Most of us Canadians deal with the United States and get paid with US Dollars. Many Canadians receive payments to their PayPal account in USD, and are forced, when transferring the money from PayPal to their bank account, to exchange the money first to Canadian Dollars through PayPal (PayPal does not officially support USD accounts in Canada, but some people claim that they were able to accept US funds into their RBC USD accounts). The problem with this is that us Canadians who have many expenses in USD, are forced to exchange the money back to USD. But that’s another issue…

Now, the question is, does PayPal exchange the money for the same exchange rate that you see on Google finance? Unfortunately, no, they add 150 to 200 points (1.5 to 2 cents) to the current exchange rate you see on Google.

So, when do they add 150 points and when do they add 200 points?

Well, they add 150 points between 10:00 AM EST and 4:00 PM EST on business days. If you try to transfer money in the after hours or during weekends or holidays (US or Canadian holidays), then you are hit with 200 points (2 cents) above the base exchange rate. For example, if you have a $1,000 US in your account, and you want to transfer it to your Canadian account, and if the USD/CAD rate is at 1.07, then expect to see CAD $1,055 in your account if you do it during working hours, and CAD $1,050 in your account if you do the transfer during off hours, weekends, or holidays. So, if you’re frugal, make sure that you push money from PayPal to your bank account during business hours (in the US and Canada).

I hope my little post has saved someone, somewhere some money!

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