<p>We need to pay for rent, etc. and have set up an account at Scotia Bank. We don't want to do wire transfers. Take cash? Deposit a check (20 day hold is fine). I'm most concerned about fees and the loss in value of the dollars.</p>
<p>We have had good luck with Xoom in transferring funds in USD to our son’s account in England. They do make money on the exchange rate but not nearly as much as HSBC did with a direct deposit of a cheque in USD which they held for several weeks. I would also check to see if you can open an account with a Canadian bank that would allow deposits/transfers in USD (not possible in the UK, however).</p>
<p>I forgot to mention that Xoom fees are very reasonable, e.g. USD 4 on a 2,999 transfer. However, as I said, they do make money on the exchange rate.</p>
<p>Paypal it to yourself, it shouldn’t cost anything. You can also use Amazon Payments which has no fees. However do take into account that these services need to confirm your bank account, etc. before you use them, so the transfer may end up taking a few days.</p>
<p>RBC has the ability to allow you to open an account in Canada and, through its US affiliate, an account in the US. You can directly transfer between the accounts on line. You do have to pay currency exchange fees. Also, your present US bank will probably allow you to transfer funds to the US account. Wells Fargo allows that. There are fees. Have used this method for four years without any problem.</p>
<p>For RBC, there is no fee if you open a US Savings account and a Canadian Student account. You are limited to 6 withdrawals a month with the US Savings account and 25 withdrawals with the Canadian Student account. There is also $300 minimum balance with the US Savings account and none for the Canadian student account. There is no exchange fee to send money from US to Canadian account, but the rate of exchange is established by the bank at the time of exchange. Lastly, you can link your US bank account to the RBC US Savings account and pull money into RBC account for free. Everything can be done online once you open the accounts, however, the Canadian RBC account must be opened in Canada in person with 2 valid photo IDs.</p>
<p>You might also check this possible option with TD Bank, which has a far larger U.S. retail presence than RBC (which continues to drastically cut their U.S. operations).</p>
<p>TD Bank has a similar arrangement but not as nice. There are no fee checking account for both US and Canadian side. But when it comes to transferring, you need to call a live operator in Canada to pull money from TD Bank US account to Canadian account and the limit is $5000 per day with no exchange fee. But if you live in the Northeast of the US, TD Bank seems to be expanding and has a lot of presence there. When I talked to the US branch, they seem to have not much of an idea of how this works, it seems the Canadian side is the one that has the authority and capability to do these type of transactions. RBC is strictly online for US account with no physical location but it is nicer for me since you can do everything online through the web.</p>
<p>Eventually they will be fully integrated, ttparent, which will be handy for TD clients in the U.S. TD is big in the northeast, mid-Atlantic and now also in the south since their purchase of South Financial. They have branches in Florida, too. I agree that online capability is key. TD has the best online banking system in Canada so hopefully the integration will be complete soon, and make it easier for those students crossing the border.</p>
<p>I have both TD Bank and RBC US account now. I am using RBC at this moment because I can do everything online. The $5000 limit and the the need to call an operator for TD to give my account numbers and going through all the security questions with a live person is quite a nuisance. However, I just went to drop off my D last weekend and used TD ATM and transferred money from US RBC to Canada on the same day within an hour of each other and noticed that the exchange rate of TD was a lot better than RBC. Not sure if that is a function of ATM vs online wire transfer but the difference was quite substantial.</p>
<p>Along these lines, while in Montreal I set up direct e-payments to pay tuition to McGill from my US bank account. Any inside info on how competitive the exchange rate will be?</p>
<p>Is that the travelex system they have on the McGill website? I remember reading that you can get a quote before you submit. So maybe you can get a quote and compare it to the current market exchange rate.</p>
<p>ttparent, it’s not travelex. It’s yet another option in the Minerva bill-pay menu.</p>
<p>We have a TD Canada account. I set up the e-payment online. I entered McGill as a payee, which it recognized. It then asked me for the student ID. The payment was posted the next day after 2PM.</p>