DR Bank Account?

I live in the DR and opened a checking account a year or two ago at a local bank(in person). It was pretty painless. They did require a passport for ID and signatures for my checks. I hardly use it though since there is no need.

Rosa, is there some other reason why it is important to have a DR bank account? Otherwise, I would open a "vacation account" in your bank and draw money from it when you are going on vacation. Your money will be safer, it won't depreciate like it will in a peso account, and it will be available whenever you want it, which might not be the case if you open a dollar account in the DR.

I live here, but keep very little money in the bank. Instead, I get money from my account in the US by writing personal checks or using an ATM card.

The answer is YES, Rosa. You CAN open a Euro account at Banco Popular BUT, you have to be in person to open it. Do NOT open an account here in Pesos at the moment as your pesos will devalue against the Euro over the next 6 months - a year!!
As Ken says, a Euro kept in Europe will be just as exchangeable at the proper rate in 6 - 9 months as it is today & you can be SURE the rate of exchange will NOT be lower than it is today! If you want to INVEST in Euros, then drop me an e-mail & I'll put you in touch with the guy that I invest with who DOES do Euro investments - IN Banco Popular!! - Grahame.

Drawing from ATM machines

Ken said:

I live here, but keep very little money in the bank. Instead, I get money from my account in the US by writing personal checks or using an ATM card.

Click to expand...

A few years ago, out of curiosity, I used my US ATM card to withdraw pesos from local ATM's to see what happened.

I noticed that, factoring out the ATM surcharge levied by my bank, the exchange rate I was getting was significantly worse than I could have got had I simply exchanged US cash for DR pesos on the street.

I think the ATM machine only gave me somethig like 15.50 pesos per dollar while a dollar was already getting around 16.60 pesos on the street.

I suppose the situation is even worse now. Check your statements closely. If your ATM machine is only giving you around RD$28 (the official DR rate) for a dolloar while you can easily get RD$34 + on the street, you are being robbed silly.

Let me know if you do find out. Thanks !