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By the way I just contacted TD and my current "US $ Daily Interest Chequing Account" doesn't have any monthly interest fee. So what would be the benefit of having the "TD Bank (U.S.) Convenience Checking account" then?
The USD Daily Interest account is a Canadian-based USD account. It is offered by TD Canada Trust (a Canadian bank, a subsidiary of TD Financial Group). There are no monthly fees, but each debit transaction costs US$1.25. (You can waive the transaction fees by maintaining US$1,500 in the account.)
The Convenience checking account is a U.S.-based account offered by TD Bank (a U.S. bank, and a subsidiary of TD Financial Group, but separate from TD Canada Trust).
If you have U.S. credit cards, you CANNOT pay them from a Canadian bank account (whether it's a USD account or a CAD account). TD Canada Trust used to allow you to pay U.S. bills, but they charged something like US$2.50 per bill; they have since discontinued that service. So, bottom line is, if you want to get U.S. credit cards, you need to have a U.S. domiciled bank account.
Can you have a U.S. credit card without being a resident of the U.S? That to me is the best possible scenario, because I don't remember when, but there are cases when I couldn't sign up for U.S streaming services because it required a U.S credit card.
My Dad live in the U.S. so I could always use his address to open the card if it was needed, don't know the legality of it or how would that work.
Yes, you can get U.S. credit cards without be a "resident", but you have to have a U.S. mailing address. So if your father lives in the U.S., then you won't have any issues.
Since you don't have any credit history in the U.S., you are limited to three card issuers initially, until you build up your credit history:
1) a card from TD Bank, such as the TD Cash Visa (no AF, 3% back on dining spend, 2% on gas, 1% on everything else). They use your Canadian history.
2) a card from RBC Bank, such as the Signature Black Visa. They use your Canadian history.
3) an American Express card -- Amex offers a program by which they will look at your Canadian history or your history with them specifically, and grant you credit in the U.S. based on that.
Once you have a year's worth of U.S. credit history, then you can apply for Chase cards if you'd like. I have the TD Cash Visa, the RBC Signature Black Visa, a couple of Chase cards and a handful of Amex cards. (The first two I only got to build up my U.S. credit history.)
Both TD Bank and RBC Bank can send you your card directly to your Canadian address if you'd like. For Chase and Amex, once they send you your first card to your U.S. address, I know they both are happy to send subsequent cards to your Canadian address if you so desire. That being said, all U.S. issuers (other than RBC Bank) require a U.S. address on file.
Efran one last question. What would be your approach if you want to convert 7 thousand CAD into USD? We typically just move it from our TD Canadian Checking account to our TD USD cash account.
Thanks again for all your help!
I have access to preferred rates through my Waterhouse account. So if I need to convert CAD to USD, I typically transfer it from my TD Canada Trust account to my CAD Waterhouse account, then transfer it to my USD Waterhouse account, then transfer it to my USD Daily Interest account. The whole process takes less than a minute, as you can do the transfers one after the other. (If I were to transfer directly from my chequing account to my USD Daily Interest account, I would be paying the 2.5% f/x fee, which it sounds like what you are doing... By going through Waterhouse, I'm paying much less.) After than, if I need funds in the U.S., I transfer USD from my USD Daily Interest account in Canada to my Convenience Checking account at TD Bank in the U.S.
If you have a Waterhouse (or any other discount brokerage account), another good way to convert CAD to USD (assuming you are converting large amounts, i.e., ~$10k+) is using ETFs. You can buy DLR and sell DLR.U, and you'll end up paying around 0.3% if you convert $10k, or obviously less if you convert more. Here is a link to the description of the ETFs:
http://www.horizonsetfs.com/horizons/media/pdfs/productsheets/DLR-Product-Sheet.pdf