Comments on: Converting USD to CAD: how to pay almost no currency conversion fees

By: Pierre-Luc Soucy

Pierre-Luc Soucy — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 14:09:10 +0000

Good to know – thanks for the information!

By: Howie

Howie — Wed, 18 Sep 2019 07:01:44 +0000

Just and FYI: If you fund your IB account from a Canadian bank using bill pay (instead of EFT), then the 60 day holding period before withdrawal does not apply, no matter which account of yours you withdraw to. If you fund the account with EFT (Connect a Bank) but then decide to withdraw to a different account, the 60 day hold DOES apply.

So in the case of funding in CAD, buying USD on the forex with contract: USD.CAD, and withdrawing USD funds to a different account, this can be done with a 3 day withdrawal period if you originally funded with Bill Pay.

See here: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=1544#funding_05

By: Pierre-Luc Soucy

Pierre-Luc Soucy — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 02:42:06 +0000

Sorry for the delay – my setup has not changed; I’m still happy getting USD funds in my RBC US account and then sending it to IB to convert to CAD, and EFT back to RBC in CAD. Hope this helps!

By: Tuzo

Tuzo — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 05:54:55 +0000

Hi Pierre,

Just wondering if you have any updates to your setup over the years? I’m in a similar situation to you: I receive USD wire transfers from clients. I’m looking at minimizing the cost of the incoming wire transfer fees as well as the currency conversion costs.

By: Pierre-Luc Soucy

Pierre-Luc Soucy — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 04:14:12 +0000

Thanks for the heads up – I updated the link.

Their .ca site seems to redirect to the .com for most content (including the account application form). I therefore don’t think it really matters – I log in to my account from http://www.interactivebrokers.com usually.

By: Owen

Owen — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 15:14:33 +0000

Thanks for the post. It’s very useful! Two questions:

* You link to “fee for currency conversions” is broken and I couldn’t find the correct link to how much IB charges for USD to CAD conversion
* Are you using http://www.interactivebrokers.com or http://www.interactivebrokers.ca. There’s a .ca now and I’m sure which one to use…

By: Pierre-Luc Soucy

Pierre-Luc Soucy — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 22:20:52 +0000

That’s great to read! Thanks for sharing your experience.

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 22:16:02 +0000

Just bought a property in Florida. I tried knightsbridgefx with the deposit and everything went fine and then did the closing through them too. They have a minimum of $5k though so you need to do larger amounts. They were really helpful in getting me setup quick and they also did the wire transfer to the usa for me. It was my first time doing something like this. When I compared with my bank, the bank was so far off, I was so glad I came across them. No wonder the banks are making so much money, their rates are so bad.

By: Pierre-Luc Soucy

Pierre-Luc Soucy — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 23:18:52 +0000

Yikes. I would assume that US banks have even less of an incentive than Canadian ones to provide a competitive exchange rate on USD/CAD, since that’s a smaller portion of their forex volume.

If the funds are wired to a Canadian bank, you could ask Bank of America to wire the funds in USD, and they’d be converted by the receiving bank in that case. Not a great rate, but better than what BofA currently gives you.

Another option would be to call a forex broker (like Knightsbridge FX mentionned in my post, but there are many others) and ask them for a quote. They may be able to give you instructions to give to BofA for the wire transfer (basically, funds would be wired to the forex broker, and they’d then deposit them in a Canadian account).

There are also other options, such as the Interactive Brokers setup I mentioned or Norbert’s Gambit (involves buying/selling stocks that are listed on both Canadian and US exchanges – you can google “Norbert’s Gambit” for more info), but the two above may be simpler.

Hope this helps!

By: Ann Croft

Ann Croft — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 18:35:59 +0000

I have Bank of America. Last week, I wired about $7k from US to C$ in Canada. The market rate showed about 1.21. But Bank of America give me 1.09. Does Bank of America have worse rate than TD, ING, etc? I need to make a few about another $70k. Please advise whether I should get a bank in your list. Thanks, Ann