Canadian dollar now worth more than US

[dreamcoll]

It's official. I just exchanged some US dollars to Canadian & actually lost money. 😞

[snoopwiz]

Actually the Canadian dollar is not worth more than the US. Close but, not quite there. The bank has their "buy" and sell" rates on foreign currencies. Today for instance, they may only give you 97-99 cents for your US dollar and turn around and sell that same US dollar for $1.02-1.03 Canadian. I think they call it the "spread."

[dreamcoll]

Yes, you're right. I was just so shocked to lose money that I forgot about the buy rate.

[tea_past_times]

Or we could just call it theft. I wonder, should I start listing in Canadian dollars. Would I come out ahead that way, or would the SPREAD(theft) still get me?? i don't get how the $173.00 US I just moved from Paypal to my bank account became $171.00 Canadian, when the $173.00 Us is actually worth 175.00 CDN. Looks like a theft of $4.00 to me. Any one who knows, please let me know if switching to requiring payment in Canadian Dollars would fix this problem?

[tea_past_times]

Time to readjust those shipping costs again......

Shipping actual cost = $8.20
Paypal Fees = $1.02
Paypal Exchange Fee = $0.20
Listing Fees = $0.35
Final Value Fee = $0.90
______________________________

Price to Quote Customer for shipping = $10.67

Yup, that will work.

[fenian]

I did a transfer from my US dollar account to my Canadian dollar account at my credit union today. Guess I was lucky to get straight par. Back in my post-secondary days, I worked in a tourist-oriented gift shop one summer. I had to tell the south-of-the-border folks that their money was only worth 96 cents Canadian. Boy did the screaming eagle **** hit the fan on that one every day. .... Fenian

[duujogl]

Michael, you have to admit that was WAY MORE than a couple of years ago :^O:^O - to most of our friends on this board, that was ancient history!!! I have to admit, I remember it too!!!

[futuretech_liquidations]

To avoid the exchange (THEFT) simply open a US based bank account and then transfer your PAYPAL funds to that account.

Use your US bank credit/debitcard here in Canada to access your money wheneve you like at most ATM's.

TIM @ FTL

[zarzuella]

Tim, not sure what you mean - any purchase made in Canada in Canadian dollars will be subject to exchange rates when it hits your US bank.

Ann

[webbizinabox]

Ann,
I think what Tim refers to is open a US bank account for your US funds and withdraw US paypal to US bank. Also, there is No minimum like the $150 Canadian min for paypal. It's also significantly faster, sometimes same day. Most Can banks have or own USA affiliates, like RBC Centura. You can link your accounts USA to CAN and transfer between them. No paypal currency theft, and you get bank rates which are 'better'.

Or, leave it in U$D. The currency will turn around, it always does.

My CND$0.02 cents
/wayne

[jakeeangel]

I'm quite sure she gets that part but it's this that she's referring to:

"Use your US bank credit/debitcard here in Canada to access your money wheneve you like at most ATM's."

If you use your US debit card in Canada you'll still get hit with the exchange rates but this time from the US bank not the Canadian bank.

And BTW, it's not PayPal currency theft. All places charge a fee and/or spread for converting from one currency to another. It's what they get for performing a service. Nothing is free.

---

[tea_past_times]

All places charge a fee and/or spread for converting from one currency to another. It's what they get for performing a service. Nothing is free......

It's a fee on top of their fees then.(The 100+ dollars per month I give them them accept my payments) Whoopee!! More Paypal fees. What a great idea. Glad they thought of it. It's kind of like paying to have your car repaired and then paying the guy who opens the garage door for you to get out.

[tea_past_times]

No big deal though, I've always passed all my Ebay and Paypal fees on to my buyers, so now I'll just calculate how much the SPREAD is costing me per Ebay sale and add it to the cost my buyers pay for shipment. A California company ripping me off left and right, but most of my customers are from USA, so they are doing it to their own people in the end. HEHEHEHEHEHE

[tip-top.deal]

Today Sep. 20, 07 - on a historical day with the Canadian Dollar officially at par with the US currency, first time after 31 years, guess what: PayPal is charging a rate of .975781 on a Can. money transfer. Todays published exchange rate from Royal Bank of Canada: 1.022704. That's a difference of $.047 or $4.70/$100.00. Highway rubbery all the way!

[alero0]

tip-top.deal
Paypal's rate of .9757 is to exchange US$ to CAN$. So for $100. US$ you will get $97.57 CAN$.
Royal Bank's rate is .9797 so for 100 US$ you'll get $97.97 CAN$.
Paypal isn't robbing us, All the banks are thieves. I agree with tea that with all the fees we pay to paypal or to our banks our dollar should be worth a dollar

[tip-top.deal]

Royal Bank's rate is .9797 so for 100 US$ you'll get $97.97 CAN$.
Wrong interpretation: Royal Bank rate of .9778 is CAN.$ to US$, with other words 1Can$ = .9778 US$. That's why other power sellers are suggesting to open a Ventura account to transfer US$ straight to your Ventura US$ account and you have the control when and at what Royal Bank rate you want to transfer your $'s from PayPal.
PayPal's published rate is, as you stated. US$ to CAN$.

[sageleafkids]

Not sure what the big deal is here, there is always the "spread", which is about 2.5%. Now that the dollar is close to par, it just becomes more noticeable.

We opened an RBC Centrua account, as well as our RBC account. RBC offers about a .2 % better exchange over PayPal, definitely not worth the hassle, as you can't use online banking to exchange money if you have a business account. We have to fax requests for money transfers.

The only reason we have the Centura account is to keep our US$. The account in the US is the only way to withdraw US funds from PayPal. All of our US dollar expenses then comes from those funds. That way you are not paying the "spread" on the exchange to Canadian dollars, and then paying the "spread" again when you are making purchases in US dollars. It costs about 5% to change your US dollars to Canadian dollars, and then change them back to US dollars.

Just my thoughts.

Peter

[alero0]

This is taken directly off the Royal Bank site:


Amount : 100.00 CAD

Conversion Rate: 1.0214

Converted Amount: 97.90 USD


Amount : 100.00 USD

Conversion Rate: 0.9797

Converted Amount: 97.97 CAD

[tea_past_times]

Well anyway, I started listing in CANADIAN DOLLARS today. I figure that since I NOW only accept real(Canadian)money, that the payments for my auctions should arrive at my Paypal account in Canadian funds, and therefore when I move that money to a bank account there will be no rate of conversion as I will be moving Canadian paypal funds to a Canadian bank in Canadian dollars. I've also added a dollar to the price of all my items in case(as is usual) most Americans are paying no attention to Canadian issues. Hopefully they still feel they are getting a deal, even though all my new $9.99 items are now starting at $10.99 effective noon today. Have a good one. - PHIL

[sageleafkids]

On my RBC online account, I just went to transfer $100 from Canadian into US dollars. I received $97.90.

If there was no spread, when I convert that back to Canadian dollars, I would expect to receive $100 Canadian back.

I take that $97.90 in US dollars, and convert it back to Canadian dollars, and I receive $95.90.

Merely by exchanging my money today, I lost over 4% of my original $100.

Keep your money in the currency that you will be using to make purchases.

Peter