Cashing a US Cheque in Canada

OK, so I'm about to receive my first payment cheque (I've done EFT, but another company only sends cheques).

Anyways, I'm assuming they're going to list the amount in USD? Will my bank convert it for me, or how does it work?

 

Yes it will, just take it to the bank and they'll accept it, but they more than likely will put a hold on it.

 

Hmmm the problem is I use pcfinancial...they don't have a "bank" persay..it's just ATMs and self serve kiosks

 

I've done this before, deposit it through the bank machine and for the total, enter the US total(do not convert yourself). Your balance will go up by the Canadian amount, but once they process the check they should make the correction and add the extra into your account.

 

funky, i should probably call them to make sure as well

the only other US cheque i've cashed was from adbrite...for 21 cents

 

I use PCF too. Just deposit it in the bank machine as if it were a Canadian cheque (ie enter the face value). You'll see an extra credit go on your account a couple of days later. The only problem happens if you use Quicken to track spending, since it's difficult to correlate the credit to the original deposit if you have income from multiple USD sources.

Sean

 

For your interest, we accidentally deposited a US dollar cheque into our Canadian dollar account at Bank of Montreal instead of into our US dollar account.

BMO put a 30-day hold on the cheque and is charging a huge amount to process the cheque, plus paying a worse rate of currency exchange than we can get at an independent currency dealer.

If you expect to deal in enough US dollars, you would be wise to get a US dollar bank account. You can then convert money in larger amounts at independent dealers, often getting a better rate than at the bank. This also opens the door to getting a US dollar credit card, which you can use on travels to the US or online shopping at US sites. Instead of paying a currency surcharge on your debt and suffering a currency discount on your income -- you pay US dollar debt with US dollars.

 

Hmm...I might just do that, thanks

 

If you're using PC Financial, you're kinda screwed (it's what we use for our personal stuff, I've been through this). If you deposit a cheque, they'll take it as Canadian. Then at some undetermined future point, you'll get credited for the exchange. Not a good way to go.

Plus, if you're letting the banks do the exchange, you'd best grap your ankles for the treatment you're going to get.

If it's a small amount, get a canadian account at an offline bank. Deposit it and they'll convert it at the same time as you deposit it (i.e. they'll say $100+$11conversion=$111 deposit).

If it's a bit bigger amount, consider getting a US dollar account at a regular bank (say Scotiabank). Then there's no conversion - your money stays in US funds. Then you can transfer to a Canadian funds account as needed. Or pull out US funds/money orders and stuff without getting screwed on the back and forth conversion.

If you're talking more than $5kUS per month, then what you need to do is open a US dollar account. Then get a relationship with a decent currency exchange. Get a US money order once a month, walk it over to the currency exchange folks, convert to a canadian cheque, then walk the canadian funds back to your pc financial ATM.

That's about it. I've done all of this for years, and that's about the best you can do. What you're trying to avoid longterm is the difference between the currency exchange rates on buy and sell US funds. If you 'sell' (i.e. deposit), they'll give you one rate. Want to get it back into US, you'll get a different rate, by upwards of 3 to 5%.

 

Oh, and as clancy noted, I have a US dollar credit card which I use all the time. We just write a cheque from our US dollar account to pay the credit card bill.

You'll have to balance the costs of keeping a seperate bank account for all this though.

 

I know INGdirect has US currency accounts...perhaps I'll open one with them...don't know how depositing a cheque with them will work though...

I'm a bit confused by this...would the currency exchange happen at the bank or, for example should I go to Money Mart or Western Union?

 

Neither of moneymart or western union.

Look in the yellow pages for currency exchange places - find places where businesses go to exchange their us dollars, not joe off the street. They'll likely want a minimum of $5000 per transaction, but if you do that or higher, they'll give you a decent exchange rate.

 

Stupid question, but do checks expire?

 

Yeha your bank will handle it. There is usually a longer clearance on it like 3 weeks and a small fee for the conversion, but nothing too hideous

 

I believe cheques go stale after 6 months. I'm not sure if the same applies for US checks in Canadian accounts.

 

yeah banks convert it on that days exchange cash rate.

 

apparently they don't if you had read the thread

 

I thought that with the new atm software PCF is using (windows), you have the option of choosing to deposit USD funds and it will tell you the conversion rate to CAD right there on the screen. I thought that was one of the reasons behind upgrading the software.