Best Place with Best Rate to exchange Dollars

Can someone suggest the best place with the best rate to exchange Canadian dollars. I do not want to use an ATM when first arriving and will have a few hundred dollars to exchange. Suggestions of a place with great exchange rate and no or low fees appreciated.

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Why don%26#39;t you want to use an ATM? They are all over the place. Exchanging CN$ (or any dollars) cash is one of the worst ways to spend your money. Banks, hotels give you poor rates and charge a hefty fee..

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Well its like this - My Canadian Bank (CIBC) now charge $5.00 per transaction plus 2.5% of the total transaction based on the rate of %26quot;Bank to BanK%26quot; exchange (a dubious rate). On top of that I have to pay the fee from the ATM in Cologne. After looking at the rates that Reise Bank give rom their website (in English) and the service charges and the fees - it is now a better deal to buy my Euros here in Canada from a currency exchange (not my Bank) than at a foreign ATM or Bank in CGN. Thats why I ask about cash. I am running a spreadsheet on this so I know of what I speak. In Paris at ccopera (http://www.ccopera.com/) you get a great rate. See the Paris forum for the background on this. But the Reise Bank (at CGN airport) gives the worst rat of any Bank I have researched. Seems German Banks and Canadian Banks have somehing in common - screwing their customers.

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I stand corrected!. Unfortunately, I can%26#39;t help you with a place to get a great exchange rate. I always use ATM%26#39;s, preferably of a bank that is asociated with my bank here.

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Call CIBC, and ask to speak to their international banking department. Ask the folks in the international department who their correspondent bank is in Germany -- they%26#39;ll likely have 2 or 3.

THEN ask them what the fees are for using an ATM at those correspondent banks. You%26#39;ll most likely find at least one bank in Germany from which you%26#39;ll have no ATM fees. Incidentally, you%26#39;ll not likely have a fee from the German ATM machine -- in 10 years of traveling all over Europe, and using ATMs everywhere I go, I have yet to pay an ATM-based surcharge. (My credit union only charges me a US$1 fee for %26quot;out of network%26quot; ATM).

Keep asking -- tell them you%26#39;re going to Germany, and give them the dates. Ask them if there%26#39;s any way to have the fees waived (sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn%26#39;t, but it%26#39;s always free to ask!)

Make sure you tell your credit-card issuers AND CIBC that you%26#39;re going to be abroad, so that they don%26#39;t decline your card.

Still no help on fees? If you have any kind of a relationship with anyone in the bank, ask them about waiving the extra fees -- again, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn%26#39;t, but it doesn%26#39;t cost anything to ask.

Nobody likes to give up fees -- so sometimes you have to know who to ask, and the right way to phrase the question (Make sure you use the term %26quot;correspondent bank%26quot; -- it means you know what that relationship is called!).