anyone have experience w/switching bank id document from passport to cédula & building credit?

[drstock]

I changed my ID method at Banco Popular from passport to cedula several years ago. Like all dealings with the bank it seemed unnecessarily complicated. It was just like opening a new account.

 

[johne]

No insults at all, it was a genuine answer. I just exaggerated it a bit so you can understand what's the point here.

I am telling you again, how it works, let's say, in Banco Popular. (I'm a customer there for 20 years and I am a naturalized citizen too).

For example, you have a savings account in USD. You put $30.000 there and just spend them, exchanging them to pesos to your savings account in pesos, paying your daily expenses with your debit card in pesos... next month you have $25.000 left, another month $20.000 left, etc.

You ask the bank for a credit card in dollars. They give you one, but with 500 USD credit limit. Next month you come back and ask them to raise the limit to, let's say, 1500 USD. They call you back in a few days and say NO. Why? Because you don't have a stable income, you deposited some money and spend them, but who knows if you have something more to deposit when you run out of what you have there.

Now, imagine another situation. You have just $5000 on your account, but every month you receive a wire transfer for another $5000. Or you deposit a cheque every month, maybe one month $4000, next month $5000, but every month. You do it for a year or two. And let's say, you spend almost all of that money every month, so your balance is never more than $10000, but every month you receive another wire transfer or deposit another cheque.

Then you go and ask to raise your credit card limit to 2500 USD. Or more. And they say YES. Why? Because you receive or deposit money on the regular basis.

On top of that, if you have regular income in USD, but your Pesos account is always empty, they will approve your credit cards in USD, but decline your application for credit cards in Pesos.

The example written in paragraphs #4-#5 is spot on even to the balance amount of having it hover around $10,000.

 

[JD Jones]

The example written in paragraphs #4-#5 is spot on even to the balance amount of having it hover around $10,000.

My manager let it slip once that preferential treatments starts at certain levels of funds.

Supposedly not common knowledge but it doesn't take a genius to figure it out.

 

[bob saunders]

No insults at all, it was a genuine answer. I just exaggerated it a bit so you can understand what's the point here.

I am telling you again, how it works, let's say, in Banco Popular. (I'm a customer there for 20 years and I am a naturalized citizen too).

For example, you have a savings account in USD. You put $30.000 there and just spend them, exchanging them to pesos to your savings account in pesos, paying your daily expenses with your debit card in pesos... next month you have $25.000 left, another month $20.000 left, etc.

You ask the bank for a credit card in dollars. They give you one, but with 500 USD credit limit. Next month you come back and ask them to raise the limit to, let's say, 1500 USD. They call you back in a few days and say NO. Why? Because you don't have a stable income, you deposited some money and spend them, but who knows if you have something more to deposit when you run out of what you have there.

Now, imagine another situation. You have just $5000 on your account, but every month you receive a wire transfer for another $5000. Or you deposit a cheque every month, maybe one month $4000, next month $5000, but every month. You do it for a year or two. And let's say, you spend almost all of that money every month, so your balance is never more than $10000, but every month you receive another wire transfer or deposit another cheque.

Then you go and ask to raise your credit card limit to 2500 USD. Or more. And they say YES. Why? Because you receive or deposit money on the regular basis.

On top of that, if you have regular income in USD, but your Pesos account is always empty, they will approve your credit cards in USD, but decline your application for credit cards in Pesos.

My BHD visa CC is both pesos and dollars.

 

[Glenn Burke]

My BHD visa CC is both pesos and dollars.

Popular has such pesos/dollars cards too, I just don't use them, I use their USD only credit cards issued in Panama that have nothing to do with pesos at all. I don't need credit cards in pesos, debit card in pesos work fine for me. But it has nothing to do with his question, he asked not about particular credit card type but about credit rating in general, I just gave him an example how it works with Popular.

If you have some good experience with BHD, you can do the same, give an example how such things work in BHD.

 

[Glenn Burke]

I changed my ID method at Banco Popular from passport to cedula several years ago. Like all dealings with the bank it seemed unnecessarily complicated. It was just like opening a new account.

We did it a few years ago for my wife and it was not complicated at all, Banco Popular asked for 1) cedula 2) passport 3) Carta de verificacion de empleo (l printed it myself in a few minutes). In less than a week they changed everything to cedula. After that, we had to activate her Internet Banking again, it took less than 5 minutes, and activate a new token.

 

[Mario1208]

Spoke with a bhd employee over the phone last week to verify if my account would remain the same. Would be a hassle to start over considering all my bill payment payees are all saved. Was thankfully reassured acct# would remain the same it’s just a matter of updating my profile thanks again for the feedback & educating me on how DR credit system operates Glenn ..appreciated!

 

[drstock]

We did it a few years ago for my wife and it was not complicated at all, Banco Popular asked for 1) cedula 2) passport 3) Carta de verificacion de empleo (l printed it myself in a few minutes). In less than a week they changed everything to cedula. After that, we had to activate her Internet Banking again, it took less than 5 minutes, and activate a new token.

Good for you. It seems you are much luckier in your dealings with Banco Popular than I am. Maybe you have a prettier face!

 

[JLSawmam]

When I renewed my US passport last year, I asked Banco Popular if I could change my account info to my cedula instead of the passport and was told no. I'm still a temporary resident, so that's probably why. Updating my account info to the new passport number was about the same as opening an account, paperwork-wise, At least I don't have to worry about that for another ten years.

For anyone with permanent residency, have you been able to change bank info to your cedula? Or is that only for those with citizenship?

 

[SKY]

When I renewed my US passport last year, I asked Banco Popular if I could change my account info to my cedula instead of the passport and was told no. I'm still a temporary resident, so that's probably why. Updating my account info to the new passport number was about the same as opening an account, paperwork-wise, At least I don't have to worry about that for another ten years.

For anyone with permanent residency, have you been able to change bank info to your cedula? Or is that only for those with citizenship?

Not all banks are the same on this. And not all personal in any one bank also...........

 

[Adrian]

Not all banks are the same on this. And not all personal in any one bank also...........

That’s true for many things in the DR. There are few hard and fast rules.

I have temporary residency and tried a few times a couple of years ago to change my ID with BP from my passport to cedula. I cannot recall exactly what paperwork I was asked for, but it was the same as some of the paperwork I supplied to open my account such as new tax returns etc. It wasn’t too important to me so I didn’t bother.

I then went to BP about some trivial matter and mentioned I had tried to change my ID to my cedula, and the lady offered to do it while I waited. It took about twenty minutes. Again I cannot recall what paperwork I had to show, but there was nothing new so would only have been 1 or 2 old documents I had on my phone for my residency or initial bank application.

 

[drstock]

When I renewed my US passport last year, I asked Banco Popular if I could change my account info to my cedula instead of the passport and was told no. I'm still a temporary resident, so that's probably why. Updating my account info to the new passport number was about the same as opening an account, paperwork-wise, At least I don't have to worry about that for another ten years.

For anyone with permanent residency, have you been able to change bank info to your cedula? Or is that only for those with citizenship?

I had the same thing with the new passport and asking to change to my cedula. In my case though, Banco Popular did the change despite my Residency being temporary at the time. As I said previously, it was a tedious experience. It was a few years ago so I suppose their rules may have changed now, although it makes little sense that they wouldn't accept your legal cedula as ID.

 

[Glenn Burke]

For anyone with permanent residency, have you been able to change bank info to your cedula? Or is that only for those with citizenship?

Normally as soon as people get their first cedula (temporary), they change all the accounts to the cedula number. Actually, in Banco Popular when they ask for some paperwork to change your info from passport to cedula, it's not mentioned what kind of cedula is that in their instructions, just any cedula. You probably asked the wrong person in the bank or they did not understand you correctly, maybe you just asked somebody who had no idea what is temporary cedula at all? It's still your cedula, period, and yes it must be accepted anywhere.

 

[JLSawmam]

I asked the person in Customer Service who was going to change my info to my new passport number. I think I just asked about changing to my cedula without specifying what category of residency I have. TBH, it's not a big deal because I only need to physically have my passport when withdrawing funds. I have a photo of it on my phone which is accepted for deposits.