I did some research for you since my mom happens to work for a bank. Here in Washington, most banks don't have a service charge or a wait time for exchanging Canadian currency because we do so much business with Canada. She was surprised to hear that most Banks you encountered do not do foreign currency exchange at all and those that do charge so much and take so long. She even joked that they must send it back to Canada before they give you your money!
What she suggested you do was to go to a
Thomas Cook - International Money Services Branch and have them exchange it because you are having trouble finding a bank that will do it. From the looks of it you are pretty close to Philadelphia and there is a branch there:
Philadelphia
1800 John F. Kennedy Blvd.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
9am-5pm Mon-Fri
215-563-7348
Not sure if those hours work for you, but it is an option. The can exchange it for you right then so you don't have to wait and it's probably only for a small exchange fee.
Do remember that Canadian is only worth about 60%, so you will probably only receive around $117.84. You would be surprised at how many people are shocked when they find that out.
Funny story... One time this mother came into my mom?s bank to exchange $30 Canadian. My mom converted it and it came to about $19. She gave the woman the money and she asked my mom where the rest was, because a friend had bought something from her son for $30, and she needed to get $30. My mom told her that there is an exchange rate and that Canadian currency is not worth as much as ours. The woman kept telling my mom that she was owed the $30 and expected my mom to give it to her just because the son's friend owed that much. My mom told her that was nothing she could do and that her son go back to that friend and ask for the rest and next time to remember there is an exchange rate!
=) Christy
