On May 26th, while buying $77 US product through Clickbank, the total amount of the purchase showed up as $90.07 in Canadian dollars (as shown in the screenshot below).

I then checked Oanda for the correct exchange rates from US to Canadian dollars and discovered that the factor was 1.12404, or $77 US equalled $86.59882 Canadian (see screenshot below).

That’s a difference of $3.47 – completed wasted!

Well, it would have been completely wasted if I had chosen to use a Canadian dollar credit card – but because I do business in US dollars all the time, I use a US dollar credit card for such purchases.

Using a US dollar credit card to pay for US dollar purchases also allows me to save whatever exhorbitant exchange rates the bank decides to charge on their credit cards – which are also always significantly higher than the actual exchange rates.

Last but not least, I earn affiliate commissions in US dollars which are deposited into a US dollar bank account here in Canada, from which I pay my US dollar credit card bills – and therefore incur no exchange rate losses at all from that setup.

So, if you’re doing business as an affiliate marketer here in Canada and earning US dollar commissions, get a US dollar bank account and a US dollar credit card and save some money!