Canadian accepting money electronically from Americans
I am not aware of a version of Interac available in the U.S., but there are alternative ways to receive money: Cheque. The problem with mailed cheques is that they take time to deliver, and time to clear. If you ship your wares before the cheque has cleared and the cheque is bad, you're out the merchandise. COD. How this works is you place a COD charge on your item at the post office in the amount you charge the customer. The post office delivers the package on the other end when the customer pays. The post office pays you at the time you send the package. There is a fee for this, talk to your local post office or visit the Canada Post website. Money order. Have your U.S. customers send an International Money Order, not a Domestic Money Order. Domestic money orders can only be cashed at a U.S. post office. The problem here is again delivery time, and verifying your customer sent an International Money Order. It can be a pain to have to send back a Domestic Money Order to a customer explaining what they have to do to pay you, even more painful if you don't catch the error before shipping your wares. Credit Card. There are a number of companies offering credit card processing that are much cheaper than a bank. PayPal, Square, and Intuit are three such companies offering these services. After I did my investigations I found Square to be the best deal for me. Please do your own research on these companies (and banks!) and find out which one makes the most sense for you. Some transaction companies may forbid the processing of payment for e-cig materials as they my be classed as tobacco.
"The other answers describe why this is highly likely to be a scam. This answer describes why you don't want to get involved, even in the unlikely case that it isn't a scam.  I'm describing this using US law (which I'm not particularly familiar with, so if I go astray I'd suggest others fix any flaws in this answer), but most other countries have similar laws as these laws are all implementations of a small number of international treaties have very large memberships. The service you describe (accepting money transfers from one party and transferring them to another) is one which, if you engage in it for profit, would classify you as a ""financial institution"" under 31 USC 5312, specifically paragraph (a)(2)(R): any   other person who engages as a business in   the transmission of funds, including any person   who engages as a business in an informal   money transfer system Because you would be acting as a financial institution: Failure to follow such requirements can lead to a fine of up to $250,000 or a 5 year prison sentence (31 USC 5322). See also: Customer Identification Program and Know Your Customer." I am a US citizen by birth only. I left the US aged 6 weeks old and have never lived there. I am also a UK citizen but TD Waterhouse have just followed their policy and asked me to close my account under FATCA. It is a complete nightmare for dual nationals who have little or no US connection. IG.com seem to allow me to transfer my holdings so long as I steer clear of US investments. Furious with the US and would love to renounce citizenship but will have to pay $2500 or thereabouts to follow the US process. So much for Land of the Free! He cannot get money from someone else account. Your US resident friend in New York can send money to your Indian friend in Atlanta via Western Union which has presence in almost every corner of the US. Most definitely in the city of Atlanta. Your Indian friend can receive the Western Union transfer, in cash, within minutes after the friend in New York sends it. Here's the site for location search. The sender doesn't need to go anywhere, can send online, so your New York friend doesn't even need to waste much time. In fact - you don't need to bother your friend in New York, you can send it online yourself (assuming you're American/have US bank account). In order to receive the money, your Indian friend will obviously need a proper identification (i.e.: passport). "I looked this up on Wikipedia, and was hoping the answer would be ""no - stores cannot refuse legal tender"", but unfortunately, it's not the case!  If the retailer wants to go to the lengths of refusing certain denominations to protect themselves from counterfeit currency, they are fully within their rights to do so. The ""Legal Tender"" page on Wikipedia says this about Canadian bills: [...] Retailers in Canada may refuse bank notes without breaking the law. According to legal guidelines, the method of payment has to be mutually agreed upon by the parties involved with the transactions. For example, convenience stores may refuse $100 bank notes if they feel that would put them at risk of being counterfeit victims [...] What is interesting about what I found out, is that legal tender cannot be refused if it is in repayment of an existing debt (i.e. not a store transaction for which there existed no previous debt).  So you could offload your $100 bills when repaying your Sears credit card account (or pay in pennies if you wanted to!) and they couldn't refuse you!" As a dutch guy having lived in Canada for some time, and went down the the states a lot; I was extremely surprised how outdated your banking technology is.  A lot of mutations require me to physically visit a bank (often my specific branch), and I couldn't believe it when I saw that people still use cheques. Before I moved, I just remembered them from my very early childhood.  Get your shit together North America :) Western Union is one way to send emergency cash to a family member. It seems suspicious as a method of goods payment because many frauds have used it as a means of collecting irreversible payments. EBay and Paypal would be a better more trustworthy way to sell to usa customers.   Most USA banks need a USA address for the account owner..... But you may not need a USA bank account as PayPal can store and exchange funds to other currencies. "PayPal offers a service called ""PayPal Business Payments"". Instead of charging a percentage, they charge a flat fee. For US-to-US payments, the fee is fifty cents per transaction. For Canada-to-Canada payments, the fee is five dollars per transaction. You need to use a third-party invoicing service and choose the ""PayPal Business Payments"" option. FreshBooks or Zoho Invoice might work." Well, one way I avoid all exchange fees is to trade currency with an individual. There's no trick, though. Just find a friend or family member on the other side of the border who wants your USD or your CAD, look up the exchange rate for the day, and hand over the money (or write each other checks). It's win-win because both sides are getting a good deal with no fees. A USD bank draft from any of the major Canadian banks is a good solution. They clear quickly in the U.S. I use them frequently and have never had a problem depositing them in a U.S. bank account.  If you carry more than $10k across the border, even as a cheque, be sure to declare it. As long as you don't finance and the payment is upfront, its up to you and your customer how to pay. If you provide the product before the payment is being made or finance in any way (i.e.: there's debt), then the Canadian dollar, being legal tender in Canada, must be accepted. Considering the large amount, you would probably not be accepting cash anyway, so the point is moot. How they pay their credit cards is not your problem. However, do take into the account the currency exchange rates and fees that add costs to purchasing your product. If you don't have any physical presence (i.e.: online store only, no physical location on Canadian soil), then it goes by the rules of the jurisdiction where you've incorporated. Check with the local legal professional to be sure. That's the same question I've been pondering.  How did they handle it in Canada umpteen years ago on their test run?   Obviously they're not giving out a lump sum at the beginning of the year, but what about month to month? While most all Canadian brokers allow us access to all the US stocks, the reverse is not true.  But some US brokers DO allow trading on foreign exchanges. (e.g. Interactive Brokers at which I have an account).  You have to look and be prepared to switch brokers.  Americans cannot use Canadian brokers (and vice versa). Trading of shares happens where-ever two people get together - hence the pink sheets.  These work well for Americans who want to buy-sell foreign stocks using USD without the hassle of FX conversions.  You get the same economic exposure as if the actual stock were bought.   But the exchanges are barely policed, and liquidity can dry up, and FX moves are not necessarily arbitraged away by 'the market'.  You don't have the same safety as ADRs because there is no bank holding any stash of 'actual' stocks to backstop those traded on the pink sheets. This doesn't directly pertain to international transactions but may be relevant. I got an American Express gift card over the holidays, and I tried to use it at an online merchant. The card was declined because it failed address verification. I called American Express gift card services (number was on the gift card), and they knew immediately what the problem was and fixed it. They simply took my address and added it as a billing address on the card. I retried the payment and it went through right away. It may be worth calling the gift card company and asking them to simply add your billing address. "As soon as I see the word ""friends"" along with money transfer I think scam. But ignoring that red flag.... You will have American companies reporting to the IRS that you are a Canadian Vendor they have hired. Then you are transferring money to people in Bangladesh.  Assuming also that you fill out all the regulatory paperwork to establish this Money transfer business  you may still face annual reporting requirements to 3 national taxing authorities. In the United states there are situations where the US Government hires a large company to complete a project. As part of that contract they require the large company to hire small businesses to complete some of the tasks. In a situation where the large company is imply serving as a conduit for the money between the government and the sub-contractor; and the large company has no other responsibilities; the usual fee for providing that function is 8% of the funds. This pays for their expenses for their accounting functions plus profit and the taxes that will trigger. Yet you said ""At the end of the day, I will not earn much, but the transactions will just burden my tax returns.""  The 8 percent fee doesn't include doesn't include having to file paperwork with 3 nations.  Adding this to all the other risks associated with being an international bank, plus the legal costs of making sure you are following all the regulations...No thanks." You can buy stocks in the IRA, similarly to your regular investment account. Generally, when you open an account with a retail provider like TDAmeritrade, all the options available for you on that account are allowable. Keep in mind that you cannot just deposit money to IRA. There's a limit on how much you can deposit a year ($5500 as of 2015, $6500 for those 50 or older), and there's also a limit on top of that - the amount you deposit into an IRA cannot be more than your total earned income (i.e. income from work). In addition, there are limits on how much of your contribution you can deduct (depending on your income and whether you/your spouse have an employer-sponsored retirement plan).