Damaged debit or credit card

Tell them to send a new card to your address they have on file (and make sure you have a US address on file).

In the meantime...........

use internet banking to transfer cash to your Visa (hopefully it's with them or make a bill payment to another bank's Visa) so you have a credit balance. Go to a bank and take ID, and do a cash advance in pesos, then you don't pay interest since you are not borrowing anything. Watch out for fees at your banks' end - I have done this at B.Popular and they didn't charge anything. At the time my bank didn't but now they might.

strasser3133,

Don't give up prematurely on your card. Not all cards are serviced by all ATM's in the DR.

Try the ATM's at several different banks, even supermarkets. Maybe the card is ok.


Ricktoronto,

Great idea.

Of course, the biggest expense is in the bad exhange rate.

Not too sure about that......

andy a said:

Ricktoronto,

Great idea.

Of course, the biggest expense is in the bad exhange rate.

Click to expand...

I have done very well on RD$- CDN$ using Visa to buy things in the DR, when I pay for my hotel. I haven't used an ATM as the times I tried at the old BR ATM located at what was the Boca Chica Resort, it would do the whole transacton then do nothing, like giving you money that is.

I think the cons of them levying an FX fee ( in terms of shading the rate) are made up for in part by them using an interbank rate to shade vs. retail.

I have had the luck of the exchange equivalent of US costing around CDN $1.27 at the time it was $1.40 up here - Calculated thusly - you spent RD$, got charged in CDN$ then figure out what those CDN$ would have cost in US$, then what those US$ would have bought in pesos. So I made money. Credit cards are also great when the currency is falling a lot, fast.

This method is also great when your ATM card doesn't work and you have no money at all.

ricktoronto

Do you think that Visa, or other credit card, gives a better exchange rate through cash advance than what an ATM typically gives?

If so, it's worth trying as a test case. The last time I got a cash advance via Visa, there was an upfront fee of 2%. That's much less though than the 5% or so loss via exchange rate in using an ATM.