EFT's

Here are some posts I found about Xe.com and EFT's

First post
There's some misconception here about money transfers and electronic fund transfers that need to be clarified.I will give you some insight that I personally went through.

First of all, XE.com does not charge you for an EFT. You pay if you want it done the same day. I went with the no-charge solution.
My EFT took three days to move over. During this time, the money didn't come out of my account. The money only came out the day the money changed accounts.
Secondly, there is a small hassle to set up an XE account but once it's done. It's permanent. There's no maintenance fees and no charge to keep it open.XE works on a simple basis. You transfer money from one of your bank accounts to another.

In my case I registered a Canadian CIBC chequing account as my "from" choice and set up my US CIBC chequing account as my "to" account. On XE I transfer xxx dollars from my Canadian to US account. It's done almost instantly. I had a bank draft (most banks don't use certified cheques anymore) drawn from my US account. This was all done on line. I simply showed up at CIBC and paid $6 for a Bank Draft. That was it.
If you make a lot of US visits, then a XE account is the way to go.XE gives you better rates the more $$$ you trade. For $20,000+ business you should be able to get about .035-.045% above the current Bank of Canada rate. It's less than half a cent per dollar. You can call them to negotiate a permanent "spread" rate.

Second post

Quote:
Originally Posted by michelb
Actually I think US money orders are free (same as certified check) if you have borderless account ...
This is confirmed correct. I got a US $ bank draft from TD for my car purchase & there were no fees using my borderless account.As far as best exchange rate, I found in Vancouver that going to "Vancouver Bullion & Currency Exchange" with cash, their rate saved me almost 1% on the conversion to US $ versus TD borderless rate. So $250 saved on $25k.
They have 3 locations I am aware of. Downtown, South Granville & Richmond. I dont know if they have a website, but I just phone for the current rate. I went to the Granville location & thereafter walked 1.5 blocks to TD for the bank draft.

Third post

Ing
Sadly ING does not offer international transfers or provide cheques.You'll need to go to a regular bank to do that.
Keep your cash in ING and set up a US full service account with a regular bank.Transfer it when you're ready.
In my case, my bank wants $85 to transfer money over electronically to my US dealers' account. The dealer accepts EFTs. The other option is to bring a US certified cheque across the border. You'll need to declare anything over $10k or risk having it seized by US Customs. Some folks get a bit a grief when they declare that kind of cash.As far as the ING rate, on a $30k purchase you're still giving them almost $500. The regular bank gave me a discount exchange rate of $650!! On a $30k transfer, you should easily get a rate of $40-65 per $10k (depending on how much you actually commit to the exchange company) Sign up with a currency exchage service. It will take about a week to have them do a background check on you but on such a large purchase, it's worth the effort.There's a whole new thread possible here. Banking charges....
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