If your home country bank happens to be in Canada,(which I'll assume from your name) all you need is an account at ScotiaBank, which is also a bank in DR, so just use your ATM card for a withdrawal.
- Thread starter drgolfer
- Start date
Sending money to DR
If your home country bank happens to be in Canada,(which I'll assume from your name) all you need is an account at ScotiaBank, which is also a bank in DR, so just use your ATM card for a withdrawal.
Things have gotten better. I presented a check drawn on a U.S. bank over the counter a few months ago, and BanReservas had the funds in two days and showing in my account. The funds were available by the end of the week.
If you have a USD account with BanReservas, for example, you need only deposit the funds in dollars. When you need funds, you can pull from the ATM in pesos at a very favorable exchange rate.
That is a huge improvement. I use BHD and it takes two weeks from the time I deposit a check from my US account until the funds are available - even though that money is gone from my US account in two days.
I also have to exchange/transfer the USD for pesos into my peso account at BHD. Very convenient that you can withdraw pesos directly from your USD account using the ATM - assuming you don't get dinged too bad on the exchange rate.
Maybe some day soon these other banks wil catch up. They're getting free use of my money during that time period funds are "en transito".
The ATM exchange rate equals or exceeds the rate from one of my favorite cambio guys. In fact, I only pull from the ATMs now. Banreservas allows you to pull RD$5,000 which is less than USD$100. Recently, I pulled RD$10,000. You have to break the RD1,000 notes, though.
Depositing a cheque in US dollars into a US dollar account in DR is the least expensive way if time is no factor. Perhaps the chequing account in USA has no fees and you pay only for the printing of the blank cheques. The DR bank accepts the cheques into the account and when the funds become available there is no fee. If you are in USA and you are sending money to a friend or spouse in DR who sometimes is in USA then depositing cash into that USA bank account makes the beneficiary able to write cheques against it in DR.
Yes, that's the way it works - zero fees. You just have to plan ahead to allow for the time delay. You need to have accounts in both the US and the DR.
Give ScotiaBank a try Doc....
They give 10,000 a pull and mix the bills for you... no 2,000's
That's what I do. I don't remember what the service charge is, but it's only a couple of bucks.
If you can find a National Bank ATM, you can pull up to at least 20k. I've gotten as much as 23K.
I use Banco Popular ATM which give you up to 10,000 all in 500 peso bills. I used to use Progreso which would give 14,000 but had several issues with the ATM so stopped using it.
Bob, if you look around, you find there are ATMs that give 500 and 200 pesos bills, and there are others that give 2000, 1000, and 500 bills.
I used to use Western Union, which is very expensive. Now I use Xoom and they charge a very low fee and are quick to call the recipients to arrange delivery.
I have been using Xoom for years. I do it with a link to my US account. I send dollars because their exchange rate is not so hot. For the longest time I had no issues and for quantities under $1000 US it would take a few hours max until the cash was available for pickup at BHD. The got bought out by PayPal last year and now every transaction I send gets delayed. They say "1-3 days Until Bank Approval" but it always takes the max of 3 days. I checked with my bank and they said there is no delay on their end. The money is gone from my account in a matter of hours but it takes 3 days to materialize in the DR at BHD. I called customer service and got nowhere. The could not explain where the money was for 3 days. Like I said for years it was completed within hours. They told me that banking is slow and complicated. Under $1000? Really? I suspect that they are just kiting my money. If they have enough money in the pipeline it could be a fair pile of money to play with for 3 days. If I need the money there in a hurry go to a Western Union outlet and pay cash for "MONEY IN MINUTES". It is more expensive but the cash is there in minutes.
Xoom absolutely screws you on the exchange rate. For example, today the exchange rate is 1 dollar = 48.2561 pesos.
https://www.xoom.com/dominican-republic/send-money
https://www.xoom.com/dominican-republic/send-money