My experience with Canadian money
in [Cruise Ship]
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From: Bill on 11 Jul 2010 10:57 On 7/11/2010 10:28 AM, Barbara Brown wrote: > There is a currency exchange near us where you can buy all different > types of currencies. I was just figuring out about how much we'll take > for our transatlantic cruise in August. I want to get pounds, euros and > Canadian dollars. You will probably get a much worse exchange rate than you would if you waited to do it overseas. Even better, use your ATM card to withdraw money when you get there or use your credit card for everything. Note most credit cards do add a 3% foreign currency fee. Capital One does not. > > One thing nice about this place is they will buy back any bills (not > loose change) when you return. At a very poor rate with added fees, I am sure. And I'm not sure why you think this is "nice", it's their business, and they're not doing it for free. > Although we are also going to Iceland and Greenland and I don't want to > get their money as we'll be on tours and probably won't spend much. Can > you still get local currencies on the ship before you go ashore? > > And if so, do you need cash to pay for it or does it go on your > shipboard account? If it's at the purser's desk (which I think it is), I am sure you need to have the US$ with you. You can get US$ cash from your account at the casino, but you'll pay a few percent for the privilege (it was a great deal when they did not charge this). Or use the ATM machine on-board, although last time I used one the fee was $6. Fortunately, my ATM card refunds foreign ATM fees, so I got the $6 back (I never would have used it otherwise). > Thanks, > > Barbara Bill
From: Barbara Brown on 11 Jul 2010 12:10 I don't know if it changed but several years ago my husband worked in England for 3 months. I went over twice. We used this currency exchange and they were much better than any place else. He even found it was better than in London so he had me bring money to him. And they didn't charge a fee for returning money. Don't ATM's charge a fee too? I've never used an ATM other than at my own bank. All my credit cards except Discover (which I don't think is accepted in Europe) has a 2-3% fee. When we went to New Zealand we got some money to take with us, plus Am Ex travelers checks. The only drawback was that the exchange rate went down considerably after we got there so we could have gotten more NZ$ for our US$. But who can plan for that. By the time we were leaving 3 weeks later, it changed and we would have gotten less NZ$. So it's a gamble either way. I'd rather have some cash going in to deal with tips and transportation from the airport so I don't have to deal with finding an ATM at the airport. We'll be in London & Amsterdam several days before the ship leaves. I just wish England was on the euro too. On 7/11/2010 9:57 AM, Bill wrote: > On 7/11/2010 10:28 AM, Barbara Brown wrote: >> There is a currency exchange near us where you can buy all different >> types of currencies. I was just figuring out about how much we'll take >> for our transatlantic cruise in August. I want to get pounds, euros and >> Canadian dollars. > > You will probably get a much worse exchange rate than you would if you > waited to do it overseas. Even better, use your ATM card to withdraw > money when you get there or use your credit card for everything. Note > most credit cards do add a 3% foreign currency fee. Capital One does not. >> >> One thing nice about this place is they will buy back any bills (not >> loose change) when you return. > > At a very poor rate with added fees, I am sure. And I'm not sure why you > think this is "nice", it's their business, and they're not doing it for > free. > >> Although we are also going to Iceland and Greenland and I don't want to >> get their money as we'll be on tours and probably won't spend much. Can >> you still get local currencies on the ship before you go ashore? >> >> And if so, do you need cash to pay for it or does it go on your >> shipboard account? > > If it's at the purser's desk (which I think it is), I am sure you need > to have the US$ with you. You can get US$ cash from your account at the > casino, but you'll pay a few percent for the privilege (it was a great > deal when they did not charge this). Or use the ATM machine on-board, > although last time I used one the fee was $6. Fortunately, my ATM card > refunds foreign ATM fees, so I got the $6 back (I never would have used > it otherwise). > >> Thanks, >> >> Barbara > > Bill
From: Stu on 11 Jul 2010 12:26 On Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:36:57 -0400, Brian K <brian1951BLOG(a)earthlink.net> wrote: >Jack electronically interjected On 7/10/2010 11:35 PM: >> Marcia >> >> Be careful when using US Money. I won't use the word cheat, but if >> you take canadian coins in change for American dollars, you are being >> short changed. US Dollars are worth more than Canadian Dollars. >> >> That could add up enough in one day to make a good difference to them. >> >> Jack Canadian is 1.066 right now, how close to par can that be.
From: Stu on 11 Jul 2010 12:29 On Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:18:06 -0700 (PDT), semiretired(a)my-deja.com wrote: >On Jul 11, 4:35�am, Jack wrote: > >>Marcia >>Be careful when using US Money. �I won't use the word cheat, but if >>you take canadian coins in change for American dollars, you are being >>short changed. �US Dollars are worth more than Canadian Dollars. >>That could add up enough in one day to make a good difference to them. >>Jack > >Thsy is being a little unkind. >No trader is obliged to take "foreign" money, >All have to pay conversion charges when banking it. >The alternative is not to accept foreign money at all Canadian is at 1.066, can you say par?
From: Bill on 11 Jul 2010 12:40
On 7/11/2010 12:10 PM, Barbara Brown wrote: > I don't know if it changed but several years ago my husband worked in > England for 3 months. I went over twice. We used this currency exchange > and they were much better than any place else. He even found it was > better than in London so he had me bring money to him. And they didn't > charge a fee for returning money. That is very surprising that you could get a better rate here than in the country itself. As for returning money, unless the exchange rate for buying and selling is the same, you're being charged a fee. Maybe they don't add anything extra onto the transaction but the fee is built into the rate. Bill |