Sending dollars...

HeidigM221

New member
Aug 29, 2002
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Hello!
I'm going to Santo Domingo with the intentions of staying one year, max. I live in NY now. I just called Citibank (my bank here) and asked them if it was possible to deposit/withdraw from the Citibank in Santo Domingo... Was told no, due to federal laws prohibiting $ transfers internationally... >sigh<
My intention was to give my mother access to my account, have her deposit a coupla dollars in my account monthly ;) that I could freely withdraw and use in DR. According to Citi, I could just withdraw $ from ATMs (which comes out in pesos) , with a max of 5 transactions before there's about a 1$ charge.
My question is:
Has anyone any experience with dollar transfers to DR ?
Is this the simplest way to do this? Retain my US Citibank account, and just withdraw from ATMs? Also, what exchange rate would be applicable? The one where you're buying pesos, or buying dollars?
Am I making any sense?
:confused:
 

XanaduRanch

*** Sin Bin ***
Sep 15, 2002
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If you're just looking for money for living and expenses the ATM withdrawls from your U.S. account probably would work fine. The number of pesos you get for each dollar would differ slightly depending on the current exchange rate being offered by whatever local bank owned the ATM you were using.

Be sure to check with Citibank for any daily/monthly limits on withdrawls from the account! If you have need to make say a RD$15,000 peso payment and are only allowed to withdraw RD$5,000 per day this requires a bit of budget planning!

As an alternative it is not particularly difficult to open accounts with local banks in dollars or pesos. Usually just having your passport will suffice. We use Bancredito and my office wires the money directly to our account each week. The cost from the local bank in the U.S. is about US$30 per transfer. There are some small fees from Bancredito as well. But, Bancredito has been very good with the transfers, and a transfer sent on Monday afternoon in the states is usually credited to our account and available by Wednesday. I am sure any of the main banks, BancoPopular, BancoReservas, etc. would work as well ... but be careful of some of the smaller ones. We used one called BancoOsaka a few years ago and they actually stole money from the transfers. Live and learn.

;)
As a side note ... the U.S. wire gets here by way of a Bancredito account with Citibank in New York ... so Citibank would just transfer the money to Bancredito's New York Citibank account, and Bancredito in Santo Domingo then makes the funds transfer from their New York account to your DR account. Before you know it, your partying with your US$ at TGIF's!
 

Ken

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
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I used to get my money from ATMs, but then I realized that I was losing money because I had to pay a fee for using the ATM and because the rate of exchange used wasn't that good. So I talked with the manager of an exchange bank who agreed to accept my checks. I now get a rate better than the street rate in Sosua and don't pay any fees. This works great for me.

You mentioned you were in NY. If this means NYC, I understand there is a Banco Popular there that is affiliated with Banco Popular here. I know you can deposit dollars here that can be withdrawn from the account there; I presume the same is true of the reverse.
 

lhtown

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Jan 8, 2002
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I do the check thing at an exchange house here in SD for the same reasons as Ken. If you open an account, I think some banks will also accept US checks although I have never tried it at my bank here since they offer a moderately lower exchange rate than the exchange house. I have a friend who does the ATM thing and it works great for him. It is more convenient at the ATM and I think you only loose about 1% if I remember right. If you had a courier service set up here and an internet bank with a bill pay service, you could always send yourself a check. I am not recommending it though since there are better ways.
 

Snuffy

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May 3, 2002
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Ken, where are you located and what exchange bank? Your check is on a US bank and he just accepts your check and pays you in pesos at a good exchange rate?
 

Escott

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Jan 14, 2002
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My suggestion is to have an account at a major US bank that is a transfer agent for a Dominican Bank. I use First Union now Watchovia that is the Tranfering agent of Banco Santa Cruz. Wire or transfer the money into a dollar account and then take the money out of the bank and buy pesos on the street or a good exchange bank rate.
 

Ken

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Jan 1, 2002
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Snuffy said:
Ken, where are you located and what exchange bank? Your check is on a US bank and he just accepts your check and pays you in pesos at a good exchange rate?

I'm in Sosua. To get agreement at the place I use to accept my personal checks on a US bank, I had to have a local reference that would vouch for me. But since then, I have had several other exchange banks proposition me to use their services. When I indicated that I was using checks, they said that was no problem.

The rate I get where I exchange isn't what I would get in SD, but it is good for Sosua. For example yesterday when the posted notices at the exchange banks on the main street of Sosua were showing 18.40 or 18.50, I got 18.75.

I posted a question on this on the board several months ago and got several suggestions for Sosua. It turned out that I didn't use the places recommended, but there were posters who said those places accepted checks.
 

Cleef

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Feb 24, 2002
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How about sending dollars to a U.S. account from a DR account. Bancopopular to the states?

I'd switch to any bank that would allow me to conduct monthly transfers seamlessly and painlessly, with the lowest cost of course.

I'm not sending much money, just paying off some previous debt.
 

Ken

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
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Cleef, the fellow who used to be the administrator of the condo complex I live in was able to deposit dollars in the Banco Popular in Sosua and withdraw them from his account in the Banco Popular in New York. I don't know the details, but I know that he was doing it.
 
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ricktoronto

Grande Pollo en Boca Chica
Jan 9, 2002
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Federal Laws? What?

HeidigM221 said:
it was possible to deposit/withdraw from the Citibank in Santo Domingo... Was told no, due to federal laws prohibiting $ transfers internationally... >sigh<

I don't think there are any Federal laws prohibiting bank transfers. there are anti money-laundering laws however a wire transfer is actually a way to allow them not to prevent them. What law do they mean?

In fact since you can use your ATM card in DR to take out of a NY account then you are in fact doing a transfer country-to-country at that time.
 

Jerry

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Jan 1, 2002
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I am lucky because my bank in Western NY does not charge me to use my ATM card in Santo Domingo. I can not remember exactly what rate I received but I did not lose that much compared to Western Union transfer.

I know that the Banco Popular in Manhantan always dollar deposit in NYC and withdrawal in the DR. I do not know if it makes a difference on where you open the account. for example can you open the account in the US and withdraw from it in the DR without any problems. Or do you need to open the account in the DR first and deposit into that account in NYC.

Jerry