Has anyone used Tangerine to buy USD? (I'm exchanging a smaller amount, so norberts gambit isn't useful.)
Tangerine's seems significantly better, for e.g. as of 7/6/2015, they sell at: 1.243.
to compare: RBC: 1.3035 BMO 1.2925
Any experiences? good/bad/ugly with Tangerine?
Posted Jul 6, 2015, 8:18 PM UTC
I don't think it's a matter of Tangerine's rates being better so much as they just don't update them as frequently as the major banks do.
Tangerine's rates have consistently been better than the Big 5 banks. However, you need to go to a Tangerine ATM to withdraw USD Cash, and nobody's figured out a way to transfer USD in a Tangerine Savings account into Questrade.
I've actually figured out and successfully transferred USD from Tangerine US$ Savings to Questrade. This was actually how I started using Tangerine for savings and chequing after being primarily with TD all inclusive. Since TD started recently charging fees for their US$ account unless there was a $3000 minimum, I closed the TD US$ account and found Tangerine US$ Savings as a good alternative.
Fantastic, thank you so much!! Does the mailing of the letter cost any money?
No cost, all free. Received the letter within a couple of days too.
I called and asked for a pre-authorized debit form and was told that they do not offer this. Should I call back and speak to someone else?
Update: Spoke to someone else and explained to them like a child that I needed a piece of paper with the info on it. They checked with their manager and came back and said it would be mailed out.
Call back and explain to them that you need a letter confirming your identity, account details, currency denomination and stamped by Tangerine for PAD to Questrade. I think the customer service person can't do that themselves but will submit a ticket to have a manager do it and mail it to your home. Good luck!
Do you know what Tangerine's daily max is that you can withdraw from an ATM? Do you know if Tangerine can temporarily override the limit for your account?
I probably won't switch anyways, since the TD Borderless account is giving me a USD credit card for free, which is how I do most of my USD spending. I've heard rumours about Tangerine offering credit cards soon, so maybe someday they'll become the first to offer a no-fee USD card. Then I can finally say goodbye to TD.
Do you know what Tangerine's daily max is that you can withdraw from an ATM?
Don't know about $USD accounts, but on my $CDN account, there's currently an ABM limit of $1,200 which can be changed through online banking. I don't know if there's a hard limit to how much that can be increased.
Not sure what a "smaller amount" is, but I ran the numbers recently and determined that Norbert's Gambit, if done with Questrade, is worthwhile for amounts over $275 when the alternative is to pay 2% over the spot rate (which is what Questrade charges to do the exchange).
thanks for running the numbers! its only about $1000, but I don't use QT, so I assumed any savings would be lost.