Toronto2inDR said:
If you are coming from Canada and want to use your Canadian debit card to withdraw money then you will have a problem. A few months ago there was some problem between the Canadian Banks and the ones in the D.R. and there is no longer an agreement between the two countries and as a result all my friends and family that visited have not been able to withdraw any money from bank machines?Funny thing, not even at the Scotiabank machines that you would think should present no problems.
If you are not from Canada then there should be no problem at all but if you are then bring cash or travelers checks or wait in the lineups at the banks here to withdraw any money.
I work for Scotiabank in Canada, and travel to the DR a few times through out the year, just recently in July, and I accessed my funds through both Banco Popular, as well as the Scotiabank in Puerto Plata.
With Scotiabank we have a global alliance with other banks in the World that will waive the charge to access your money through other countries...those countries are through
Bank of Nova Scotia in the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico,
Bank Of America in the US
BNP Paribas in France
Barclays in the United Kingdom and Africa,
Deutsche Bank in Germany Poland, and Spain, and
Westpac in Australia and New Zeland.
So if you are a Scotiabank customer you can use your debit card (ensuring it has an interac or plus symbol on the machine), and if you use one of those machines mentioned above... the service charge you would normally be billed to take money out of your account will be waived. (At Scotiabank this charge is $5) So this applies to the Scotiabank in the DR. I also checked with our international banking department, and they said that they are not aware of any breakdowns with Canadian banks, that this did not include Scotiabank, if it did exist, b/c we are an international bank especailly in the Carribbean, and our customers can always access their funds, or else can call our toll free # for questions that is available 24 hours.
Now when you take money out of your account, expect for the bank to hold double the amount for the foregin exchange difference to kick in which will take about 24-48 hours. So if you have $500 in your account and you take $200 the bank will hold an extra $200 for the excahnge, once that posts the remaining is released, and you'll have access, but if you try to take out another $100 the same day, you will get a message saying you can't. (This is result of the hold) but if you try in a day or so, you'll have no problema. Now not sure if this is with all banks, I know for sure it is with Scotiabank b/c I get many calls relating to thisl
lisa
