Exchange rate Cdn to US

[takeahike]

So, I live and work in Canada, but large chunks of my money are sent to the U.S. (my child attends a U.S. university). Monthly, I send down piles of money and this year has been horrible for the exchange rate.  We have in the last few years gone from being basically par with U.S. currency to 0.85 consistently in the last few months. Yesterday I nearly fainted at the 0.86.  And on top of that the bank adds on another 3%. I went to transfer 1000.00 usd funds out of my canadian bank account yesterday to the tune of an extra 190.00. 

SO, I signed up with canadianforex, which is supposed to offer better rates.. less fees. I mean, saving $10 or $20 per pop is fine with me.. better than donating it to my bank.  I wish I'd sent down piles of money a few years ago, but I think we all just became very comfortable with the par value of the can dollar, as if that would have lasted forever.

Has anyone used canadianforex? People have used it to make large purchases on homes in other countries, or for other reasons.
 

[takeahike]

Thanks Cathy! I will look into that right away. I'm a nurse and financial jargon sounds like a foreign language to me.. and is very intimidating. I figure it is much like people showing up in the ICU where I work while we are speaking our own type of jargon. I've only started investing money in the past year, and let 50K sit in my checking acct for 2 years not knowing where the heck to begin. (i need to tweak my investing attempts as well because lord knows.) It's hard to watch money vanish into thin air as the exchange rate worsens.

[takeahike]

Cathy, I just re-read.. bear with me..

I've been crossing my fingers for the exchange rate to improve before moving large chunks of money to my U.S. bank account. In doing that, I have only watched it get worse. So instead I've been trickling down the bare minimum needed, waiting for an improvement. I have about 20k earmarked for the U.S. account that is sitting in my canadian checking account. Part of the money for the university is a government loan, so it's 0% interest until he graduates in 1.5 years. I have to pay other expenses like room and board and what the gov. loan wouldn't cover. But at least for the bulk of it.. the gov loan part.. I thought I could wait it out.. but in 1.5 years it could be .60 to $1usd for all i know.  Yes speculation.. it's my nightmare.

Would you trying waiting it out? I was approaching it kind of like the stock market, where if I trickle it down, then I'd get various exchange rates over time.. and hopefully an improvement. Would you move it all down through your option 2?  And then, I think you are saying, as I make the money, move the money for future monies?

Edit: reading about norbert's gambit.. my lack of knowledge in this area is ridiculous.

[takeahike]

Ya, I get that.. and I'd never want you to have that responsibility.  I do like knowing that someone else is thinking what I'm thinking in that this just isn't going to improve in a long long time. After watching it from summer of 2013 to today.. with only a minor improvement to turn into a much worse rate a few days later.  I feel so dumb that I had the money sitting there when the rate was so much better and now I'm paying for my lack of knowledge.. understanding.. action, etc. I now see the writing on the wall and am trying to limit the damage.

I didn't even realize that I could get better rates from brokers before yesterday. But, I'm glad I haven't moved with canadianforex. I was in panic mode and saw they had something better than my bank and it seemed easy as I can add them as a payee straight from my checking account.