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I need to pay rent to my landlord on or before the day I arrive in America. Right now I live in Canada, and I have the money to pay (in USD), I just do not know what the most efficient payment method is.

As far as I know, I have 4 options:

  1. Bring cash when travelling to the US, open a US bank account, and use a cheque

  2. Create a money order in Canada for USD, give that to my landlord (not guaranteed to work?)

  3. Wire the funds (will probably work, but at a high cost)

  4. Transfer through PayPal - meaning I have to exchange my USD to CAD (since I can only do transactions with my CAD bank account) and then pay through PayPal (where it will go through another exchange from CAD to US).

I am not sure if I have other options, or if there is an option I am missing. I say that a money order might not work because I've heard of complications with banks refusing money orders from Canada even though they are in USD.

Which option should I take? I feel like trying to take such a large (at least to me, it is large) amount of money across the border is potentially dangerous, but could be the best way. I am not sure.

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A USD bank draft from any of the major Canadian banks is a good solution. They clear quickly in the U.S. I use them frequently and have never had a problem depositing them in a U.S. bank account.

If you carry more than $10k across the border, even as a cheque, be sure to declare it.

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