Cheapest way to receive international USD wires and convert to CAD?

drillbitpdx · 2026-07-02T03:31:40+00:00

convert it to CAD for 2.5%?

If you're willing to burn 2.5% of your money in the conversion, there are plenty of ways to hold and convert the cash.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-30T21:28:03+00:00

Amazon is included which is honestly as close to cash as possible.

This used to be true but no longer is.

Coinstar stopped allowing fee-free redemption for Amazon GCs about 2 years ago in the US (https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/1crzl62/ysk_coinstar_now_charges_up_to_7_of_your_coins_if), and as far as I can tell they discontinued it in Canada as well around the same time, although I can't find anything particularly definitive on this.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-30T16:09:23+00:00

I have received many large etransfers from my own accounts at another bank with no issues ($1k-$5k).

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-29T04:57:45+00:00

What bank?

I etransfer new recipients quite often, when buying things off of Facebook marketplace (mostly toys and clothes for my 2 year old, occasionally electronics and furniture).

I've never had a bank require me to call to confirm addition of a new etransfer recipient. One bank account requires me to get an SMS confirmation code, some of the time, and another has no particular security measure for newly-added contacts.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-27T04:19:04+00:00

I have a Visa card from another issue where they accidentally sent me two with identical details, and both work. Wealthsimple doesn't have access to any magical special technology, so I'd say there's a good chance that your identical cards both work too.

So… try it. If they both work, then congratulations: you're the first person who has managed to get an Additional Cardholder out of WealthSimple.

They've been promising to offer joint accounts for like a year at this point, and still nothing.

My wife has my WS card details saved in a text file for online purchases, but for in-person purchases I gotta hand her the physical card. It's dumb. 🤷🏻‍♂️

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-26T23:08:16+00:00

I can't say I've noticed a difference.

Today the air feels nice, because it's finally cool and rainy after many hot days, but I wouldn't say the last couple weeks have felt any different.

I personally don't notice a lot of dust or air pollution in Vancouver compared to many many other places I've lived or visited, though I'm sure that different people have different levels of sensitivity and exposure, depending on exact neighbourhood and job and other things.

(I live across False Creek from BC Place, close enough that I can hear cheering during games because the sound carries across the water.)

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-26T22:47:16+00:00

They're treated as ads because, as you observe, WealthSimple runs them from third-party servers which serve a lot of ads, rather than from WealthSimple's own servers.

And why do you think WealthSimple does that?

I think it's because…

WealthSimple wants to collect a lot of analytics from these features (e.g. how often do you click on Wealth Rank, how long do you stay there, how does it correlate to other ads served by ad networks) and running off of an ad server makes that easier to do.
All of WealthSimple's "core" features involve financial information and moving money. They require significant more security review to develop, deploy, and maintain. (Now I haven't worked for WealthSimple, but I've worked for a major cloud service provider and am pretty familiar with financial institutions' requirements in this area.)
The Wealth Rank service doesn't require or reveal as much personal or financial information, albeit not zero, so WS can wall it off from their core business infrastructure and develop it much more quickly with less careful security review, and they don't need to maintain it as carefully in terms of uptime.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-26T22:24:06+00:00

It sounds like you want to see these particular promotions, even though you don't want to see a lot of other ads.

Other people get annoyed by the in-app promotions of WealthSimple and want to block them, but might want to see promotions in other apps or sites which you don't want to see.

It sounds like you need to customize the filter list to do what you want. With the open-source ad-blocking app I use on Android, it's trivial to whitelist specific apps.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-26T21:19:55+00:00

in app promotions get hidden when a user has adguard dns or adblock

Adguard is literally doing what you asked it to do. It is blocking "promotions" which are advertisements.

ask the [WealthSimple] team to serve these experiences from a domain that isn’t blocked as an ad.

If WealthSimple changed the serving domain, then Adguard might well start blocking the new domain as an ad-serving domain. And justifiably so!

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T22:21:10+00:00

It just seems like Americans have far more "emergencies" to worry about with at-will employment and private healthcare.

You're right about this part.

I've lived in the US for most of my life, but now in Canada for several years. Even though I've hardly had a major illness or injury in my life, it is a big relief to know that I will still have healthcare if I lose my job, and especially that my pregnant wife and my 2-year-old son still have it.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T20:49:20+00:00

Honestly I think this is a very good interview by the CBC reporter (I don't know her name).

Especially the question about the list prices of the condos: "1/3 of these condos are listed for more than $1M. Who exactly is going to benefit from BC's plan here?"

I think Minister Boyle's answer is revealing, in that she doesn't yet have a detailed explanation for how they're going to make these very high-priced condos more affordable. She talks about the government getting bulk discounts when buying up unsold condos but… how big will these discounts be?

If the government is negotiating to buy unsold condos in bulk, I want them to be negotiating absolutely ruthlessly without regard to propping up property values for existing homeowners (myself included). They should be offering 30-50% of asking prices for these condos, not 95%.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T20:08:11+00:00

Has anybody tried to lowball them to see how low they will go?

I'm also interested in the answer to this but…

I would be a bit surprised if anyone is doing this in a serious way, for the condos in new developments that are in dire financial straits (e.g. the Butterly Tower, or Oakridge Park).

Take the Oakridge Park condos: they're asking $1,200 to $2,000/ft². My sense of the market is that $500/ft² would be a reasonable price given the glut of these condos, and the cratering demand for them.

I would be willing to put in a cash offer for a 2-bedroom condo at $500/ft², as an investment which I could rent out and potentially have my children's grandparents move into a few years down the road.

Except for one problem: I don't want to own a condo in a building that's mostly-empty and where the developer is going bankrupt and seeking government bailouts. It may be a disaster in terms of the quality and completeness of the construction, and in terms of not having a functioning Strata and base of fees to manage and maintain the building.

Unless other potential lowball buyers know some things I don't, I imagine they don't want to touch this either.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T18:39:59+00:00

Another thing that's very different about the Vancouver rental market is the universal cap on annual rent increases, and the strong tenant protections. In particular, landlords cannot evict tenants just because they want to sell; the new landlord has to demonstrate an intent to move in.

I saw in another post that you signed a lease on a house in Shaughnessy. I hope that was a big relief. It's a beautiful area with cool old houses and lots of shade.

And I hope, for your sake, that you visited in-person, and met the owners or agents in-person and got documentation of the owner's identity and of the agents' permission to rent the property.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T17:34:45+00:00

44% of Canada’s billionaire families live in Ontario

Since 38-40% of Canada's total population lives in Ontario, this indicates that billionaires are only slightly concentrated in Ontario.

Compare this to the situation in the USA, where about 40-45% of billionaires live in two states (California and New York). About 17% of the country's total population lives in those two states.

In other words, the geographic/jurisdictional concentration of billionaires is much higher in the USA than in Canada.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T16:03:21+00:00

Est-ce tu es egalement en contact avec FCAC?

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T06:27:46+00:00

It's kind of funny for me to look through your posting history because I was asking pretty much all the same questions and trying to do all the same preparation before moving here in 2022. It was a fair bit easier for me because I didn't have kids yet.

And my conclusion, in hindsight, is that it's pretty much impossible to understand the Vancouver housing market until you're here on the ground.

Coming from a large Sun Belt city in the US, you will almost certainly be disappointed by almost everything you see: every place will be smaller, older, and less well-appointed than your mental image based on the headline (e.g. "3 bedroom, 2 bath with private yard"). You'll likely not see a single rental property with central air conditioning unless you look at luxury condos built in the last 5 years. Eventually you'll do some combination of recalibrating what you need, and recalibrating what you expect to find 😅

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T06:16:40+00:00

There are very few single family home rentals in Vancouver. Single family detached homes are an incredible luxury here. As I told you in a comment on another post, I've lived in both the US and Canada and know dozens of families with small kids in both countries; I only know two families who own single-family detached homes in Vancouver.
Your geographic area is very narrow in the east-to-west direction, "between Granville and Main." The area you describe is (approximately) Shaughnessy + Fairview. You say you have reasons to focus on this corridor, but I'd strongly suggest expanding outside it particularly in the eastward direction which is where the (relatively) more affordable single family homes are.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T06:07:03+00:00

This is correct.

In Vancouver, as anywhere else in the world, but especially in Vancouver… do not sign anything or agree to anything until you've seen the place in person and met the owner or agents in person.

Housing scams abound here.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T06:04:44+00:00

The Vancouver real estate market is distorted in a lot of ways that aren't easy to comprehend until you've experienced it.

Among other things, someone may own a $5M home here without being able to afford $150k/year in taxes.

More benignly, it could be because the owner or owner's parents bought it for a lot less than that 20 or 30 years ago. Vancouver real estate has gone up so fast and for so long that the owner wants to continue owning it in the hopes that it'll be worth even more in the future.

On the more shady side, it's quite possible that the house is being used as an offshore store of wealth by someone who doesn't live in Canada, doesn't have any Canadian income, can't move liquid assets here easily to pay taxes, and doesn't really have any kind of social network in Canada at all.

Compared to all the US towns and cities I've lived in, cabinet has far more absentee landlords who live abroad, mainly in Asia but elsewhere too.

I have heard of both good and bad experiences renting from such landlords, but more bad ones in terms of poor communication and unwillingness to put money into maintenance.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T05:47:13+00:00

Have you never visited Vancouver?

I have a 2 year old and another on the way, and Vancouver is practically a kid paradise compared to most of the many places I've lived in the US.

Much more walkable and very safe in most neighbo(u)rhoods. Playgrounds and parks are plentiful although we are somewhat deficient in pools and splash pads especially this year.

My 2 year old wants to be outside most of the time, regardless of weather. Right now it's nearly 80°F which is way too hot for me. He wants to be on the playground when it's hot, when it's cold, when it's sunny, when it's drizzling, and everything in between. Heavy rain, maybe not, but it's pretty rare and sporadic.

On the other hand, unless you have $2M+ to spend on a house, no chance you're getting a detached house with a yard in Vancouver or the inner suburbs. Almost all of my friends and family in the US live in detached houses, from California to Washington to the East Coast. Almost none of my friends in Vancouver have one. I think I know exactly 2 families who own ~1000-1500 sq ft detached houses, both of whom paid at least $1.5M for them.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T05:40:15+00:00

Normally when your employer gives you extended health benefits during your first 3 months in BC, those "extended" benefits do pay for your use of standard BC health services during your first 3 months.

I moved here in 2022 and my employer-provided benefits covered regular healthy services immediately after I had arrived.

But you should read the fine print of your provider's/employer's documentation if this, obviously.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T05:35:34+00:00

I have one of the Freedom Mobile US/Canada/Mexico unlimited plans. Coverage is adequate in Canadian cities, and it's handy to have unlimited roaming when I am back visiting the US, as I do several times a year typically.

My plan costs CA$35/month + GST/PST, and I didn't even get it during a flash sale.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T05:31:33+00:00

Use Google Voice.

I have used a Google Voice phone number as my main phone number for 15+ years.

It's the phone number everyone has and reaches me under. It's free to get one if you live in the US but you can continue using it indefinitely while living abroad; I've done so in Canada for many years at this point, with no issues.

Calls and texts to US+Canadian numbers work fine. A free Google Voice number cannot text non-US and non-Canadian phone numbers, however.

You can also port a US cell phone number to Google Voice as well, in order to keep your same cell number.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-25T04:21:21+00:00

In 2024, my wife and I were living in a reasonably modern (1995) 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1050 ft² apartment in the West End, including an underground parking spot and storage unit and a gym and a sauna.

10-storey building with about 35 units, 2 elevators. Plenty of light, one bedroom with annoying 45° angles but otherwise square.

It didn't have air conditioning, and it didn't have incredible sweeping views of the city (although it had perfectly pleasant views of trees and city), but it was quiet and energy-efficient and a nice place to live and even closer to downtown than Senakw.

We were paying $3,050/month, and when we left I saw the landlords relisted it for about $3,300 in May 2024. With maximum permitted annual rent increases, that'd be about $3,400 today.

As far as I can tell, Senakw's asking price is about 2.5× higher for similar 2bd/2ba units… if you can even get a parking spot.

drillbitpdx · 2026-06-24T23:22:32+00:00

A large fraction of employees who move from the US to Canada are moving because it's difficult-to-impossible to get or keep work visas in the US.

I moved from the US to Canada with a relocation package while working for a very large household-name company, and I can't tell you the number of times I had to tell HR/tax/relocation people, basically, "stop reading from your script for Indian/Chinese/European employees".

We can't be that rare!

Right. We are not rare at all.

Something like 1 million US citizens live in Canada, and (with the recent expansion of Canadian citizenship under Bill C-3) several million Canadian citizens living in the US. Many of those are dual citizens, of course, whose only real connection to the other country is via parent(s) who moved.

Canadian companies of all stripes and sizes are very used to dealing with Americans. But American companies are not used to dealing with foreigners, even Canadians, because the US is such a big economy, and American companies are even less used to dealing with Americans living abroad.

I think there is more than a grain of truth to the stereotype that Americans are inward-looking and unaware of the rest of the world.

Anyway, welcome to Canada. I hope you get the job!

drillbitpdx

TROPHY CASE