Canadian $ VS. US $ (What should we use??)
 

We are traveling to Whistler, Victoria & Seattle in June. While in Canada, do most places take U.S. Travelers checks? What is the most advatageous way to pay for things (i.e. travelers checks, credit card or Canadian $) to take full advantage of the dollar? Thanks for your help.

Hi Robin, while you can indeed pay in most places in Canada with US currency (although I'm not sure about traveler's checks), you won't get a very good exchange rate. Best is to put most everything on a credit card; second best is to use your ATM card to get walking around money. There are generally fees for using ATMs, but the exchange rate is usually good enough to make up for it. And you would pay a fee to change money or cash travelers checks at a bank anyway.

Use an ATM for Canadian currency; charge what you cannot pay cash for. <BR>I quit going to banks to cash travelers checks when I got stuck with a $3.50 fee per check. The ATM charge for me is $1.50 after two transactions per month at other than my bank's terminals. <BR>Credit card transactions on Visa get the wholesale bank rate of exchange, which is about the best an individual can do. <BR>I presume other credit cards function the same way. <BR>I would have some cash, US style, with me too just in case you run into one of those deals where some merchant is offering an exchange rate better than the bank rate just to attract business. <BR>We saw that in Banff one year. I was told that the merchants' association had a commonly agreed upon date for putting merchandise on sale. But some of the stores got around that restriction by offering very favorable exchange rates on US dollars. Some merchants will accept US money and give a decent exchange rate, but the credit card rate is still the best -- usually. <BR>

I agree! Avoid travelers checks and currency exchange centers - use credit cards and ATMS. Most card/bank statements will show the exchange rate.

OOPPS. I meant to say, charge if you can. If you can't use a credit card, pay cash. The idea being that with charging you get the wholesale bank rate on the exchange and you need to make fewer cash withdrawals. That way you don't tote home a wad of Canadian paper. We usually drive a rental car and stop just over the border in the US to buy gas with the Canadian currency we have left. Close to the border, I have had no trouble. Barring that, buy gas with just what you have left in Canada, but gas is usually higher.