While I agree that a credit union could be cheaper than a bank, one had to think that the interbank (what I might also call the newspaper rate) is the price that the credit union (if it is big enough) buys euros at.

That is just the cost of euros. Then you have to add a profit margin, to cover physically getting euros to branches, salaries, overhead,etc..

I just don't get why they would do this, unless they make it back in fees elsewhere. Not a good business model to sell at your cost.

I might need to change my thinking

Perhaps there is a Santa Claus, Michael.

The same Credit Union also does our taxes free.
Like I said, I'll see what they actually charge, and let you know.

I'm also curious about Credit Unions selling euros over the counter at the Interbank rate. In 24 years of banking I've never seen the interbank rate used for this purpose, and certainly not at the banks (not CUs) that I've worked at.
The 6 major Canadian Banks all sell their FX at inflated rates, or for a fee, to the published paper rate (Interbank rate), and they all have slightly different rates at any point. I should/will look into what our Canadian CUs and Caisses do over here.

<my bank charges 3% for exchange> Sorry, should have said credit union ... not bank

Well, for $ 1,000.00 Euro, I paid $1,393.00 on 9-20-11 through my credit union. I don't remember it getting back up that high this week, so there seems to be a "hidden" fee in there from someone. Someone smarter than me will have to figure it out. Thanks!

The rate on the 20th was 1.3700855147 so €1000 would have been $1370. Your credit union charged you $23.

Michel_Paris/Mathieu - I don't think you can compare Canadian banking to US credit unions. US credit unions do not even operate the same as US banks and are not covered by the same insurance/regulations. A US credit union is owned by it's members (depositors) so therefore they don't charge the fees to themselves (members/depositors) as a bank would to customers. They are operated not for profit which doesn't mean non-profit, but results in not charging their members many fees that banks would charge. Even states can have their own rules/regulations and the credit unions can be operated a bit differently.