sue M]

The gift card thread has been discussing the topic. It's a pretty darn cool way to avoid the 2.5% forex fee on credit cards, and it also allows the locking in or at least averaging of the dollar. I had a US$ gift card that I bought a couple months ago. I had emptied the card by using the entire balance as a deposit for an upcoming stay at Pop Century in August. I was able to successfully reload that $US gift card by transferring a $CAD gift card that I'd bought at Shopper's Drugmart. Whoever came up with the idea was brilliant

Oh good! I have some empty US GCs I transferred balance from just before my April/May DL trip.

 

[starvenger]

So after seemingly cratering earlier this month the dollar seems to be yoyoing around the $0.78 mark. Hoping it gets closer to $0.80 by end July but I'm considering buying USD if it stays above $0.78.

 

[Intr3pid]

If you trade stocks or currencies, the best way of transferring between USD and CAD would be through your online broker.

Use Interactive Brokers (IB), as their rates are the real-time global market rates. (IB makes money through trading commissions, which will be a rounding error in this transfer.) On the Canadian side, one combo would be to open CAD and USD accounts with your bank. Fund your IB account through an EFT from the CAD bank account, exchange into USD within IB, and then withdraw it into the USD bank account. Most banks also offer a USD credit card, so you can charge your Disney purchases to the card and pay off the card from the USD bank account. This sort of route, of course, works better for larger transfers given the number of steps - but you will get as close to the no-fee system as possible.

Disney gift cards work a treat as well. Make sure to get them at a merchant that is registered in your credit card's bonus earn categories. AMEX and some premium cards have 2x-5x category earn for groceries, pharmacies, etc. Use them!

 

[pigletto]

Wow.. it's looking bad today. I'm guessing it took a dive when the steel and aluminum tariffs news broke an hour ago. I haven't looked in a few days though so it might have dipped before then. Regardless.. yuck. We will plan for May 2019 at this rate and be ready to cut some extras if it gets worse.