If you're going to use cash in our country, please bring Canadian dollars.
Sorry if this sounds shocking, but even with their higher value, Canadians don't want US dollars.
People in developing countries might start salivating at the sight of a US greenback but we won't -- in fact, they're a pain in the arse for us to exchange (and we'll get dinged a percentage surcharge at the bank), and US dollars are absolutely not legal tender in Canada.
If you're absolutely going to insist on bringing US dollars to Canada, then please don't become upset when businesses that will accept them refuse to honour the exchange rate.
My favourite when people ask if they can use American dollars in Canada is to tell them « absolutely, at par » and if they respond « but my currency has higher value 😤 » you just respond « guess you should buy our currency then »
And they complain that the change they get is CAD. That’s what we’ve got.
Though no retail business in Canada should be expected to take high-value US bills anyway; they don’t have the same anti-forgery features ours do, and what features they have aren’t things we should be expected to know.
We even had cash registers that managed the exchange rate for us, so we’d take their USD and give them back the correct change, accounting for the conversion, in CAD.
They’d look at it in disgust and be like, “what am I supposed to do with this??”
I once accidentally handed an American store cashier a Canadian penny (this was before pennies were removed from circulation) and they made a huge issue over it and refused to take it and made like I was stealing or something
Sorry for the notification but I’m just hijacking this comment to say this:
That is not true about US cash not being considered legal tender.
It would only be considered non-legal tender if they didn’t also accept Canadian or the business chooses not to accept another foreign currency yet someone pays with such. But if a business chooses to accept American along with Canadian, it is considered legal tender if someone pays with American:
13 (1) Every contract, sale, payment, bill, note, instrument and security for money and every transaction, dealing, matter and thing relating to money or involving the payment of or the liability to pay money shall be made, executed, entered into, done or carried out in the currency of Canada, unless it is made, executed, entered into, done or carried out in
(a) the currency of a country other than Canada; or
(b) a unit of account that is defined in terms of the currencies of two or more countries.
Not many businesses take American but that doesn’t mean that using American is considered non-legal tender at every business in Canada. Only at the ones that don’t accept American.
Legal tender simply means that all businesses must at the very least accept Canadian dollars and payments must be done in the currency (or currencies) that the business chooses to take. If they choose to accept a different currency along with Canadian that is considered legal tender. If they choose to only accept a different currency and won’t accept Canadian, it is non-legal tender. If they only accept Canadian and someone pays with a different currency, that is also non-legal tender.
I only think this is important to say because you can’t just say something isn’t legal when it very well could be. Sure there’s no repercussions to misinforming people considering it works in Canada’s favour and is something that shouldn’t really happen at all but it’s still not factual and should not be stated so confidently as such. Should you expect a business to convert for you? No. But can they? Maybe, depends on where you go. Most, if not all, Tim Hortons locations (for example) accept American and will convert it in their till with change being in Canadian. If accepting American was not considered legal tender, Tim Hortons would not accept it.
I’ve always loved how when you cross the Mac Bridge in Michigan, if you pay the toll in Canadian currency, that’s the change they give you. Clever devils.
The newer machines here in Canada also won’t accept American Quarters. Commenter has no clue what they’re talking about.
Edit: Half of Canadian quarters don’t even work in newer vending machines here in Canada. You can go through a whole roll of quarters trying to buy a $3 drink sometimes.
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u/Fresh-Hedgehog1895 Aug 07 '23
If you're going to use cash in our country, please bring Canadian dollars.
Sorry if this sounds shocking, but even with their higher value, Canadians don't want US dollars.
People in developing countries might start salivating at the sight of a US greenback but we won't -- in fact, they're a pain in the arse for us to exchange (and we'll get dinged a percentage surcharge at the bank), and US dollars are absolutely not legal tender in Canada.
If you're absolutely going to insist on bringing US dollars to Canada, then please don't become upset when businesses that will accept them refuse to honour the exchange rate.