MONEY CHANGING AT POP AIRPORT

Anyone flyinginto POP should be very careful when obtaining pesos from a booth at the airport. When I arrived on Wednesday I had an hour to kill before a friend was going to pick me up so I decided to get some pesod on my visa card since the bank was closed and the ATM was in the bank, a bird dog directected me to a small kiosk where funds could be obtained. The man there ran my card, then told me there would be a 200 rd comission for him on 2000 pesos. by this time the printout emerged with the total in Euros, which he wanted meto sign. As a Canadian I had no idea as to the amount. I said thanks but no thanks, not only was 10% comission ludicrous. Althiough in a tourist area comissions are the rule of the day, but 10% on 2000rd is ludicrous and siongning for a foreign currency of which I had no idea as to the rate is of course not to be considered.Unfortunately the msn now has my visa number. On friday i called visa in Toronto and although it had not yet been posted to my account thecharge had come through. thewoman advised mr thatit should be cancelled howevwer if it does show up on my statyement in december, i will have o cotact them again to get it reversed. So, a word of advice. Do not even considerusing you card at the airport to buy pesos.

While many bussinesses are very competitive and customer oriented in the Dominican republic, extreme caution must be used on any transaction from renting a car to dining out. The Dominicans in general have a well deserved fame of "vivos" or street smart that would astonish anyone.
Charges and sub-charges that would be difficult for Don Quixote to imagine, will come up when dealing with many people there.

If you are in the airport and give the appearance of needing help on anything, you will have many people come to you offering "help". Of course, that help comes with a price that includes embarrassment if the tip is not the expectation of the helper.
If you have to change your return ticket and call AA, be careful about the penalty they charge, they just might run your credit card and charge you twice. They did it to me in POP.

To complement the advise about the credit card, I would say: be carefull in any situation where money is involved more so in DR than anywhere else.
By the way, be smart, don't drive.
I know, I'm dominican.

How's the weather?

Hi Richard, is it raining as much as last year at this time?? Really miss being in Sosua

What is the approximate current exchange rate for american dollars