Quote:

---

Orginally posted by jake3d
yes this should work. I do all of the above on a regular basis. Like I mentioned earlier you can also electronically move your money between Ingdirect and TD, sell the USD in ingdirect and transfer the money right back to your TD CAD account.

---

-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Mah deah, there is much more money to be made in the destruction of civilization than in building it up."

-- Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind"

we seem to logged on at the same time.

I think I mentioned that ing direct offers better conversion rates on any given day. I did a comparision with ING and TD and found that Ingdirect offers better rates for your USD. Thus the suggestion to use ingdirect to sell the USD especially for the bigger amounts. However, If you need urgent access to the money you should stick to the same bank...e.g: do the selling from td USD accnt to td CAD account and you have immediate access to the money.
Electronic transfers between ingdirect and TD take about a week.

Many establishments accept USD but you should have some CAD for initial expenses.

TD has a good ATM network in Montreal..dont know about the best.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Recommended Services- Servicedomino.com
http://www.servicedomino.com

Hi Pratickm,
TD has a good network in ontario also and I really like there customer service and internet banking system
I would say don't close your US bank account and keep it as 0 balance free checking account(unfortunately in Canada there is no 0 balance free checking account concept and you need to keep a minimum amount balance to waive your account monthly processing fee).Also ask your USA bank how to set up a wire transfer with your future Canadian Bank.
After you open account in a canadian bank set up a wire transfer between your USA bank and USD account Canadian bank so that in future if you move to USA or want to transfer money quickly to your USA bank account will be very easy(they only charge US$20 per transaction)
Also before opening USD account in Canadian bank ask for diiferent options I know in TD if you maintain a certain balance in your USD account certain things like check order etc is free(This is another starnge thing in Canadian bank ..you won't get free check like in USA)
Apart from TD all major bank like RBC,Bank of Montreal allow USD and CAD account and exchange rate is pretty much same
Best of luck

-----------------------------------------------------------------
ani

President Choice financial offers no-fee accounts and unlimited debit transactions. They do not charge for cheque books.

Unfortunately they don't have USD accounts but you can deposit US cash or cheque or TCs through their ATMs which gets converted to CAD at the current exchange rate.

I would not suggest to convert entire USD to CAD as exchange rate is pretty low now .Although there is no guarantee that exchange rate will go up shraply in next few month but still it is better to take a chance and keep a close watch on the fluctuation.I did the mistake as I converted a good amount in Dec 2003 and that time I got exchange rate as low as 1.29 .Now the rate is 1.32 so I lost couple of houndred dollers already
Another thing I noticed is weekend rates are slightly better than Monday to Friday rate
I do agree with jake that indirect.ca is giving a better rate..as for example if you transfer 2000 USD today morning TD is giving 1.3198 and indirect is giving 1.322
Thanks

-----------------------------------------------------------------
ani

Thanks for the great information everyone.
I think I am clear on what needs to be done now.
Here is my plan:
Keep the US account open for now.
Take some USD traveller's cheque and some cash for landing.
In Canada, open a USD and CAD account with TD.
Deposit the traveller's checks and cash in the USD account and transfer to CAD account - withdraw some for immediate expenses.
Open a USD and CAD account with ING too and for all further conversions use ING, if rate is better.
Once the USD is deposited in ING then transfer to CAD.

Phew !!

-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Mah deah, there is much more money to be made in the destruction of civilization than in building it up."

-- Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind"

Sounds like a good plan Patrick. Also ingdirect gives you a higher interest rate(compared to TD) on the USD funds in their USD accounts. TD/CIBC's interest is a joke. e.g: today TD will give you .05% while Ing gives you 1%(they mostly match the rate set by the US fed)

Ani..on friday until somewhere around noon ING was giving you about 1.334 for USD.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Recommended Services- Servicedomino.com
http://www.servicedomino.com