Withdrawing USD in Canada from a foreign card

[nighcrawler]

Hi all, here is the story.

1. I have a USD card from my home country
2. assume that I don't care about the ATM fee
3. My goal is to withdraw the USD from this card, while I'm in Canada
4. I have heard that at TD, when you withdraw USD from a USD card, they actually do a double conversion: USD->CAD->USD and hence you are withdrawing less cash than you could have.

The question is:

Is it possible to withdraw USD from a foreign USD card without double conversion?

I would appreciate any advice based on facts and experience, since I've already heard a lot of contradictory rumors myself

 

[OdinNguyen]

Hi all, here is the story.

1. I have a USD card from my home country
2. assume that I don't care about the ATM fee
3. My goal is to withdraw the USD from this card, while I'm in Canada
4. I have heard that at TD, when you withdraw USD from a USD card, they actually do a double conversion: USD->CAD->USD and hence you are withdrawing less cash than you could have.

The question is:

Is it possible to withdraw USD from a foreign USD card without double conversion?

I would appreciate any advice based on facts and experience, since I've already heard a lot of contradictory rumors myself

Not relevant, just wonder why do you want USD in Canada?

 

[nighcrawler]

Not relevant, just wonder why do you want USD in Canada?

Great point!
In the country where I come from (Russia), we can only buy CAD at a rate of approximately 46.5 rubles per 1 CAD (while ForEx rate is around 45.5) and only 2 banks sell CADs.
On the other hand USD are widely adopted, banks offer you deposits in USD (with interest!) and even USD debit cards.
To add more to perspective, from time to time the national currency takes a dive and people got used to keeping the money in USD accounts.
Therefore, I have some savings in USD, on a USD card and I'm looking at transferring them to Canada and exchanging at the most beneficial rate.
Right now the plan is to withdraw USD cash from the ATM and then find a place to exchange money at a better rate than RBC or CIBC etc.

 

[aminahc1]

I withdraw Canadian dollars from my US bank account all the time. The conversion fee is about 3%. Not sure about if your USD bank is located in a place other than the States.

 

[StevieFray]

Not relevant, just wonder why do you want USD in Canada?

Probably because the dollar value is higher. I remember paying for a Wii at the time while I was in Canada. The face value in both countries had $299 as the price. But since I had my USA card, I paid around ~230 CAD. Had I paid for that system in USA it would have been 299 USD. And if I had used a Canadian card to pay for that Wii in the USA it would have been around 375 CAD. So i mean, yes there are ways to purchase items at a lower price IF you have a USA bank account and card while paying for items in Canada,but eventually its going to equalize if you aren't generating anymore USD funds. Whatever you do, don't try to put your CAD into USD because it will drop.

 

[OdinNguyen]

Great point!
In the country where I come from (Russia), we can only buy CAD at a rate of approximately 46.5 rubles per 1 CAD (while ForEx rate is around 45.5) and only 2 banks sell CADs.
On the other hand USD are widely adopted, banks offer you deposits in USD (with interest!) and even USD debit cards.
To add more to perspective, from time to time the national currency takes a dive and people got used to keeping the money in USD accounts.
Therefore, I have some savings in USD, on a USD card and I'm looking at transferring them to Canada and exchanging at the most beneficial rate.
Right now the plan is to withdraw USD cash from the ATM and then find a place to exchange money at a better rate than RBC or CIBC etc.

Then you will be triple penalty for doing so. I know the pain when transferring money. The bank will eat up a good chunk of it. Unless you able to find someone in Canada willing to take your USD in Russia and give you CAD from their Canadian bank account. The only way is letting the bank eat that 3%.

 

[OdinNguyen]

Probably because the dollar value is higher. I remember paying for a Wii at the time while I was in Canada. The face value in both countries had $299 as the price. But since I had my USA card, I paid around ~230 CAD. Had I paid for that system in USA it would have been 299 USD. And if I had used a Canadian card to pay for that Wii in the USA it would have been around 375 CAD. So i mean, yes there are ways to purchase items at a lower price IF you have a USA bank account and card while paying for items in Canada,but eventually its going to equalize if you aren't generating anymore USD funds. Whatever you do, don't try to put your CAD into USD because it will drop.

Lol, sound like a bug in their system. Good exploit though.

 

[StevieFray]

Lol, sound like a bug in their system. Good exploit though.

..Let me put in my disclaimer

*This does not serve as financial advice. Do so at your own risk of benefitting from the markets.*

 

[nighcrawler]

I withdraw Canadian dollars from my US bank account all the time. The conversion fee is about 3%. Not sure about if your USD bank is located in a place other than the States.

Following on from what I stated in my original post, my goal is to withdraw USD from a USD card. Could you please clarify, where the conversion come from?