US money orders

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Balis Edge

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Can a US money order from a Canadian postal service be redeemed without any additional charges in the United States? The reason I ask is because a recent deal I had went belly up because the seller refused my payment.

NOTE: this was not in Canadian currency, it was USD.
 
I think so,
It's been about a year ago, but I had a money order from canada and took it to my bank to cash it.
I had no problems or extra charges.

The lady at the bank did tell me good thing this is in US funds because if it was not I would have been getting robbed.
 
I'm an expatriate Canadian living in the USA. Some US banks treat Canadian money orders just like a foreign cheque even when they have the special routing numbers on them. A few years ago my daughter (who lives in Ottawa) sent me a money order from the TD bank for around $40 USD. My bank told me it would take 6-8 weeks to clear and would cost me $35 USD. I resolved the problem by changing banks. It is possible your trading partner uses one of these unenlightened banks. It is incredible but in the USA there are hundreds (if not thousands) of different banks and some of them are quite backward. And they spell cheque wrong ;). Other than that USA is a great place to live and the natives are incredibly friendly :D.
 
Thanks for the quick replies. 6-8 weeks and $35US to process a MO is absolutely ridiculous. Can't a MO be redeemed at any USPS or UPS postal outlet with no charge? My cheque was purchased from Canada Post, not a bank, and was in USD. I'm not sure where the problem lies. Some more input and replies would be a blessing. Thanks for the help.
 
I always use Postal money orders because I was once told that some U.S. banks have huge service charges for handling foreign money orders. If they are in U.S. funds.
 
My bank - Wells Fargo Bank charges 1.50 USD for MO like that.... and they deposit it immediately.

David
 
I have sent many of Canada Post's money orders to the U.S. and have never had any negative feed back."Knock on wood"
 
Just as a side note the post office will not cash foriegn money orders only domestic ones. Yet another good reason to make Canada the 51st state. :)
 
Bali... if you are going to be doing a lot of trading in the US you could open a US Chequing account with the Royal Bank. This gives you ann account is essentially a branch of the RB that works out of New York. US banks take these cheques just like a cheque from any other US bank. Other Canadian banks may have the same service.
 
Thanks you for all the help. I may just have to open a U.S. banking account with RB, that would be beneficial, but I'm not sure if the benefits would out weigh the costs because I only do a couple transaction outside of Canada per month.

Here's another one for ya, another forum member received my money order and went on holiday. I asked, in an email, if he had sent the knife before leaving. Today I received his reply that said he would be back in a month so he'd explain things then. What was so difficult about shipping the knife before he left or writing a detailed email that was more descriptive? A full month is a long wait, I'd rather have my money back and buy it when he returns. What do you guys think about this one? I've been disappointed twice in two weeks.
 
I've sent many, many US money orders to sellers down south without any complaints. I wouldn't be surprised if a bank charged some sort of service fee to process a Canadian postal money order in US funds but I gather that your local USPS office will nothing to very little to process the same MO.

Conversely, any USPS MO in US dollars sent to me has been the best form of payment. My postal office will cash it on the spot if they have the cash on hand without any service charges.

The only catch is that US folks sending payment up north MUST buy the PINK International MO at the USPS office. That's the only kind of MO that will work coming from the US.

Banks are the flaky ones. Avoid using them as each one will set their own protocols and service charges in the US.

Maybe someone can confirm if USPS charges a processing fee for cashing MO's from Canada?

Burton
 
Reviving this thread from the dead...

For the US folks:

Aside from switching banks if a Canadian MO is not accepted at your branch, what are your other options? I have a seller who has encountered this challenge and will attempt to cash it at his local USPS. I hope it works out.

Go to the branch manager; escalate it? I don't see a our postal money order in US funds to be any different than if I bought one from my bank...both would be a US funds money order.

If anyone has further experience with this, I encourage you to post a reply. :)

Cheers!
 
My bank charged me a $10 "service fee" for a Canadian Postal MO made out in US dollers. Since it was a $25 MO it was like a 40% commision. I almost had a stroke with the first person at the bank I talked to/bitched at and figured it was better just to drop it for my own health.


I was then told on another forum that the US post office would cash them with no surcharge, although I havn't personally tried it.
 
Yes, US Post Offices can cash Canadian International Postal money orders (made out in US dollars) at no charge. They probably do it because if they don't then other countries could retaliate and refuse to honor US postal money orders. I've cashed them before. However, it can be a hassle because they feed it into the money order reader and it will usually have some kind of problem - machine doesn't recognize it, thinks it's invalid, etc, etc. Today, I tried to cash one, the machine said it was invalid, the supervisor suggested the counter person call the 1-800 verification # on the back of the MO to verify it was good, but verification is apparently not available on weekends, so I got nowhere. Will try again next week.
 
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