I am having surgery soon and want to pay Dr. Brassard. How did you ladies who went to him do so? I paid my downpayment via my Bank Card but they charged me over $100 plus it was confusing because they want it in CAD and I pay in USD so I dont want to over pay. Its 19kCAD but around 17K in USD so I am trying to save as much as possible.

I got bank drafts - my bank made out the draft and mailed it, which was convenient, but they did also charge additional fees. I'm not sure it's possible to get currency conversion without a fee; I do know it isn't *easy,* as I did some research at the time and couldn't find anyone willing to do it for free. I think I paid about $100 in fees for the entire effort (that is, 3 separate drafts over several months, adding up to the full amount).

I was also able to tell the bank precisely how much money in CAD Brassard wanted, and the bank did the conversion for me and told me how much US $ to hand over.

I echo Jenna, any bank should be able to give you a check made out for CAD funds.

There most likely be a bank fee for the process.

If you check with Dr Brassards office you might even be able to do a bank transfer?

Same here as Jenna and Izzy said,except my bank charged quite a bit more. I think they got me for close to $300.00

dkl : Yeah, well, that was the good news part of my experience.   It also turned out that Bank of America was the only place that did the actual currency conversion (my local bank had to work with them to get it done, in other words) and they screwed me for about $1000 with the exchange rate they offered versus the published rate. So it still ended up being friggin' expensive to get it done, but that wasn't the local bank's fault and hopefully isn't a general issue for everyone.

 Has anyone tried like AAA? They do a lot with travel?

Mrs. Izzy : AAA does in fact handle that sort of thing, but Brassard won't take anything but a "cash, certified check, or bank draft," and AAA arranges for physical cash. (Well, you can pay cash once you're there in person, but he likes to be paid a few weeks in advance! I for one was not making the long trip to Canada a month early just to hand over cash.)

I did use AAA to convert US dollars for spending money for things like Tim Horton's, though.

Just popped in my little mind about AAA.

Me living here I have 0 problems being I hold Canada funds and American funds accounts.

How about American express world services?

So not much help I guess.

Thanks girls! I guess the best thing to do is go to the bank. I have BOA, and the 1k kinda scared me lol.

When I paid him his office sent me the necessary bank transfer information. A phone call to my bank was all it took. Easy peasey.

Thanks everyone! I went to my bank, got a bank check certified and sent it in the mail. Now only confusion is CAD/USD ugh