Originally Posted by
beep88
if you buy USD, that defeats the purpose, unless you are bank staff and can buy USD for cheap.
No fee CAD T/C is the next best option. (notice I updated the order of the list).
By "T/C", you mean traveler's cheques right?
Originally Posted by
gnaget
Jamar said that you pay $5 plus 2.5% for ATM with a typical Canadian bank. That's horrendous. The $3 flat fee option is ok. Withdraw $300 and you are paying 1%.
This problem is not isolated to traveling in Japan for Canadians. If I were Canadian (and a frequent traveler) then I would look at other options such as opening a bank account in the US with Capital One, for example, which charges no fee and interbank rate. But maybe it is not worth it if these same Canadian banks probably fleece you in the CAD to USD conversion when you need to transfer funds to the US bank.
Yup, my TD is $5 +2.5%, which is disgusting. I can upgrade my account so it's free foreign transactions but at $30/month (unless you carry a positive balance), I'd rather utilize cash + my Amex Platinum so that I get SOMETHING back.