What's the best and cheapest way to exchange and transfer 50k CAD to USD?

[JWL]

Norbits Gambit, google it if you don't know what that is, about cheapest possible method. If you think xe.com was expensive, nothing really going to be signicantly cheaper than xe.com.

I exchanged $72,000 CDN to US this past Wednesday using Norbit's Gambit at TD Waterhouse.

Likewise, I don't know why the commission fee to sell on the NYSE was $113.28, but perhaps that's what they charge for norbit gambit?

Norbit's gambit:


NORBERT's Gambit

Norbert's Gambit sounds interesting, but I'd avoid Norbit's Gambit at all costs.

[JWL]

http://www.canadianforex.ca/

over two times cheaper than XE and with much easier paperwork as well
I used them once a month for last 5 months

Looking at the rates on their sites, the rates are almost exactly the same. How is Cdnforex "over two times cheaper" than XE?

[Cerenity]

Thanks, i guess i know where i should go if RBC pissed me off.
That is what happened with Questrade. They upgraded their system for the worse and pissed me off.

Just wondering, how much does BMO reimburse for transfer rebates?
At that time RBC offered me up to $200 for each account containing 15k or more.
Luckily all of my accounts were above that figure.

i think they have incentives to switch once in a while. the incentives vary from time to time, but usually its free trades, cash back, etc. i find the benefits to be a lot worse than your $200 for 15k or more though.

for example, the current incentive is

Deposit or transfer $100,000 into a new or existing account to get $250 cash back or $250,000 in net new assets to get $600 cash back.

Plus, for every $10,000 that you deposit into your new or existing account, you will receive one entry for your chance to win $1,000 cash.


seems kind of bleh to me...

my guess is you can probably get a better deal calling them and asking about transfer rebates.

[nogoro]

BMO is also automatic using the buy on TSX sell on NYSE method. at first it appears to be +X shares in CAD and -X shares in USD, but after a few days they cancel out and disappear. i found it very convenient

I have an account with BMO Nesbitt Burns, the type where I have to do things through my advisor. Here is what he told me when I asked about buying TSX and selling NYSE:

you can’t buy CDN listed stocks and sell it on the US market when both markets are open

Do you think this may be a limitation in my account? Or are there specific keywords I should be using to "teach" him about what I am trying to do? Thanks in advance...

[dgodsell]

I just tried transferring another $21,000 CDN to USD using TD:TSX and TD:NYSE (in addition to last week's transaction described above); but this time ran into difficulty.

After completing the trade, the investment representative "became wise" to what I was doing and said I was not allowed to sell my newly bought TD:TSX shares into the NYSE market until the shares had settled. [I say "became wise" because he had no problem courting the transaction while he was doing it; only after the transaction did he have a problem.]

He said this was because it takes three business days to have the shares show up in my CDN account and then it takes two days for them to journal the shares over to the US account, for a total of five days required to see the monies in my USD account. The consequence to selling the US shares instantaneously, he said, was that the buyer of the US shares would be looking for the shares in three business days, but they wouldn't be available until the fifth business day (3 days to settle in CDN account, two days to journal to US account). I can see how this would be a problem.

But, I grieved that I had no trouble completing a similar transaction last week and he said that that IR had made a grievous error. So that's that.

Following this conversation one positive event and one (possibly) negative event.

The positive event was that he refunded all the fees above $9.99 a trade that I was charged last week (recall I was charged $29 on the CDN purchase and $113.48 on the US sale).

The negative event is that my account is now, "under review" - whatever that means. He said that my account is under review and that his chastening of my inappropriate trade requests was recorded in my account profile. Does anyone know what this means?

In summary, I think NG practitioners historically relied on TD Waterhouse almost exclusively. My experience (anecdotal evidence, I know) suggests that it might be a bit tougher nowadays to practice NG at TD Waterhouse. Foregone currency commissions is sufficient incentive, but it could be for any number of reasons. Theories?

[actng]

I just tried transferring another $21,000 CDN to USD using TD:TSX and TD:NYSE (in addition to last week's transaction described above); but this time ran into difficulty.

After completing the trade, the investment representative "became wise" to what I was doing and said I was not allowed to sell my newly bought TD:TSX shares into the NYSE market until the shares had settled. [I say "became wise" because he had no problem courting the transaction while he was doing it; only after the transaction did he have a problem.]

He said this was because it takes three business days to have the shares show up in my CDN account and then it takes two days for them to journal the shares over to the US account, for a total of five days required to see the monies in my USD account. The consequence to selling the US shares instantaneously, he said, was that the buyer of the US shares would be looking for the shares in three business days, but they wouldn't be available until the fifth business day (3 days to settle in CDN account, two days to journal to US account). I can see how this would be a problem.

But, I grieved that I had no trouble completing a similar transaction last week and he said that that IR had made a grievous error. So that's that.

Following this conversation one positive event and one (possibly) negative event.

The positive event was that he refunded all the fees above $9.99 a trade that I was charged last week (recall I was charged $29 on the CDN purchase and $113.48 on the US sale).

The negative event is that my account is now, "under review" - whatever that means. He said that my account is under review and that his chastening of my inappropriate trade requests was recorded in my account profile. Does anyone know what this means?

In summary, I think NG practitioners historically relied on TD Waterhouse almost exclusively. My experience (anecdotal evidence, I know) suggests that it might be a bit tougher nowadays to practice NG at TD Waterhouse. Foregone currency commissions is sufficient incentive, but it could be for any number of reasons. Theories?

prolly just a rep in a bad mood

try again?

[yyCC]

why no one consider using RBC DI?
I have done it many times, exchanging from $5,000 to 50,000. I was able to do it without any problem.
Just buy something on CAD side, and sell on USD side. If your account doesn't have margin, you need to wait for 3 days to withdraw money.
Everything is done online and automatic. Commission is $9.95CAD + $9.95USD

Good to know. But I have a question, when you put in the sell order to sell your TSX stock in the NYSE do you select your CAD or USD account for the "Account #" field in the order form? I don't know how this will go because they should take the stock from my CAD account but I want the money to go into the USD account right? I don't want to pick the wrong one and have them force exchange the money to meet the currency in the account -.-

Actually I will be doing more of buy in the NYSE and sell in the TSX. But should work the same way once I get this figured out.

[m2m]

What if I am trying to do this the other way around? Exchange USD to CDN? I'm considering moving about $20K USD to CDN. I would be in no rush to do it and there's no worry if the entire transaction takes several weeks.

Would this Gambit work?

[JWL]

When executing the Gambit do you lose the bid/offer spread?