Peter's Useful Crap

XE Trade is an online currency exchange service by the currency rate information site xe.com. It can be used for business and personal reasons, to exchange money between your own accounts or to send money to people in foreign countries and foreign currencies. This review is from the standpoint of a Canadian buying US dollars for personal use.

Why use XE Trade

The premise is that XE Trade would offer better rates and be more convenient than a bricks and mortar money changer, such as Vancouver Bullion Currency Exchange or Benny Lee & Co.

Regarding rates, this is true most of the time. I’ve seen XE Trade offer rates that are between 0.7 and 2.0 cents off the mid-rate listed on xe.com, with a tendency for the higher range on the weekend. This should be always better than everyday bank exchange rates and most of the time better than the other currency exchange specialists. There are no transaction fees.

The requirement to use XE Trade is that you have CAD and USD accounts, so that you can send XE Trade Canadian dollars and have XE Trade deposit US dollars directly into the relevant account. Of course, if you want US cash you’ll still have to go to your bank to withdraw the money after it was deposited. (And in the spirit of being obvious, if you’re paying USD expenses electronically, you don’t require the extra step of going to your bank.) Also, it takes a few days between initiating the transaction with XE Trade and having the US dollars back in your account.

You also have to provide XE Trade a lot of personal information in the sign up process, as detailed below. You do not have to provide any information to face-to-face money changers.

Therefore, for small transactions, it is arguable as to whether it is more convenient to use XE Trade and if not, whether it is worth the small savings. Higher volume and dollar amount transactions for business can more easily see the benefits!

Generally, however, XE Trade works about as well as can be expected by an online, third party currency exchange service. Each person’s needs and preferences will determine whether XE Trade is worth using.

Signing up

The signup process is straightforward and quick, although you have to provide a lot of information, comparable to the amount of information that is required when you are opening a new bank account. In addition to basic name, address, and other contact information, you have to state the reason for which you will be using the service.

You also have to provide 2 pieces of identification, including at least one of a passport and a driver’s license:

For Canadian residents, you also have to submit an electronic copy of a recent bank statement:

You then have to wait for your new account to be approved, although in my case this happened the same day.

Making a trade

At any time, you can get a current rate quote before making a trade. The rate is changes in real-time, although once you’ve started the process of making a trade, the rate is held for 40 seconds and locked in when you’ve placed the bid (before sending any money).

Before starting a trade you’ll want to set up your recipient bank account. This is quite simple, you just have to enter the bank information, account number, and transit number.

Then, you can set up the trade by entering the amount to trade, the source and destination currencies, your payment method, and the delivery method:

The delivery method can be a wire transfer or electronic funds transfer (EFT), both being free on the XE Trade end, and the latter being more likely to be free on the receiving bank end.

As for the payment method, you can choose “Wire” and then pay via your bank’s online bill payment service, selecting “Custom House Currency Exchange” as the payee and using your XE Trade account number.

Timeline

The following is the timeline that it took for me to sign up with XE Trade and complete and entire exchange:

• Day 1, morning: Registered for an account.
• Day 1, mid-afternoon: Account was activated.
• Day 2, morning: Submitted a trade and made a bill payment to send the money to XE Trade
• Day 3, morning: Informed via e-mail that XE Trade had received my Canadian dollar payment and sent the US dollar equivalent.
• Day 5, mid-day: US dollars showed up in my account, although dated Day 4, presumably due to some internal routing at the bank.

Amidst all of the reports of Air Canada‘s financial troubles and strikes, I was curious about the financial history of Canada’s other major airline, WestJet. I couldn’t find a simple chart on the history of WestJet’s profit / losses, either quarterly or yearly. Here’s a simple table and chart on WestJet’s annual net earnings history, taken from WestJet’s annual reports:

Note: earnings prior to 2010 are stated using Canadian GAAP. 2010 and later are stated using IFRS, which is now mandatory for publicly accountable companies in Canada.

Note: I do not own, nor do I plan to ever own, shares in WestJet, Air Canada, or any related company.

Choosing a cell phone plan involves a lot of factors. I get a lot of questions about whether certain wireless plans are “good”, and my answer is almost always that it depends on your usage. A so-called wireless plan comparison calculator would be nice, but would be quite complex in order to be truly accurate; after all, the Canadian government allegedly spent 1.4 million dollars coming up with such a calculator. However, 1.4 million dollars likely pales in comparison to the amount of money Canadians could be cumulative saving if they chose more suitable wireless plans.

If you’re looking for a new plan or your first plan, it is worth it as a first step to assess and estimate your cell phone usage and needs. This can be an open-ended, daunting undertaking, so here’s a checklist to help guide your decision.

General

• Do you use a predictable number of minutes, or does it vary from month to month? Consider a pay as you go plan if you’re usage is widely variable, and/or you aren’t always in town.
• Before thinking of switching cell phone companies, have you tried contacting the retentions department for your current carrier, if there is one?
• Are there any deals if you bundle multiple services (and if so, do you really need those other services)?
• Is there a family or couples or business plan that you can consider?
• How diligent can you be to monitor and/or look up your cell phone usage?
• Is your cell phone use tax deductible?
• Have you factored in HST or other taxes?
• Are you aware of all of the mobile phone companies that exist in your area? Check this Wikipedia list.

Phone usage

• Do you receive significantly more incoming calls than make outgoing calls? There are plans with unlimited incoming calls.
• Do you make the majority of your calls to a handful of numbers? There are plans like “My 5″ or “Fave 5″ that will allow unlimited calls to certain numbers you designate.
• Do you make a lot of calls during the day, in the evening, or during a specific time block? Look for a plan with unlimited evening minutes or where you can specify a time block that is unlimited.
• Do you make a lot of calls during weekdays?
• Do you make a lot of calls during weekends? Look for a plan with unlimited weekend minutes.
• Do you get billed by the minute or by the second? Does it make a large difference for you either way?
• What is the per-minute cost if you go over your allotted minutes?

Add-on services

• Does the plan include Caller ID and what is the cost?
• Does the plan include voicemail?
• Does the plan include call waiting?
• Does the plan include call forwarding?
• Does the plan include 3-way calling?

Contract

• Are you willing to be stuck in a cell phone contract? How much is the cancellation fee?
• If you have to leave a contract, could you consider transferring or selling it to someone else? There are a few websites where you can sell your plan to others.
• Is there any option to not enter into a contract?
• Divide the cost of purchasing the phone by the number of months during which you expect to realistically use the phone, and add that to the total monthly cost.
• Do unused minutes roll over?
• For prepaid services, for how long is airtime credit valid?
• Is there a monthly system access fee?
• Is there a monthly 911 fee?
• What are the payment options?
• Is there a joining bonus?

Phone

• What are the most important features that you are going to use on your phone?
• How easy is it to type on the phone?
• Do you want a flip phone?
• Do you need a smart phone and if so, for what exactly?
• Do you have any special phone needs, such as large numbers or a loud speaker?
• Do you have an existing phone you can use that is supported by the carrier?
• Can you buy a used phone?
• Are you going to travel or switch carriers and thus require a cell phone that might support multiple networks and bands?
• Can you “unlock” the phone?

Data

• Do you need data?
• How much data will you use?
• Can you easily check how much data you’ve used?
• What is the cost if you go over the data amount?
• What are you using data for?
• Are you often near a WiFi connection? Consider a phone with a WiFi connection to save on calls and data

Text messaging

• Are you a heavy user of text messages?
• Do you need to send picture messages and other multimedia type messages, and if so, are they supported and what is the cost?
• Do you ever need to text to short codes (such as to transit services), is it supported, and what is the cost?

Long distance

• What is the definition of the local calling area?
• How many minutes do you need outside of your local calling area, within Canada?
• How many minutes do you need to the US and what is the rate? Consider using Skype and/or a calling card so you pay only the local rate plus a few cents extra per minute.
• How many minutes outside of Canada and the US and what is the rate? Consider using Skype and/or a calling card so you pay only the local rate plus a few cents extra per minute.

Roaming

• How is the local calling area defined?
• How likely are you to roam outside of your local calling area and what is the cost to roam onto another network?
• Where you travel, is a WiFi connection regularly available? Consider a phone with a WiFi connection to save on calls and data
• Do you use your phone in major Canadian cities only? Look for a plan that treats all calls within a major Canadian city as a local call.
• Do you take your phone to remote areas? Check the coverage maps for the carrier.
• Do you use your phone outside of your own city and surrounding areas within Canada? To the US? Outside of North America? Consider buying a SIM card in the location you’re travelling to. Consider using Skype or other VoIP services when you’re travelling.
• Do you use data when outside of your own city? As this is often very expensive, do you *need* to use it?

Do you have any other suggestions or comments for this list? Let me know!

Local Vancouver grocery chain Choices Markets is quietly closing its Burnaby south location near Edmonds SkyTrain station as of April 1, 2012.

It had been at 6855 Station Hill Drive for about 10 years as the commercial tenant for the “Claridges” condo development just behind it. I was told by Choices Markets head office that they are sad to close the store, and that they simply won’t be renewing their lease, but that another grocery store would take its place at an unknown date. Staff at the store are similarly tight-lipped, saying only that the strata bylaw states that the tenant has to be a grocery store.

Apparently the “new landlord” (not sure who, or whether they have any relation to the condo development) told Choices Markets that they had to buy the building; otherwise they wouldn’t be able to renew their lease.

April 30, 2012 update: The new grocery store called Haben Fresh has opened at the old Choices location. It appears to have a focus on cheaper produce (rather than local and/or organic) and Chinese / related Asian foods.

A site I’m proud to work on with Mugo Web is The 49th Shelf at http://49thshelf.com.

The 49th Shelf is an online community around Canadian books. There are many Canadian book publishers with tens of thousands of interesting titles, but until now there was no site that aggregated all of these books in one place. The website was recently re-branded and re-launched with Amazon.ca as its 2012 lead sponsor (see the press release).

Some current interesting and interactive features on The 49th Shelf include:

• Book star ratings, tagging, commenting, and favouriting / bookmarking
• Contests, games, and giveaways
• Author bios, editorial reviews
• Ability to create your own list of books
• Recommended reading lists
• Extensive categorization of books
• A search engine that can be filtered by author, book publisher, and list
• Ability to share books via e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter

Plus, of course, you can simply discover new books.

I am not a particularly accomplished book reader, but I try to make semi-productive use of transit time on the train by reading. Check out my Canadian book list.

And if you just want free books, check out the giveaways page!