How to Save Money on Canadian Foreign Exchange

Doing international wire transfers to Costa from Canada can incur unnecessary expensive currency exchange charges for a multitude of reasons.  When buying Real Estate in Costa Rica you will have to change your Canadian dollars into US Dollars to be able to deposit them into the Costa Rican Escrow account for the purchase.  Please check out the information below that can help you save a great deal of money in the process.

Tips for Canadians:

– check with banking institution in advance to get rate quote and FEES prior to transfer as well as how long the money must be in account prior to transfer.

– check with banking institution if they can process transfer without being at bank in person

If you have a High Net Worth Account with Canadian Bank you may get better rate and it may not be necessary to do exchange in Canada jurisdiction.

If only have a normal Canadian bank account, then open a Canadian USD currency account that has International Wire Transfer Eligibility. Not all USA currency accounts have this feature. This account can be with another Canadian institution.

Then open a Knightsbridge Foreign Exchange account and use Knightsbridge to do Canadian currency transfer to Canadian USA account. The company can do this in one or multiple transactions directly from CDN account to USD account

For your property purchase you then transfer from your Canadian USD Account to the Costa Rican escrow account.

Here is the link to the Knightsbridge website where you will find all the information that you need to make the exchange and save money.  Many of our clients have used this service to save money changing their Canadian Dollars to US Dollars.  You will be surprised.

knightsbridgefx.com

You will see all kinds of information on the internet about financing property in Costa Rica.  Many websites tell you that they have financing options available through the National or Local banks.  I have been selling real estate in this country since 2003 and only a handful of my clients have been able to obtain a loan with a Costa Rican bank. 

It’s not that you can’t get a loan, it’s that most foreigners, after reviewing all the documents and costs, don’t take the loan.  First off, it is very difficult to qualify for a loan if you are not a permanent resident of this country.  The paperwork is mind-boggling and the banks do not operate with the efficiency that you are used to in the USA or Canada.  It can take months for an answer which is usually NO anyway.  Second, the fees are very high; usually, 3 to 5 % higher than a traditional loan in North America and the closing costs are as much as 3% of the loan, on top of the normal closing costs.

So when most buyers see these numbers, they change their minds and search for an alternate way to purchase their little piece of paradise.  One of the reasons Costa Rica is so stable, in my opinion, is because they don’t lend money.  We all know that the problem with the USA was the banks’ poor lending practices.  In the history of this country, not one single bank has ever failed.  That is an amazing statistic.  It’s because they don’t frivolously lend money, and they almost NEVER lend money to foreigners.  As a client of mine from Tallahassee says, “you gotta pay to play”.