Best No Fee USD Credit Card?

2 great no-annual-fee credit cards I have are:

• AMEX Blue Cash
• Chase Amazon Visa

We earned over $500 in cash back from AMEX in 2 years, and $125 in Amazon GCs in a year without having to pay any fees or finance charges.

After some research on google, I found from this site that BMO is probably the only one in Canada to offer a NO FEE USD credit card.

It's almost like it's a secret because I can't find a link anywhere on BMO website. I just signed up for one.

APPLICATION FORM

I have a BMO US$ Mastercard and I like it. No annual fees.

Why do you want a US$ card rather than just using your Canadian cards? Is it because of the exchange fee charged? In the past, I have concluded that the exchange rate given by my CIBC VISA card is better than I get if I send a Canadian$ check to pay my credit card, so it is simplest just to use the Canadian card.

I'm interested to know your rationale?

Also, how do you pay the credit card bills, with a Canadian$ check?

Thanks,
Terry

Simple answer: we have USD to spend so we want to avoid exchanging more CAD to buy USD stuff online such as on ebay.

To pay for USD credit card, you will need a USD dollar chequing account.

Why bother with a USD chequing account? There are countless reasons. To transfer to USD brokerage account (buy US stocks). Exchange rate is better when exchanging larger sum of money. Take out USD from bank machines. CIBC has this.

Terry said:

Why do you want a US$ card rather than just using your Canadian cards? Is it because of the exchange fee charged? In the past, I have concluded that the exchange rate given by my CIBC VISA card is better than I get if I send a Canadian$ check to pay my credit card, so it is simplest just to use the Canadian card.

I'm interested to know your rationale?

Also, how do you pay the credit card bills, with a Canadian$ check?

Thanks,
Terry

Click to expand...

USD Mastercard for Canadians

Hiya, thanks for the link to my US$ Credit Card for Canadians article.

I just wanted to chime in with another advantage of a US$ card:
If you purchase an item in US$ with your CAD$ Credit card and then return the item, they still charge you the currency exchange commissions, perhaps even both ways.

With the US$ Credit card, since the purchase and refund are in the same currency, you're no worse off than where you started when you do a return/refund.

If you qualify for free TD Select Service, their US$ TD Visa annual fee is waived, and you get a free US$ Account with preferred exchange rates, but you need to keep $5k in your account at all times to get the fees waived. Alas, I don't have the free TD Select Service account

PS: Nice site, I'll be sure to post here

DMat said:

Hiya, thanks for the link to my US$ Credit Card for Canadians article.

I just wanted to chime in with another advantage of a US$ card:
If you purchase an item in US$ with your CAD$ Credit card and then return the item, they still charge you the currency exchange commissions, perhaps even both ways.

With the US$ Credit card, since the purchase and refund are in the same currency, you're no worse off than where you started when you do a return/refund.

If you qualify for free TD Select Service, their US$ TD Visa annual fee is waived, and you get a free US$ Account with preferred exchange rates, but you need to keep $5k in your account at all times to get the fees waived. Alas, I don't have the free TD Select Service account

PS: Nice site, I'll be sure to post here

Click to expand...

Add in a free account from TD Banknorth and you're set.

Credit Forum

I have an emergency situation where i need to get $1000 fast for my car to
be repaired. I need the money fast but I still want to not get screwed over.
My friend suggested an online site that he used before called
instantbailoutdotcom I looked it over and it looks ok, but I am not sure
what is a reasonable rate for a payday loan. Is there a standard for this
type of loan? Also does a payday loan effect your credit?

USD credit card

A US credit card is useful if travelling to the States as well. I believe that if you use your Canadian credit card, they charge 2.5% and then they do the conversion rates after that. If you simply have a USD card that you can use (as people above have mentioned where you can get them), then you don't get charged that extra 2.5%.

Dauphin

PS. Correct me if I'm wrong?

Terry said:

Why do you want a US$ card rather than just using your Canadian cards? Is it because of the exchange fee charged? In the past, I have concluded that the exchange rate given by my CIBC VISA card is better than I get if I send a Canadian$ check to pay my credit card, so it is simplest just to use the Canadian card.

I'm interested to know your rationale?

Also, how do you pay the credit card bills, with a Canadian$ check?

Thanks,
Terry

Click to expand...

RBC centure used to offer USD visa to Canadian, no fee, 1% back , not sure if they are still doing this now . I was even offered a USD LOC from them but the rate was pretty lame ( US prime + 4 ) back to the crazy housing boom days in 2004-2005 ...

amex blue cash is always good

Yes I found also that there are literally no options for Canadians that want a Canadian-based US Dollar Credit card for no fee, except for the TD Select Service one, which has its US$ Visa fee waived if you keep $5000 in the account.