The Dollar

How is everyone doing with the low dollar? Have you, or the people you know, cutback on trips or USD spending since the dollar dropped off a bit? I'm about to make my largest USD purchase ever and it's going to hurt. I started to wonder how other people are treating this dollar. I think it's just a reality for the next few years so I'm not going to hold off planned trips and purchases, but I won't be flying to Vegas for fun like I might of years ago.

 

My day to day life is the same but forget buying anything from the states

 

Sadly, in my area, all the low dollar has done is forced up margins even more on coilovers. I stand to save almost $1100 dollars if I buy coilovers from the USA...

 

hasn't effected me yet. but it may soon.
this low dollar kills buying stuff from the states and is slightly effecting our prices.

But most of all since one of the causes is the low oil prices, well regardless the oil fields are killing my line of work. Since all the out of town workers got laid off from their jobs out west in alberta, are all back home now, the work was already getting rather slow, but now the out of work list is huge. Luckily as of right now I'm on very good terms with the project director and two of the foremen at my site. I've bounced around from each site with them so all good for now.

 

I'm thinking about going Headstrong offroad. BTW There's about $200-$1100 worth of difference right now depending on where I get a quote from. Hopefully once I get all the quotes in together I can make my decision. I will definitely go to Headstrong for some of it because they've been very helpful answering my questions.

Also keep in mind I live within an hours drive of the border, which makes my costs more favorable versus someone buying from Calgary and shipping to the border or their door.

 

What coilovers ?

 

Fox 2.5's. It seems like Kings are about the same price in Canada as the USA but for some reason Foxes are not. The others I'm waiting for prices to come back from local quotes I've sent out. 4wheelparts is about $300 over on Fox 2.5's if I pick them up in Calgary. Lethbridge Toyota wants $3000 for them . My little local shop started off at $2500 but it sounds like they may come down all the way to $1500 with a lot of if's attached.

All that I'm learning is that a low dollar is throwing these prices all over the map. These places were all within a few hundred bucks during the summer. Now it's thousands on some things lol.

 

I was just going to say , it might end up being the same price in Canada by the time you factor in exchange rate , shipping , brokerage etc

 

The price of everything has gone up here. Most car and truck parts come from the states so it costs an arm n a dick to buy anything nowadays.

 

I spend at least two months in the US between Maine and Florida. The exchange rate is killing me. I am lucky that I can get cash at the straight exchange rate without a service charge through a relative. I have also gone to a Chase Bank Canada, (no affilliation) which does not charge the 2.5% service charge on US purchases. That makes for a little softer bite. At the current rate of 1.33 you still save a little. Most charge cards do charge a service fee for US transactions.
I have researched a set of side steps for my Taco and dealer prices with exchange work out to about 100 dollars more in Canada for dealer pickup.
I can get a set of after market steps with tax shipped for 494. From a Canadian supplier.

 

It makes me grumble when I watch the business report and the CAD is trading at .75 or so against the USD, but is around .65 when we actually use it.

 

What ever happened to Eastern manufacturers not being able to competing against petro dollars. Come on guys get on with it.

 

I would love to see 1 example where our local suppliers passed on the saving when we were stuck at 1.10 us for the Canadian dollar. Come on now, just 1 example. Even Amazon always want to redirect to Amazon.ca for less selection, higher price and no free shipping.
just saying.....
That is why sites like this are so informative..............thanks

 

VISA now charges $1.41 for US purchases.

 

Lame o

 

What's paypal at? I find it usually much better.

Also, if you keep USD in a separate account like some people do, BMO offers US credit cards that you can pay from your US dollar account.

Just a couple of idea's that might save a few bucks.

 

I'm not sure what PayPal is at, but it is better.

 

That's what my girlfriend and I did for our road trip through the states! Saved us a few dollars for sure and just the convience of have a U.S. Credit card while in America was great. One thing that was kind of weird ( mainly because it's huge deal here in Canada ) is the lack of fraud protection. I maybe got ask to see ID a few times and I never had to enter a pin to complete a transaction.

It didn't bother me really I just notice little things like that! All in all tho it was an epic trip,

 

At least oil is priced in USD, right!?

 

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http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-dollar-loonie-1.3391383