J,

Agreed. I use Wise and it can definitely be misleading. I need to pay a fee to load funds into my account (even the same currency) and then I pay a fee/currency exchange when I need to exchange money. It’s still cheaper than major banks, but it is indeed a bit misleading.

If I need to change a small amount like $2,000 I’ll probably use Wise for convenience. But at $5K+, I’m doing Norbert’s Gambit every time.

Barry,
Very good point. I note that I found Wise to be misleading, as they show their fees at the end, not the beginning. This definitely changed the equation here. Agreed that Norbert’s Gambit appears to be approximately ~$600-650 CAD savings.

Hey J,

According to the wise website (on April 21), changing US$120,000 to $CAD would cost you US $530 and you’d get CAD $164,265.28

https://wise.com/ca/pricing/send-money?sourceAmount=120000&sourceCcy=USD&targetCcy=CAD&tab=0

However, according to XE.com, US$120,000 gets you 164,913.12.

That means when you factor in Wise’s fee and spread, there’s a difference of almost CAD $700.

https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=120000&From=USD&To=CAD

With Norbert’s Gambit, you get almost the exact rate plus $20 – $43 in trading fees so the difference is likely closer to CAD $500 – $600

That said, I’ve found the savings to be quite minimal on larger trades. In using Wealthsavvy’s guide to Norbert’s Gambit, I’ve calculated that an exchange of $120,000 USD would net just ˜$90 CAD more with Norbert’s Gambit than it would at Wise, and ˜$92 CAD more doing Norbert’s Gambit than it would at Knightsbridge. Although this is still savings (cash is cash), this seems like relatively small savings compared to what I had been expected from Norbert’s Gambit, unless I’m missing something?

2011-2017 10:20 falling to 9.90
2018-2021 9.90 rising to 10.16
2021-mid 2022 10.16 falling to 10.04
mid 2022 on 10.04 rising to 10.21

EG 10.21 this week is enough to reduce the “apparent” rate (= price of DLR / 10) from around 1.359 to about 1.331.

Marcel,

Yes, you would just to the Gambit in the reserve order. So start in your US trading account with DLR.U

Hey Catherine,

THat’s correct. A capital loss or gain could occur when you eventually settle.