Every country in the world has some form of currency. Every day, its currency increases or decreases in value relative to the currencies of other countries. This is known as the exchange rate; in other words how many units you would have to give of one nation's currency to get a unit of another nation's currency.
The United States and Canada both use the dollar. There are 100 cents to the dollar in both cases. Here is the current exchange rate:
| As of October 14, 2009, the US Dollar is worth C$1.02889 Canadian dollars. The Canadian dollar is worth $0.971911 US dollars. In other words, if you were to convert one US dollar to Canadian currency, you would get 1.03 in Canadian money. If you convert a Canadian dollar to US currrency, you would get back $0.97 in US money. |
What this means is that if you are quoted C$100 for the rate of a hotel room in Canada, its worth in US currency is $97.19.
If you use a credit or debit card, you will be charged by the merchant (hotel, transit operator, etc.) the Canadian rate. The amount deducted from your account or added to your credit card balance is based on the prevailing exchange rate for the date the transaction was made. In some cases, if the merchant puts through your credit card information a day or two after the transaction took place, your rate of exchange may be slightly different than what it was when the transaction took place. If the Canadian dollar is worth less than a US dollar, you will receive on your credit card bill what looks like a rebate; this is just an adjustment for the prevailing currency rate at the time the transaction was entered.
If you are paying cash, some merchants in Canada do accept US money. However after they figure the exchange rate, you may or may not receive change back. If you do, it will be in Canadian money, not US money. It is better to look for places that take internationally-known credit cards (VISA, MasterCard, etc.), so that you will end up with as little Canadian currency as possible when you come back to the United States.