Banco Popular Visa card vulnerable too it seems....

whirleybird

Silver
Feb 27, 2006
3,264
322
83
For some considerable time I had been happy with my Banco Popular Maestro card which enabled me to draw cash from the ATM and pay for goods if I chose to by entering my pin number to confirm the transaction.

I think it was in January that I was told at the bank that this was now out of date and I would be far more secure if I updated to their Visa debit card. Apart from this meaning that I had to revert to signing the 'billy do' that came out of the machine when my card authorised, I felt it was secure as most places checked my debit card against my cedula. In my home country (UK), they used to check that the signatures matched too, i.e. the one on the back of the debit card and the one on the 'billy do' being signed but obviously that wasn't relevant here as it was just the account number written in the strip on the back of the card where the signature 'would have been'.

Somehow, and I have no idea how, having not been out to use my card at all, I discovered transactions (5 of them) which had taken place and were definitely not mine. As it happens I drew cash from the ATM outside Banco Popular on Monday, 26/8/2013 but, on checking my account online on Thursday, I found the rogue transactions which had all taken place in stores (not at ATM's). Three were at Playero, Sosua which I had not visited, two at Burger King in POP and another at a Farmarcia and even one at Janet's, Cabarete which I visit regularly but would never pay for the RD$ 325 with a debit card!

An immediate visit to Banco Popular on Thursday revealed that my debit card had indeed been used at Janet's and the signature on the 'billy do' was nothing like mine.... although the card has been stopped pending investigation I see that a further amount of RD$ 4106 (as yet with no details) has appeared on my online account today. The total stolen from me at the moment is just over RD$ 16K leaving me rather short of available pesos but thank goodness there was not more in that account right now.

Sorry to have made this a long post but hopefully it is a warning to others that it is not just international debit and credit cards that are being 'cloned' at the moment.

I hope and trust Banco Popular will sort this problem for me asap.
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
0
miesposo also has a debit card with them. so far only ATM problems. all solved. banco popular is a decent institution. yes, there are queues and there is bureaucracy and there are plenty of charges for all sorts of services. but they have good response to customers' problems.
 

Ringo

On Vacation!
Mar 6, 2003
2,823
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We learned years ago. NO MONEY IN ANY DOMINICAN ACCOUNT AT ALL... PERIOD!

All our accounts are in the U.S. and they KNOW to call to get a verification either to our phone or it comes up at the place of purchase; call toll free number on the back of the card. Not easy since my wife travels the World but they call. With that in place, we still get calls that someone is using a card in the UK; we are not in the UK. I go shopping in S.D for major items.... my card does not work BECAUSE the bank tells the cashier at purchase that I need to call the bank to verify who I am to our bank in New England.... and our other U.S. accounts.

Sorry Wb for your problems.
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
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it looks to me i know my banking a lot better than you, on the account of you know, never losing a cent?
 

Manzana

Member
Jan 23, 2007
229
20
18
Other than people who have business dealings in the DR, why would an expat with income from outside the DR want a local bank account? What advantages does it have? I suppose writing checks in pesos to pay some things? Is that very useful?
 

Robert

Stay Frosty!
Jan 2, 1999
20,574
341
83
dr1.com
You will be fine with BP, great bank.

Never had a problem with my BP Dominican CC cards, for both personal and business.
When you have an excellent relationship with the people looking after your accounts, banking is a breeze in the DR. No queues, super fast service and no questions asked. Become more Dominican is my best advise!
 

kampinge

Member
Jan 18, 2012
392
0
16
Newer had any problems with Banco Popular credit cards. Never use the ATM service. The debit cards are useless because you donot get any reward (points) on them. Only use credit cards you get 1 point for every US$ or ca 42 peso. pay the cards some days before they are due. Transfer US$ direct to the US$ account with Popular.
 

windeguy

Platinum
Jul 10, 2004
42,087
5,914
113
Newer had any problems with Banco Popular credit cards. Never use the ATM service. The debit cards are useless because you donot get any reward (points) on them. Only use credit cards you get 1 point for every US$ or ca 42 peso. pay the cards some days before they are due. Transfer US$ direct to the US$ account with Popular.

I would never use foreign credit cards in the DR, by the time you pay the FOREX fees and add the card cloning fraud risk, they are not worth it even if you get points.

Which Dominican credit cards give you reward points?
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
0
banco popular gives you miles for the use of their card. you can use them to purchase plane tickets, hotel stay or even to do shopping in el nacional.
 

AlterEgo

Administrator
Staff member
Jan 9, 2009
23,069
6,216
113
South Coast
I would never use foreign credit cards in the DR, by the time you pay the FOREX fees and add the card cloning fraud risk, they are not worth it even if you get points.

Which Dominican credit cards give you reward points?

windeguy, thankfully more and more cards are eliminating the foreign exchange fee. I bring one of them with me each trip to DR, haven't used them but nice to know they're available if there's an emergency.

Mr. AE's brother [who lives in SD] uses his card in DR for everything because of the rewards. Even when we go out he pays for it all with his plastic and we just give him cash for our meal/hotel/whatever. I don't know the specifics, but they must be decent rewards, because he flies to NY and Miami on free tickets once or twice a year.
 

Robert

Stay Frosty!
Jan 2, 1999
20,574
341
83
dr1.com
Which Dominican credit cards give you reward points?

Used my CC points for RD$20K credit vouchers at La Sirena.
Just go into the bank and tell them you want to use your points.
They will tell you what options you have, shops, flights etc.

I use my Dominican US$ CC card for many of my overseas transactions.
Never had a problem and it racks up the points pretty quickly :)
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
0
i do not recommend to use your points for plane tickets, especially long haul. it costs a lot of points to get a ticket to europe and they only cover the ticket itself. you still have to pay the taxes. which, on european flights, come to 50% of the total. granted, half price is not bad but it does not really pay off money wise. also, when we tried to book a flight within europe recently we were told only business class was available for this particular flight. so they may have a reduced capacity/availability of offers.

the hotels covered, however, form a long list. you can pass a weekend in AI in DR but you can also stay in a hotel in europe or america.
 

jaguarbob

Bronze
Mar 2, 2004
1,426
60
48
Maybe

We learned years ago. NO MONEY IN ANY DOMINICAN ACCOUNT AT ALL... PERIOD!

All our accounts are in the U.S. and they KNOW to call to get a verification either to our phone or it comes up at the place of purchase; call toll free number on the back of the card. Not easy since my wife travels the World but they call. With that in place, we still get calls that someone is using a card in the UK; we are not in the UK. I go shopping in S.D for major items.... my card does not work BECAUSE the bank tells the cashier at purchase that I need to call the bank to verify who I am to our bank in New England.... and our other U.S. accounts.

Sorry Wb for your problems.

I have a US bank ,checking account with prepaid Visa .Only possible to withdraw what is on card.
Secondly,Visa recently stopped all cash transactions in certain countries,Dr is one of those countries,either otc or atm.On 22 Aug,I had $3.00 in my debit card.On 22aug there was a $1200. Dollar withdrawal from my debit card and done from a banco popular in Las Terrenas.The visa card are investigating and should have a response this week.I told them "what the hell is this"First off there was no money availablel on the prepaid card and you have no cash withdrawals from Dr.My direct deposit went into my cc a couple days later and of course it was deducted.I am out this money until visa sorts it out.These crooks are good.
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
30,247
4,328
113
i do not recommend to use your points for plane tickets, especially long haul. it costs a lot of points to get a ticket to europe and they only cover the ticket itself. you still have to pay the taxes. which, on european flights, come to 50% of the total. granted, half price is not bad but it does not really pay off money wise. also, when we tried to book a flight within europe recently we were told only business class was available for this particular flight. so they may have a reduced capacity/availability of offers.

the hotels covered, however, form a long list. you can pass a weekend in AI in DR but you can also stay in a hotel in europe or america.

There is a formula you can use to determine when/where to use the points - I disagree, sometimes its a good option.

I used a blend of cash and points to get mi esposa to Australia.... worked out really well -much easier to do Business Class that way than buying it outright.

And ,actually, she's been getting the VIP treatment ever since from UAL
 

Mauricio

Gold
Nov 18, 2002
5,607
7
38
I have a US bank ,checking account with prepaid Visa .Only possible to withdraw what is on card.
Secondly,Visa recently stopped all cash transactions in certain countries,Dr is one of those countries,either otc or atm.On 22 Aug,I had $3.00 in my debit card.On 22aug there was a $1200. Dollar withdrawal from my debit card and done from a banco popular in Las Terrenas.The visa card are investigating and should have a response this week.I told them "what the hell is this"First off there was no money availablel on the prepaid card and you have no cash withdrawals from Dr.My direct deposit went into my cc a couple days later and of course it was deducted.I am out this money until visa sorts it out.These crooks are good.

No cash transaction with Visa? I take out cash pesos with my BofA visa debit card all the time, without any problem, or do you mean another kind of transaction?
 

Hernandez

Banned
Feb 9, 2009
875
20
0
Their Maestro cards were working with PIN only, so even if somebody clones your card, it's impossible to pay with it at any supermarket or other point of sale, if they don't know the pin. These new Visa cards do not require pin, and do not require ID check as well, since there is no name of cardholder on card. This is idiotic. The only thing I can do with it is to keep my pesos account linked to the card at minimum balance. I need to buy something, I exchange the amount needed from my dollars account to my pesos account and go to the store.