Wire Transfers/Banking info
Tom,
All substantial money can be transferred via wire transfers. Basically all the businesses here that trade with tourists/foreigners have wire transfer accounts set up. They will give/e-mail you all the relevant information. Be sure that the info they give you includes the full mailing address of the beneficiary's business and bank as some Canadian banks require this. CIBC certainly does.
I presume that you will be changing money from $CDN to $USD. What you have to do in that case to make sure you get the best exchange rate, (which will be substantial relative to the amount changed) is to open an account with Custom House, check the phone book for the branch in your city.
I would also suggest that you open an account with Scotia Bank in Canada.
This is for two reasons;
1. If you want to wire money, say $5000.00 USD to the DR business, you would phone your contact at Custom House and he/she will quote you the amount in $CDN. You then log onto your Scotia Bank account and set up a "bill payment" option with Custom House. Once you've done that you pay your "bill", that's the amount your Custom House rep quoted you. When your rep sees it's been credited to Custom House your wire will be expedited. All this from the comfort of your favourite office chair. Scotia Bank is the only bank that I am aware of that has Custom House as a "bill payment" option. CIBC does not.
2. You will also want to set up a peso bank account in the DR. Scotia Bank operates here in the Dominican and my experience in dealing with them has been good, ATM's etc. Get online and find the address of the Scotia Bank in Punta Cana. Or better still someone in the community will post it for you. You will need this because to open an account they require that you produce a letter of reference from your bank addressed specifically to that branch. They also require a letter of reference from a DR local, such a your realtor or lawyer for example.
Of course if you need to wire money right away phone your Custom House rep and he/she will set up the account subject to you coming in with a bank draft from your bank and the necessary documentation, Passport, DL id etc.
One other thing you will want to do before leaving Canada is to make sure that you have set up permission with your bank to communicate and conduct your banking business via e-mail and fax. They will require you to sign some paper work for that.
Be wary of bank charges. I have found that CIBC will waive their service charge ($20 CDN) but that will depend on your relationship with your branch. Also some banks on the receiving end have hefty fees. For example I recently wired $8000.00 and the charges would have been $16.56, service charge by CIBC branch, $19.87 actual cable charge incurred by CIBC, $33.11, receiving bank charges. All these amounts are in USD. That's an unconscionable $69.54 USD ($87.93 CDN). Fortunately for me I at least saved the CIBC service fee.
Finally when you come here it's a good idea to bring a number of $1.00 USD bills for tipping etc.
Hope that answered your questions.
Mack.