Is this true? That most US shops can't take a Canadian debit card? What happened to the Global Economy????

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...om-county.html

What's a debit card?

In Canada we don't use the Visa/MC payment system, the banks were compelled by the govt. to get together to form their own system called: "InterAC". The logic behind it was to stop Visa and MC ripping off merchants, because there was concern about that happening back then.

It is pretty antiquated, because you can't easily use it for on-line purchases (there is a way of registering but it's awkward).

However the US system is also antiquated because we now have chip + PIN and they still don't, so that causes another problem, even though an InterAC card is part of the Cirrus system. If you accept as a retailer a Canadian card and use the strip instead of the chip, then the liability falls on you, not on the bank, if the card is fraudulent. Which in the US is impossible, I think this is what the article is on about, sounds like they're getting InterAC compliant terminals.

CIBC offer a card that is an InterAC card and a Visa/MC card abroad, but really the solution is to either use a credit card or get a US bank account.

http://www.interac.ca/about.php

That worked out well...I was in a Pizza Hut last week that charged a $1.25 service charge to pay via Interac because of excessive costs the banks were laying onto the business for the service. So much for that then

My regular supermarket no longer accepts Visa as an option, they say due to the higher service charges.

Its a mess, what can I say.

I'll be keeping my US bank account. That is TOO weird!
Not having a chip or pin for my US card has rarely been a problem in the UK. The card just gets swiped. I never dreamed anything like this was in store for me...(pun intended)

A card you have to use because even when you have plenty of money you can't get a credit card. So annoying!

It took us 2 months to get a credit card when we got here - from HSBC that we bank with - crazy - they have access to our accounts - they can see what's in there!

Make sure if you are moving to Canada to have an up-to-date W-8BEN on file with the US bank saying you are covered by the US-Canada tax treaty. (If they're any good they should ask you when you put in for a change of address).

Yet another bureaucratic hassle I keep getting, oh you've sent me a 1099, it should be a 1042-S, well it wasn't my fault you can't read a W-8, blah, blah.

I suspect with US banks near Blaine they deal with this more often than most banks so they're probably more switched on to it.

Sometimes they'll actually print off the W-8BEN in front of you and tell you everything is okay and half the boxes are blank because they're idiots.

Glad its not just mine OH who had his cards refused on his recent business trip to U.S. Is it worth getting an AMEX? Or would that be useless too?

By my reckoning because Canada is 25 years behind the times it is still 1987.

Amex is a bit hit and miss in its acceptance.

If you have one in the UK its worth transfering over here as it will certainly help establish Cdn credit history, and if you have a cdn mastercard or visa, interac usage in the US is no longer a factor.

The other thing against interac is many cdn banks charge for each transaction, or else charge for monthly plans with a finite number of "free" transactions.

Charge everything to your mastercard and pay the bill and thats only one transaction, plus you get cashback or loyalty points too. I seldom use my debit card nowadays, there is no incentive to. Its worth shopping around for currency conversion rates on cards too, my Visa card has a lower rate then my usual mastercard, so I use that for mail order and US trips.

Most people with PR are able to get a mastercard secured to money left with the bank in a GIC. Even people on TWPs have reported sucess with that, although I personally had no joy with it until I was a PR.

It works for me. Where is it not accepted?

Thanks for that info, I will look into getting a MasterCard. We are on TWP but did manage to get Visa through TD withing 2 weeks of arriving. Might even see if we can upgrade the cards now as the limits are only $1000 (I realise its much better than some other people get but not enough when you are trying to buy stuff for the house)

If you've already got a Visa CC, you don't need to bother with a MasterCard as well. Up to you.

Interac works at most grocery stores I've tried in the US, and you can often get cashback which is a cheaper way of withdrawing US$. It works at some other retailers as well - I successfully used it at Ross.

My girlfriend has a CIBC Visa Debit card which is accepted pretty much everywhere in the US.

Its not a bad idea to have both, some places wont accept one or the other.