Can i use my canada's debit cards to purchase in U.S.?

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SaskAries

Yes you can use your debit card to pay for your purchases in an US store, but bear in mind that a lot of stores in the US do not accept debit cards, especially Canadian Debit Cards. The ones that will accept cards, they sometimes will have an extra fee on there, like $1.50(and up) and then you pay your bank for the convenience of cross border transaction(anywhere from $1.00 or more depending on your bank) and then the conversion to US dollars(that is usually around $2.5% give or take)

If you use an ATM there to draw out money you will be paying their network fee which can range from $1.50 up to $3.75(that was the highest we paid on our last US trip) as well as your bank transaction fee for cross border transactions and then approx 2.5% on your conversion to US dollars.

If at all possible get as much before you leave home converted and either carry travelers cheques or cash. Or use a credit card, for some reason they seem to give a little better rate and most stores will accept them. Depending on how long you will be down in the US for you can also attach an US account on your regular account and it can save you a lot of the fees for the cross border shopping RBC has one that takes the fee down to $1.00 per transaction and then the regular service fees for conversion and the fees that the US bank charges.

Edit: You may be asked for Photo ID at majority of the places when you use your debit card.( I have a bad habit of just carrying my debit and credit card and no id when I shop) And yes Jim B is right a lot of smaller towns do not take debit cards, some do not even take credit cards, cash only! And as Cariad stated make sure that the account is defaulted to the one you want to use, I have never ran into that, and we have been all over the US. That is a good suggestion though. Luckily it has never happened to us!

Jim B

Small town USA has yet to discover the debit card, so ask FIRST, before they ring it up..........

.Do you take DEBIT cards ???

If you get a blank stare, they probably DON"T accept them.

Jim B Toronto.,

Cariad

You can in most stores....BUT...make sure your PIN number is four characters AND your bank has your card hooked up to default to the bank account you normally spend out of. The default account thing happened to me recently on a trip to the USA, the debit machine at the store did not give me the option to choose which account I wanted to buy out of...and there I was at the till looking like an idiot.

Also keep in mind using your debit card to purchase with in the USA may cost you more per transaction. (plus the exchange rate)

arigatou gozai masu!!!

yes u can and around the world!!!

My3Boys

I've never had a problem with it. Should work just fine.

And, to second what Jim B said...very true. It's truly amazing the number of places that accept credit cards, but not debit. They look at you like you have two heads if you try to pay with it. Even gas stations.

old lady

Sure you can. You'll get hammered on the exchange rates, but the purchase will go through.

Bre

Depends on the company
with mine I can but certain fees apply.

Check with ur bank first though.

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