In 2012, the simplest way for me to buy US dollars at a reasonable rate was from Tangerine. Tangerine is owned by the Bank of Nova Scotia / ScotiaBank so it may not be the cheapest place to buy your US dollars,though.

Written: 2012
Reviewed: 2023
Revised: 2023

How to Check the Cost to Buy US Dollars Easily Online

Tangerine posts their buy and sell rates online. No need to phone anyone to see what it costs. You can even check at 3 a.m. if you’re up and online.

In January 2023, to find the rates, go to the www.tangerine.ca home page. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page, looking for a list of links. Click on the Rates link. Scroll down looking for the Exchange Rates section. Then click on the link Current Rates.

The site will tell you that buying $1 US dollar will cost you, for example, !.354 Canadian. (on January 29 2023) It also states today that selling $1 US dollar will give you 1.309 Canadian dollars.

But How Do I Get the US Dollars Out of Tangerine?

Ok, there’s always a drawback. We get our US dollars out of Tangerine by transferring them to our CIBC US Dollar account. Then we withdraw them at CIBC. In 2021, it costs us $0.75 US to make a withdrawal from our CIBC US Dollar account. The transfer out from Tangerine costs nothing.

Why Have a CIBC US Dollar Account?

We chose a CIBC US Dollar account because there were no fees for the account and no minimum balance. There was no fee to make a deposit to the CIBC account. So keeping the account active (requiring one transaction every 6 months) was as easy as depositing a US dollar every 5 months or so.

If you are considering opening a USD account at any bank, please check first what fees will apply. The rules change frequently!

The Canadian Dollar is Up, When Will the Tangerine US Dollar Price Go Down?

They change the rates in what seems to be almost a random pattern, so it isn’t easy to predict when they will respond to the daily fluctuations in the value of the dollar.

The good thing is there is no additional fee to make the purchase. The only fee is the one included in the posted exchange rate. So you can always purchase a bit at a time.

What’s the Best Way to Exchange CAD to USD for Investors?

If you are buying US dollars for investing purposes you will probably be exchanging a lot of dollars. In that case, you should consider performing the exchange by using Norbert’s Gambit in a brokerage account. There are also large Forex conversion companies that will likely offer a better rate than any bank.

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Do you try to save money on buying your US dollars before a trip or US purchase? How do you try to get the best exchange rate? Please share your experiences with a comment.