going to the BANK like an ADULT
Today was a bit of a crazy breakthrough. I've been trying literally for months to find a banking solution for my cross-border needs. I've been calling all kinds of banks and things in both countries trying to find a solution that isn't $50/mo or worse, and coming up against "No..." "Sorry..." "I don't think so..." all the time.
Today, quite accidentally, I phrased my question slightly differently in a call. The person transferred me to another person, to whom I repeated my (rephrased for a changed emphasis, but essentially the same as the one I had been asking for months) question. They started asking if I wanted a third, further altered concept. I said yes, that would serve my needs precisely. He started telling me about how his bank can do that. I listened, made an appointment.
Then with my new buzzwords gleaned from this conversation, I started searching, and quickly discovered that my own bank actually DOES do something similar that will meet my needs. I called my bank, and they set it up over the phone! Problem solved!
See, my problem is that I am trying to pay US student loans while being paid Canadian dollars living in Canada. Up until now I was looking for a solution that involved an easy or free way to transfer money from a Canadian to an American account. Even though I would preface my question ("Do you have an easier way to regularly move money to the US?") with a description of why I was doing this ("I need to pay US student loans"), NOBODY at ANY bank was hearing that, I guess.
It wasn't until I accidentally initially phrased it, not thinking it made any difference, as "needing to pay bills from the US", that it tripped some buzzword sensor, and suddenly they started talking to me about "US dollar accounts". And then I was able to Google THAT buzzword and discover that my own bank (BMO) does this (and charges less fee than the one I was talking to).
I can't be 100% sure until I actually start it going (it won't be fully functional until tomorrow), but it certainly APPEARS from what I was told that this will fully meet my needs (to pay my American bills).
I hope it does.
But it certainly is strange that all this time I was just not phrasing my question right.
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According to Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, most of the time, if whole chickens are not on sale especially, it is actually cheaper to buy a rotisserie chicken than to buy a whole chicken and cook it.
Today I put it to the test, because I was in a time jam at dinner due to needing to repair The Pipster's glasses AGAIN. The optical shop is right next to a Safeway, and I spontaneously decided to buy a rotisserie chicken.
Now I think I may not have actually broken even because I discovered that rotisserie chickens are taxed (whereas raw chickens are not) and since right now the sales tax in BC is 12% that's kind of a bit hit. It meant that my fully cooked (moist and delicious, I must say) chicken was almost exactly $10. According to The Weighted Average Retail Poultry and Egg Prices Table (I love that the internet means that I can look up the official government statistics on chicken prices on a whim), the average retail price for a whole chicken in BC is about $6/kg or $2.75/lb. That means that the average 3.5 pound bird will be about 9.62. So because of tax, the raw bird slightly comes out ahead. But then you have to factor in the price of the heating of the oven, and the seasoning, etc, so it probably still works out even.
When HST ends in April and sales tax on retail food goes back down to 5%, then rotisserie chicken really will be a lot cheaper.
And I still get to make the bones into stock. So win there.
Today, quite accidentally, I phrased my question slightly differently in a call. The person transferred me to another person, to whom I repeated my (rephrased for a changed emphasis, but essentially the same as the one I had been asking for months) question. They started asking if I wanted a third, further altered concept. I said yes, that would serve my needs precisely. He started telling me about how his bank can do that. I listened, made an appointment.
Then with my new buzzwords gleaned from this conversation, I started searching, and quickly discovered that my own bank actually DOES do something similar that will meet my needs. I called my bank, and they set it up over the phone! Problem solved!
See, my problem is that I am trying to pay US student loans while being paid Canadian dollars living in Canada. Up until now I was looking for a solution that involved an easy or free way to transfer money from a Canadian to an American account. Even though I would preface my question ("Do you have an easier way to regularly move money to the US?") with a description of why I was doing this ("I need to pay US student loans"), NOBODY at ANY bank was hearing that, I guess.
It wasn't until I accidentally initially phrased it, not thinking it made any difference, as "needing to pay bills from the US", that it tripped some buzzword sensor, and suddenly they started talking to me about "US dollar accounts". And then I was able to Google THAT buzzword and discover that my own bank (BMO) does this (and charges less fee than the one I was talking to).
I can't be 100% sure until I actually start it going (it won't be fully functional until tomorrow), but it certainly APPEARS from what I was told that this will fully meet my needs (to pay my American bills).
I hope it does.
But it certainly is strange that all this time I was just not phrasing my question right.
---
According to Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, most of the time, if whole chickens are not on sale especially, it is actually cheaper to buy a rotisserie chicken than to buy a whole chicken and cook it.
Today I put it to the test, because I was in a time jam at dinner due to needing to repair The Pipster's glasses AGAIN. The optical shop is right next to a Safeway, and I spontaneously decided to buy a rotisserie chicken.
Now I think I may not have actually broken even because I discovered that rotisserie chickens are taxed (whereas raw chickens are not) and since right now the sales tax in BC is 12% that's kind of a bit hit. It meant that my fully cooked (moist and delicious, I must say) chicken was almost exactly $10. According to The Weighted Average Retail Poultry and Egg Prices Table (I love that the internet means that I can look up the official government statistics on chicken prices on a whim), the average retail price for a whole chicken in BC is about $6/kg or $2.75/lb. That means that the average 3.5 pound bird will be about 9.62. So because of tax, the raw bird slightly comes out ahead. But then you have to factor in the price of the heating of the oven, and the seasoning, etc, so it probably still works out even.
When HST ends in April and sales tax on retail food goes back down to 5%, then rotisserie chicken really will be a lot cheaper.
And I still get to make the bones into stock. So win there.