I recently had a transaction on my Canadian Credit card from a US vendor. The original charge was $55.83 USD with a Canadian exchange rate of 1.0164 or $56.74 CDN. Read on about my realization on how banking policies ensure that banks swindle their customers around every turn. Exploring exchange rates. Buying vs selling currency.
I decided to pay for the charge with my USD Savings Account:
To exchange my USD savings to $56.74 CDN cost me: $59.26 USD
So overall; it cost me $3.43 dollars more based on Banking Policies and practices to pay me original charge of $55 USD with the same currency.
Now, $3.43 is not much, I admit, but now add another zero or two to the amount, $550 would have cost me $34 more, $5500, over $340 more just for a matter of computers automatically transferring money between accounts.
Coincidently, today’s exchange rates are:
Country | Currency Name / Currency Code | Rate Bank Will Buy From You: | Rate Bank Will Sell To You: |
United States | Dollar (USD) | 0.9499 | 1.0008 |