As have been discussed in previous threads about the different options on how to send money to the DR, I tried the Bank of America VISA debit card\withdraw in Scotiabank in the DR method, and will post the results here.
I went to the local Bank of America here in Las Vegas, opened a new account and ordered two VISA debit cards, one for me and one for my wife. After I got the cards by mail, I activated the one on my name and sent it to the DR and kept my wife's one just in case I want to withdraw money back from the account. My mother picked up the card over there and I told her the PIN number by phone.
For testing purpose I decided to deposit US$600.00 in the account here in BoA and told my mother to just withdraw RD$10,000.00 to see if they will charge me any fees or rip me off with the exchange rate. She proceeded with the transaction and got her money alright, called me to let me know and I then checked the account balance.
To my surprise they just debited US$278.16 with no extra fees of any sort and the amount was converted to pesos with today's exchange rate of 35.95 as shown in the webpage of El Banco Popular and BHD.
So in the end I have found out this is the cheapest way to send money to the DR and add to that that BoA has a US$700 daily withdrawal limit, so you can withdraw RD$20,000 every day without any problem at all. Also I advised my mother to only withdraw the money in a big branch in business hours just in case the ATM machine decides the BoA card has a good taste and keep it, that way she just has to walk inside and ask anybody there to please return her the card.
I just thought I'll share this with you guys. All the credit goes to Tamborista who gave me the idea in the first place.
I went to the local Bank of America here in Las Vegas, opened a new account and ordered two VISA debit cards, one for me and one for my wife. After I got the cards by mail, I activated the one on my name and sent it to the DR and kept my wife's one just in case I want to withdraw money back from the account. My mother picked up the card over there and I told her the PIN number by phone.
For testing purpose I decided to deposit US$600.00 in the account here in BoA and told my mother to just withdraw RD$10,000.00 to see if they will charge me any fees or rip me off with the exchange rate. She proceeded with the transaction and got her money alright, called me to let me know and I then checked the account balance.
To my surprise they just debited US$278.16 with no extra fees of any sort and the amount was converted to pesos with today's exchange rate of 35.95 as shown in the webpage of El Banco Popular and BHD.
So in the end I have found out this is the cheapest way to send money to the DR and add to that that BoA has a US$700 daily withdrawal limit, so you can withdraw RD$20,000 every day without any problem at all. Also I advised my mother to only withdraw the money in a big branch in business hours just in case the ATM machine decides the BoA card has a good taste and keep it, that way she just has to walk inside and ask anybody there to please return her the card.
I just thought I'll share this with you guys. All the credit goes to Tamborista who gave me the idea in the first place.