I think dude was asking if just sticking with his ING ISA paying interest is "better" than buying and selling USD.

I say nope, more money is to be made by buying and selling USD, also dont by your USD from ING, as you said they are charging an extra 2% which will cut into your future profits. Just withdraw the CAD from your ING and go buy USD elsewhere, open up a service fee free USD account somewhere and stash it, put it in a safe or under your mattress (bad advice but it works). Most banks pay super low interest on USD accounts, maybe a fraction of a percent.

0.9730 now
exchange us dollars and buy some us stocks, risky though.

So you pay 2% to put your money in and make 0.75% per year? Better to hide your money under your mattress, at least you're only losing inflation...

So which banks are you guys using that is offering the best interest on the US dollar? Or better yet, which is the best US savings account?

I noticed that one of you is using an ING account (via the .75% interest)

Donno, I quit banking with the major 5 a few years back and switched to Vancity. Currently they are paying a whole 0.5% interest on USD balances over $60,000. If u have less than that then expect a much less payout, IMHO the interest isn't worth it and I don't think other institutions pay much more. Still keeping thousands of USD is safer in an account that under your mattress.

http://www.ingdirect.ca/en/save-invest/usisa/index.html

ING looks great but here's the problem... They are paying 0.75% on all USD acct balances, great rate but that's only $7.50 on a $1000 after one full year. The interest is better than nothing but transferring money from your CAD ING acct to you USD ING acct you will loose out, this is wear the extra 2% comes in. Because ING is a big institution their exchange rate is not as good as small forex joints or VBCE, expect to pay up to 2% more than if u walked in somewhere and exchange cash (or used Interac), that loss cuts into your profit in the end. I say screw ING just exchange at VBCE and deposit the USD into fee free USD acct at a local bank.

0.75% per annum translates to $7.50 per $1000 invested, so it's actually not really better than nothing.

Oopps that's $7.50, not $75. For $7.50 it's a waste of time but to even get that u have to buy USD from ING which is 2% more so u r paying and extra $20 per $1000 off the bat, also u have to sit on it for a year, depending on the market u may or may not be doing that.

Most of the time, Kingmark beats VBCE.
www.kingmark.ca

Well as I write this reply...

Kingmark

1.035 1.065

VCBE

1.038000 1.063000

So unless they change there spread occasionally...

^^ whenever I exchange, I check out both sites; the last few times in a row, Kingsmark ended up being cheaper.. so i dunno..

Well that's different because as you know, prices change constantly and VBCE only updates their rates once a day.


The spread on the other hand generally doesn't.

Good tip about Kingmark, never been there before. Unfortunately its a bit out of my way to save a few bucks, VBCE is close by so I will probably just go there unless I am exchanging more than a couple thousand.

So end of the month and it never hit par. How many of you fools were waiting? lol

they're worried about the few bucks they're going to save at the amount most ppl are talking about haha

exchange rate is going the other way right now, but when our dollar bounces back and the rate gets close to par then im flipping 5-10 stacks and am going to sit on it for a while.

Well, it is time for maturing US bonds and this is probably the US trying to get some bond money and why the US dollar is getting strong.

*raises hand*
I got greedy, shoulda exchanged in stages instead of waiting to do it in one shot. :(

Just do price averaging. I bought some at 1.07,1.05,1.03 and 1.02 (near it). I was going to buy more at par but never reached. I was buying hkd though but basically the same.
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