Why Does The $RD Peso

AndyGriffith

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Seem to be fluctuating with a large spread when I keep track of it on Oanda, whereas at the local banks it remains rather constant?

This seems to be impacting the rate that is received with Visa debit cards because they use that rate similar to Oanda, which results in receiving exchange rates 38.29-38.5 that are well below what can be received at the local banks.

Can anyone explain this? Thanks.
 
Feb 7, 2007
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Andy I have found the same, most transactions that post on MONDAYs are with lower rate. It's strange... I guess it's artificially created in order to some people and corporations in the DR make money on the forex markets (or buy cheaper dollars for imports). But yes, on OANDA (which in fact is the average rate for the day, not the highest/lowest one) the exchange rates fluctuates, the lowest I have seen it to be 38.05 and highest 39.something, my bank exchanges at 38.89 when it's high and 38.29 when it's low... I have also found out that this affects transactions that post mainly on Mondays, so i try not to make withdrawals on Thursdays and Fridays (Saturdays and Sundays are OK because they post Tuesday at the earliest, or on Wednesdays). My bank uses the exchange rate at the day of posting rather than on the day of transaction to make final settlement into the account.
 

AndyGriffith

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Andy I have found the same, most transactions that post on MONDAYs are with lower rate. It's strange... I guess it's artificially created in order to some people and corporations in the DR make money on the forex markets (or buy cheaper dollars for imports). But yes, on OANDA (which in fact is the average rate for the day, not the highest/lowest one) the exchange rates fluctuates, the lowest I have seen it to be 38.05 and highest 39.something, my bank exchanges at 38.89 when it's high and 38.29 when it's low... I have also found out that this affects transactions that post mainly on Mondays, so i try not to make withdrawals on Thursdays and Fridays (Saturdays and Sundays are OK because they post Tuesday at the earliest, or on Wednesdays). My bank uses the exchange rate at the day of posting rather than on the day of transaction to make final settlement into the account.

It's strange because I didn't really have a problem with the Visa debit card until about March when the rate received on the transaction started to become volatile all of a sudden. Maybe I didn't notice it before hand, but it seemed stable before. For a few weeks in March, really bad rates and then for two months straight thereafter awesome exchange rates as high as 39. This one has got me stumped for sure.
 

Tamborista

hasta la tambora
Apr 4, 2005
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Apparently Visa is buying on the bid on Monday when they have the largest amount of USD receivables after the weekend. WHY....VISA are crooks and jam the retail shopper in the a$$ by artificially widening the spread. The problem is The RDP is not even on the screen and does not actually trade, so the market is whatever OANDA wants it to be. You think Visa pays OANDA to keep the spread wide on Monday morning????
 

AndyGriffith

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Apparently Visa is buying on the bid on Monday when they have the largest amount of USD receivables after the weekend. WHY....VISA are crooks and jam the retail shopper in the a$$ by artificially widening the spread. The problem is The RDP is not even on the screen and does not actually trade, so the market is whatever OANDA wants it to be. You think Visa pays OANDA to keep the spread wide on Monday morning????

I have to agree with your post-something fishy is going on. I guess it isn't enough for Visa to collect the 1% foreign financial transaction fee from the banks so now they need to collect some more in the spread in foreign currency markets. Stinks for consumers like myself. I'm going to put a complaint in with my bank.
 

AndyGriffith

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Western Union has for years posted that they make money on the exchange rate. I used to laugh when that was on the form one signed when sending money to Panam? which uses the dollar!
Der Fish

And of course the DOP is not on the Visa foreign exchange calculator so you can't verify the rates through them. Also, I would seriously like to to know more about how Oanda comes up with these exchange rates. I do not believe that DOP is traded on international exchange markets, so what gives with the volatility according to their charts?
 

Tamborista

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The DOP is not even considered an exotic like the USDBRL. It truly does not trade...trust me I would love to buy USD on the BID on Mondays.

Take a look @ XE.com, even more crooked than OANDA!
 

AndyGriffith

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The DOP is not even considered an exotic like the USDBRL. It truly does not trade...trust me I would love to buy USD on the BID on Mondays.

Take a look @ XE.com, even more crooked than OANDA!

Oanda claims they receive the data from their Partner banks-market data contributors-I am going to email their front desk to investigate further, but if Visa is using this data somehow, then the source of discrepancy could be emanating form these partner banks.
 

AndyGriffith

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In other words, it looks like somebody is chipping a dollar or so every once in a while for every $100 in exchange-similar to the scam they had going in that movie Office Space.
 
Feb 7, 2007
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It's strange because I didn't really have a problem with the Visa debit card until about March when the rate received on the transaction started to become volatile all of a sudden. Maybe I didn't notice it before hand, but it seemed stable before. For a few weeks in March, really bad rates and then for two months straight thereafter awesome exchange rates as high as 39. This one has got me stumped for sure.

I haven't noticed it myself till one of your posts about a month or two back ... it was the Banreservas thread...because I was withdrawing almost always at Banreservas, I checked my online statement, and BINGO the numbers were as you indicated in that post ... so I did some more checking and found out those weird exchange rates do come up on Mondays ... maybe it was a pre-election anomaly? Somebody maybe buying dollars in case Hippo won and the dollar went spiraling up?
 

MikeFisher

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Feb 28, 2006
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Punta Cana/DR
www.mikefisher.fun
and the exchange booths/Casa de Cambio exchange at slightly higher exchange rates as they buy the dollars for Importers who need the US Currency to purchase their Merchandise, while they sell it in the country for mostly RD$ Pesos, using Pesos to purchase Dollars to pay their next shippment would come them much more costy than paying on the dollar a few peso-centavitos more to get the needed currency.
but even the exchange rates at the different Banks are quiet hefty different once in a while, and that's the way they make the big Bucks on the currencies.

Mike
 

AndyGriffith

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And back to $RD 38.95 on atm withdrawal yesterday at Banreservas. The two prior were on a Saturday and Wednesday over the last two weeks and the rates were $RD38.29 and $RD 38.50.

The discrepancies seem to run in pairs-had the same thing back in the last two weeks in March and then months with high $RD38's for the exchange.

Definitely something strange going on here-looks like clipping a buck or two of $100USD every so many months. Where this is occurring in the chain is a complete mystery to me-Visa? Partner Banks? Others?
 

Barnabe

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And back to $RD 38.95 on atm withdrawal yesterday at Banreservas. The two prior were on a Saturday and Wednesday over the last two weeks and the rates were $RD38.29 and $RD 38.50.

The discrepancies seem to run in pairs-had the same thing back in the last two weeks in March and then months with high $RD38's for the exchange.

Definitely something strange going on here-looks like clipping a buck or two of $100USD every so many months. Where this is occurring in the chain is a complete mystery to me-Visa? Partner Banks? Others?

These people are not supposed to work for free. If you pay a total fee of 2-3$, including forex, for a 100$ withdrawal, I think it's not such a bad deal for the service you're given.

You can easily check historical rates on OANDA, and even put them in a worksheet to check with your withdrawal (maybe you've seen that already)

Just my 2 cents

Barnab?
 

AndyGriffith

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Mar 11, 2010
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And back to RD$38.50 last evening.

This is quite discouraging as the rate is swinging all over the place-one can't have any confidence in getting a good exchange rate with these Visa cards.