a debit card question

[Bill123]

Now I have a question on debit cards. One great way to avoid getting charged an ATM fee up here in the states is to simply buy something at a store, pay with the Visa debit card, and ask for extra cash. Can this be done in South America?

The idea is that we could then avoid the ATM charges, both by the foreign ATM owner and from your own bank, if any.

Bill,
I just use the ATM. I believe the charge is minimal when using the debit card. I pay with cash (pesos). I would be a little leary paying with a debit or credit card.

[Clay]

Bill, it seems like you are asking the same question- however the answer could be to open an account in a reputable Colombian bank where transactions cost very few pesos. I would suggest to use a bank that is approved by the world bank association.
For instance, I bank at the Banco de Credito(peruano), ANYWHERE in peru I can retiro dinero a cajero automatico.
I had a problem on august 28(my birthday and the first day back in peru that month) some thieves stole $1400 US from me at the cajero automatico. anyway I filed a Denuncia con policia, complaint with the tourist board and filled out the bank's forms and returned to Florida.
When I returned sept 27, the bank had returned $1400 twice to my account, totalling $2800. I thought about this for 30 seconds and decided to bank exclucively at the Banco de Credito for the rest of my life(by the way they took back the second deposit AFTER i could have taken the money and not closed the account, waiting for more mistakes)

[Jim]

I'm not certain everything in Costa Rica applies in Colombia but most things are the same. I personally don't like to throw my money away (especially earning $750 per month) so I pay attention to these things.

CREDIT CARDS are a great way to pay for things, Visa and MC have an automatic 1% fee which can't be avoided. Some credit cards don't add anything else and others add up to 2% additional. I have 2 credit cards, one which only costs 1% to use and the other which costs 3%.

Of course I use the 1% card. I keep the 3% card in the event an electronic error rejects my primary card, I have an option. I also use this to charge car rentals and make the deposit. Both cards carry insurance so I don't need to buy more but they normally block over $2000 of available cash and when I return my car in one piece it takes two weeks to cancel it. Since I rent cars frequently, I don't want my available balance gobbled up by phontom hold on my credit

DEBIT CARDS--My bank allows four free per month. Some banks charge $1 per transaction anhd some don't. I have found the cheapest way to use ATM is once a month transfer a lot of money to my CR account.

Hope this helps.

Jim

[Bill123]

Jim,

In addition to the 1% visa fee and the possible 2% bank fee, there is also a fee by the owner of the ATM. And sometimes by your own bank too for use of the ATM card. My credit union allows five free ATM withdrawals a month, but I am sure I still get hit with a hefty ATM charge by whoever owns the ATM that I am using. But none of this is revealed or broken out anywhere!

As to opening up an account in pesos, not a bad idea....except for having to pay the generally high retail exchange rates when you change your dollars into pesos as you add to the account.

[Jim]

Bill123,

Yo´'re absolutely right about nothing being explasined clearly or written anywhere. Since I live here, I have Internet contact with my banking institutions and ask lots of questions. Many things need to be learned by trail and error. About the third time you can find the cheapest way to do something.

I have a savings account at a Costa Rican bank and I had the option of opening it in colones or dollars. The colon is deflated about .01% everydsy in relation to the dollar so if I had chosed colones, the account would be worth leess each day. This probably also happens with the peso.

Jim

[Lostagain]

Using your US bank atm card in Colombia is an economical way to exchange money. Even with the fees from the atm bank and your own bank, you still do much better than you would going to a casa de cambios. The fee is much less and the exchange rate is better. When I lived in Colombia I used my US bank atm card all the time. We are going back for Christmas and will use an atm card even in the smallest towns.

Opening a bank account in Colombia has a small complication; you have to have a cedula. All the Colombian banks are pretty good, but if you use the big ones, Bancolombia, you will have better no fee atm access. Also, you should consider which bank has the nicest atmosphere and the prettiest tellers as you are going to spend a lot of time in banks if you live there ;~).
Chao, Lost Again.

[Lostagain]

ooops

[Clay]

At the banco de credito you can open a debit account with you deposit balance being either in dollars, pesos or soles. what they take out of my account for transactions is around 2 centavos which is a little more than 1/2 of one cent, i never realized it was THAT cheap until you brought up the question

[Bill123]

Jim, you're so right....it is a travesty and a total consumer ripoff that they don't break out all the charges. It is one of the biggest bank scams going...and something needs to change in this area.

Anyway, so if you're going to use an ATM card, try to use one where your own bank doesn't charge a fee for using an ATM. Also, use a card that doesn't charge a 1 or 2% bank fee. Just go with the ones where you end up paying an exchange fee, the 1% Visa fee, and the fee for using the foreign ATM.

My other question, posted in another post, never got answered....so I will ask it here. Due to the situation with ATM flat fees, it is better to take out as much as you can per withdrawal. But the most I have found I could take out is 500,000 pesos at a crack. Does anyone know if they can take out more than that anywhere?

Another issue that someone may be able to comment on is... I have heard you can get great rates by taking cash down there and getting it changed for pesos on the black market. But it would seem to me to be the opposite...that it would be better to be "buying" dollars to get a great rate, rather than selling them...since they need to get rid of ill-gotten dollars from their nefarious activities!