Imagine traveling to another country. Would you assume you could pay for purchases with whatever money you happen to have in your wallet, or would you assume that you should exchange your money for the local currency?

In this story, an American tries to pay with American money while he’s in Canada. I’m not sure if he thinks Canada is the 51st state or something, but he seemed really surprised when he was told he couldn’t pay with American money.

The retail worker gave him several options, but that guy didn’t like any of them. The employee felt pretty baffled by the whole interaction and the American customer’s reasoning.

Let’s read all about it.

“Why don’t you accept US money?” “Cause this is Canada.”

I work in a small grocery store chain that’s only located in Canada.

Our store is in a plaza and our cash desks are right in front of the windows, so I see this car drive up with a New York license plate and think “Oh cool! Americans!”

It was an older dude who look maybe early forties.

An American customer was visiting the store for the first time.

I greet him politely and he greets back. Explains to me how it his first time in this store and was told to check it out if he was ever up this way.

No problem, I tell him how the store works, what to do and a bit of the types of products we have and let him go about his way.

Now we used to accept US currency however with the exchange rate being different all the time and the fact that our POS is still stuck in the 90s (exchange would never be updated properly and spit out widely incorrect amounts) we decided to drop accepting it.

So buddy comes up and is ready to pay here’s how this plays out.

The guy tried to pay with American money.

Me: Alright so that will come to $11.55!

Guy pulls outs out a US $20 bill.

Me: Sorry sir, we don’t accept US cash…

Guy: Well, why not?

Does he understand that Canada is a different country with its own currency?

Seems pretty defensive already.

Me: Because this is Canada.

Guy: Yeah I know that! But why don’t you?

Me: It’s our store policy, you could use a credit card if you want.

The guy doesn’t like any of OP’s suggestions.

Guy: No I don’t wanna use that up here.

Me: Okay well there’s a bank across the street that could exchange it for you.

Guy: Why should I have to do that? You know (store name) and (other store name) accepted my money, why can’t you guys?

Me: Well yeah some places do under their policy but most don’t because this is Canada.

I guess the guy didn’t really want to buy anything after all.

This was about a 5 to maybe 7 minute back and forth conversation with me explaining a bit more about why we don’t and how he doesn’t care about exchange and that we should just take it cause it worth more anyway.

Yeah okay it is, but I still can’t take it.

Guy: Really? You guys should put up a sign in the window saying you don’t, so people don’t waste their time.

He then soon left, without his goods.

OP is pretty confused by the customer’s reasoning.

But I still can’t help but feel a dumbfounded by that interaction.

A sign really? Why should we? I’ve visited The States many times and I always make sure that I’m carrying US cash. It’s their nations currency it should be expected to use that over what ever else.

Also I don’t know why he was adamant about not using his credit card. Can any American explain that to me if there is a good reason or is he just being stubborn? I’ve never attempted to use mine down there though didn’t think it would be a big deal if I had to.

Maybe the guy’s credit card charges a fee when used internationally. That’s the only reason I could think of that he wouldn’t want to use a card. If that’s the case, he really should’ve exchanged his money for Canadian money before going shopping.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

You’d think!

An American shares their experience in the Bahamas.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a teenager who wants to work, but his mom thinks working past 8pm is too late for high school.

This person shares a theory.

Here’s another theory.

Crossing the border and not wanting anyone to know might be the real reason he didn’t want to pay with a credit card. He was pretty entitled to assume he’d be able to pay with American money in Canada, though. He really needed to exchange his money before shopping.