Jocelyn Lamothe

Short bio

I'm a Quebec-based software developer. I built CAD2USD.ca because every time my friends, family or I needed to convert Canadian dollars to U.S. dollars — for a Florida trip, a U.S. e-commerce purchase, a contract paid in USD, or a snowbird stay — we ended up paying invisible 2–3% markups at our Canadian banks. The articles on this site are the research I wish I'd had on hand the first time I converted money in 2018.

Why I built this site

The big Canadian banks earn billions of dollars a year on the 2.5% FX markup they add to every foreign-currency credit card purchase and every CAD→USD account transfer. Most of their customers have no idea. The information needed to opt out — knowing about Norbert's Gambit, Wise, no-foreign-transaction-fee cards, USD-denominated bank accounts — exists, but it's scattered across dense brokerage threads, forum posts, and policy PDFs. CAD2USD.ca pulls that together with the math made explicit and the sources cited, in plain English and plain French.

How I research and verify

For every article :

• Exchange rates come from the Bank of Canada Valet API (bankofcanada.ca/valet/observations/FXUSDCAD/json), the official daily reference rate.
• Bank fees, credit card terms, and broker commissions are verified against the issuer's own product page within the past 14 days before publication or update.
• Regulatory facts (RAMQ residency rules, CDIC coverage, FINTRAC reporting thresholds, IRS Substantial Presence Test) come from the regulator's own current publication.
• Every dollar comparison ("you save $278 on a $10,000 transfer") is calculated from a specific dated BoC observation cited in the methodology section of the article.

The full process is documented on the Editorial Policy page.

Affiliate links and editorial independence

This site is financed by affiliate partnerships, currently primarily with Wise via Partnerize. Other Canadian financial partnerships (Knightsbridge FX, OFX, Questrade, Wealthsimple, Amex Canada) are in progress. Affiliate relationships do not influence my rankings. Cards I earn nothing on (Home Trust Preferred Visa, EQ Bank Card) are recommended where the math puts them. Cards that pay well but have weak terms get flagged or omitted. Full details on the Affiliate Disclosure page.

Contact

For corrections, story tips, or anything else : contact@cad2usd.ca or via the contact form.