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CANADA
- COSTS, MONEY AND BANKS |
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Most basic items cost less than in
Britain and a bit more than they
do in the US; more specific
details are given below and
throughout the Guide .
Generally, if you're sticking to a
very tight budget - camping and
buying food from shops - you could
squeeze through on £15-20/US$25-30
a day. You're not going to last
long living like this, though, and
a more comfortable average daily
budget, covering a motel room, bus
travel, a museum or two and a
restaurant meal would work out at
around £40-45/US$65-75.
Naturally, once you upgrade your
accommodation, eat out two or
three times a day, and take in the
city nightlife, this figure can
easily double. Remember, too, that
recently the Canadian dollar has
been fairly weak, so if you're
coming from abroad your money may
stretch further than you thought -
though of course there are no
guarantees there.
Currency
Canadian currency is the
dollar ($), made up of 100 cents
(¢) to the dollar. Coins are
issued in 5¢ (nickel), 10¢
(dime), 25¢ (quarter), $1 and
$2 denominations: the $1 coin is
known as a "loonie"
after the bird on one face; no
one's come up with a suitable
name for the newer $2 coin -
"twoonie" has been
tried but hasn't really caught
on. Paper currency comes in $2,
$5, $10, $50, $100, $500 and
$1000 denominations. Although US
dollars are widely accepted,
it's often on a one-for-one
basis, and as the US dollar is
usually worth slightly more than
its Canadian counterpart, it
makes sense to exchange US
currency. There's no limit to
the amount of money you can take
into or out of Canada.
Credit cards, ATMs, cheques and
banks
One of the quickest and easiest
ways of obtaining money in
Canada is through an ATM
, particularly if your home bank
ATM card is on the Cirrus or
Delta networks. It's also
virtually essential to have at
least one credit card to
reserve and prepay for hotels or
car rental, where otherwise
you're likely to be asked for a
big cash deposit: Visa,
MasterCard, American Express and
Diners are widely accepted.
Credit cards can also be used to
obtain cash advances over
the counter in most banks but
there will invariably be a
minimum amount you can draw and
you'll pay credit-card rates of
interest on the cash from the
date of withdrawal. If you have
a PIN you can also obtain cash
from ATMs with your credit card.
With other credit cards, state
bank cards and ATM cards, you
should check with your bank
before leaving home.
While it's a good idea to
have some Canadian cash from the
outset, a good way to carry the
bulk of funds is in travellers'
cheques , available from
banks and building societies,
usually with a one percent
commission on the amount
ordered. (Exchange costs are
usually waived if you have a
bank-issued travel insurance
policy.) Buy cheques in
Canadian dollars and try to
take American Express or Visa
cheques, which are accepted as
cash in virtually every shop,
garage, restaurant and bar
throughout Canada. Using
travellers' cheques in this way
is a better option than trying
to cash them in a bank - a
surprising number of major banks
in Canada will not change
travellers' cheques, and when
they do you'll usually have to
pay a commission.
If you run out of money
abroad, or there is some kind of
emergency, the quickest way to
get money sent out is to
contact your bank at home and
have them wire the cash to the
nearest bank. You can do the
same thing through Thomas Cook
or American Express (free to
card holders) if there is a
branch nearby, and can also have
cash sent out through Western
Union (tel 1-800/235-0000 in
Canada; tel 0800/833833 in UK;
tel 1-800/325-6000 in US) to a
bank, post office or local agent
- a process that takes just
minutes but will be expensive.
Banking hours are
Monday to Thursday 10am to 3pm,
and until 6pm on Fridays; the
trend is increasingly to longer
hours and Saturday morning
opening. But don't rely on
finding a bank open outside
these core weekday hours. The
main nationwide banks include
the Toronto Dominion, the Royal
Bank of Canada, the National
Bank of Canada, the Bank of
Montréal and the Canadian
Western Bank.
Average costs
Canada is generally good value,
a fact which becomes evident
from the minute you wake up:
cheap Canadian breakfasts are
the stuff of legend, dishing up
coffee, bacon, eggs and toast
for around $8 or less, while
healthier snacks like soups and
salads cost from about $5.
Bus fares are
reasonable, the twelve-hour
journey from Vancouver to
Calgary, for instance, costing
about $115 one-way. Trains
cost a good deal more - around
$200 for the 24-hour trip from
Vancouver to Edmonton - but
usually much less than internal
flights, though charter
companies like Canada 3000 are
bringing prices of these flights
down: Vancouver to Calgary, an
hour's flight, will cost around
$120 excluding tax on an
early-morning or late-evening
charter.
Room rates start at
around $15 for a hostel dorm,
and about $35 for a double in
the grottier hotels. In most
parts of the country, you should
find perfectly good motel rooms
from around $45. Basic town campgrounds
are never expensive, and
provincial and national sites
start from as little as $10; in
fully serviced commercial places
it's rare to pay more than $25.
Accommodation prices are higher
from June to early September,
and throughout the more remote
areas of the north, particularly
the Yukon and NWT.
Tips and taxes
There are several hidden costs
to take into account when
travelling round Canada. Tips
and service are generally
not added to restaurant bills;
it's usual to leave fifteen
percent, even after the cheapest
meals. More importantly, though,
virtually all prices in Canada
for everything from bubblegum to
hotel rooms are quoted without
tax . This means the price
you see quoted is rarely the
price you pay, and round-figures
prices of things costing, say,
$5 or $55, end up being
ludicrous sums like $5.63 or
$59.94.
There are both national and
provincial taxes. The dreaded Goods
and Services Tax (GST) - the
equivalent of VAT in Europe - is
a nationwide seven-percent
charge levied on most goods and
services, including hotel and
restaurant bills. All provinces
except Alberta, the Yukon and
NWT levy a Provincial Sales
Tax (PST) of five to ten
percent on most goods and
services, including hotel
accommodation; only visitors to
Québec (where it's called TVQ),
Manitoba, Nova Scotia and
Newfoundland can currently apply
for a rebate - claim forms are
supplied by tourist offices (the
rebate situation changes from
time to time, and some other
provinces may start to offer
rebates to keep their visitors
sweet). A so-called Harmonized
Sales Tax (HST), a
fifteen-percent combination of
GST and PST, applies in Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, Labrador
and Newfoundland. Most provinces
also have a hotel rooms' tax
of up to ten percent. The net
result is that you can end up
paying something like seventeen
percent over the listed price
for hotel rooms in some parts of
the country.
As a small mercy, visitors
can claim a rebate of GST
on certain goods over the value
of $3.50 if they're for use
outside Canada and removed from
the country within sixty days.
More significantly, a GST rebate
is available for accommodation
expenditure over $100 during
a maximum period of one month.
Claim forms are available at
many hotels, shops and airports
or from any Canadian embassy.
Return them, with all
original receipts , to the
address given on the form.
People leaving by land to the US
can claim their rebate at
selected border duty-free shops.
The amounts can add up, so it's
worth thinking about. For more
information call 902/432-5608
(outside Canada) or tel
1-800/668-4748 (within Canada).
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