<p>There’s no perfect way to handle cross-border banking. Transferring funds from a US account to a Canadian account involves a wire transfer, which usually entails a substantial fee of $35 or more. Check with your bank.</p>
<p>If you open a Canadian account, you can deposit a US funds check as long as you don’t need to draw the funds for approximately 21 days. There is no, or a small charge for the conversion, but you will get the bank’s consumer currency conversion rate, which is more expensive than the wholesale bank rate. Still even with a few thousand dollars, it doesn’t add up to much. Just be sure to shop around for a good student account deal – Canadian banks tend to charge much more for all of their services. If I remember correctly, my son’s HSBC student account had no basic fees and allowed him a set number of ATM/Electronic transfers at no charge each month. But check because the deals change all the time. We got a list of all the student banking offers from the student affairs office. </p>
<p>ATMs are a good way to get funds quickly at relatively low cost, but you will be limited to just a few hundred dollars a day in most cases. We simply put money into my son’s US bank account and he withdrew them in Canadian funds at the ATM. The exchange rates are very good, however in recent years many of the card managers (VISA in particular) have added 1 to 2% fees on each conversion. Still it was simple and fast. </p>
<p>As for tuition and school fees, I understand that McGill will now allow you to pay them directly from a US account. That’s new and I have no experience with it.</p>
<p>As for banks with offices both in the US and Montreal, they are by law separate companies and at present any transfer of funds between them is handled just like any other transfer, i.e. with a wire transfer.</p>