My unusual, but very healthy, +EV move last night

[Koz84]

Not sure if anyone has had a similar situation, but I was watching an American tourist in my local Australian casino play last night. He pushed out two VERY large bets last night and didn't have many chips to back it up. Of course, fate would have it that he receives a double down and splitting opportunity, however, he's out of chips! He tried to change a large wad of US dollars he had, but they weren't accepted on the felt. He had to go to a cashier, which was quite a distance away. So I took the opportunity to pull out my Aussie dollars and exchange them with his Benjamins. He agreed, and didn't even seem to care he just lost out on the exchange. He was more interested in needing to cover his $400 DD and $400 split. Luckily, he won. I went to the cashier and made 25.6% on my money, too. A win for both.

[Freightman]

Not sure if anyone has had a similar situation, but I was watching an American tourist in my local Australian casino play last night. He pushed out two VERY large bets last night and didn't have many chips to back it up. Of course, fate would have it that he receives a double down and splitting opportunity, however, he's out of chips! He tried to change a large wad of US dollars he had, but they weren't accepted on the felt. He had to go to a cashier, which was quite a distance away. So I took the opportunity to pull out my Aussie dollars and exchange them with his Benjamins. He agreed, and didn't even seem to care he just lost out on the exchange. He was more interested in needing to cover his $400 DD and $400 split. Luckily, he won. I went to the cashier and made 25.6% on my money, too. A win for both.

Notwithstanding the fact that the ploppy should have had adequate funds to cover the contingency of split and double, you did very well on the exchange. I did something similar a while back when I exchanged my CAD dollars for British pounds - dollar for pound. Lucrative.

Also, once at the cash cage, a fellow was going to exchange USD for CAD. I offered him a bonus on the casino rate, also lucrative.

These are scavenge plays, different than the norm, but can be quite lucrative. Simply need to be prepared for them when they present themselves.

[Bigdaddy]

Not sure if anyone has had a similar situation, but I was watching an American tourist in my local Australian casino play last night. He pushed out two VERY large bets last night and didn't have many chips to back it up. Of course, fate would have it that he receives a double down and splitting opportunity, however, he's out of chips! He tried to change a large wad of US dollars he had, but they weren't accepted on the felt. He had to go to a cashier, which was quite a distance away. So I took the opportunity to pull out my Aussie dollars and exchange them with his Benjamins. He agreed, and didn't even seem to care he just lost out on the exchange. He was more interested in needing to cover his $400 DD and $400 split. Luckily, he won. I went to the cashier and made 25.6% on my money, too. A win for both.

Good story - shows you why you should always take more than just your "session bankroll" to the casino. You never know what opportunities you might encounter,

[Nikky_Flash]

quick thinking man , props - (u.s. slang for "good work" )

[Nikky_Flash]

many years ago , I was at a party /club*, in the dark I noticed something on the ground that coulda been cash , but I wasn't sure , I quick -placed my foot on it , and proceeded to adjust my shoelace ...grabbing it and putting it in my pocket... later in the bathroom I saw it was a 100 dollar bill ... I was surprised to find that much ...

[Freightman]

Years ago I saw a post that casinos in Toronto (very close to the U.S. border) were giving favorable exchanges for U.S. dollars to try to get Yanks to cross the border and come up there. But I don't know if they still do that.

That would have been at a time when the Canadian dollar was worth more than the US dollar. Retail stores would and did do the same thing. Conversely, U.S. Casinos and retail outlets pulled exactly the same maneuver when the U.S. Dollar, as it is now, was worth more than CAD. Believe there were some Nevada casinos, outside if Vegas, that did something similar years back. Definitely something to take advantage of if it comes up.

[Gronbog]

Don't forget that interest on credit card cash advances begins the second you withdraw the money.

[ZenMaster_Flash]

Back in the day (1980's) Reno casinos would convert Canadian Currency to U.S. Dollars at PAR.

Most of the time you made around 20 - 25% on this swap! Extraordinary !

[DickFer]

Don't forget that interest on credit card cash advances begins the second you withdraw the money.

and there's usually an initial fee of at minimum $15. If you withdraw over a couple hundred the initial fee is a % of your cash advance(once the % of the fee exceeds the initial base fee they then use the % rather than the base fee). So you're getting dinged twice, once for the initial fee on the transaction, then you also immediately start paying interest on the amount you withdrew.

So unless you have a very high cash advance limit it wouldn't be worth it because of the fees and interest. If you have a large cash advance limit it may be worth it.
Example:
Lets say you do this with with a $300 cash advance. They charge you ~$20 for the initial fee and also charge you 5%(i have no clue what they charge but I once did a $300 cash advance and paid it back the next day and was still charged $4.00 in interest.)
So lets say you make this trip and pay back the money the next day.
You make %27 of $300 = $81
subtract the $20 fee = $61
subtract the $4.00 interest(if you pay it back the next day)= $57
subtract travel expenses $68 = -$11
add in the risk of something going wrong on the trip, (getting in an accident, getting robbed, etc) = -$?

Now lets say you do this with a $5000 cash advance with 5% initial fee and stick to the same interest that was used in the first example.
You make 27% of $5000 = $1350
subtract the 5% initial fee = $1100
subtract $66 in interest = $1034
subtract travel expenses $68 = $966
add in the risk of something going wrong on the trip, (getting in an accident, getting robbed, etc) = -$?

Scenario 1 you're losing money, Scenario 2 a person may judge this trip to be worth his time.

Also you would have to take into consideration if the casino has a limit on how much CAD they would exchange.

[Three]

I don't use ATMs. I never had. I got by fine before they existed and had no desire to be trained to need them. I warned people they would one day charge fees for not paying actual tellers. I was laughed at. Today some probably don't remember fee free ATMs. As for credit card cash advances. Again back in the fee free days you could work the system. There were even CC AP's that worked the credit system and housing market to max everything out over a few years at 0% interest the entire way and then sell the property they had been living in and pay off the credit cards with the tax free profits from the sale of their residence and start over again. Those days are gone too.

[Freightman]

H

DickFer: I don't think you have compared credit card offers recently. Because of high competition many have reduced or eliminated some of the related charges. I recently got a cash advance on my credit card and there was only a $10 initial fee. There was no additional 5% charge. I paid it back after 2 days and got charged interest but because it only accumulated for 2 days the interest was next to nothing. It's about 8 miles from Detroit to the Canadian border and I guess you could find an ATM within a few miles from there. So I think travel expenses would be less than $68. The big question is if casinos in Detroit do right now give a favorable exchange.

Paying bank fees, regardless of the promotion represents a direct assault on your bankroll. If you live close to the U.S. Canada border, regardless of which side you are on, it pays to keep an inventory of currency of your non resident country. Now if there is a promo on your resident currency - problem solved - just take some with you.

The other issue, of course, is currency declaration at customs points. For my purposes, I do not take Currency exceeding 10k CAD or USD (cumulative) when crossing into the U.S. This is to stay within declaration guidelines. If I require additional funds while in the U.S., I have a USD debit card. If I need to declare coming back, of course, I follow those guidelines.

The major Big 5 Canadian Banks have similar programs which work something like this - my personal accounts at RBC include a USD account. I also maintain a USD account at the U.S. subsiduary of RBC. When I access the RBC USA account, I can "see" all of my RBC CAD accounts, including the USD account. If necessary, I can, with a few keystrokes, transfer USD back and forth - obviously at no bank commission. I keep enough money in the U.S. side to avoid any bank fees. If you need to prove initial source of currency, pretty tough to argue with this scenario. I can also pay, with the debit card, various expenses in USD without the need of using my CAD credit card, thus avoiding the healthy percentage bump that banks take in currency conversion. I would think that major U.S. Banks likely offer a similar scenario for their account holders travelling to/from Canada.

[Freightman]

H

Paying bank fees, regardless of the promotion represents a direct assault on your bankroll. If you live close to the U.S. Canada border, regardless of which side you are on, it pays to keep an inventory of currency of your non resident country. Now if there is a promo on your resident currency - problem solved - just take some with you.

The other issue, of course, is currency declaration at customs points. For my purposes, I do not take Currency exceeding 10k CAD or USD (cumulative) when crossing into the U.S. This is to stay within declaration guidelines. If I require additional funds while in the U.S., I have a USD debit card. If I need to declare coming back, of course, I follow those guidelines.

The major Big 5 Canadian Banks have similar programs which work something like this - my personal accounts at RBC include a USD account. I also maintain a USD account at the U.S. subsiduary of RBC. When I access the RBC USA account, I can "see" all of my RBC CAD accounts, including the USD account. If necessary, I can, with a few keystrokes, transfer USD back and forth - obviously at no bank commission. I keep enough money in the U.S. side to avoid any bank fees. If you need to prove initial source of currency, pretty tough to argue with this scenario. I can also pay, with the debit card, various expenses in USD without the need of using my CAD credit card, thus avoiding the healthy percentage bump that banks take in currency conversion. I would think that major U.S. Banks likely offer a similar scenario for their account holders travelling to/from Canada.

I'm going south next week. Went to the bank today and withdrew USD from my USD account. Had I purchased USD today

Bank of Canada rate $1.00 CAD = $.7678 USD
Royal bank rate - that same $1.00 CAD would only have bought USD $.75 - approx 2.5% difference.
VISA purchases on my CAD credit card, if made today in the U.S. - USD $.75 would be exchanged to CAD at approx $.98, (bank rate) representing approx 2% on the backend, plus an additional 2.5% currency exchange fee, totally representing an approx 5% differential on the actual Bank if Canada rate. Now, based on $1.00, these numbers are nothing - put some box numbers onto this, and I think you can see where I'm going with this.

All I'm trying to get at is be careful with cross border exchange rates - esoecially financing trip bankrolls off credit cards, as some are seem to be advocating.

[ZenMaster_Flash]

Freightman,

"Bank of Canada rate $1.00 CAD = $.7678 USD
Royal bank rate - that same $1.00 CAD would only have bought USD $.75 - approx 2.5% difference."

Agreed.

A precise difference of $0.0178 (less than 2¢) at a 2.5% difference equals a rate of 97.5% X $0.7678 = $0.7486