Paying during a travel in Canada

Life Hacking
22

Canada isn’t the US. They’ve had Chip&PIN for a long time, and NFC for quite a while. Been using it regularly five years ago (albeit mostly with a Canadian Interac card).

It’s a bit hard to mentally reconcile your minimalism in financial services/payment service providers with your stated aim to minimise currency exchange costs for what I understand will be a shorter stay - and the time you’re spending discussing that here.

If you can get the “real” exchange rate at Yuh, I’d say:
:point_right:t2: Exchange what you need at Yuh, use their card and enjoy your holidays/travel.

Will it be the very cheapest option? No.
That said, with your hesitating to open new account, I wouldn’t worry or bother about less <1% FX fees.

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23

Mustachians new discovery:
I just find this on Revolut’s website: Revolut is not yet in Canada, does that mean that I can’t use Revolut to pay in Canada and I have to apply for a Wise account? or use my option 3 with IBKR?

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24

I’ve used my Revolut card to pay in Canada and have also held CAD balance in the past. That screenshot only means that you cannot open an account as a Canadian resident.

Happy travels!

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25

Thanks for sharing Ed, on Englishforum, there are people complaining Revolut card get rejected in Canada last year, when was your experience? :slight_smile:

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26

It was August 2019 and I had the Revolut Mastercard. I have a Maestro now, it might very well be different. I was in Toronto only.

I also remember withdrawing money from both my Revolut and my then Transferwise card.

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27

If you convert CAD with IB, can you wire the amount to a bank account not in your name ?
I was tempted to do so while visiting the US and wire it to a friend.

In the end, I gave up and just use Revolut + Wise.
This option will allow you to anticipate the amount you will need and time the conversion rate (good or bad).

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28

It would probably trigger money laundering checks, especially since the other person also lives in another country. So probably not worth the stress.

29

Update(New question):
Does anyone have experience in transfer Canadian dollar from IBKR(Interactive Brokers) to Yuh? Did you receive on Yuh the exact amount which left IBKR? or how much did you have to pay? (%? flat fee?)

Thanks!

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Original Post:
I want to transfer 3k CAD from IBKR to Yuh, both accounts under my name.

it is the first time I “withdraw” money from IBKR and I can’t.

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  1. if I choose “Financial Institution” under section 1 and put my IBAN, IBKR then asks information about “correspondent bank”. I don’t have this info and asked Yuh last week but their reply was completely useless. (the person hasn’t give me the requested info, I guess he hasn’t read the print-screen)

  2. if I choose “Bank” under section 1 and put my IBAN, IBKR wouldn’t ask info about “correspondent bank” but my IBAN would be recognized as an account @ UBS, and even I change the SWIFT/BIC to Yuh’s, it will fail with “The specified bank cannot be used as a correspondent for this type of transfer”

so has anyone succeeded to transfer money from IBKR to Yuh and how did you do it? after more than 1 month of opening account with IBKR and put most of my money in, I still can’t find how to reach their human customer support (not a bot or FAQ etc)

31

I did transfer EUR from IB to yuh, was very easy. But it’s not the same for CAD I guess.

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32

Thanks a lot. Do you mean I should put “UBSWCHZH80A - UBS Zurich” and “CH860023023001289577E” to the 2 fields I circled? Have you ever transferred CAD to Yuh from IBKR? :slight_smile:

Thanks! BTW does anyone know which company is in a better position to reply my question: Yuh or IBKR? Yuh answered my question without reading the question(I did reply them back but I need their prompt reply as I have veyr little CAD cash with me) and I can’t find IBKR human support contact :sweat_smile:

33

Ask rather Yuh. I think IB knows how to send CAD around.

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34

thanks, you mean Yuh is the company who is in a better position to reply my question right?
that’s also what I thought

35

Yes. Btw I bet that you will lose on this transfer more than original 0.95% fees you wanted to avoid.

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Thanks. who will take this 0.95%? IBKR or UBS(the corresponding bank according to “Patron”) or Yuh?

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37

UBS and potentially the correspondent bank of IB.

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38

thanks a lot, do you think Revolut or WIse wouldn’t need to pay/take such fee to receive money from IBKR or UBS?

BTW I find the situation is a bit weird if what your “bet” turns out to be the case.
When I transferred Euros from Yuh to IBKR, I received the exact amount on IBKR, so going the opposite way is not free any more? simply because it’s in CAD?

39

Canadian dollar is a national currency of Canada. If you want to send it outside of Canada, you can, but don’t expect it to be cheap.

SEPA was organized specifically to ensure no fee transfers in participating countries.

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40

Thanks a lot Dr. PI, I have learnt a lot of financial knowledge from you. The sarcastic part is the purpose of this transfer to be sent “outside of Canada” is to be able to use the CAD in Canada.

So do you think with Revolut and Wise there is no such fee? because it seems we are not sending CAD outside Canada? We are only sending CHF to Revolut/Wise and then convert it to CAD

41

We were suggesting you from the very beginning to open a Revolut (or Wise, but I don’t use it) multicurrency account to pay in CAD. When you pay to or receive payments from these companies (and also from IB), you use their Swiss accounts for CHF transfers, SEPA accounts for EUR transfers, US accounts for USD transfers and so on.

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thanks a lot, I guess I have a slow learning-curve :sweat_smile:
I think finally having understood why Revolut is better than converting CAD with IBKR and then sending to Yuh to use it…