What’s better - take US dollars or exchange Canadian dollar to Vancouver?
I’m traveling to Vancouver and want to know what’s best - since the Canadian $ value is almost the same as the US $, should I take Us $ or should I exhange the currency?
When you shop in Vancouver, you might find some shops that will take American dollars, but they will still give you an exchange rate. Chances are that, in a shop, you will get a worse exchange rate than you would get otherwise. If you have a credit card/debit card, use that because the exchange rates the credit cards give you are usually pretty good. Otherwise, it won’t matter whether you exchange money in a bank on this side of the border or that side; you’ll get the same rate at a bank either way.
If you are worried about not being able to shop there because you have only US dollars, don’t worry; I’m sure that it will be very easy to exchange money in Vancouver.
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Go to the nearest bank in Vancouver BC and change US for Cnd; exchane rates are better that in Seattle.
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The best plan is to get just a little Canadian money as soon as you can just to tide you over until you can go to a bank in Canada. Then use your ATM card at a Canadian Bank when you get here. The only fees you pay that way are your bank fee and the Canadian ATM bank fee, and no exchange fees. (If you take US cash and exchange it at the bank you get extra charges.) This is best value, convenient and safest for carrying excess cash, as you can only take out what you need when you need it.
The one unknown is the fluctuating exchange rate. The Canadian dollar is continuing to rise as a trend. But the day to day fluctuations has been pretty wild. If you are looking at the value you have to watch that too.
I have traveled a bit in Europe and all lot in North America and ATM haven’t done me wrong. I do tend to do a mix of exchange methods especially on long trips, and especially when the currencies are expected to change. The ATM is usually my main source. But yes, in your case I would take some US cash too as back up emergency funds, but not exchange it unless you ended up needing it.
