Canadian Credit Card vs U.S dollar credit card

[apkking]

Planning for a trip to Maui, Hawaii in the last week of April. Just wondering if its worth to get a U.S dollar credit card (39 USD /annually ) to spend it over there.

If i use my Canadian credit cards then i will be paying 2.5% as a conversion fees. Or is it good idea to withdraw money from ATM and use cash. but still there is fees for every transaction.

so there is fees with every option. but just wondering if we can save few dollars in the fees, if i get a us dollar credit card.

I used my debit card once in Dubai, where they charged a lot for the transaction fees.

Thanks for your inputs and suggestions.

[Strider]

There's a few Canadian no-forex fee cards available - a couple no-fee ones from smaller issuers (home trust, brim financial)
or this one from Scotiabank http://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/pers...nite-card.html which has a pretty high annual fee, but the signup bonus more than makes up for it and you get a few lounge passes.

[ExtraSlow]

Doubt you'd be ahead after the fee, but even if you are, I don't think it's a good idea. For a week away, I don't think you are making your life better by getting an additional credit card. Simplicity is valuable man.

[taemo]

you're not going to break even unless you spend more than ~1500$.

if you travel quite a bit then get a Canadian CC with no forex fee

[RX_EVOLV]

We are heading to Hawaii too end of April! Oahu though.

We have a USD credit card that we use almost exclusively for US travels. Mine is from BMO and doesn't haven any annual fees, but I've had it for quite some time now (>12 years) and the new ones I think might actually require an annual fee. The catch is it also has no rewards (cash back, points, etc.)

When we travel to the States we would charge everything we can to the CC (or pay with cash), then once we are back in Calgary we would ask our friends who work at the bank to get us USD with their staff rates. At the end of the day we probably save ~5% this way. Do you know anyone that works at the bank and can get you $USD?

Otherwise I do agree with the other guys here, if you only go to the States once a year or less, it's probably not worth the hassle to get a US CC and pay the annual fees. We go ~ 3-4 trips a year and we have the bank connection so it's definitly worth it for us.

[sabad66]

No-fee cards with no forex fees are great to have especially in a scenario like this. Pull out a few hundred USD in cash just to have, but besides that use your forex credit card everywhere you can. It will be a a rate close to the spot rate, and your bill will be in Canadian $.

3 that i know of:
- rogers and fido mastercard
- home trust
- Brim

You mentioned end of april so it's going to be pretty tight to get a card in time... i know the home trust applications are extremely delayed, and brim i'm not sure is even available yet. When i applied for the Rogers card last November it was pretty quick so that may be your best option at this point. I would suggest going into a Rogers or Fido store and applying in-store - that way they can do the ID verification instantly and get your application in fastest.

[holden]

If you had more time I would recommend getting a no forex credit card. The new Rogers World Elite MC will actually give you net 1.5% of all foreign currency purchases (4% cash back on foreign purchases - 2.5% currency conversion fee, no annual fee). Due to the closure of the Chase Amazon Visa I think a lot of these cards are getting flooded with applications so it might take a while to get one.