A day in Vancouver enroute to Seattle do I need Canadian currency or are credit cards

My family and I will be spending a day in Vancouver and Steveston along the way to Seattle post cruise. Will I need Canadian currency or will credit cards be good enough?

 

Planning to take the SkyTrain to the airport to get the rental car and eat lunch in Steveston.

You can use a credit card to obtain skytrain ticket and all restaurants in Steveston will take credit cards also.

I live in the area and never use cash anymore, either debit or credit card for pretty much everything.

I'd agree that for a day, cash isn't necessary. Buses are not feasible without local cash, but as mentioned SkyTrain has ticket vending machines (NB: make sure you have a card with a chip and notify your CC provider that you'll be in Canada to avoid any problems). Even most food trucks can process credit cards now, I can only think of less than a handful of cash only restos, so your only remotely likely issue would be very small purchases like a single snack or drink (it's common to refuse CCs on <$5 transactions).

I've never been refused even for a $2.00 purchase. If you have no cash and they want the sale. I only know of one store that is cash only. You will be fine.

Credit Card is widely accepted.

 

For very few small purchases you can get away with USA currency.

 

Keith

Thanks!

Credit/debit cards are fine. Just make sure you notify your card issuer that you will be using it out of the country and be aware of foreign transaction fees - for instance, using a Bank of America debit card (because I'm in Charlotte, NC) will incur a 3% fee.

 

Also keep in mind that when you are using a debit card in the US, money is immediately withdrawn from your bank at the point of transaction. However, in Canada, they use the Interac network which is Canada specific. That means money will not be transferred in real time and can give you a false sense of your current balance.

 

There are banks that will not charge you these fees but they are not common

 

Helps to have a wife that is a VP at Bank of America corporate, lol

Visa and MasterCard has better acceptance. American Excess and Discover will have limitations.

Chip only card is OK? It doens't have to be chip and pin? None of my CCs have a pin nor do I have the option of assigning one.

All Visa and MC credit cards have both a chip and pin in Canada. Transactions under $100.00 you can swipe without entering a pin.

Chip only card is OK? It doens't have to be chip and pin? None of my CCs have a pin nor do I have the option of assigning one.

Check with your CC provider - the tech is there to allow a PIN to be used since long before chips were even a thing, and all chip cards CAN be given a pin... if the provider allows it. Your whole country is in the process of rolling out the appropriate new POS terminals to handle chips, PINs, 'tap the card' payments etc. so whenever your card gets renewed next it should be pin enabled by default.

 

 

But as mentioned, small transactions (e.g. SkyTrain tickets) generally don't need verified with a pin or signature. Exact limit depends on the store - Costco I can spend at least $200 without needing to do anything but wave my card at the terminal, some supermarkets are $100, others only $50. But if it's a 'real person' transaction like a restaurant, staff should be able to override a pin request and verify by signature instead - we do get a lot of US tourists who still have old-school low tech credit cards.

What about a taxi from the airport. Will they take a credit card or US money?

What about a taxi from the airport. Will they take a credit card or US money?

In general, YES. Vancouver Taxi's do take US credit cards. However, I do recommend warning the driver you plan to pay by credit card before loading your luggage.

 

In addition to extra time to unload, some drivers do a scam saying their machine is broken. In the old days, the driver just needs to call dispatch, which takes extra time.

You mentioned you were planning to go to Steveston (a great place by the way). How are you planning to get there? I'm not from the Vancouver area but my kids are so I visit often but we usually only get to Steveston when we have a vehicle. The skytrain doesn't go anywhere near there, so you would either have to take a bus which I've never done or a cab. Perhaps one of the locals has some suggestions.

^OP already stated they were renting a car (otherwise it's a long bus ride to Steveston).

 

Taxis will give you a less-than-official exchange rate for US$ - even with a typical 2.5% Foreign Transaction Fee credit card it's better to use the card. As mentioned an occasional cabbie will push back, but with cash used less and less and Uber or similar almost certain to start operating before too long now, instances of 'broken machines' are rarer - and when you confirm you have no cash so it's a card or nothing, the machines magically stat working again anyway...