Quote Originally Posted by Feanor
Here I am in Canada, and I've bought lots from, and sold lots to, people south of the border.

Here's my simple advice to US residents selling to a Canadian resident. Accept payment one of two ways: (1) PayPay, or (2) Postal Money Order. If you take Canada Post, US dollar money order to any USPS outlet, you'll get your money in cash for no fee.

Don't accept checks drawn on a Canadian bank, even certified checks (actually "cheques" up here) -- you have seen what happens when you do. The problem is not the Canadian check clearance system which is highly efficient and certainly compterized: its the greed of the banks State-side that occassion the $50-60 services charges; (Canadian banks are great at charging excessive bank fees too).

FedEx, UPS, DHL, and various other carriers ship reliably to Canada. However most Canadians will thank you for shipping USPS whenever that is possible; (maybe not best for large, heavy equipment). The reason is that Canada Post doesn't gouge receipents for brokerage fees as these others do. CP charges a flat fee of $5, (or $8 for expedited post), whereas the public carriers charge some sort of percentage of value and/or tariff and taxes collected, and this can run to 30% or more of the value.

Parenthetically, Canadian banks are rated most secure in the world; they where virtually unaffected by collapse of mortgage-based derivatives in the U.S. This was largely because Canadian regulators did not permit banks to make significant amounts of these so-called "investments". It is outrageous that banks in the US and many other courtries were (and are) allowed to gamble with other peoples money, but it is less so in Canada and a few other countries (such as "third world" India).
Well put Feanor. I am in agreement that postal money order is the way to go. For anyone who didn't know, now you know. Our banks are not exclusively run with greed and profit in mind, therefore Canadian banks ONLY profit in the billions. LOL...