subtle difference's.

[Carolina Coyote]

Well Barry my experience was the Canadian Merchants always gave a better exchange than the Bank, you arn't suggesting that you would take advantage of a unaware American are you?  cc

[pitw]

Well Barry my experience was the Canadian Merchants always gave a better exchange than the Bank, you arn't suggesting that you would take advantage of a unaware American are you?  cc

All depended on their attitude   I treated them the same as I would a Canadian and attitude makes all the difference.  I have unhooked my chain from a couple trucks I was going to pull out because of poor 'tudes and they were Canucks :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

The bank down there [a credit union] wanted 5% and that was totally unacceptable especially when the grocery store would do it for free[travel cheques].

[Carolina Coyote]

Attitude goes a long way with me also and you find people with that on both sides of the border, I never had a bad experience in my travels to Canada, enjoyed ever trip and meeting the people, really hurt my feeling a few years ago when you had the anti - American  Administration in power there. Most Americans consider Canada as friends. I hope it stays that way. cc

[pitw]

'tude knows no boundarys.  I can say in all honesty that everyone I met and talked to treated me and mine great on our last little foray south .  I will say that Canadians appear to have more knowledge of the States than vice versa   I had one lady ask if we had icebergs in our rivers while we were standing by a river that flowed down to where we were from Canada 65 miles away

[Hawks Feather]

I will say that Canadians appear to have more knowledge of the States than vice versa  

Unfortunately, there is too much truth in that statement. 

Jerry

[Okanagan]

I live near the border and cross quite a bit.  Have both kinds of currency in my pocket at this minute, as usual.  Merchants close to the border will usually accept money from the other side but if you get just a little ways south of the border hardly anyone but a bank will take Canuck money.  It's a little better on the other side, but as said, a credit card or exchange at a bank is your best bet.    ATM's are my first choice to get money form the other side.  They give you the going bank rate of exchange on that day and charge a bank percentage fee, not too bad with most banks.

1.5% is normally the lowest charge you can find anywhere to change money.  So if you change US to Canuck, you lose 1.5% on top of the bank to bank exchange rate (whether it is 10% difference or 44%).  To put it another way, the bank charges you 1.5% to exchange the money.  Change it back and you lose another 1.5%, so you will wind up with your original less about 3%, and that is normally the best you can do.  An exception noted by somebody in a post above is merchants creating good will business by taking money at par or at a rate better than the bank.  They are eating a small loss when they do that.  Money exchange places, often in airports, charge more.

A bank or financial institution charging 5% was deliberately gouging (if that was their fee and not the exchange rate).  Exchange rates change daily, even hourly, so I don't blame merchants for hedging.  Banks should not.  They can check exchange rates nearly up to the minute.

Merchants offering better than bank rates are a good deal.    So when a top hotel in Spokane one time offered a low price come on deal, plus advertised that they took Canuck money at par, my sister's family and ours all walked in with Canuck money and stayed the weekend.

Correct that most Canadians know a LOT more about the USA than vice versa.  Elephant and Shetland pony.  Canadians cannot escape US news, TV, music, advertising, etc. but the reverse is not true.  Not good or bad, just how it is with a country of small population next to a huge one.

If you travel though several countries on one trip, keeping track of money and expenditures in all those currencies can get plumb confusing if you have to turn in an expense account.

 

[pitw]

Correct that most Canadians know a LOT more about the USA than vice versa.  Elephant and Shetland pony.  Canadians cannot escape US news, TV, music, advertising, etc. but the reverse is not true.  Not good or bad, just how it is with a country of small population next to a huge one.

Up here in school the youngun's take social studies and are taught about different countries.  At one time I knew every state and it's capital.  I found that the young people I asked questions of down south knew little of areas not near them[not just Canada].  Knowledge is power someone said, so why not teach some of it?

[Hawks Feather]

We used to teach it, but all of that has changed.  Part of it was the society and the "need to make everyone equal" which translates to the top and middle being pulled down so that everyone can be equal near the bottom.  Then there are the state and national tests.  If you want your school district to look good you teach what is on the test.  You can get former tests and some of the questions will be the same so they are used to "practice" for the big test.  If it is not on the test it is not looked upon by many districts as worth wasting their teaching time to go over.  Since all the districts and states are graded on the test results they do become high stake tests.  The federal mandated tests are becoming a little more in line.  Ohio's former state superintendent (who I was not a big fan of) chose to set the passage rate high on the state/federal tests.  What this did is put more pressure on the schools in Ohio, but it finally has paid off now that the passage guidelines are a little more uniform nationwide.  The passage percentage has changed over the years, but it started higher than many other states.  Lets say that a student in Ohio needed a score of 75% to pass the federal/state tests while another state set the passage rate at 60%.  The other state started out looking much better than Ohio, but when the feds said that all states needed a 75% to pass there was no change in Ohio.  Other states had many that had been passing the tests at 60% that were no longer passing - something that you don't want to have happen.  We are well on our way to a national curriculum, similar to some other countries, where on October 6 every student in the US will be on page 46 of their book.  This will also cause all schools to start at the same time of the year so that this can happen.      This is one of the things that i DO NOT now that I am out of the education profession.

Jerry

[5 SHOTS]

Pitw, Just wondering when you came across the Border if the Merchant's in the US would accept the flower money?cc

Golly I never even tried   I took a bunch of money I bought at the bank with me cause I didn't know if they would and I guess I am still ignorant on the subject

As far as I know they will take canadian money everywhere here.....but a few will most likely gouge you.

[pitw]

Another little difference I noticed was the driver's in Montana are far superior to ours up here .  I do live by Saskatchewan  .    Also can you buy choclate milk in a store?  Everytime I would order choclate milk in a restaurant I'd get white milk with a choclate mix of some kind.  Up here we get it out of the carton.

[FinsnFur]

  Yeah you can buy it in a store, in anywhere from a half a pint to a gallon.

I think the reason the restaurants mix it on the fly is because they cant sell enough of it to keep it fresh if they bought it bulk.

[pitw]

Yeah you can buy it in a store, in anywhere from a half a pint to a gallon.

I think the reason the restaurants mix it on the fly is because they cant sell enough of it to keep it fresh if they bought it bulk.

Kinda /sorta what I had figured.  Up here we must drink more cause it is always there for me. [unless they don't carry it and some don't for your reasons stated before]