Paying for our new motorhome

Sometimes the logistics of making a big purchase in a far away country can be a little overwhelming. 

I remember when we bought our truck and camper in Australia how we jumped through hoops trying to follow all the right procedures. After all, we were physically in Mexico at the time... and we were buying an Australian vehicle by paying a Swiss bank from our Canadian bank. 

And, we didn't want to get taken advantage of by the big banks in Canada. 

The motorhome we are buying now is quite a lot more expensive than the camper and truck we bought in Australia. At €52,700 ($80,300 CAD, $63,500 USD), the fees the big banks charge would add a lot to the final cost.

So, the same way we did last time, we are using TransferWise (soon to be simply called "Wise") to handle the funds transfers.

We use ScotiaBank for our personal banking in Canada. They recently came out with a new program for doing International Money Transfers, so I compared the fees to see if they were competitive.

Of course when you initially look at things, they tell you there are no fees! Or that the fee is "only" $1.99. But when you read the fine print (and I already knew this) they tell you that their profit for the transaction is based on using "their" exchange rate for the foreign exchange conversion which is of course an inflated version of the true market rate.

As a side note, I am doing all of the payments in €6,000 batches because in Canadian funds that works out to about $9,130 CAD at true market rates which is under the $10,000 reporting limit required by the Canadian government. Not that I am doing anything illegal, or underhanded. I just don't think what I do with my money once I have paid tax on it is any of the government's business!

I did a test this morning based on a €6,000 transaction, and I was actually surprised that the cost of using ScotiaBank wasn't as bad as I thought. It's still bad though.

Transferring from Scotiabank to TransferWise using direct debit and then using TransferWise to send it to Germany, the cost would be $9,156 CAD and the money arrives in the German dealer's account in 2 days. More specifically, it takes 2 days for the money to go from ScotiaBank to TransferWise. When I transfer directly from TransferWise to the German dealer's account, it is instant!

Using ScotiaBank's new program, the cost would be $9,363 CAD and the money arrives in the German dealer's account in "under 5 business days".

So, it would cost us $207 more per transaction. And we are doing at least 8 transactions. Now it really starts to add up, and using TransferWise saves us at minimum $1,656 CAD in fees on the final cost of the motorhome!

I know this information doesn't mean a thing to most of you, but hopefully it helps someone else somewhere along the way.

Okay, back to Tanzania...

Many stores and businesses here take a break in the afternoon. So we did as well! It was after 4:30pm when we finally walked into town with a plan to pick up a few things and find somewhere for dinner.

We took a different route that brought us closer to the coast and we finally saw the Indian Ocean!

Local fishing boats.

We have actually seen the Indian Ocean before. Or at least the corner of it! When we were in South Africa in January of 2014 we were at the official point where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean.

There was some kind of wholesale fish market going on with the locals. Our host here told us that he sends a local down to the market because they get a better deal! He said he would get us some next time.

Octopus. 

Not my favorite... a little too rubbery for my liking!

"How are you, white man?"

We were crossing the road and a local black guy said this to me. I thought it was funny.

We learned when we were in South Africa that the locals still call each other "black", "white", or "colored". And yes, there is a difference between "black" and "colored". There are many people here from India and they are typically darker skinned, but not black.

And they don't do it to be derogatory or offensive, and nobody takes it that way.

They don't seem to have many of the racial issues that exist in Canada and the U.S.. I find it pretty refreshing actually. Of course South Africa itself still has lingering issues from it's history, and they will likely never go away.

City park with public television.

Although most people here would be considered "poor" by western standards, many homes still have satellite dishes and televisions. And almost everybody has at least a basic cell phone. 

We did some fruit and vegetable shopping, and then found a restaurant called Kitisha's which had pretty good reviews on Google.

I had the mushroom steak with chips and Ruth had the pepper steak with rice. We laughed when we saw the lady leave and come back with the fresh mushrooms that she had to go out and buy!

We were pleasantly surprised, and the meal was delicious and the steak was tender. A little pricier than we have been paying, but it was worth it. I didn't take any pictures. The bill was 32,000 shillings ($17.50 CAD, $13.80 USD) for the two of us. We will go back there.

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Nice deal on this Bicycle Smart Phone Holder.

And in Canada...

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