SilvrT Posted March 17, 2015 #1 Posted March 17, 2015 On Mar 10 I made my reservation for the upcoming Venture West via the Motel's "reservation desk". On Mar 13 I cancelled it because it was better to deal directly with the motel. In those 3 days I lost $19.41 CDN due to differences in the exchange rate.
djh3 Posted March 17, 2015 #2 Posted March 17, 2015 Hmm so If I make a reservation with a Canadian hotel and then cancel it a few days later I would have made $19? Why play the stock market? Actually I think if its on a credit card it shouldn't have cost you anything. It "held" the room but nothing was used. So I dont know what the rules are but I would be asking. And was there an actual charge on the card?
SilvrT Posted March 17, 2015 Author #3 Posted March 17, 2015 Hmm so If I make a reservation with a Canadian hotel and then cancel it a few days later I would have made $19? Why play the stock market? Actually I think if its on a credit card it shouldn't have cost you anything. It "held" the room but nothing was used. So I dont know what the rules are but I would be asking. And was there an actual charge on the card? They processed the full amount on the CC on the 10th. That alone sukz but I've had other places do that. $307 US converted to $399 CDN on Mar 10 $307 US converted to $380 CDN on Mar 13 You wouldn't make $19 as the conversion is the opposite direction. Doing simple math, 399/380*307-307=$15.35 is what you'd get.
Flyinfool Posted March 17, 2015 #4 Posted March 17, 2015 I just made a large purchase from Germany, for the sake of convenience I had to break it into two payments. Both payments were around 900 euros each. In the 3 minutes that elapsed between the two payments, the exchange rate changed, and the first payment cost $13.68 more than the second one. Or at least that is what my CC said was the reason.
cowpuc Posted March 17, 2015 #5 Posted March 17, 2015 On Mar 10 I made my reservation for the upcoming Venture West via the Motel's "reservation desk". On Mar 13 I cancelled it because it was better to deal directly with the motel. In those 3 days I lost $19.41 CDN due to differences in the exchange rate. Well that just plain stinks Silv!! Hopefully you somehow regain your loss when you deal directly with the Motel.. You could also just skip the whole Motel scene, sleep under the stars and REALLY get your cash back I thought exactly the same thing as DJ when I first read your story! My mind went,, lets see here,, so if I would have purchased 30,000 US dollars worth of Canadian currency on March 10 and returned it on March 13 I would have made 1900 hundred bucks in 3 days:scared:.. Even doing it backwards like you mentioned,, 1500 bucks is nothing to scoff at:scared:... If that is possible, I bet there are some wealthy folks who have figured out exactly how to do that and are having all kinds of fun as we speak!! :mo money: Hmm so If I make a reservation with a Canadian hotel and then cancel it a few days later I would have made $19? Why play the stock market? Actually I think if its on a credit card it shouldn't have cost you anything. It "held" the room but nothing was used. So I dont know what the rules are but I would be asking. And was there an actual charge on the card?
SilvrT Posted March 17, 2015 Author #6 Posted March 17, 2015 yep, y'all south of us can get rich offa us northerners :mo money:
cowpuc Posted March 17, 2015 #7 Posted March 17, 2015 yep, y'all south of us can get rich offa us northerners :mo money: Or the other way around,, OR,, pool our cash and get rich off each other:178: Long as there aint no Bernie Madoff's in the crowd!!
ragtop69gs Posted March 18, 2015 #8 Posted March 18, 2015 The missus and I were going to go to a show in Canada and I found it would add quite a bit more to buy show tickets and a room with USD. We stayed home. I remember when it was the other way around when I was in High school, we could go to Windsor and get a steak dinner for 2 bucks and change!
kevin-vic-b.c. Posted March 18, 2015 #9 Posted March 18, 2015 This is why when I travel in the US I always use my cc for as much as possible. I usually carry a bit of cash but with bank fees for "purchasing" the cash and the exchange it is a better deal to just put it on the cc and pay it off on return. Oh and the best deal is Starbucks...... load up a Starbucks card in Canada for your coffee stops in the US and they charge you a even cost $ for $.
SilvrT Posted March 18, 2015 Author #10 Posted March 18, 2015 The missus and I were going to go to a show in Canada and I found it would add quite a bit more to buy show tickets and a room with USD. We stayed home. That must have been when the Can dollar was worth more than US coz right now your dollar is worth more than ours so you're spending less. For $1 of ours, you only pay 78 cents at the moment. Having said that, unfortunately most everything up here costs more so ya can't win for losin LOL I remember when it was the other way around when I was in High school, we could go to Windsor and get a steak dinner for 2 bucks and change! I remember when I was in high school .... wait a min ... ... ... .... never mind, I forgot!
SilvrT Posted March 18, 2015 Author #11 Posted March 18, 2015 This is why when I travel in the US I always use my cc for as much as possible. I usually carry a bit of cash but with bank fees for "purchasing" the cash and the exchange it is a better deal to just put it on the cc and pay it off on return. Oh and the best deal is Starbucks...... load up a Starbucks card in Canada for your coffee stops in the US and they charge you a even cost $ for $. Other thing about using the cc is you get the exchange rate at that time ... which could be lower than, say 5 days earlier when ya exchanged the cash.
ragtop69gs Posted March 18, 2015 #12 Posted March 18, 2015 That must have been when the Can dollar was worth more than US coz right now your dollar is worth more than ours so you're spending less. For $1 of ours, you only pay 78 cents at the moment. Having said that, unfortunately most everything up here costs more so ya can't win for losin LOL I remember when I was in high school .... wait a min ... ... ... .... never mind, I forgot! No No.... When I checked 2 weeks ago 1 US dollar was worth .78 canadian. Back in the early 70's the USD was almost double what the canuk buk was worth.
SilvrT Posted March 18, 2015 Author #13 Posted March 18, 2015 No No.... When I checked 2 weeks ago 1 US dollar was worth .78 canadian. Back in the early 70's the USD was almost double what the canuk buk was worth. You must have gotten it reversed coz the Can dollar has been below the US for months ... and more months, in fact, it was way back in 2013 when we were last at par or above... it's been dropping and fluctuating below ever since. Have a look at this site ... http://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/exchange/exchange-rates-in-pdf/ In April 2013 United States Dollar 1.01869545 CAD Feb 2013 United States Dollar 1.00984737 CAD Jan 2013 United States Dollar 0.99213182 CAD That was the last time were were worth more than US ... in other words, one dollar of our money gets more than a dollar of yours. Feb 2015 United States Dollar 1.25000526 CAD
Sailor Posted March 18, 2015 #14 Posted March 18, 2015 OK, so I am old. I remember when the Canuck buck was worth a buck and a quarter US. That was a long time ago. I dealt directly with the hotel and it was cheaper. When I travel I use my debit card at a local atm to get cash for whatever country I am in. Cheaper than a credit card. I use the cc for gas purchases. Our politicians want to keep the dollar low to encourage tourism and trade. It does mean we pay higher prices.
slowrollwv Posted March 19, 2015 #15 Posted March 19, 2015 No exchange rate in this one. I made a reservation for Don's MD at a Super 8. Didn't realize I had the wrong town and booked. Then seen the mistake and tried to cancel, no can do. Priceline will keep all the money if I cancel. I tried to switch to the same motel chain a little closer, can't do that either. So I will be staying about 20 miles from Don's. I will never book a motel while I am using MapQuest again.
Pam Posted March 19, 2015 #16 Posted March 19, 2015 Had the same sort of thing happen. Returned from Belize, The wife was checking over the visa bill and found a purchase we had not made. The resort reversed the charge with no problem. The kicker is that when the charge was posted on our bill by the visa people we we charged a service charge and then when it was taken off we were charged again. Total is about $7.00 usd. So Visa gets paid both ways. Should be in the banking and credit card busness
SilvrT Posted March 19, 2015 Author #17 Posted March 19, 2015 I've never been charged a service charge by Visa ... only the exchange rate. PayPal, on the other hand, charges a service charge and then visa converts it from US to CAD ...
Neil86 Posted March 19, 2015 #18 Posted March 19, 2015 (edited) The actual currency rate didn't change that much but credit card companies pad their rates switching either way so they never lose. Even if the gov't rates were the same on those 2 days you will be out roughly 4% switching in and out. Edited March 19, 2015 by Neil86
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