Best Way To Move Money To US?

[CdnRN 40]

I'm in the US but have Canadian student loans. I just paypal myself the money each month. It was the cheapest, and is fairly quick.

[Found Frolicking 1]

People who chose to wire money: which bank did you use, and what did they tell you the rates where? Also, when did you use this service?

I went into TD the other day and asked about wiring money, and they said anything over $5k has an $80 fee. I find this annoying since so many other banks (from what I've seen here) charge $20-$25!

[Lakehouse 293]

The methods I've decided on so far, are that I knew I'd maintain my Canadian BMO account (due to investments, pension incomes primarily), and so I have a US dollars account there as well as my chequing/savings accounts. I can move $ into my US dollars account any time that I find the exchange rate to be 'decent', and I use my US Mastercard to access those dollars.

When I online bank and pay my US Mastercard off from the US $ account, there is no further financial losses.

This saves me from having to bring money here somehow, and those fees included from wiring or Western Union, etc.

I have created an account here in the USA with a few funds I brought with me when I travelled here, but for now I won't be adding to it from my Canadian bank.

One thing I appreciate from this thread is the idea of writing myself a cheque! Which I hadn't thought of... so many confusing things within this move-process sometimes blind you to the obvious. So thanks for that new option. I haven't considered Paypal although I have an account, so I'll peek at that too.

[Rob & Monika 87]

People who chose to wire money: which bank did you use, and what did they tell you the rates where? Also, when did you use this service?

I went into TD the other day and asked about wiring money, and they said anything over $5k has an $80 fee. I find this annoying since so many other banks (from what I've seen here) charge $20-$25!

There is no fee with TD if you wire between TD in Canada to a TD in the US. (Actually each side charges you a $15 fee, then they reimburse you about 5 days later). Stop into your local TD to find out how to open an account in the US. I don't know how good their exchange rate is compared to other services though. So far the people recommend TD or RBC accounts in both the US and Canada to transfer money, especially if you are going to maintain an account in Canada and transfer money down more than once.

[nicvno 10]

I have a TD Canada bank account with a Borderless Plan and a TD America Bank account. You can send me-to-me transfers to pay bills and they will reimburse you for the charge. I transfer money to and from my TD Canada Bank Borderless Plan account because they stated that you get the best/most accurate exchange rate this way. Hope this helps!

The first time I tried this, the US Bank didn't know that this existed so you may have to educate them on this (Very annoying that some don't even know their own policies).

Edited September 3, 2014 by nicvno

[Texas22 50]

My fiance had set up a USD bank account for me long before I did POE (on one of my visits).

So I wire transferred the money from my Scotia bank account to my US bank account. Yes there was

a fee of about $80. (plus exchange) but the sum to wire was substantial so I felt more comfortable with a direct wire.

I have kept my CDN Scotia bank account open and I simply use my debit card to access my Canadian funds from here.

When I use a Bank of America ATM there are no fees (other than exchange).

I also receive CPP and they will direct deposit it to your US bank account, you just need to fill out a form.
(But it does take 3 months for them to process your request).

I contacted Rev Can directly before I moved to stop the GST/HST and Provincial payments.