- Thread starter zack59
- Start date
Where to get U.S. Dollars in Santo Domingo?
You can go to any bank or Western Union there and exchange for dollars but warn you, you will get less if you are changing from Peso to Dollars. My best bet is get dollar bills in USA first before flying to DR then exchange for Peso, so you can get MORE that way.
ATM's dispense pesos only in the DR. Yes you can get pesos and change them to dollars, but that is costly and makes little sense for any significant money.
You can this: Open a US dollar account in a Dominican bank. Deposit US checks, wire money into it, or transfer it in via PayPal.
Then take out US dollars.
You can this: Open a US dollar account in a Dominican bank. Deposit US checks, wire money into it, or transfer it in via PayPal.
Then take out US dollars.
Trade them at a bank, any bank. The difference is very small between buy and sell of pesos at a bank. 5% or so, not much.
DEr Fish
Completely untrue. Almost no one is willing to sell you dollars for the worthless pesos. ALL Banks require an account, which you CAN NOT GET without a Cedula...and you can't get one of those in any reasonable amount of time unless you are Dominican. Even the cambios, such as Caribe Express AND Western Union (which is supposed to be an International company) will gladly take all of your USD, but will flat out REFUSE to exchange any pesos into DOLLARS for foreigners. They will tell you that is the way it is in the Dominican Republic. Dominicans may purchase DOLLARS all day long, but you as an American Citizen (for example) with a United States Passport will be denied United States Dollars.
I have exchanged pesos for US dollars many times at the Banreservas kiosk in the airport on my way back to the US. I have never tried it at a branch though in the city. I have had luck exchanging at the casa de cambios around town who would be foolish not to sell you back your dollars at an inflated rate.
I have to disagree with you. I've opened bank accounts with American ID. With two banks down there. And I know many others as well that have done it without a cédula.
Not true...
Perhaps post should be moved to The Clown Bin, if only it had a punch line.
Hey Zack, any particular reason why you need dollars in the DR? If you spend dollars in the local economy you will always lose in the exchange. Even if you send dollars from the US using Western Union or others when you go to pick it up they sometimes claim they don't have dollars but will give you a very good exchange rate.
I can't speak for Zack (obviously), but I was told that you need USD to pay the overstay fee upon exit. That was true for me the first 2 times, but not the third, where I gave the lady $2500 DOP and we were all happy.
My experience to get Dollars from Pesos the best rate will be at any bank, and to get Pesos from Dollars best rate Caribe Express.
The safest way is the expensive one making a transfer from Bank to Bank if you do not have some body that you trust here. The Cheapest way is to send the money to somebody here in Dominican Republic, can pick up the money of deposit into your US account here. Caribe Express and Western Union give to option to receive the money in Dollars or in Pesos.
To send US Dollars to USA from DR is expensive as most of the people here only receive money to send out they make big charges.
You can always pay in pesos and it will be cheaper because they don't use a favorable exchange for you.
There are exchange houses that give better rates than Caribe Express however unless it is a large amount the difference is negligible.