Send money to the United States from Canada
Grey pays out in US dollars into an American bank account. Because US dollars are one of Grey's own balances, provided by Lead Bank, a payment from a dollar balance involves no conversion at all: dollars leave the balance and dollars arrive. Where a conversion is needed, the rate and the fee are shown before you confirm and the rate is fixed at that moment.
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The busiest money border Canada has, and mostly not remittance
More Canadian money crosses into the United States than into any other country, and almost none of it looks like what a money transfer page usually describes. It is a condo in Fort Lauderdale with property tax, an association fee and a hurricane insurance premium. It is a house near Phoenix that sits empty from April to November and still runs up a water bill. It is a nurse in Windsor who works in Detroit, a student at a university in Buffalo or Boston, a father in Seattle and a daughter in Vancouver, a machine shop in Cambridge paying a parts supplier in Ohio.
What connects them is that the money is usually going to an obligation rather than to a household. Obligations have dates and exact amounts. A condo association does not accept an approximation, and a supplier's invoice does not adjust itself for the rate on the day you happened to pay.
The other thing worth being precise about is what Grey does and does not hold. Grey does not hold a Canadian dollar balance at all. Your balance is in US dollars, provided by Lead Bank, in pounds or in euro. On this corridor that turns out to be an advantage rather than a limitation, because the destination currency and one of the balance currencies are the same thing.
Three steps to a dollar payout
Sign up
A Grey account is free and opens in about five minutes on your phone, verified with one valid identity document. No branch visit and nothing mailed out.
Fund
You hold the balance in US dollars, provided by Lead Bank, in pounds or in euro. Money reaches it from a client, an employer or a transfer you make yourself.
Send
Enter the recipient's US account number and routing number, check the confirmation screen, and send. From a dollar balance there is nothing to convert and no rate to agree.
What sending to the United States costs
This is where the corridor differs from every other one out of Canada. Everywhere else, the question is what the exchange rate does to the amount that lands. Here, the useful question is whether an exchange rate needs to be involved on the day at all. Dollars that reach your Grey balance can sit there as dollars until a Florida property tax bill or an American invoice falls due.
That matters because of what the alternative looks like. Converting Canadian dollars at the moment a bill lands means taking whatever rate is available that morning, on a bill you have known about for months. Holding the currency separates the decision to convert from the deadline to pay, which is the only real control anyone has over this.
How the rate works when one is needed
Sending from a US dollar balance to a US account is a straight dollar payout with no conversion step. Nothing is applied to the amount and the figure you enter is the figure that goes.
If you are converting from pounds or euro, the rate is shown on the confirmation screen and fixed the moment you confirm. It does not move while the payment is in flight and Grey does not revise it after settlement, so an invoice amount can be met precisely.
Grey set against a cross-border bank wire
Sending to an American account through TD Canada Trust, RBC, BMO, CIBC or Scotiabank means an international wire, with its flat fee charged whatever the amount and the conversion done at the bank's own retail rate. A US dollar account at a Canadian bank does not change that: the money still has to be wired across to reach a US institution. Interac e-Transfer, which handles almost every domestic payment a Canadian makes, stops at a border that is a short drive away for millions of people. Grey holds dollars as dollars and pays them into the American account, with the fee, and the rate where one applies, shown before you confirm.
What lands in the United States
US dollars, credited to the American bank account. Your recipient does not open a Grey account, download anything or collect anything in person.
American bank accounts
The payout is in US dollars to the recipient's account. You need their account number and routing number, which is what any American payment asks for.
No conversion from dollars
Sending from a US dollar balance means the amount that leaves is the amount that arrives. There is no exchange rate in the transaction at all.
GreyTag
If the person in the United States also uses Grey, send to their GreyTag. That transfer is free and instant, with no account numbers exchanged.
Filling the dollar balance
Canadian dollars do not go in. The balance is funded in the currency your money already arrives in, and on this corridor that is often dollars already.
Paid by a client
Canadians invoicing American clients can be paid straight into their Grey account details in dollars, which is the cleanest version of this whole corridor.
Paid by an employer
If you work for a company outside Canada, salary can land in your balance in the currency it is paid in and stay there until you need it.
Moved in by you
Move money in from an account you already hold in another currency, on a day you choose rather than the day a bill in the United States is due.
For anyone with recurring American costs, funding in advance is the whole strategy: the dollars are already dollars when the tax notice, the association fee or the invoice turns up.
What Canadians are actually paying for in the United States
Snowbird property
Property tax, association and condo fees, insurance and utilities on a place in Florida, Arizona or the Carolinas that is lived in for part of the year.
Cross-border work and study
Rent, tuition and living costs for people who work on one side and live on the other, or who are studying at an American university.
Family split by the border
Money between parents, adult children and siblings who ended up in different countries, sent for a reason rather than on a schedule.
Paying American suppliers
A Canadian firm settling invoices with a supplier, contractor or freelancer in the United States, in the dollars the invoice was written in.
Four patterns cover most of this corridor, and only one of them resembles sending money home.
The simplest route Grey runs from Canada
Opening a Grey account costs nothing, takes about five minutes and needs one valid identity document.
If American costs come round every year, open the account before the season rather than during it. A funded dollar balance waiting in October is worth more than a good rate found in a hurry in January.
FAQs
Is there a conversion when I send US dollars to an American account?
No. Sending from a US dollar balance is a straight dollar payout, so the amount that leaves is the amount that arrives.
Can I hold US dollars in Grey between my Florida bills?
Yes. US dollars are one of Grey's balances, provided by Lead Bank, so dollars can sit there until a property tax or association fee falls due.
Can I move Canadian dollars into Grey to pay an American property tax bill?
No. Grey holds no Canadian dollar balance, so you fund in US dollars provided by Lead Bank, pounds or euro, then pay the American account.
What details do I need for a payout to a US bank account?
The recipient's account number and routing number, which is what any American payment asks for. They need no Grey account.
Can I pay a condo association in Arizona or Florida this way?
Yes. Send dollars to the association's American bank account, and from a dollar balance the exact billed amount arrives.
Why can't I just use Interac e-Transfer to reach the United States?
Interac e-Transfer works only between Canadian accounts. The border it stops at is a short drive away, but it is still a border.
Does a US dollar account at my Canadian bank do the same job?
Not quite. Money in it still has to be wired to reach an American institution, with the wire fee and rate that come with that.
Can a Canadian business pay an American supplier with Grey?
Yes. Dollars go to the supplier's US account, and each transfer is logged with its fee, and its rate where one applied.
What if my Grey balance is in pounds or euro instead?
Then one conversion into US dollars applies. The rate and the fee are shown before you confirm, and confirming fixes the rate.
Does my daughter studying in Boston need a Grey account?
No. She needs an American bank account. The dollars arrive as an ordinary credit with nothing to collect.
Can I track a payment to the United States?
Yes. Transfers are encrypted and trackable from the moment you confirm through to settlement in the American account.
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