TD Canada Trust |raygun| |pissleft| |knockout|

Cleo - you dont know anything about taxes.! All you american webmaster dont bitch about your taxes untill you have lived in denmark or sweden. I pay 60 % taxes and I'm not even making big bucks. When I do that i'll be paying about 70 % tax.

I wouldt love to live in the us with your taxes

What banks are you Canadians dealing with that give you so much grief? (edit: nevermind, I see you are using TDCanada Trust)

I use Bank of Montreal and I have no problems whatsoever.

I set up a US savings account to deposit all my US cheques into, then I transfer them all to my checking whenever I want with no charge at all.

Checks clear instantly.

And as long as I keep $5000 in my checking account at all times I have no bank charges at all every month. (The bank charges I'm saving every month would be equivalent to having the $5000 invested at around 4%.)

I know our income tax is less, being self employed I have to pay additional taxes. Actually it is mostly property taxes that are killing me. I'm in sticker shock this year over what I am going to have to come up with for the privilege of living where I do.

I guess it is all relevant.

Geez bob .. it was TD?!? I would have thought it was Commerce or Nova Scotia. They are the worst two by far.

Anyway, as a longer term solution, set yourtself up as a company (you don't have to incorporate, it can be a sole proprietorship), then take that documentation to a bank (preferably Royal, Montreal, National) and set up a US$ current account and a CDN$ current account.

While there may be a short period of time that the US cheques are held (14 to 21 days), once you have gone through the 'probation' period they will drop the hold and the cheques will be credited to your account immediately.

When you have a US$ account, you can leave the money in there as US dollars, which you can withdraw as US cash or US travellers cheques or send out a US$ cheque or money order to pay an account. When you need to, just have the bank 'buy' some US dollars from your US$ account and deposit the CDN funds in your CDN$ account.

It took me longer to write about it than it actually takes to do the transactions ... LOL. As I said, this is a longer term solution for you, once you have gotten over the hump. This will keep you in good standing with the bank, build up your credibility with them, so that they don't treat you like a pile of dog turd next time a small problem comes up.

Just my 2¢ CDN :)

BOB: I've been using Money Mart as a temporary solution for about 2 years |jester|
You forgot to mention they're scamming at LEAST an additional 4% on the exchange rate (which is terrible for us right now). Not only that, they tend to give an even WORSE exchange rate for cheques than for cash, so you often wind up paying $2 plus 8 to 10%.

So why do I still use them? Because they don't make me wait 5 weeks for the cheque to clear.

Thanks Kevin I love hearing good feedback :) Its only new and using a very basic script, I hope to write my own soon.
I saw in your location: Just below DD, well I am just above him.

b o b - you scared me...
I am away for a few days here and then see this thread....
you better NOT go anywhere... :)

your design work is super....

your design work alone should be able to bring in the big $$ for you...
those SPONSORS out there should give you a try....

one should snag you for their TEAM and keep you in steady
work....

one of the smart one's will see this and not miss the opportunity...

~Bell

Thank you Bell! Words like that help me realize I can overcome this banking issue.