[kwlug-disc] consulting fees

[Kyle Spaans]

I use Transferwise every month as well so I’m not suggesting one shouldn’t
use it, but forex places often make money by giving you a bad exchange
rate. Just looking at the fees isn’t enough. Whenever you’re going to
exchange money I recommended checking the “market” rate on xe.com and then
shopping around to few exchanges to see what their rate (plus whatever fees
they charge) will bring you closest to the “market rate”.
On Thu, Mar 1, 2018 at 1:43 AM Chamunks <chamunks at gmail.com> wrote:

> @Khalid https://transferwise.com for god's sake just use that.  It's
> basically free and it skips losing a pile of money in hidden exchange rate
> bank fees.
>
> On Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 11:57 PM Dave Cramer <davecramer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Dave Cramer
>>
>> On 23 February 2018 at 18:37, Kyle Spaans <3lucid at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 11:47 AM Khalid Baheyeldin <kb at 2bits.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 11:41 AM, Dave Cramer <davecramer at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 23 February 2018 at 11:34, Khalid Baheyeldin <kb at 2bits.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> The majority of my clients are outside Canada, so I get wire
>>>>>> transfers often.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Incoming wire fees will be around $37.50 or less. Some countries are
>>>>>> higher.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Also, the USD is higher than the CAD for the time being. But if it
>>>>>> shifts the other way (and it did for many years) you eat up the difference.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Banks offer different US chequing accounts. Some give you lower fees
>>>>>> or flat per-transaction fee, others have preferred transfer rates. You can
>>>>>> get your bank to open a US chequing account, and change the type when you
>>>>>> want to transfer funds, then change it back. This works only if you have a
>>>>>> buffer of CAD to weather the USD/CAD fluctuations. I strongly advise that
>>>>>> though, since you can make up 5% more in currency difference if you wait
>>>>>> for 8 or 10 months rather than do it monthly at whatever rate is in effect.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I use a currency exchange that will sell futures on the dollar.  This
>>>>> means you can lock in a rate. There of course is a downside. If you sell
>>>>> 50k of futures you have to use it. FWIW, all the currency traders I talk to
>>>>> expect the USD to be stronger for the foreseeable future. If you are
>>>>> interested in the currency exchange contact me off list. Either way they
>>>>> have significantly better rates than the banks.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> When it comes to money, I am a conservative (not much in other spheres).
>>>>
>>>> That means I don't do options or futures or any of that.
>>>>
>>>> In good years when I had an excess in USD, I bought (through my bank)
>>>> mutual funds that are in USD. If the market is down when you need the
>>>> money, the difference in currency can make up for the bear market when you
>>>> sell the mutual funds and sell the USD in CAD.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Another thing you can do to save on conversion rates if you’re
>>> converting large amounts (around $10k or so at a time) is called Norbert’s
>>> Gambit. Basically you use a brokerage to buy a special fund that trades in
>>> both USD and CAD: buy with one and sell with the other. The spread between
>>> the two funds will be kept close to the live exchange rate by traders. You
>>> need to ask for a special account with the brokerage though.
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.moneysense.ca/magazine-archive/norberts-gambit-a-better-way-to-buy-u-s-dollars/
>>>
>>
>> Interesting.
>>
>> As a data point the last exchange I did was 10k CAD on Feb 1 it cost me
>> 8195, the bank of Canada rate for that day was .8138 so it cost me $57 in
>> exchange fees
>>
>>>
>>>
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