I use PayPal to receive payment from sponsors on this website and small coding projects for clients. Almost all the payments are received in US dollars but transferring funds into your Canadian-based US dollar account from PayPal is not easy. Exchanging US funds into Canadian dollars in PayPal is not ideal because PayPal charges a steep currency conversion fee of 2.5%. If you have a RBC US Dollar account, here’s how you can transfer US dollar funds from your PayPal account into your chequing account (it took me a few iterations to get it right):
- Log into PayPal and click on My Account, then Withdraw followed by Transfer funds to your bank account. In the Withdraw Funds by Electronic Transfer page click on Add Bank Account.
- In the Add a Bank Account page, select “United States” as Country and type in “Royal Bank of Canada” as the Bank Name.
- Enter the 9-digit routing number exactly as suggested by the graphic. Royal Bank’s routing number is “026004093″.
- Since the trick is to get the account number correct, ignore the example suggested by the graphic. Instead, enter the five-digit transit number of your account followed by your actual account number. You can also get the exact sequence of numbers (transit number followed by account number) from your monthly statement or online.
- Re-enter the account number and click Continue. Wait for PayPal to make two small deposits into your bank account and then confirm that you have added the bank account successfully in PayPal by entering how much was deposited.
- Once confirmed, your US-dollar account will show up in the To field in the Withdraw Funds page and you should be able to transfer funds in US dollars into your USD chequing account.
I am not sure if this method would work for US dollar accounts held at other financial institutions. If you’ve successfully transferred US dollar funds to and from PayPal, I would love to hear from you.
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46 responses so far ↓
1 telly // Aug 23, 2007 at 9:45 am
I get payments through paypal in $US a fari bit as well. I’ve been using my TD Banknorth account and then I transfer to my TD Canadian $ account. I haven’t any problems to date.
The best part is that the money gets to me much quicker than a transfer to a Canadian bank (and the fees are significantly lower).
2 telly // Aug 23, 2007 at 9:45 am
I get payments through paypal in $US a farir bit as well. I’ve been using my TD Banknorth account and then I transfer to my TD Canadian $ account. I haven’t any problems to date.
The best part is that the money gets to me much quicker than a transfer to a Canadian bank (and the fees are significantly lower).
3 telly // Aug 23, 2007 at 9:50 am
Sorry for the double post. I tried to fix “fair” and made it worse.
4 Jon D. // Aug 23, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Apparently it only works on withdrawals from PP to RBC accounts, and not deposits. There’s a few forums sites around online that detail the challenges in getting US Funds in and out of PayPal without have to accept their ridiculous exchange rates.
5 Canadian Capitalist // Aug 23, 2007 at 11:13 pm
Jon: Thanks for the clarification. I wish I had found the forum sites. I took me a while to figure out how to get money out and PayPal customer support is next to useless.
6 Average Joe // Aug 23, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Jon,
Can you point me towards some of these forums?
Thanks
7 Average Joe // Aug 23, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Hey CC,
Do you have the RBC Centura account or the US Personal account?
Or are they one in the same?
8 telly // Aug 24, 2007 at 9:15 am
I just tried making a deposit from my TD Banknorth account the PP. I’ll let you know how it works out.
9 Brew99 // Aug 24, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Average Joe,
The RBC Centura account is essentially a US account, at a US bank (although it’s affiliated with RBC). The Centura account is a US account, while the US Personal account from RBC is just a Canadian account in US funds. With the Centura account, you can make bill payments to US institutions, but you won’t be able to do that with the Personal account.
I hope that helped. I use both of these!
10 Jerry Hung // Aug 25, 2007 at 7:48 am
TD has stopped offering “true” US accounts (aka Banknorth), so all you get is USD account, held in canadian TD Bank
RBC Centura is true US account yes, and I believe you can get one from HSBC as well
I don’t have that much USD in my PP, if I do, I can either just buy stuff from eBay in USD, or find people to exchange it, or worst case let PP exchange it (2.5% is pretty minor UNLESS you have LOTS of USD)
11 Andy Paulson // Aug 26, 2007 at 1:14 am
I don’t know for sure it this would work, but this is my idea
If you have US funds in paypal, transfer it to a US bank account, then transfer that to alartpay.com (i have used them in the past) then convert it to CAD (in alertpay FAQ look up Multi Currency on how to enable it), then transfer the CAD to your canadian bank account.
so it would be like this
USD Paypal > USD bank > alertpay > CAD bank
now for fees, there current USD to CAD exchange rate is
1 USD= $1.0257 CAD
$1.00 CAD = $0.92 USD
and everytime you tranfer your dollars from your USD bank to alartpay it will cost you 0.50 USD .
12 telly // Aug 27, 2007 at 9:56 am
I had no problems depositing to Paypal or transferring from Paypal to my TD Banknorth account.
I wasn’t aware that TD was no longer offering TD Banknorth accounts. Although I don’t see why one couldn’t open an account with TD Banknorth anyway.
13 Philip S // Sep 10, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Thanks so much for this post. I finally got the rest of my money out of Paypal. Too bad it was a little late for my last $750 withdrawl…I only got 1.04 on the exchange to my PC account.
Keep up the great work CC.
14 Charles // Sep 14, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Question: Have you attempted to shuttle US dollars back *in* to Paypal at all? I’m wondering if anyone’s done this successfully with an RBC US dollar account.
15 Canadian Capitalist // Sep 16, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Charles: Jon has earlier commented that this method would work only for withdrawals and not for deposits into your PayPal account.
16 Sharjeel // Nov 29, 2007 at 11:49 am
I would like to know what would be an easy way to transfer USD funds from a foreign country (ex. Saudi Arabia) into a Canadian bank account? Easy and cheap…? I’m planning on receiving USD funds in Canada from an account in Saudi Arabia and I would like to know where should I open an account in which the transfer fees won’t be significant compared to other banks.
Thanks!
Sharjeel
17 Bryce // Nov 29, 2007 at 1:00 pm
So Sharjeel did you win an internet lottery or are you helping out some deposed royalty?
18 Arthur // Dec 12, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Great advice. Worked beautifully. thank you.
-Arthur
19 Vince // Jan 11, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Can anyone tell me how to get the proper routing information of my RBC USD cheques? I’ve tried a couple of times to get the information into PayPal properly, but to no avail.
20 Golem // Mar 10, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Yes, I’ve been having the same problem. Any ideas regarding getting the correct RBC USD info into PayPal? I’ve tried everything I can think of at this point.
21 Canadian Capitalist // Mar 11, 2008 at 7:28 am
Vince: The routing # of RBC is 026004093 as noted in the post.
Golem: Not sure where you are getting stuck. Can you post more information?
22 Jeremy // Apr 8, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I’m looking to do this as well - I tried to open up an account with M&T Bank, but when Paypal tried to do the deposits, they were rejected for some reason.
HSBC wasn’t able to open up a business account for me in the states, but a personal one might have worked - I haven’t tried it yet.
Those of you with TD Bank North accounts - did you have to physically be in the states to open the account?
23 Gesha // Apr 15, 2008 at 4:34 am
Give me please, reference to the site, where it is possible to exchange Alertpay on Paypal or on anything other?
24 Chris Perabo // May 8, 2008 at 6:32 am
Hi Canadian Capitalist,
Great blog site. As you can imagine, I’ve been looking all over for a US Routing Number for a Canadian RBC Account in USD$.
If it is indeed 026004093 then you are a hero! However, I ran a few Google checks, and I keep seeing conflicting information on this topic.
Is there an “official site” you can refer readers to that confirms the RBC Canada Routing Number is 026004093?
25 Canadian Capitalist // May 8, 2008 at 7:47 am
Chris: I believe the routing number is correct. I’ve followed this recipe twice for my PayPal accounts and it worked both times. If you want to confirm, look at your cheque book - the first 9 numbers should be the routing number in the cheques.
26 Chris Perabo // May 11, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Hi again,
I checked with a RBC Canada customer service and this is the email I received. It seems the correct is 021000021. I will check myself with PayPal and report back. In the meantime, I hope this help others.
*****Original Email*****
Hello Chris,
Its Natasha again, I want to clarify, the 026004093 routing number is only used on cheques, and is for our use only. Clients do not use this number for processing of items. If you are wiring money to RBC Royal Bank, please use 021000021.
Thanks for contacting us. We’ll be happy to help you again if there’s anything else you want to discuss.
Sincerely,
Natasha Keith
Customer Service Representative
Royal Bank of Canada
***************************
Chris
27 Chris L // May 16, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I signed up with RBC yesterday at my local branch for a personal USD account (Not Centura!).
When I got home I logged in and found the info I needed to set up the transfer from PayPal -> RBC as the original blog post specified. PayPal initiated the deposit process.
As of just right now, the funds reached my RBC account safely. Just over 24h after I opened the account to begin with!
So, in a nutshell, it works just fine. Just follow the original blog post.
28 Boris // May 21, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Original blog post worked great. I transferred from a Paypal business to RBC personal account.
Thank you x 10!
29 Chris Perabo // May 23, 2008 at 4:32 pm
I’m back. I had to go through a lot of trial and error, but essentially, the blog as written is correct.
Where I had a hard time was that I was going from a personal PayPal account to a business bank account. Note that the NAME on the PayPal account must match the RBC account or it will not work.
The correct routing number (despite what RBC employees say) is 026004093. I had to subscribe to a business PayPal account, register my company name, and then I could deposit (and withdraw) from my USD$ RBC Account.
Thanks again for the tip!
Chris
30 shannon // Jun 4, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Thank you very much for the advice.
As a fact ,I tried to connect my paypal with My TD Canada Trust US collar account fist,my US dollar accout is BORDERLESS PLAN ,I aksed the TD bank clerk to confirm for me that I can connect my paypal to the US dollar account,the clerk say YES,after then, I tried many times,It doesn’t work,No small amout deposit.
So I open a US dollar account from RBC ,It does work ,and very efficiently ,Just follow the blog instruction,I am so excited, I save almost $300 every month,Thank you!!!!!!!!!!
31 Canadian Capitalist // Jun 4, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Chris, Shannon, Boris, Chris L: Thanks for your note that transferring USD from PayPal works as outlined in the post.
32 Andy Paulson // Jun 18, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Gesha, you cant transfer from paypal to alertpay directly, you have to transfer paypal to usa bank, then deposit money to alertpay from usa bank, then once the money is in alertpay, then you transfer to a canada bank. Look at my post, I explained it, there are exchange fees however.
33 Frogblender // Aug 6, 2008 at 11:14 am
Chris Perabo… thanks for your info. Are you using the RBC “U.S. Business Deposit Account” ? Found here: http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/RBC:SJm@Uo71JsUAFWAGn1U/business/services/bus_deposit.html
34 Frogblender // Aug 14, 2008 at 7:20 am
THIS WORKS! Finally! (Today is Aug, 2008)
I used an RBC “U.S Business Deposit Account”. I got this account by filling out the forms, and taking them to the local branch. Here are the forms:
http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/RBC:SJm@Uo71JsUAFWAGn1U/business/services/how_to_open_account.html
The branch set up the account on the spot. Then I followed Chris’ instructions, and 1.5 days later, in popped the two paypal amounts.
35 Frogblender // Aug 14, 2008 at 7:29 am
IMPORTANT: Paypal has decreased the premium charged on currency conversions. It was 2.5%, but if you have more than $3k/month in sales, it’ll drop to 1.5%. And 1.0% for sales in excess of $125k/month (or something like that).
HOWEVER - YOU MUST APPLY for this “Merchant Rate”. I did this (log into paypal, search around), and was “approved” for the merchant rate immediately.
36 Chris Perabo // Aug 14, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Well - All WAS fine and dandy. I received the two payments from Paypal, but now I tried to do a bank transfer and got the following message:
“You recently attempted to transfer funds from your bank account. Your bank has declined the funds transfer. Because the transfer from your bank account failed, this transaction has been cancelled.
———————————–
Transaction Details
———————————–
Transaction Type: Electronic Funds Transfer into your PayPal Account Transaction ID: xxxxxxxx
Transaction Date: Aug. 4, 2008
Transaction Amount: $xx.xx USD
Reason: This is an invalid bank account number.
I’m going to go hunting around to find the reason - will post back later.
Thanks to Frogblender for the premium tip, I’ll check it out.
37 Chris Perabo // Aug 14, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Ok, so when I logged back into the website, PayPal didn’t allow me to “re-add” the same account that was de-activated. They said in order to do this, I needed to send a fax showing the bank statement with the two deposits and a copy of my driver’s licence.
I did this and am now waiting for the results.
By the way, re. Frogblender’s post about the Merchant Account, I got the following reply:
“Your application was denied for the following reason(s):
Your payment volume in the last 30 days is less than the required amount needed to qualify for PayPal’s merchant rate.
We encourage you to re-apply for merchant pricing in thirty days, at which time we will review your account status.”
38 Canadian Capitalist // Aug 14, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Chris: I believe you are trying to transfer *from* your bank account into PayPal, right? I’m not sure if that works. I do know that a USD transfer from PayPal into a RBC bank account (both personal & business) works okay.
39 Gerald // Aug 16, 2008 at 8:02 am
Ok..Here is my scenario..
Back in 2001 when I was living in the states I opened a US bank account AND a PayPal account. Fast forward - now I live in Canada and I still have my old PayPal account as well as US bank account that is tied to my PayPal account.
Three months ago I opened RBC US checking account to transfer funds from my US bank account to PP account and transfer it to RBC account. I used the routing number “026004093″ and I was able to get my funds from PP to RBC account.
Last week I attempted to transfer fund from RBC to PP but unfortunately my RBC account was disabled and removed from PP. For some reason PP is not able to get the funds out from RBC .
When I attempted to re-add the account, I was told I can’t add the account without sending them a copy of my driver’s license AND bank statement. The only issue with this is that I no longer live in the states and I no longer have US driver’s license.
The only way I can think of adding RBC account to my paypal account is to obtain a different RBC account with different account number…
40 Gerald // Aug 16, 2008 at 8:16 am
Has anyone used Amazon’s Simple Pay?
https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/business?sn=paynow/faq
http://forum.itacumens.com/index.php?topic=19583.0
41 Frogblender // Aug 26, 2008 at 10:27 am
Ok dudes, RBC USD and CAD accounts are working perfect for withdrawing from paypal.
Now: how to convert USD to CAD? Here are the options, and the currency conversion premiums charged by each:
1) Withdraw USD Paypal to CAD bankAcc: 2.5%
2) Withdraw USD Paypal to CAD bankAcc, merchant rate paypal acc: 1.5%
3) Xfer USDPaypal->RBC USD, then write USD RBC cheque, deposit into ING Direct.ca CAD acc: last time I checked: 1.25%
4) use XE.com - these guys are great. Use xe to withdraw from RBC USD, and deposit to RBC CAD: I tried this with $10 USD, it took 4 business days: 0.85% (might get even better with amounts much larger than $10).
5) Any canadian big bank: always crap. 2.8% or so.
6) brokerage account: you need CAD and USD short margin accounts; use a stock which is listed on both TSX and NYSE. Short sell the stock on TSX to get CAD, and buy the stock on NYSE using your USD. Cost: 0.00% + brokerage commissions. Haven’t tried this, but apparently it works.
So to summarize:
Paypal - 2.5%
Paypal merchant - 1.5%
xe.com - .85%
ingdirect.ca - 1.25%
big banks: 2.8%
brokerage acc: 0.0% + commissions
The actual exchange rate can be found here:
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/exchform.html
42 Canadian Capitalist // Aug 26, 2008 at 10:33 am
Frogblender: Good summary. One other option: if you have a TD Waterhouse account, ask for a “Waterhouse rate” at any TD Bank branch and the conversion premium is typically 1%. Not sure if this works with the other banks though.
43 Chris Perabo // Aug 27, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I have used XE.com for years. I also have transferred from RBC USD to CAD account and it worked great. It takes 4-5 days, but is the best I’ve ever worked with.
Speaking of which, I use it also to pay suppliers from my USD account if I need to pay in CAD or other funds. I simply send them a bank draft - I love it.
Chris
44 Frogblender // Aug 27, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Chris, do you know any way for XE to reduce the 4-5 day delay? I believe this delay is for XE to ensure they actually get the funds, before forwarding them on.
45 Chris Perabo // Aug 27, 2008 at 2:10 pm
No there is no way to reduce the delay. Unlike a credit card, which approves a credit limit and grants credit, XE.com deals in hard currency… Money in, money out. This is why the fees are so low.
46 Frogblender // Aug 27, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Too bad. I’d gladly throw money into an “XE account” (if such a thing existed), just so it’s there for immediate use when I want to do a trade.
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