Canadian Dollar

[tessa]

I have heard talk on the news channels that they think our dollars could go to at par. What does everyone else think?..Will our dollar go up more for a little while ..and then drop out again ...what do you think..or could it stay up..
reason being is that we were away on vaction..and i still need to change over my american money...
Do i do it now or should i hold off ?:eek:

[girdy]

I have heard talk on the news channels that they think our dollars could go to at par. What does everyone else think?..Will our dollar go up more for a little while ..and then drop out again ...what do you think..or could it stay up..
reason being is that we were away on vaction..and i still need to change over my american money...
Do i do it now or should i hold off ?:eek:

IMO, the American empire is in relative decline, and we've just seen the start of the decline of the U.S. dollar.

But, every time you change currency, you lose a few percents, so unless you aren't going to be in the position of using U.S. currency for quite some time, I'd suggest just hanging on to it for next time. It's not a straight path up or down, and every conversion guarantees you lose some money.

[JR3282]

The dollar going to par is great for vacations and if your a big ebayer......but considering most of the industrys in SJ deal in the american market ( Refinery, Forest Industry) they trade in American Dollars....so when the canadian doallar goes up...its becomes harder for these industrys to operate.

[Flaxie]

That includes the call center jobs.
Amercian companies set up call centers here because it's cheaper to pay in Canadian dollars. If our dollar stays up, more call center jobs will be moved to other countries.

[Cartersmom]

quite frankly I was expecting this to happen a couple years ago...
Re: your question, I would say it depends on if you need the money changed in the short to medium term..if so, then you might as well exchange it now. But if you don't need the money soon, the dollar will probably drop by next year, so you could wait...it can't sustain itself long-term head to head against the US dollar unfortunatley, I think David Dodge et al (thats his name, right?) would be upping the rate at every opportunity to try to balance things out..all the big corps and import/export people are already getting out their violins and crying foul..imo they have been spoiled for e long time by the differential..i'd like to see the dollar stay steady around 90c ..so there'd be *some* advantage to Cdn industry and exporting but not so low it'd cost a fortune to trvl..
of course all the above is just IMO..no one has a crystal ball :)

[smart]

quite frankly I was expecting this to happen a couple years ago...
Re: your question, I would say it depends on if you need the money changed in the short to medium term..if so, then you might as well exchange it now. But if you don't need the money soon, the dollar will probably drop by next year, so you could wait...it can't sustain itself long-term head to head against the US dollar unfortunatley,

I think it probably can. The US economy has been mismanaged, and as an oil-producing nation, Canada's dollar is only going to get stronger in the next few years. Many analysts expect it to reach parity with the US dollar within the next few years. But true, maybe once it does, the economy will have problems, which will cause the dollar to go down again.


I think David Dodge et al (thats his name, right?) would be upping the rate at every opportunity to try to balance things out..

Actually, the rate increase will also increase the Canadian dollar's value. But they're probably going to increase it anyway, because inflation is rising.


all the big corps and import/export people are already getting out their violins and crying foul..imo they have been spoiled for e long time by the differential..i'd like to see the dollar stay steady around 90c ..so there'd be *some* advantage to Cdn industry and exporting but not so low it'd cost a fortune to trvl..
of course all the above is just IMO..no one has a crystal ball :)

I agree with you there :) I think around 90cents seems good too. Parity will probably also be bad for Atlantic Canada by making it more expensive for US tourists to visit.


Anyhow, to the original poster, I generally agree with what girdy and Cartersmom said about the practicality of exchanging. If you don't need the cash for a while, you may as well keep it in-hand for the next time you go to the US, rather than losing money on the transaction cost of conversion.