I needed to send $1500 CAD from Canada to Ukraine, and so did some research over the weekend as to the various ways of doing so. Here’s what I found.
| Method | Fee | Result in USD | Exchange Rate | Effective Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Union | $46 | $1462.50 | 0.975 | $83.50 |
| Moneygram | $74 | $1467.00 | 0.978 | $107.00 |
| Ria | $20 | $1453.95 | 0.9693 | $66.05 |
(For comparison, the Bank of Canada exchange for USD at noon today was 0.9965; I received a rate of 0.9787 on an unrelated deposit at Metro Credit Union today).
Other options suggested were a bank wire transfer (I was quoted $35 plus undetermined “intermedia transfer bank” fees, with no ability to tell what the net deposit would be), PayPal (good for many things, but doesn’t currently supported payout to Ukrainian bank accounts) as well as the online services Currency Online and HiFX (possibilities, but it’s not clear to me how you get money in to their systems if they don’t have a local presence; if by wire transfer, it might end up being more expensive because of the local wire transfer fee).
I ended up doing the tranfers at The Cash Store, a storefront on University Avenue that is otherwise in the business of cheque cashing and payday loans, and thus a storefront I had, until this point, seen as shady and best avoided. As it turns out, the friendly and helpful clerk there was able to process my request quickly, and while there was some stumbling on the (vast number of) data entry fields on their transfer system, I was assured that should I return to transfer again, my information is all on file it it should be point-and-click-ish.
I welcome suggestions of other solutions to the problem.
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Comments
I used http://www
I used http://www.canadianforex.ca to get money to the UK when living there. You’d need local bank account details for both sides, but there were no transfer fees, on the Canadian end it was just like any other payee in the web banking.
I second Isaac’s
I second Isaac’s recommendation of CanadianForex. I’ve used them a handful of times to send money from Canadian to France (CAD -> EUR) and to the States (CAD -> USD).
I wrote a bit about my experience here: http://misener.org/my-real-lif…
I always use http://www
I always use http://www.knightsbridgefx.com/ for that, they provide great conversion rates.
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