These places count on suckers that see a very small or no fee, but get robbed blind on the exchange rate................
- Thread starter aextranjeroenDR
- Start date
Remitly
I believe the exact phrasing was that they did not have any USD... Yes, I will definitely try elsewhere but I had no time back then. Just took a minor loss with DOP with them...
It is possible they didn't have enough USD. Fortunately, I have another W.U. location just one minute away if that ever happens to me. Worst case, they'll have it the next day.
So, do you guys think I need to make an account with WU while I'm in the US? That is to say, that I already messed it up? Obviously I'm still going to make an account and try it but hopefully I haven't already screwed it with my choices.
I downloaded the app and opened my account here in the DR.
Ahhhhh, Mr Richard Head ! Today's XE rate £4000 to DOP 76:97, show me a better one with no fees, there is a world beyond the $
Most posters here don't have a bank in England and aren't sending pounds. I have no idea what kind of exchange rate you could get here on pounds. I've never seen that posted anywhere. Once you get much over $1000 USD, it's usually cheaper to send a wire. My bank charges $15 USD no matter how much I send down here.
I created an Western Union account in my home country so that my accounts there could be used to fund the remittances. The first time I transferred to myself, GBP to DOP, I had to do a video call and verify my ID with passport etc. After that, WU can let you do cash pick up for upto 50000 pesos. Over 50000 DOP, they have a questionnaire as to who you are sending to, for what purpose, etc (presumably for anti-money laundering purposes).
I also had to use a VPN on my phone to trick the app to think I was in the UK to let it transfer from my UK accounts.
Remitly on the other hand have no questions on cash upto 1000GBP but I could only transfer to my bank account here or to a friend. They ask for address of a recipient 'as in a state-issued ID' which I dont have in DR and when I called customer service they were cagey and not sure. I did not want to deal with Dominican customer service so I sent to a trusted friend.
WU refuse to transfer to my bank account for some reason. WU offer cash pickups in DOP and USD and bank transfers in DOP only. Remitly offer USD remittance as well. I have not tried Xoom as I hate Paypal.
I wish Wise supported DOP/USD in DR but they sadly don't.
According to Google, W.U. is currently offering 78.36 on GBP. That would give you 5,560 more received here on 4000 GBP that with XE.
"Western Union offers the next most competitive British Pound to Dominican Peso exchange rate today (currently 1 GBP = 78.3561 DOP). Two other competitive providers for sending money from United Kingdom to Dominican Republic are XE Money Transfer and WorldRemit."
I see XE shows a rate for USD as 59.77 and no fee on their opening page (before signing in). I don't have an account with them, so cannot log in to see if that rate remains the same. My hunch is that it is an introductory rate to attract customers. I also see the rate for sterling that you mention, and have the same hunch. I changed USD to pesos in Caribe Express yesterday at 59.80, and cannot imagine XE will essentially do the same unless it is a special offer for a limited amount.
I think you will find that is the bank rate, few if any of these transfer companies will give that rate. I've just checked the WU app and todays rate GBP to DOP bank to bank is 76.91
I think that is an introductory rate(?). Many of these transfer services do that to suck you in. Post #20 that I copied from their website shows DOP received for USD sent. For USD, the exchange rate is 57.42.
That could be(?). Here's the link but it's not working right now:
Send Money to the Dominican Republic from the United Kingdom - Xe Money Transfer
Send money online from the United Kingdom to the Dominican Republic with Xe Money Transfer. Get access to our great exchange rates with fast and secure international money transfers.
www.xe.com
I meant to my DR USD bank account. WU offer USD cash pick up but no deposit into a bank account. So I pick and choose based on my situation.
Put in a DOP and USD to keep my accounts active - Remitly
Cash pick up via a friend - Remitly
Cash pickup to me, less than 50k - WU
Senor @bachata mentioned another service Flexienvios BHD but it requires a US IP (or a VPN), US bank account, has a 3000 USD limit and their parent company has not so nice reviews.
And Flexienvios requires you use a debit or credit card to do the transfer. For some, that may be a deterrent also
I think they used to offer to deposit in your bank account here but, if it was in pesos, you probably took a big hit on the exchange rate. I prefer to pickup in USD, get the best exchange rate at a cambio, and then deposit into my bank account here.
If you opened an account with the app and used the DR as your location then you would be able to send to the US
Their website does only show about 30 or so countries you can send money from, and well over 100 you can send money to. The DR is not in the "from" list. I would have to assume the app would show the same. BTW, XE also does not list the DR as a country you can send from...only the US and Canada in North America, and none in Central/South America or the Caribbean region.