51+ currencies in stock
Trade 78 currencies
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USD CAD exchange only!
USD & CAD accounts required
Call for details 1-888-666-5977
77,000+ Customers
500,000+ Transactions
900 Million+ Exchanged
Since 2012
4 Locations
License: M11432814
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Buy In rate shown by default — amounts in CAD per 1 unit of foreign currency. Bank identities hidden.
In most countries, currency exchange activity is legal as long as the operator is registered for a proper license from regulators. For example, the regulator is FINTRAC in Canada, AUSTRAC in Australia and FinCEN in the USA.
The requirements for foreign exchange operators differ by country, but the rules are very similar. These requirements include:
All these policies target money laundering, fraud, and terrorist activities. Individuals exchanging small amounts irregularly with reasonable evidence of the source of funds should not worry about these policies.
Individual foreign exchange dealers at shopping malls, city centres and border crossings are your best chance to exchange foreign currencies for Canadian dollars.
Banks and credit unions in Canada only deal with customers who have bank accounts with them, so they are not tourist-friendly. Hotel front desks, foreign exchange kiosks in airports, and tourist hotspots are too convenient for visitors, so the fees are extremely high.
Individual foreign exchange dealers at shopping malls, city centres and border crossings are targeting the foreign exchange demands of local residents by offering exchange rates better than financial institutions, longer service hours and immediately available foreign currency inventory.
Calling individual foreign exchange dealers and asking for a quote will help you find the best exchange rate.
Firstly, the exchange rate is time-sensitive information. The best exchange rate provider from your last deal may not offer the best exchange rate currently.
Secondly, the exchange rate is currency dependent. A foreign exchange dealer that offers the best exchange rate for United States dollars may not have the best exchange rate for Euros.
Thirdly, the actual exchange rate applied is payment restricted. For example, the exchange rate for electronic payment is much better than cash settlement, due to the cost of fraud, loss or theft.
Finally, the exchange rate also depends on inventory levels and currency trends. In cases of overstocks and downtrends, a foreign exchange dealer is more likely to offer a better exchange rate than usual to speed up sales.
Due to all the driving factors above, only calling individual foreign exchange dealers and asking for a quote can get you the best exchange rate.
Figuring out a way to find someone who needs the currency you have and has the currency you want and is willing to trade a certain amount at the current rate of the moment will find you a way to exchange currency for free.
Exchanging money at home is a better option for you.
Currency exchange is the activity of exchanging one currency for another. Foreign exchange activities happen 24/7 and variations are vast. Exchange amounts vary from hundreds to trillions. Participants range from individuals to central banks. And payment time can be days or months. These unique characteristics distinguish foreign exchange from other trading activities.
The foreign exchange industry operates in a tiered market system to ensure efficiency and profitability. Top-tier players are international banks, such as Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, HSBC, etc. They deal with second-tier money changers, like local commercial banks, credit unions and money exchange dealers. These second-tier money changers serve the general public. For small amounts of money exchange, money changers are more efficient than larger banks since their operating costs are lower.
Foreign exchange markets trade 24 hours/day, 7 days/week. The trading activities switch between different major financial hubs. For example, when the New York market opens in the morning, the Hong Kong and Tokyo markets in Asia are closed. When the New York market closes, the London market has been operating for a few hours already. Major banks have trading floors in each financial hub, so they can carry on their trade. Major financial hubs include London, New York, Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
The exchange rate of each money exchange dealer is different because each dealer sets up its own rates based on the interbank rate (wholesale rate). That is why rates are similar but different for each dealer. When second-tier dealers buy foreign currencies from top-tier banks, they add a markup on top of the interbank rate as their profit. The same idea applies to sell transactions as well. The larger the markup, the worse the rate is; the smaller the markup, the better the rate is. The following factors (but not limited to these) determine the buy or sell rate:
The interbank rate is a five-digit decimal number which is constantly changing. This number was the actual exchange rate of the last executed deal between two banks. This is why it is called the interbank rate. Every second, top-tier banks match up buyers and sellers to make deals and publish the rate for the last deal. This is why the interbank rate is always changing.
For a standard foreign exchange transaction, the amount is $100K, so the 5th digit of the decimal number represents $1. Dealers need to subscribe to this information from Reuters or Bloomberg.
These up-to-the-second rates only make sense for large-scale trading. Most second-tier money changers publish their rates every hour or even once a day. To lock in a rate, dealers have to set their locked-in rate far worse than their up-to-the-second wholesale rate. Generally speaking, the longer the locked-in period, the worse the exchange rates are.
Direct quotes and inverse quotes are two expressions of exchange rates. Direct Quote: A direct quote uses an amount of local currency to describe 1 unit of foreign currency. For example, 1 USD = 1.33567 CAD. Inverse Quote: An inverse quote uses an amount of foreign currency to describe 1 unit of local currency. For example, 1 CAD = 0.74868 USD. These two expressions are interchangeable. The formulas are: 1 / direct quote = inverse quote and 1 / inverse quote = direct quote.
For stock and real estate transactions, buyers trade with sellers, but not for foreign currency exchange. The counter-parties of money exchange are dealers who trade currencies for profit. The reason is that currencies, amounts, rates, and delivery times are all different. These customized transactions make it almost impossible to find matching counter-parties. Introducing dealers to foreign exchange solved the problem above. Dealers buy the currencies from sellers at discounted rates and sell the currencies to buyers at surplus rates. The profits keep attracting dealers to provide foreign exchange services.
There are four variations that make each transaction different from others: currencies, rates, amounts and payments.
There are 195 countries in the world, but only 180 exchangeable currencies. Most currencies are tradable, such as United States dollars and Canadian dollars. However, a few currencies have trading limits due to government restrictions, like the Chinese Yuan. Only a few currencies are restricted from trading at all—for instance, the Iranian Rial and Cuban Peso. The tradability of a currency determines how favorable the exchange rate is and the number of payment methods available. In general, free-trade currencies have very good rates and plenty of payment options. However, the cost of trading restricted currencies is much higher, and payment options are limited.
The exchange rate is calculated based on the mid-market rate (wholesale rate) plus or minus the spread (profit). The spread varies depending on particular currencies, exchange amounts and delivery time, as well as payment method. Generally speaking, rates are better for common currencies, larger trade amounts and wire payments.
Transaction amounts vary from hundreds to trillions and have a huge impact on rates. The cost of conducting a foreign exchange transaction is almost identical, but the profit is not. The profit of a $100K transaction is almost 10 times as much as a $10K trade. There is room for dealers to offer better rates to attract larger transactions. The cost of a trade is almost the same as the profit of a small amount trade, so there is no room for dealers to reduce the rates further. That is why rates for larger amount transactions are better than small amount trades.
Payments
Payments can be as simple as immediate cash or as complex as a wire transfer settlement at a predetermined date. Each type of payment is associated with different costs and timeframes to fit different scenarios. For instance, a cash payment involves a cash handling fee and a secure shipping fee. The fees above may cost up to 1% and go up with the payment amount. Due to these factors, cash payment best fits an immediate small amount spot exchange. However, a wire transfer has a higher fixed initial cost and a 2-5 day settlement timeframe. The benefit of wire payment is that the cost stays constant regardless of the amount. Wire is the best fit for large foreign exchanges.
Based on the variations above, currency exchange can be further distinguished as spot, future, forward, non-delivery forward, swap and option.
A spot exchange is for currency exchange deals that are executed at the current rate, but the payments may take up to 2 days to complete. For example, for a typical USD/CAD exchange, two parties agree to trade at the current rate, which was 1.3 at 1:00 PM on a Monday. The first payment from party A was wired to party B at 3:00 PM the same day, when the rate was 1.4. When party B received the payment from party A in the morning of the next day, which is a Tuesday, the rate had changed to 1.2. At the time party B wired payment to party A on Tuesday afternoon, the rate was 1.10. When party A finally received the payment, the rate was 1.0. All these changes during the 2 days for payment settlement after the deal do not matter.
The spot exchange accounts for 40% of total foreign exchange transactions. The trade volume of spot exchanges was 2 trillion daily in 2019. The spot exchange is also the foundation of forward, future and options, as well as swap.
A future is a contract that states the currencies, the amount, the rate and the delivery time of the exchange. There are only 4 dates available for executing a future exchange contract, on the 3rd Wednesday of March, June, September, and December.
The rate of a futures contract is calculated based on the spot rate adjusted by the difference in interest rates between the two currencies. For instance, the current rate for exchanging $10,000 of Currency A to B is 1:1. Also, the annual interest rate for Currency A is 0%, and Currency B is 2%. Based on the information above, the futures exchange rate for a 1-year contract should be 1.02:1. Holding $10,000 of Currency A for 1 year, the final amount is $10,000 ($10,000 + $0 interest). Holding Currency B for a year, the final figure is $10,200 ($10,000 + $200 interest). To ensure the final amount of Currency B one year later is $10,200, a $200 extra markup for Currency A is necessary. Otherwise, no counter-party is willing to trade. That is why when the spot rate is 1, the futures rate for a 1-year contract is 1.02, based on the interest rate of 0% for Currency A and 2% for Currency B.
Futures are tradable at a futures exchange market between the date the contract was signed and the date of delivery. Only the party who holds the futures exchange contract on the end date has the obligation to execute the contract.
A forward is a customized futures exchange contract. The amount, the rate and the delivery date are all up to the two parties involved. Since a forward exchange contract is not standard, it is not tradable at a futures market.
A non-deliverable forward is a special forward where no actual currencies are exchanged. Instead, the difference between the spot rates on the sign-up and maturity dates will be calculated. The gain or loss based on this non-delivery forward will be settled between the two parties involved.
For example, Party A would like to sign up for a 3-month non-delivery forward that exchanges $10,000 of Currency A to B at a spot rate of 1. After 3 months, the spot rate becomes 1.2. Party A does not need to actually exchange Currency A to B, but only pay the counter-party the difference of $2,000 ($10,000 x 0.2).
A swap involves two money-changing transactions paired together—same amount and rate, but the directions are opposite and the execution dates are different. In other words, two parties agree to exchange certain amounts of currencies at a negotiated rate now and exchange the currencies back at the same rate at a specified later date. This action is like Party A borrowing a certain amount of Currency B from Party B and using Currency A as collateral. The same idea applies to Party B too—borrowing Currency A from Party A and using Currency B as collateral.
All these types of exchanges above distinguish each other, but they all have the same business logic behind the scenes.
The most fundamental logic of money exchanging is that buying and selling rates are different. The difference between buying and selling generates financial gains that attract someone to act as a counter-party, buying the currency customers want to sell and selling the currency customers want to buy at the time of the customer's choice. Without the profits created by different rates, it is almost impossible to find counter-parties at the time of sale. The profits bring in professional dealers who buy the currency customers sell at the time the customer picked and the amount the customer decided. In addition, money exchangers have to hold the currency in stock, taking the risk of changing rates. Finally, money exchangers can only approximate when customers will show up, how much they will need, and what the rates will be. Profit is the critical factor that connects the buy and sell transactions together over a period of time, getting the trade done immediately and efficiently. The way the money exchanging industry innovated is called the market-maker rule, which has evolved naturally over the past hundreds of years.
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