Many, many years ago when I was traveling in Europe, you could use American Express to do something like this. If you had a bank account in the U.S., you could go to an AmEx office anywhere and write a personal check and they would give you the local currency at the current exchange rate with no fees. You had to have an American Express account, which had a small cost to it, but it turned out to save you money compared to using credit cards with fluctuating exchange rates or paying fees at local banks, or even paying the fees for traveler's checks. I wonder if there's a Canadian equivalent where you could open an account in Canada and then use it somehow in the U.S. to withdraw the money you have in Canada. Sorry, as I write this I realize this might not be much help, it's a lot of 'maybe,' and likely to be completely outdated information. But there it is, FWIW! Good luck.