Check the FX Fee Before Buying U.S. Investments

Start with the dollars in your chequing account. Do they convert from CAD to USD when you buy, stay in USD after a sale, and convert again only when you choose? Or does each trade create another conversion?

The trade commission does not answer those questions. A brokerage can charge $0 to place an order while the currency conversion remains the larger cost.

This was why I stayed with Questrade for years. Holding USD directly in registered accounts mattered more to me than having the cleanest app.

In a CAD account, Wealthsimple's current fee schedule applies a 1.5% currency conversion fee when trading U.S.-listed securities. Buying and later selling can therefore create two separate conversions.

An upgraded USD account lets U.S. trades settle in USD without another FX fee on every order. It currently costs $10 a month plus tax for clients who do not receive it through an eligible tier. Cash conversions between CAD and USD accounts use published tiers: 1.5% below $10,000, 1% from $10,000 to $24,999.99, 0.5% from $25,000 to $99,999.99, and 0% from $100,000.

That does not make every conversion cheap. It changes the number of conversions, which is often the more important part of the decision.

Suppose four round trips each year create eight $5,000 conversions. At 1.5%, those conversion fees total about $600. A $10 monthly USD-account fee totals $120 before tax, leaving a $480 difference between those two selected costs.

If you convert once and hold for years, the subscription may cost more. If you trade or rebalance in USD regularly, receive USD dividends, or move cash back and forth, direct USD holding can become more useful.

The calculation still excludes spreads, tax, account-tier waivers, trading mechanics, and other brokerage features. It answers a narrow cost question, not which brokerage wins overall.

An investor who buys only CAD-listed funds may not need a USD account at all. A Canadian-listed ETF can provide U.S. market exposure while keeping purchases and sales in Canadian dollars, although the fund itself still has its own costs and tax characteristics.

For U.S.-listed holdings, compare the conversion path, direct USD deposits, journaling fees, settlement, dividends, and the annual account cost. The right setup is the one that matches what you actually do, not the brokerage headline with the smallest visible number.