US Social Security deposit to US vs Canadian bank

[LJBill]

BeaconHillWealth wrote:
> Most my clients either have their US SS deposited into their Canadian based USD bank
> account or USD US based back account. They often leave the amounts in USD to spend
> while in the US.

I have my US SS deposited directly into my Canadian RBC chequing account. This provides a very large portion of my living expenses every month, coming in as about $6K Cad each month. For my situation it makes more sense to have this cash in spendable Canadian dollars so I can pay my Canadian bills. The exchange rate that the US Treasury gets just cannot be beat.


> However, if you do need to convert try to stay away from using the big Canadian
> banks. The spread they charge is massive.

Totally agree. Over the past 3 years since my entry to Canada as a PR I have moved up just over $1M Cad from the US...proceeds of a home sale and closing out taxable investments. This was a huge headache for me for various reasons. But I learned who to avoid and who to use; OFX and Wise were what I primarily used. Even Fidelity (my US account) was not worthwhile using for currency exchange. being as costly as the big Canadian banks. People always talk about IBKR, which has awesome exchange rates, but per their rules I was not able to actually transfer my exchanged cash cross-border. Maybe user error on my part but I couldn't see how to get 'er done. Now that the dust has mostly settled I have been trying Norbert's Gambit with success (it really is very easy). Wise competes well with Norbert's Gambit in my experience and I thought for a time that NG might not be worthwhile, but Wise seems to drag their heels on all my recent transactions so I feel better about giving Wise the cold shoulder and executing NG transactions.

[BeaconHillWealth]

Agreed, if you get the treasury rate upon conversion to CAD, that's a great outcome.

LJBill wrote:
> BeaconHillWealth wrote:
> > Most my clients either have their US SS deposited into their Canadian based USD
> bank
> > account or USD US based back account. They often leave the amounts in USD to
> spend
> > while in the US.
>
> I have my US SS deposited directly into my Canadian RBC chequing account. This
> provides a very large portion of my living expenses every month, coming in as about
> $6K Cad each month. For my situation it makes more sense to have this cash in
> spendable Canadian dollars so I can pay my Canadian bills. The exchange rate that the
> US Treasury gets just cannot be beat.
>
>
> > However, if you do need to convert try to stay away from using the big Canadian
> > banks. The spread they charge is massive.
>
> Totally agree. Over the past 3 years since my entry to Canada as a PR I have moved up
> just over $1M Cad from the US...proceeds of a home sale and closing out taxable
> investments. This was a huge headache for me for various reasons. But I learned who
> to avoid and who to use; OFX and Wise were what I primarily used. Even Fidelity (my
> US account) was not worthwhile using for currency exchange. being as costly as the
> big Canadian banks. People always talk about IBKR, which has awesome exchange rates,
> but per their rules I was not able to actually transfer my exchanged cash
> cross-border. Maybe user error on my part but I couldn't see how to get 'er done. Now
> that the dust has mostly settled I have been trying Norbert's Gambit with success (it
> really is very easy). Wise competes well with Norbert's Gambit in my experience and I
> thought for a time that NG might not be worthwhile, but Wise seems to drag their
> heels on all my recent transactions so I feel better about giving Wise the cold
> shoulder and executing NG transactions.

[ND]

"He receives the deposits into a major Canadian bank in Canadian dollars. He has a US dollar checking account at the same Canadian bank. He exchanges the Canadian dollars for US dollars and deposits the US dollars into that US dollar checking account at the same Canadian bank. He possesses a check book for that account at his home in the US. He writes a US dollar check to himself and uses his US bank's app on his phone to deposit the US$ check (drawn on his Canadian bank's US dollar account) via a photograph."

I found that interesting. I have TD borderless USD in Canada and TD USA bank in a state. I have both country apps, people owing me $ e-mail me a scan of a check they write and I deposit it, or when I owe $, I do same for them to deposit. TD's phone app has only ever allowed me to deposit US bank issued checks into TD US account via TD US app, but never as USD via the Cdn app into the borderless account. The phone app has only ever allowed me to deposit Cdn bank issued checks on TD's Cdn app but not on the US app into the regular USD account.

You're saying your friend managed to get his US bank app to deposit a check written from his Cdn USD account. Which bank is he/she using in both countries?

[worryfreeinvestor]

Thank you both.

[worryfreeinvestor]

Thank you both.