Quote Originally Posted by Canuck of NI View Post
I'm finding that it's increasingly rare for a US company to accept an order from Canada. .....No one has told me that they suspect fraud but that of course has to be in play even though there are of course safety mechanisms for such things. (
I have a friend who's into vintage Ducati racing motorcycles. He found one for sale on the 'net, and after repeated email and telephone discussions with the seller they came to an agreement. And that's when the fun started.

The seller would NOT accept the following as payment:

1: a certified cheque or bank draft in US funds
2: US cash purchased at a Canadian bank
3: Anything other than US cash purchased at a US bank and accompanied with the corresponding paperwork attesting to the fact that the cash was in fact purchased in the lower 48.

This caused major hassles for my friend who had to withdraw a large sum of Canadian cash and then cross the border and find a US bank willing to complete the transaction. There are laws about carrying large sums of money across borders and these include reporting requirements to both the Canadian and US governments. Persons are warned that carrying large sums can be stopped at the borders and subsequently forfeit the cash on suspicion of illegal activity.

In the end it all worked out and when he picked up the bike the seller told him that she had been specifically warned by her bank manager about doing business with Canadians because we had an "unstable and suspicious" banking industry.

Can you believe that? Our federal government did not have to pour hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into our banks to keep them afloat, the G8 points to our banking system as a model of stability, our banks are among the most consistently profitable publicly traded corporations in our country, yet some bank manager in a small town in Ohio decries us as "unstable and suspicious".