Banking!

gpeplinskie said:

Hey peeps!
Moving to the DR (Sosua) in November for a few months. Plan on mostly playing poker as my source of income (playing professionally here in Canada for a while) but it gets cold here from time to time so what would be the best thing to do for banking purposes? Should I get a bank account at a bank like Banco Popular to house my DP? Will they also handle the USD that I'll need for the casinos in town? Do any American Banks have branches in Sosua and I could set up a bank account with them before I head down there? Any suggestions or insight would be great!

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Even though some "American" banks have same name and logo banks in other offices, they are in most cases never "branches", but separate legal entities which, should anything go "wrong" will deny any relationship with one another.

Banco Popular has a generally good reputation among both, locals and foreigners. They can at times come thru as a little inflexible and not always very customer friendly, but they seem to do well. They offer accounts in local and foreign currencies, including USD, EUR and possibly CAN.
There are other banks some may prefer, many of which also offer currency accounts.

You may want to research this forum about the subject of OPENING an account here. Requisites change from bank to bank and time to time but usually, they will ask you proove of previous banking recors (either letters of recommendations/good standing or statements) as well as letters of recommendations from local business (I know, how could you when you just arrived to the country? Welcome to the DR!) and of course a current passport and some money.

I assume that as a "pro" gambler, you do know what you are getting yourself into. Casinos here are not much regulated to protect their customers and some people here don't like to loose money consistently and can react in ways you may not expect them to in more "tranquil" countries.

Good luck. ... J-D.

gpeplinskie said:

Hey peeps!
Moving to the DR (Sosua) in November for a few months. Plan on mostly playing poker as my source of income (playing professionally here in Canada for a while) but it gets cold here from time to time so what would be the best thing to do for banking purposes? Should I get a bank account at a bank like Banco Popular to house my DP? Will they also handle the USD that I'll need for the casinos in town? Do any American Banks have branches in Sosua and I could set up a bank account with them before I head down there? Any suggestions or insight would be great!

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I use Banco Leon's branch in Sosua, all I needed in order to open the a/c was the passport. Not a single issue in 5 years.

korejdk said:

I use Banco Leon's branch in Sosua, all I needed in order to open the a/c was the passport. Not a single issue in 5 years.

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While not "my" bank, I always found that the service at Banco Leon was friendly, helpful minded and quite efficient. They are also technologically quite OK.

However, if above poster opened an account only showing a passport five years ago (?)... this is something that I suspect may have changed in recent years. Both, the poster and the OP may want to verify that bank's actual current requirements.

... J-D.

J D Sauser said:

five years ago (?)...
... J-D.

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make that less then two years

korejdk said:

make that less then two years

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Interesting. Sorry I read something into your first post on this subject then:

korejdk said:

I use Banco Leon's branch in Sosua, all I needed in order to open the a/c was the passport. Not a single issue in 5 years.

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Thanks for clarifying ... J-D.

sorry for the confusion, I have 3 accounts, and the last one was open little less then two years ago

You can not open a bank account with just a passport any more. You will need passport, reference from an existing bank, credit card (usually) and a reference from an existing customer of the bank you are applying to.
I help many clients with this.