The Best Ways to Convert Canadian Dollars into US Dollars

It’s awesome to be Canadian. We are a country that gets to enjoy skiing, maple syrup, politeness, and excellent credit card rewards programs.

In fact, I’d argue that the Canadian Miles & Points scene is one of the best in the world, especially given how easy it can be for us to sign up for our American cousins’ cards. 

This brings up another quandary, though: how can we best pay off our USD-denominated cards in their native currency, and perhaps optimize our USD spending money for any trips to the US while we’re at it?

Today, let’s take a look at five methods to get American dollars at a great exchange rate.

Wise

I’ve written about Wise before because their prepaid Visa card has been a great addition to the Canadian foreign exchange retail space. However, it’s not the prepaid Visa I’m super interested in today; it’s Wise’s international transfer services.

Wise openly publishes its exchange rates, which are some of the most competitive on the market, as well as an historical log of the Canadian dollar’s performance versus its American counterpart. This makes it one of the easiest ways to see what a good USD exchange rate ought to look like.

When you’ve made up your mind that it’s time to transfer, simply log in to the app or online. You can add your USD bank account down south as a recipient, and send cash to it easily and directly.

Just select how much money you wish to transfer, either directly from your bank or from funds which you’ve loaded onto your Wise Prepaid Visa.

Be aware that as per the chart above, you’ll be subjected to certain fees on Wise’s end.

Those fees are how they make their money, and the cheapest option will always be transferring from your bank account through Interac or direct debit versus using a Visa debit or – heaven forbid – credit card for the transaction. And because Wise codes as cash advance on all major issuers, it’s never recommended you use a credit card.

Still, at $1,000 (CAD) for $738 (USD), Wise is perhaps the most competitive USD exchange rates that’s widely available in the Canadian market.

Once you’ve hit send on your transfer, you’re all done. Wait a few business days for the funds to show up in your American cash account, but be advised that historically Wise has been slower for me than other forms of online transfer.

What you sacrifice in expedience, though, you certainly make up for with a good…