I will be receiving $75k in Canadian dollars that I need to convert to US dollars. Would it make sense to open a forex account to save money on the conversion? My broker, Thinkorswim, does not accept Canadian currency. Is there a US forex broker that does?
I believe GFT does, don't know if it is cheaper than converting the funds at a bank. I know they have some kind of bonus for opening an account with a certain amount of money. http://gftforex.com/support/faq-credit-card.asp#payNotBaseCurrency
Have a look at that: http://fxglobaltransfer.oanda.com Its Oanda's physical delivery service. You can exchange cash on low spreads (2 to 3 pips for usd/cad) for $25 flat fee. Get a quote from your bank and compare if its worth the hassle. Retail banks around here charge ridiculous fees and bid/ask spreads on the counter, so it may be well worth it. P.S. if you choose a fx firm for the conversion, make sure they actually use the rates from their platform for physical exchange and not some retail bank benchmarks. Other than Oanda i only know IB that does that (for small amounts anyways).
bank of montreal will charge you .5% fee on 50k for converting into a USD account. This may be higher for you, if you are not a client of their firm..
A fee, and typically a bad conversion quote. My bank quotes a 300 pip bid/ask spread for eur/usd exchange at the counter.
Thanks. That looks good once I figure out how to get the Canadian $ into an Oanda account. The money is not coming from my account.