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www-labels4less-com · ‎09-18-2003

Early last year I opened up an account with TD Waterhouse bank (tdwaterhousebank.com). They offer a checking account for Canadians.
The cost is something like $7.00 or $9.00 a month so it certainly is not for everyone but here are the advantages:

1)NO MORE PAYPAL TRANSFER FEES!!!!! Empty your paypal account 20 times a day and you won't pay a cent in transfer fees.

2) Since this bank is on U.S. Soil, you can accept the green "US ONLY" postal money orders with ease.

3) Prepaid if mailed within Canada envelopes are provided free of charge and are used to mail in your deposits of money orders and cheques. The address is to a tdwaterhouse office in Ontario that forwards it on to the U.S. division for you.
4)You receive a TDwaterhouse Visa/Debit card that can be used anywhere. I like having a U.S. Visa (some web sites only accept U.S. issued credit cards) and I like to keep my money in U.S. dollars for when I travel to the U.S.
5)The customer service is excellent and of course you can check your account online like other banks.
Well worth it for me. The ONLY thing I didn't like but I can understand was the lengthy process for signing up. Took about 3 weeks toa month as there is a snail mail verification process.

momosworld · ‎10-02-2003

Yes I never heard of that either, We had to open a US account in Niagara falls,Buffalo in order to avoid the PayPal conversion as PayPal would not deposit into our Canadian US account unless it was converted twice.

better check that out.

tomaszczernecki · ‎10-02-2003

Momos & Labels,

Thank you for your posts..

We've been using Royal Bank for half a year with no problems (no dual exchange rate problems), but I understand the problem you are referring to.. The biggest issue is that NOONE at Royal Bank can tell you how to properly set up your account for US direct-deposits - since it's outside of their usual day-to-day questions, they're either dumbfounded or give you an incorrect answer.. It took me a bit of digging on the web to find out the right way to do it, and I'm happy to share what I've found.. I experimented at first with a small Paypal withdrawal, and now we do all our withdrawals this way, and usually it only takes 2 to 3 business days for the funds to show in our account.

You simply need to go into Paypal, and add a US-based account (Royal Bank of Canada - New York Branch), and use the correct routing and account numbers (*not* the ones on the bottom of the checks - the website I provided in my previous post explains how to properly determine the routing and account numbers from your Royal Bank check numbers). If you use the correct numbers, your Paypal transfers will arrive in U.S. dollars, with no intermediate exchanges. On the other hand, if you set it up in Paypal as a Canadian account, and provide the transit # and account #, that's when you will incur the double-exchange whammy..

Hope that helps, I've found this is the best option, as I have a local branch, online access, and can transfer to and from my Canadian account online as well. Plus, the application process is quite easy as well - just needs a half an hour at the branch..