I didn’t have time on my last day in Taiwan to exchange my NTD - Scotia and TD bank in Toronto don’t buy them… Does anyone know a good place to exchange in Toronto for a fair/best rate? I have about 30K in NTD.
I took Korean Wan to Japan once without realizing that the Wan was not recognized, and thus not exchanged there. My solution was to visit the Korean embasy where embasy workers were happy to trade the money at the current rate and save bank fees. Perhaps you could try your local TECO office. As far as I know, that will be your only bet unless you make a friend who’s headed to Taiwan. NT dollars are not exchanged in places with official diplomatic recognition of MLC, at least no places that I know of.
Having spent 15 years as a foreign exchange officer for BMO in Toronto, I can say with confidence you will not find anyone in the financial industry willing to change your TWD into CAD. With the single exception of USD, Canadian financial institutions and money changers do not deal in cash where foreign currencies are concerned.
Surely its doable through some informal Chinatown money changer?
The banks change NTD here in New Zealand. The rate is lousy but better than total extortion (have seen ridiculous rates in Thailand and places).
I have bought and sold TWD downtown Vancouver and at the airport, surely Toronto would be the same, maybe try the Toronto airport.
Cheers!!
Changing NT$ is very difficult outside of Taiwan, and is why one should endeavor to do one’s NT$ exchanges while still in Taiwan.
You could try seeking out someone who’s planning on traveling to Taiwan. Then you can trade at the official exchange rate, with both parties avoiding bank commissions and fees.
Give either of these a call; they may at least be able to point you in the right direction:
Mega Bank, Toronto Offices:
加拿大兆豐國際商業銀行
North York Madison Centre 4950 Yonge Street, Suite 1002, Toronto, Ontario, M2N 6K1, Canada 1-416-9472800
加拿大兆豐國際商業銀行 華埠分行
241 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 1G6, Canada 1-416-5978545
You should try the airport if all else fails. However, maybe try HSBC, which is a bank that has branches in Taiwan and in Canada.
Related but unhelpful: when I first came to Taiwan, I bought about NT$50,000 at Heathrow, and only when I got here did I discover they’d given it to me entirely in the old currency, which was no longer legal tender. It wasn’t a good week.
I hadn’t thought about the airport, you might get it exchanged there; but they’ll give you a really shitty exchange rate.
Thanks guys. I’ll check out those banks…
I’ve been looking around at those exchange places, but they want to sell 1 CND @ about 36NTD…the bright side is I’m not trying to get rid of large amounts of Laotian dollars…
Foreign exchange is such a ripoff in North America. I asked about changing some Euros in San Francisco a few months back and they offered something like USD$1.25 for one Euro. :raspberry:
Good luck, O.
In all fairness to Thailand, the rates that their BKK bank branches offered were significantly better before the Kaohsiung labor riots than after. Go figure. 