ATM Withdrawls

You will probably do better using your debit card as an ATM withdrawl card. As long as you have a 4 digit password you should be OK.

I would suggest only using an ATM at a bank during business hours when you could probably retrieve your card should the machine "eat" it. Also you will probably be charged a flat fee per transaction (PC Financial charged me $3.00 CDN) so take out enough to make this fairly insignificant for the amount (maybe $3000RD pesos - $6000RD pesos at a time depending on the machine limit).

I also recall that certain days of the month machines may be out of currency due to many people being paid then (I think there was one day for government employees and then the 15th and 30th for non-gov't employees - someone please correct me if this no longer applies).

Travel well.

Gregg

Moxie said:

We will be in Cabarete in early March &, thanks to all the great posts here, I think we will be fairly well prepared. We will be bringing US cash pay for our food & drink & entertainment and keep the credit cards for emergency use only.

My question is this: if we do run out of cash, are we better to pay for excursions etc. with the credit card (I am wary of the exchange rate shuffle!) or can we make a withdrawl at an ATM from our Canadian accounts?? Will we fare better on exchange rates by doing so? I understand there is a Scotia Bank in town. Does anyone know if I will be able to do this? My account here in Canada is with a credit union, not Scotiabank. I will check with my CU here to see what they have to say, although I'm not likely to find any definative answers from this end. I'm hoping someone who has actually made a withdrawl from a Canadian account via ATM can give me some direction.

Related question: while I have an estimated budget in mind, what are your opinons on a reasonable amount to bring for two adults & 1 child - we are staying in a condo so will likely buy some food at Jannet's store to do breakfasts "at home" but would like to eat out for lunch and dinners (I am on vacation here!!) at reasonably priced restaurants (no tourist traps), a few "beverages" for the adults and some souvenier shopping??

Thanks for all your help, past & present!!

Moxie

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I personally wouldn't be walking around with too much cash. Every time I go to DR, I always withdraw from the ATM (using my debit card/ATM card). I never had any problems. As far as using your credit card to pay for things, like a restuarant or hotel, you shouldn't have any problems. Just make sure when you get back to Canada, check and see if any false charges were made and call your credit card company.

Better luck with Pesos

Hi there.
Our experience was we had better luck using pesos, vs u.s. cash. I just found most of the stores, restaurants that we went to, liked the pesos. I think then we knew exactly what we were paying. Otherwise, depending on exchange, etc. I felt I wasn't really sure.'
What I liked was being able to bartar for how many pesos for 1 u.s. dollar. I tell ya, it changed every 20 feet you walked! When we were there the going rate was 34/ 1 u.s. dollar, we were able to get as high as 36/ 1 u.s. dollar.
I guess it is a matter of preference!
To give you an example of how much money to take??????
My husband and I took 1000.00 u.s. Way too much. We bought groceries for breakfast, we bought lots of Presidente, we ate out all other meals, we paid cab drivers and other drivers to get around. We bought some souveniers for family at home, t-shirts, etc. We hit happy hour at our resort most days.... We drank quite a few fancy drinks at Jose O'Shays (good drinks, but did we pay for them!!).We had a really expensive, not so good meal once, we did get around and do a lot of things, and I think all we spent total, I mean airport transportation, tips, etc.etc. was around 500-600 u.s. for both of us!
I thought that was a really cheap vacation. AT least for us it was. We spent at least twice that in St.Maartens!! (I do realize the difference in islands)

Hope you have a great trip! I'm sure you will.

Don?t use the Banco Leon ATM, my debit card is from Banco Popular and I used one of their ATM I withdrawl 300.00 Dominican pesos and they took 75.00 Dominican Pesos for the transaction, few months ago I use the Asociacion Popular de Ahorrros y Prestamos ATM and for 2,000.00 dominican pesos they only took 15.00 dominican pesos for the transaction.

riravaga said:

Don?t use the Banco Leon ATM, my debit card is from Banco Popular and I used one of their ATM I withdrawl 300.00 Dominican pesos and they took 75.00 Dominican Pesos for the transaction, few months ago I use the Asociacion Popular de Ahorrros y Prestamos ATM and for 2,000.00 dominican pesos they only took 15.00 dominican pesos for the transaction.

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And stay away from Progresso. Not only because of the recent rumours.

Your best bet is to take American Express Travelers Checks. You can cash them at most any bank as long as you have a passport. Far safer than cash, and you can have unauthorized withdraws using an ATM card.

US Cash versus Travellers cheques

Pleeese don't bring cash, use Travellers Cheques! Your US cash will disappear so fast (by theft) you will think you never had it! Canadian Bob.

Moxie said:

All advice taken into account. Any opinions on the reliability of the Scotiabank in Cabarte and where appoximatley along the main street is it located? How are they about cashing traveller's cheques, service charges etc.??

As I mentioned earlier, we would like to visit Ocean World so my daughter can do the dolphin swim. Are we best to book this with a tour operator once we arrive (I thought this option might be better since most seem to include the transportation) or just to get a taxi and go ourselves?

All information is greatly appreciated!

Moxie

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To book Ocean World you can do so online or after you arrive but depending on the time of year and what you want to do there is a slight chance it will be booked up for when you want to book it. I suggest (if it is the difference between a successful or unsuccessful vacation) that you book in advance on the OW website www.oceanworld.net and then pay you tour rep at the resort at least two days before your booking (otherwise it is automatically cancelled). OW is not discounted by anyone yet AFAIK and transportation is always included (although from Luperon, Sosua, Cabarete and Rio san Juan there are minimal transportation surcharges).

Enjoy.

Gregg

Moxie said:

All advice taken into account. Any opinions on the reliability of the Scotiabank in Cabarte and where appoximatley along the main street is it located? How are they about cashing traveller's cheques, service charges etc.??


All information is greatly appreciated!

Moxie

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Hi Moxie,
I can't help you with Scotiabank in Caberete, however I have used the Scotiabank in Puerto Plata - and I do not recall any service charge for cashing the traveller's cheque with the teller. I have never performed an ATM transaction while in the DR.

I am Canadian also, and I find that although our Dollar might be doing well, the DR does not like to take advantage of it! Last August it cost me $124 CND for $100 USD. The rate for USD was 28 pesos at the time. The rate for CND was 21 pesos. I actually made money by converting my Canadian $$ into US $$ before coming, then converting into pesos while in the DR!!

I always bring US Traveller's Cheques - and I don't cash them at the bank, or at the cambio (currency exchange) at the hotel/resort - the cambios in town usually offer a better rate, and they require the same information as the bank to cash them, ie) passport or driver's license and birth certificate. Like other posters here, I also prefer to pay with pesos whenever possible.

Enjoy the DR (I will be in POP around the same time...can't wait!) Happy Travelling!!

DD

Eddy said:

And stay away from Progresso. Not only because of the recent rumours.

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Never had any problems with Progreso in Sosua. I always use them to take out money from my abroad account, since you can take out 30.000 in one transactions.