Banking in DR

Yossa

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Jul 27, 2003
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Can someone pleasae offer advice!!!

I have spent the last couple of weeks making arangements to visit the DR with a view to the possibility of purchasing a property.

I am due to fly in 7 days but have just been informed that bankers drafts in canadian $ are not acceptable to Dominican banks. This presents me with a problem as there is not enough time to re-arange new drafts as I am presently in the UK.

This info is contrarary to initial info received as I was told this would be fine in canadian $.

Does anyone know if the information is correct or is there any banks in the Santo Domingo area that are prepared to accept Canadian Dollars.
Thank you in advance.

John
 

FireGuy

Rest in peace Amigo!
Aug 21, 2002
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Hi John,

Greetings from Atlantic Canada.

Scotiabank (a Canadian bank) has a presence in the DR and would perhaps be your best bet for a bank to accept funds in $CDN. Perhaps someone can confirm or refute this as a posibility but that is my guess as a best bet.

Gregg
 

MikeKO

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Apr 12, 2002
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Escott,

1. I pay attention to your posts on financial subjects, could you expand on this a bit?

2. Does this apply to Scotia Bank also? Actually, I guess this question goes to how foreign banks are handled in the DR.

Thanks
Mike
 
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Paul Thate

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Jan 11, 2002
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foreign banks have to follow rules set by the central bank.
what hapened to Baninter can't happen to a canadian bank
So for security reasons your money is safe in the canadian bank
But if the centralbank says all dollar accounts have to be frozen or converted to Pesos Scotia bank has to follow those rules as well.

But if the dollar transfer is for the purchase of House which happens reasonable soon , you will be ok.
Note that most real estate transactions are in USdollars.
You will be better of to buy those dollars at your own bank
and transfer the US dollars to the Scotia
 

Escott

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Jan 14, 2002
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MikeKO said:
Escott,

1. I pay attention to your posts on financial subjects, could you expand on this a bit?

2. Does this apply to Scotia Bank also? Actually, I guess this question goes to how foreign banks are handled in the DR.

Thanks
Mike
My thoughts are that the worse the condition of this country the more at risk your money is in any bank in the DR. Look towards Argentina and Ecuador before that as a guide.

I read that there isn't money to purchase Oil to run the power plants. The people are protesting. The government will have to react and to come up with dollars to buy the oil. NO ONE will take Dominican Pesos for OIL so... Your dollars get converted to Pesos because they can just print as many as they need. Of course this will cause a free fall in the value of the Peso so your pesos in lieu of your dollars depreciate faster than it would take superman to fly around the room I am sitting in.

I told people that had money in Baninter a while back that I had NO faith in them. I always lose faith in Banks that pay 35=-70% more interest than other banks. You just have to think, "Whats wrong with this picture"?

Buying real estate on the North Coast is strictly in Dollars these days. Leave the money home and write a check to buy the property. Your money stays complete and you risk nothing.

Hope this helps.

Scott
 

XanaduRanch

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Sep 15, 2002
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I agree with Scott. Why bring the money here in the first place? I would convert the bank checks to bank checks in US Dollars and just pay the real-estate agent or lawyer by handing over the bank drafts. I can't imagine any realtor here not accepting that. There's no need to hand over funds in cash or from a Dominican bank. Give 'em a check!
 

BushBaby

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Jan 1, 2002
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If you read Pib's recent escapade with her bank & the post "A bedtime story for Children" by "She that must be Obeyed" in the General forum, you will see that getting US $'s out of banks right now is very difficult!! Central Bank has put a block on the amount going to ALL banks, so that they can say to the IMF "Look how many US $'s we have saved & now have stashed in our vaults"!!

Now is NOT the time to send US $'s in through commercial banks! It will take you weeks to get everything you transfer into the country (through a bank) into HARD currency!! Personally, I would hand the realtor a US $ check drawn on your own bank - if he can't find a way of cashing it, or getting it credited into his own US $ account, he isn't worth dealing with!! The alternative is to agree a price in US $'s, then tell them you are going to pay in RD Pesos! You then go change your personal check at one of the high street 'Cambios' & take Pesos back to the Realtor!!! If THEY want the US $'s, THEY will have to work for them!!!! - Grahame.
 

XanaduRanch

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Sep 15, 2002
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BushBaby said:
If THEY want the US $'s, THEY will have to work for them!!!! - Grahame.

Thank you. Exactly! Very good advice. They want dollars? Here's a check. The rest is their problem.

Tom (aka Xanadu ... where is my GOLD moniker?)