Hola everybody.
I have always taken US dollars to the Dominican because there has always been a significant premium paid on US dollars over every other currency, relative to the official exchanges.
One could often get more than the offical exchange for US$ where other currencies were usually less, sometimes much less, which more than made up for the bank charge to buy US$.
Last week the cambios were giving less than the offical exchange for US$.
By the end of the week, the US$ was getting 28-29P while the official exchange was still 31.
After quickly blowing my spending money, I decided to get cash advances on my credit card instead of cashing the Canadian dollars I had.
This turned out to be a great decision and should have been my main source for cash.
Mastercard gave me the current offical exchange accurate to many decimal points.
MC was giving me 25-26 pesos per CDN$.
The cambios in Puerto Plata were offering 21-22 and as low as 17.5 at the Paradise.
The Paradise always gave an extra peso or so over the Plaza for US$ but for some reason they have an outrageously low exchange for CDN$.
The MC service charge per transaction was $4.50 CDN (115P) which is about what the banks would charge to change $300 CDN to US$.
I was taking out 5 or 6 thousand pesos per transaction so I ended up saving over 700 pesos per transaction over changing CDN cash.
The bottom line is that considering the 1.5% or so the banks charge here to buy US$, the lower than offical exchange for US$ presently, and the ridiculous rate given on CDN$, credit card advances is by far the best way to go.
Salut all.
