I opened a dollar account in Scotiabank a year ago without anything else than my passport and 300 dollars as a first deposit
It appears I left out at least one detail in my OP. WE wanted a joint account in dollars that has a visa/mc debit card. I travel a bunch and the fiance has spent 3 months or more away from DR each year as well. So having access to the money easily is important.
After calling at least 5 other banks and getting endless different answers we went to BHD who said NP. Birng a passport and letter from bank. We get there, and NOOOOO. . .the debit card will not be a visa/mc. My GF asked them WTF the perosn she spoke to for 10 minutes in the phone said otherwise. No answer.
We left and went to banreservas who said as long as I already had an account in a DR bank they could open a joint dollar account with visa/MC debit. Can you guess? No. . .what they meant was you can take dollars out of the account or spend the money as if it was dollars but the account would be in pesos. They said there is zero difference. I said what happens if papa llega and the peso goes to 100-1? Blank stares.
I was trying to avoid going to Leon as we have had debit cards for 3 years that have no security code on back and do not have our names printed on front. Try using a banco leon card in Brasil or Argentina with no name or security code. . .lol. We went to the branch en gazcue over 10 times in 2 years and the "machine" was broken each time. Last week we went to Leon on churchill and thei machine was also broken. I withdrew the 80k or so stinking pesos that were left in that account as it was damn near useless to me.
Again on the phone they said NO PROBLEM. We get there. PROBLEM. They said we can get a pre pago with visa or savings account but not in dollars. Again not what they said over the phone.
I wanted nothing to do with Scotia but my GF said, we have the stupid letters from dominicans that know me so lets just deal with them. Can you guess? Now those letters need to be authorized and the letter from Chase didn't have a "seal". Chase doesn't do letters with a seal. So now the woman that sits next to the dope that said the letter from chase was fine but we needed letters from 2 dominicans, says the letter from Chase is not fine, and the letters from dominicans need to be notarized. My GF had gone there 6 times. Different story every time. As others have said here, it all depends on which rep you speak to. . .totally nuts.
Screw it I will just open a second paypal account and give the additional card to the GF.