Hindi naman - right now:
1.00 USD = 1.10584 CAD
US Dollar ↔ Canadian Dollar
1 USD = 1.10584 CAD 1 CAD = 0.904291 USD
So may malaki ang palit ng USD into CAD. Unfortunately sa PH is mahal bumili ng USD kasi mataas ang selling rates sa bank. At sa Central Bank rates din nag babase ang mga MCs. So lugi ka sa pagbili ng USD, pero sa palitan ng USD to CAD, di ka naman lugi. So para makaiwas ka sa malalaking transaction rates kapag nagpapalit ka, open a bank account, i-deposit mo ang USD mo sa bank account mo, and then withdraw it as CAD. Banks here accept USD deposits and convert to CAD.
Kaya it pays to declare the amount na dala mo sa Customs, sometimes kung nagdeposit ka ng cash na malaki ang halaga (upwards of $2000 will elicit some scrutiny), hihingan ka ng proof or declaration sa customs nung ipinasok mo ang pera. Part of regulations on money laundering and cross-border flows of cash. Oftentimes, telling them new immigrant ka and showing a CoPR (habang wala pa ang PR Card) will prove that you brought the money in Canada legitimately. If the deposit is exceeding 10K cash/combined, a Customs declaration should be shown and likely asked by the bank officers.
Kung di mo naman madadala lahat ng pera mo, then you can try to see if your local bank has facilities for money transfer like Western Union. Then ipadala mo paunti-unti ang pera mo, and draw it from Western Union outlets (and the like) dito sa Canada. iRemit is another one for money transfers.
Take it this way - for financial transactions, mas prefer ng banks na me paper trail - credit cards, debit cards, checks. Madaling ma-trace ang source and transactions detail. Cash transactions with financial institutions, medyo alanganin kasi they don't know the source of the funds, kaya magtatanong. Since kasi hindi traceable, ang assumption is me dahilan bakit itinatago
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/..atb