Hey, braintrust.

[siderea@universeodon.com]

Hey, braintrust. I am a business person in the US who buys services from a company in Canada. I am thinking that to insulate myself from fluctuations in the exchange rate if the USD tanks, it would be smart to buy and hold CAD in a Canadian institution from which to pay my Canadian bills.

Additional logistical wrinkle: I am disabled and absolutely cannot travel to Canada in person.

Anybody ever done something like this and could advise me?

Trying to research this, I keep seeing breezy references to the supposed fact that some unspecified Canadian banks may be willing to open accounts for foreigners, maybe even online, but all the examples I have found (e.g. TD Bank) are expressly for people relocating to Canada, which I am not.

(Continued)

[siderea@universeodon.com]

The answer to this question ("Is there a way I as an American business person can electronically buy, hold, and spend CAD in Canada all from the US") is, as best I have been able to figure out, "The only solutions that work are maybe Wise and Revolut".

Not one bank I looked into supported doing this. TD Bank only supports people relocating from US to Canada. HSBC has a global money account but no debit card for it, leaving no way to spend the money in the account. Sony Bank (Sony has a bank!) in Japan came the closest, seemingly offering the features I needed, but then had a big red banner saying it was strictly forbidden to use such an account for business purposes.

So I am gritting my teeth, crossing my fingers, and proceeding with Wise, and will see if it actually works for this use case.

[siderea@universeodon.com]

Progress so far:

I have opened an account (not a trivial undertaking)
I have a virtual debit card for the account (Visa)
I have CAD$238.21 in the account
I have given the Canadian vendor my new Canadian debit card info

My next invoice should be dropping in about 10 days

[siderea@universeodon.com]

Houston, we have lift off!

I found the place in the vendor's UI where I can pay bills early, and I have successfully paid the Canadian vendor with Canadian dollars by means of my Wise virtual business debit card.

Since the dollar seems to be rallying, I have set an alert so it should ping me if USD gets up to 1.40 CAD. Meanwhile I need to decide how much CAD I can afford/need to buy.

[siderea@universeodon.com]

UPDATE: This has been working great. But I just told my accountant I had bought and was holding CAD for paying a Canadian vendor and her head spun around and popped off.

By which I mean she told me she had no idea how to handle this accounting wise or tax wise, and now she won't do my tax preparation until I consult with a tax attorney.

grrrrrrrrrrr.