MommC said:
Do NOT exchange CDN$$ for US$ before coming.....
You lose on exchange fees twice......
Instead bring a thousand or two for immediate expenses and change to pesos here.
What do you mean MommC?
Bring a thousand or two what? Canadian dollars?
The best rate I have ever seen for Loonies was around 15% less than the official exchange.
Some cambios pay 30% less for Loonies.
I agree that the best rates are with a credit card advance but the key is to take out enough to make the service charge a very small percentage.
I don't want to depend on my card so I take enough US$ to get me by but I usually spend around double this so I save the dollars and use the credit card for the first few days.
It costs around 2% to buy US$ and the cambios are paying around 2% less that the official exchange.
The exchange Mastercard gives is around 2% less than the OE and the service charge of $4.50 per transaction is around 1% to 1.5% depending on how much I take out.
Not much difference but either way is way better than changing Loonies.