This blog post was originally published on the MoneyGeek.ca blog by Jin Choi. The website no longer exists, but Jin has graciously allowed us to re-publish his research for the benefit of future investors forever.
U.S. Currency: Our video shows you how to exchange Canadian dollars into U.S. dollars (and vice versa) cheaply on Questrade
UPDATE: Questrade has changed their website recently. You can now find the 'Currency Settlement' option mentioned in the video in 'Account Management' page, in the bottom right corner of the 'Summary' tab. Note that for margin accounts, the currenty settlement is 'trade currency' by default, so you don't need to apply this step.
Many sites, including ours, recommend Questrade as a discount brokerage of choice.
In case you didn't know, you can think of a brokerage as a special bank account where you can use the money to buy and sell financial securities. We have tutorials on how to use, and open Questrade accounts here.
While I generally love Questrade, there's one thing I don't like: curency exchange fees. Questrade charges a full 2% to exchange your currency. That means if you want to convert $10,000 in Canadian dollars to U.S. dollars or vice versa, you'll pay Questrade $200!
Groan.
Thankfully, there is a way to get around their fees and exchange currencies for cheaper, and it's called "Norbert's gambit". You can find a good article on it here.
However, while the instructions are simple enough, I think some people are nervous doing it themselves without a complete step-by-step guide. So, I've decided to make a video that shows each step to implement Norbert's gambit.
I would like to ask just one thing.
If you find this video helpful, please share it using our share buttons on this page. That way, more people like yourself will find this video.
Enjoy.
This blog post was originally published on the MoneyGeek.ca blog by Jin Choi. The website no longer exists, but Jin has graciously allowed us to re-publish his research for the benefit of future investors forever.
