US Bank account to avoid PayPal currency conversion fees

[vip-marketplace]

Hey guys!

I get around 50,000 USD$ per year that I transfer to my Canadian bank account.

So I believe I must be paying about 2,000 CAD$ in conversion fees alone.

I have seen a few sellers talk about opening a US bank account to avoid these.

Do you think it could be worth it is my case? Is it complicated? Do I need a US address?

Thanks!

[femmefan1946]

Enquire at your local Royal or TD Bank.  These accounts (with RBCBank and TDNorth) are often used by snowbirds, but when we set up our business account we did not need a US address.

However, that was before 9/11 and there may be changes.

Be sure to discuss bank charges by the US subsidiaries. They can be high.

And you should also have a Canadian bank US dollar account to transfer to.

[vinh2-82]

You can choose the payment unit change function in ebay

[vip-marketplace]

What do you mean?

[cumos55]

If I had $50,000 US in my Bank in a Canada.... and I wanted to convert that amount to Canadian dollars...

What would my conversion fee be....???

[vip-marketplace]

Not sure I understand what you're saying either.

Can you actually have US$ in a Canadian bank account?

Well, at the very least PayPal won't let me send US$ to my Canadian bank account...

2,000 CAD$ is what I estimate I'm paying in currency conversion fees to PayPal per year.

[hlmacdon]

US domestic banking can be cheap...dirt cheap in fact. I pay $0 a year for my US account. Only fees are for ATM usage above and beyond the included monthly free transactions with no minimum balance requirements and a debit card through one of the major credit card issuers.

Typical Canadian bank rates are anywhere from 2.5-3.5% markup on USD to CAD transactions, so not really dissimilar to paypal USD balance to CAD bank transfer rates. The flexibility is more the thing, especially if you are paying USD to suppliers.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@vinh2-82 wrote:

You can choose the payment unit change function in ebay

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That is an eBay choice for paying your eBay fees. 

Sales on eBay.CA are in Canadian $, sales on eBay.COM are in American $.

This discussion is about PayPal currency options once you have the money after the sale.

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[ypdc_dennis]

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@cumos55 wrote:

If I had $50,000 US in my Bank in a Canada.... and I wanted to convert that amount to Canadian dollars...

What would my conversion fee be....???

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Whatever your bank charges. Most Canadian US denominated $ bank accounts are creative accounting by the Canadian bank.

[ricarmic]

The conversion rate my Canadian bank (TD) charges to move money from my US$ account to my $C account is normally .5 to 1% (or more) lower than the PAYPAL conversion rate, with the upcoming PAYPAL change, I guess it will become 1 to 1.5% (or more) lower. It's enough to get me to do the work to move PAYPAL US$ to my US account then move to my Canadian US$ account then convert to $C.....

[cumos55]

I used to have a US dollar account in my Canadian Bank.... BMO

It was used with money order payment from the US.

Then a conversion from the US dollar account to a Canadian dollar account was made.

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I asked my question about converting that $50,000 US to Canadian dollars  to determine what the savings would be to use other ways to convert US dollars to Canadian dollars....  and where to do it...

[femmefan1946]

As I recall, USdollar money orders could be deposited in a USD Canadian account only by paying exchange from USD to Canadian and then back to USD for holding in the account.

Pretty much what Paypal does (has to do?) when a PP USD balance is moved to a Canadian bank account held in US dollars.

It's the double charge that RBCBank and TDNorth avoid, since they move the USD directly into the Canadian account, without first changing to Cdn and back to USD.

Now my head hurts.

The "(has to do?)" is because I think this is in some way a result of Homeland Security laws or else some other anti- money laundering rules.  

Pass the Extra-Strength aspirin?

[ypdc_dennis]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

As I recall, USdollar money orders could be deposited in a USD Canadian account only by paying exchange from USD to Canadian and then back to USD for holding in the account.

That depends on the bank's policy -- back when I was still getting moneyorders/checks in US $ for ebay sales -- I could deposit with no exchange fees into my US$ account, only drawback was my bank's 30 day clearing delay for US$ paper (versus 5 days when handling Cdn cheques).

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