To all the American tourists who frequent my place of work…no, we DO NOT keep American bills in our till!! What country do you think you’re in?
—disgruntled
This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2009.
No Yankee Bucks!!!
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I could see businesses doing this in a border town, but not here. That said, other than the banks around here, where else can a tourist exchange their greenbacks?
You think that’s bad…
I had Americans ask me why we were all speaking in English–instead of Canadian. Of course, these were the same people who had skis on their car racks in July.
Most places will accept US Dollars as payment, just not at the same exchange rate as the bank. However, oddly enough, some people expect that in paying with greenbacks in Canada, they’ll get greenbacks for change, which I think is what the OP is bitching about
Why the Yanks don’t understand that it’s illegal to give change in US cash, because they get it everywhere else. This is because some countries in the Caribbean use US currency as their currency, thus they get US change, then they come here (usually the first and only Canadian stop) and expect the same, only to find out that they can’t. Just wait till they get to Britain and they exchange their USD into GBP at a massive loss. Oh, I’d love to see their faces. This is only made worse by the fact that the ships themselves will tell them that USD will function for the entirety of their trip. While it will, that usually only works for the ship itself. Think it’s bad that you can’t explain why they can’t get US change for US cash? Try explaining that they can’t exchange USD for Euros or pounds directly. Due to the same law, banks have to exchange USD to CAD and then to GBP or EUR. That’s two exchanges, and the bank takes their cut twice.
PDG— some Western Union locations will do exchange, same goes for cheque cashing joints like Money Mart. The exchange rates they give aren’t like what the banks give though. They usually charge about 3-5% on top of the exchanged amount, too.
Dr. Fever should change his name to “friendly mr. banker guy”! 🙂
Thanks for the info, bud.
Anytime PK, anytime. Fighting banking ignorance one day at a time!
You used to be able to do it at the Casino as well, not sure if that’s still the case. But I remember my days working “on the water” and the ignorance of some Americans amazed me on a daily basis…
And I quote “I didn’t know there is a bridge to Europe” or “Is that Ireland?…” (referring to McNabs…)
Wow why don’t these people just use a credit card!?
Good idea, dartmouthy, but credit cards charge a conversion fee (usually about 2.5% on the converted amount) on top of the exchange rate your bank uses. In Canada, that means about 2-3% above the current market rate, but in the US, those rates span anywhere from 4% all the way up to as high as 8% (yes you read that right. I’ve had clients that told me that banks down there that charge as high as that for USD to CAD conversion) so, in layman terms, you can look to spend anywhere between 6.5% and 10.5% to exchange. This doesn’t consider your interest rate either (US bank credit cards are on average 22% APR). Cash is still the cheapest way to go, and Traveler’s Cheques are next. Credit cards and withdrawing from your bank card should be last resorts. Yanks are just used to being catered to, because there was a time that the US dollar was the “Universal Currency”. Now, that’s the Euro, especially if you’re traveling outside of North America, which I’m sure flies in the face of every cruise ship dwelling Yank.
Personal story: I was called a “theivin’ fuckin’ Canajun” (sorry, redneck doesn’t translate well to text, which is why half of them are illiterate.) by an American because I wouldn’t give him 5 cents to his dollar when the exchange rate was closer to par.
Thems sum hir rates they got goin on down thur (my lame attempt at redneck)
Of course it si up to the consumer to find a card that doesnt charge them interest for 30 days or 21 which I think is pretty standard, but still you are right some of the private banks are totally ridiculous down there! Made my day to see so many Royal Bank ATMs going up in South Florida 😉 And TD in NYC! Our banks rock, apparently… coulda fooled me.
I remember working in Mass. (on contract) and there was a charity stopping cars for money. I gave a Canadian fiver. Man did I get a weird look.
Datmouthy— Considering that the world is now looking at how we (Canada) handle banks in general, I think they do. I’d like to mention: our service fee structure in Canada is much more fair than some of the other structures out there. Considering most banks outside of Canada require minimum deposits to open accounts (the Bank Act forbids it here) and service fee structures range from maintenance fees per month close to $20 USD for the unlimited type accounts (Bank of America, Citibank) and not to mention monthly fees for savings accounts and $30 stop payment fees. I could go on, but we’ve got it good here. Especially if you consider that our banking system is the most stable in the world.
Cosmolily -shudda gave them that “I-can’t-believe-they would-even ASK” face and said “duh.. Euros..??”. THAT Would have shut the person up…
I know it’s every Canadian’s favourite pass-time to bash Americans (hey, I sometimes like it too!), but seriously, why would or should they know that much about the rest of the world, even Canada? Like it or not, the United States is the most important country in the world in terms of just about every aspect you can think of. It’s like its own little planet itself. Canada might as well be Mars for what it truly matters to most of them.
I’m sure there are some pretty ignorant Canadians who travel to different places in the world they’ve never been before and ask some dumb questions to the locals, too.
And for those of you who say “but we’re their northern neighbour, they should know more about us!”, how much do most Canadians know about OUR northern neighbour, Greenland? Do you know what currency they use, what language they speak, its capital, how many people live there, etc.?
I think a big part of the reason that many of these American tourists we get here come off as ignorant is because they happen to come from the segment of the American population that tends to be working class, uneducated, and ignorant on their relatively inexpensive cruise ships into cute little Halifax. There are even a lot of Canadians (cough*Ontarians*cough) who are quite ignorant of us here on the East Coast, too.
And if you think Americans are typically ignorant and arrogant, ever met a typical Australian? Ten times worse!
Q— hey my landlord is an Aussie. Best friggin’ guy ever. He’s definitely what you would call stereotypical too.
To your point of the cruise ships, sure, I’d say 70% of the tourists that we see have never set foot out of ButtFuckNowhere, Tennessee, and haven’t seen the inside of a classroom since grade 9. However, the other 30%, the ones who actually spend money, have been here before and are usually educated. They know better. Also, most of the ships that visit aren’t what you would call low-class.
By the way, Greenland’s capital is Nuuk, and they use the Danish Krone as they are actually more or less a colony of Denmark.
Does he wear one of those Crocodile Dundee hats and call you Bruce? Drink beer on the front porch? Yes yes, all stereotypical Aussie things, but believe me, while most of them are generally friendly, like most Americans, they also tend to be quite ignorant and especially arrogant, as well. Didn’t you know that Austraya’s bloody well the best country in the world, mate? I think one really needs to visit Australia to see this – obviously most of the ones who come up here to Canada to live in Whistler are from wealthier families and generally not your typical Australian. Your typical Australian thinks Canada is “too bloody cold, mate!”, with snow cover year-round.
As for the ignorant Americans, once again, why would or should they really need to know that much about Canada? How important are we to most of them, really? Unfortunately, we Canadians tend to have a bit of an inferiority complex here. There’s already plenty happening down there to think about… like Obama’s healthcare reforms, for example.
Good job on the Wikipedia search! If you’re a geography buff like me, though, I guess you would have already know that.
I lived and worked in Yarmouth, in retail several years ago when two boats ran daily from Maine. I’m surprised I have any hair left. In addition to the money questions, the ones that stick out in my mind the most are “can I drive around the island in time to catch my boat back in the evening?” and “We want to do supper in Cape Breton, and come back here to our hotel; is that possible?” Really? REALLY? Am I the only one to tries to at least find out a bit about where I’m traveling to BEFORE I go?
Didn’t know that the capital was Nuuk, but I did know that it was a Danish colony, thus using their cash.
I don’t know if so many travelling Amercians DO act that way anymore, Cosmolity. Of course some probably do, but from my own personal experience over the past few years travelling post 9/11, they kind of seem the opposite now. I travel alot and often take Amercian flights home to Canada to visit (Cdn airlines don’t fly off-season from where I live), so I’ve had oppportunities to meet alot of them, and from my experience, the change is so drastic that it seems like there’s been a kind of role reversal; I’ve really noticed the newfound sense of pride with Canadians that developed during the Bush era often seems to cross the line into downright smugness, whereas the shame of having Bush rule their country for so long has humbled the pride that educated, liberal Amercians once had for the US and made them seem so apologetic it’s almost shocking.
You guys DO realize that A LOT of Americans get treated like shit in Canada, right?
We’re really not so friendly, ourselves, I have to admit. I know a lot of people who have moved here from the States or went to school here and they were treated like absolute crap by a lot of people, so we don’t really have any room to talk about Americans being assholes…
I lived in Chicago for awhile so I’ve seen how it works there too. Once I went to buy a coffee after returning from Toronto. I had some Canadian pennies mixed in with American ones and inadvertently used one when I paid for my coffee. The cashier gave me back the PENNY and said they didn’t accept foreign money…a penny, yes, a penny….
I started separating out the American coins I would get back in my change….after about 3 years I had almost 20 bucks. Not a lot I know, but when I took it to the bank to convert it I came home with about $26. I guess my point is, I can see why Americans don’t want our pennies but we shouldn’t mind getting theirs in our change. Mind you, with the exchange rate today, it’s not as big a deal.
Fuck americans buy canadian cash or fuck yourself – oil rich coupon scarfing asswipe asshat