I just thought of this now, but I wish I'd thought of it a year ago.
If there are US retailers you like to shop at, buy yourself a bunch of gift cards from them when the exchange rate is favourable. Then when the exchange rate worsens, you can use your gift cards and it will be just like spending money at the better exchange rate.
In other worse, if I had bought myself some gift cards when the dollars were at par, the $114 US purchase I just put in my cart would cost me $114 CAD instead of $138 CAD.
To find out before carrying this out: do US gift cards expire?
7 comments:
It varies from store to store and among states.
Or just take your Canadian dollars and buy US dollars. Then you're not tied into any particular retailer but still have the same protection against a falling Canadian dollar. (Assuming, of course - whether with gift cards or actual US dollars - that the Canadian dollar doesn't go up further. Doing this, in the final analysis, is speculating on the currency markets).
That would work if you're shopping in person. I do all my cross-border shopping on the internet, which is why I was thinking gift cards. If the dollar goes up even more it doesn't matter that much, as long as it goes back down at some point in the future. You can totally save up your gift cards/US cash until the exchange rate is less favourable than when you bought them.
Another option is a credit card in USD. Buy USD cash when the exchange rate is favourable and keep that in a separate bank account. Make your purchases with the USD credit card - thus avoiding the excessive exchange rates that credit card companies charge (which they even charge when buying gift cards!).
Canadians can get US credit cards?? I thought credit ratings stop at the border.
You can get USD-denominated credit cards from *Canadian* banks. You are billed in US dollars, so no conversion charges. Pay from your USD bank account (also at a Canadian bank). However, it seems there are annual user fees for the these USD cards, so that should also be taken into consideration.
You can get USD-denominated credit cards from *Canadian* banks. You are billed in US dollars, so no conversion charges. Pay from your USD bank account (also at a Canadian bank). However, it seems there are annual user fees for the these USD cards, so that should also be taken into consideration.
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