Money exchange and banking

I was looking to do samething before I left Springfiel MO. But Springfield didn't have a bank that was also in Cali. I put my sister on my account and checks. She only had to pay a couple of bills to date but wanted that option in case something came up. I use my debit card at CITI Bank ATM here in Cali and they do not charge me any fees. Bank transfers from my credit union to a bank here in Cali is $ 15.00. So far haven't needed. Another reason I didn't open an account here and left my account open in Missouri was social security and my work pension. They will not automacticaly deposit checks in Colombia and I do not trust the mail. So am having deposited in my bank in Springfield, use my debit card at supermarket etc., and ATM to withdraw money from time to time.
I haven't been to Medellin yet but hear it is beautiful. Hope you like cooler weather. There is 23 / 28 celsius while here in Cali is 34 / 36 when sun is out. Good luck and enjoy a wonderful country!
Don

Don,
Thanks for the reply.  Very helpful. You know basically what I wanted to do was to take advantage of the increase in the peso. Granted it probably would not be worth it given the exchange rates.  I believe that I will continue in the same manner that you have already arranged for yourself and do the direct deposit into a US bank and do the ATM thing...

Let me ask you something!  I am ready to make the move.  In fact I have really been ready for awhile now.  I am 72 years old but people say look late 50's hah! I work out 3 times a week, take Spanish once a week and salsa dance.  Still in great health, knock on wood, so my trainer says. I own my own home.  When there is work, I work as a building inspector for an engineer.  I have arranged to lease my home in West Palm Beach, FL for a year with an additional year extension. The question is this. Since you are probably still considered a newbee to Colombia and are still watching where and how fast (or slow) your money goes do you think it is possible to make it down there on 3.8 million pesos per month. I have been told not to worry about it but I hope you understand where I am coming from. 

I really appreciate your response.  Ya know I have friends in Cali, Medellin, LaVega and Bogota who really want me to get down there but it is nice to get a new acquaintances opinion.

Thanks, Carl Salvo

Hello Don,
Well, I am busy selling household items and goods in preparation of the exodus.  I am having a hard time selling my stuff.  I'm hoping that it might be that we had "Black Friday" (the day after thanksgiving)and then Cyber Monday when stores sell product and cheap, cheap prices. This weekend is garage sale weekend where I live.  It should be interesting.  He I inserted a profile photo of myself for the world to see.  It was taken in LaVega.  I was about 25 pounds heavier then. Send me some photos of your sister-in-laws to my email addresscontact.
Carl Salvo

Here is my experience with the banking systems in Colombia.  Particularly in Medellin.  If you are not a resident of Colombia you cannot open an account in a bank. If you are a resident but do not have a full time job in Colombia you will have to open all of your records in the USA to the Colombian banks and individuals interviewing you on behalf of the banks.  This is not a very smart step to take. It is best to keep your money in the bank in the USA and use ATMs when you need money.  The Colombian banks will charge you an unfair amount every month for keeping any amount of money in a checking or a savings account and on top of that you will be charged an extra amount every time you deposit and every time you make a withdrawal.
If you end up depositing too much in a Colombian bank and you decide to return to your country of origin, you will have a very difficult time bringing your money back with you and in the process of changing your money back to dollars you will again loose much more (for dollars are sold at a much higher rate).  Banking in Latin America is very, very restrictive; I do not recommend you bring your money to a Colombian bank or even to Citibank in Colombia.  If you are a woman trying to open an account in Colombia you will have much more difficulty than if you are a man. ATMs are a safer way to go.

Hi,
I have not yet moved to Colombia, but am considering the same. Based on the last post - what happens in the case of someone getting his / her pay dierectly into a bank account in Colombia. What are the expenses to maintain a bank account and remittance of a portion of ones salary?

Cheers,
Anil.

From what i understand it woild be best to keep your direct deposit as you currently have it and to use Colombian ATM services as you need funds im Colombia. Once your establish an amount for your needs you woild only have to make one or two monthly withdrawals via ATM. No one in the Colombian bank needs to know how much money you have
Carl.

If  you decide that you want to open an account in Colombia you must:
1.  Have a legal residency (There are any steps required to achieve it.  Contact the Colombian embassy or consulate).
2.  Present a legal I.D. number to the bank to open an account
3.  If you are working in Colombia you must provide all of that
Information to the banking entity, and maybe more if you are a resent resident.  They want to see that you are really earning what you want to deposit.
4.  If you are not working you must disclose all of your     
economic information (or info from your country of origin.  This is not safe).
5.  If you  provide all of the right information you get to open an account but you will be charged a monthly (for any type of account) depending on the amount of money you keep on your accounts (the more you have the more you will be charged).  You will also be charged a fee every time you withdraw and every time you deposit.  If they receive the deposit directly from a country outside of Colombia you will be charged an exchange rate plus an amount for their effort of exchanging your money to pesos. There might be other hidden fees.
It is easier to keep your money in your country of origin and pay the ATM fees.  It is also safer because you can withdraw from many different locations without becoming familiar to whomever.

Dear Carl n Medellin Bound,

Many thanks for the information - this helps me to weigh my options of what I should do.

Man, you pay to deposit and withdraw Guess we all have to get used to different banking systems across.

I would love to keep my salary in my country (India) or have it in an account in the UK, but one has to pay taxes where one works. I work for a company and am not in a business - so the options are restricted.

Yes, ofcourse I shall be applying for a TT (work) Visa after my initial trip to Bogota next month.

Will trouble you guys once I have more doubts.

Cheers for now,
Anil.

I moved to Manizales in November.  I have experience with international banking and I am slowly learning about business and banking in Colombia. 

Medellin_bound is correct about needing a proper visa and id to open an account.  And it can be a hassle opening an account here even with the correct paperwork.  You are also better off avoiding opening an account here, unless you have to.  If your working here, you should be able to have your company do a direct deposit into your US or UK account using your banks SWIFT code.  But most of the banks I have spoken with do not charge fees for depositing or withdrawing money. 

On average they charge 10 mil pesos per month, as a service fee of having a bank card.  If you withdraw money from another banks ATM they will charge a fee and if you make more then a preset amount of withdrawals(typically 5) per month, then they will charge a fee.  They might charge a deposit fee IF the company you are working for has a different bank, then they charge a bank to bank fee.  But if you open an account with your companies bank, then there should be no fee. 

If you transfer money from your home bank to Colombia bank, you must first obtain permission and file paperwork with your Colombian bank or they will reject the transfer.  Your bank and Col. bank will charge you a fee for this (this is normal worldwide). 

But it is far cheaper and easier, just to use your ATM.  But keep in mind that you may want to raise your withdrawal limit with your bank.  Most are pre-set to $200 or $500.  Citi Bank will let you withdraw 700mil pesos (more then most banks).  So you may have to make several withdrawals per month just to pay your rent and have spending cash. 

This can become costly, as your bank will charge a ATM, International Fee and possibly a conversation fee + the ATM charges a fee.  Talk with your bank first to find out all the fees.  THEY ADD UP! 

If you open an account with HSBC or CITI which have branches here in Colombia, they currently do not charge any transaction / ATM fees when using their banks.  However you can not withdraw money from your account via the Teller.  Each country and Bank system is separate (worldwide).  So in other words,if you have an account with CITI in the USA you can not go into a CITI bank in Colombia and fill out a withdrawal or deposit slip.  You will need to get a 2nd account with the Colombian bank and they will always be separate accounts.  You will have to pay transfer fees to transfer money between the two account. 

I would suggest getting an account with CITI or HSBC to help save money on transaction fees and keep your money in your home country bank.  I would also recommend bringing some reserve cash with you too.  As you can sometimes get better exchange rates at local money markets then you can at the bank.  So if the currency takes a noise dive, you can quickly exchange some cash for the previous market value. 

Carl, as far as living on 3.8 million pesos per month you should be able to live a mid to upper middle income lifestyle on that.  In Manizales you would be in a upper class lifestyle with that income.

OK,here's my experience of moving from the UK to Bucaramanga with my Colombian wife. I wanted to move some of my savings to buy a car. Current inter-bank rate is around 2835 COP to the GB Pound.

The bureaus de change and cash machines were fine to get smaller amounts of cash. Rates were not bad - I got 2900 from a Bogotá bureau de change and I get around 2700 COP per GPB from the cash machine with my visa debit of my UK bank including the transaction fee of around £2.50. The UK banks blocked my card at first, but at least one unblocked it after an online message from me, and it now works every time. Although the rate & charges are OK it's a little tedious to move larger amounts of money via a cash machine. You also need to be on your guard walking out of bureau de change or cash machine!

I have a spouse's visa & it took 1 month to get my temporary cédula. That was a relatively easy process. Opening my own account took some shopping around - both HSBC & Citibank demanded 3 months bank statements &/or proof of income from Colombia before they'd open an account. They were unhelpful and not interested in any UK documentary proof of income.  Incidentally, HSBC Colombia has just been sold.

Bancolombia were friendly, and would have opened the account without other documents but they eventually realized their policy was you needed 6 months residency.

Colpatria (now owned by Scotiabank from Canada) were very helpful and opened me a savings and current account on the spot with just the cédula and some local references (my in-laws).  Only later did they find out the bank policy does not allow any foreign transfers for the first 6 months. Same goes for AV Villas. They would open an account, but I couldn't transfer money to it.

In the end we transferred the money to my wife's account in via an on-line broker which I set up well before I left the UK (XE.com). We sent a small amount of money as a trial at first. The bank manager struggled to know how to process this transaction but we got there in the end once he figured out how to do it. My wife had to sign for the money. For a larger amount, I also had to show the source of my UK income before they would release the funds, but they accepted copies of UK documents. We got a rate just 50 pesos below the inter-bank rate. It took around a week, then a few days to get the paperwork done. More hassle than I needed, but OK in the end.

The laws in Colombia are there to stop money laundering which is a justifiable reason given the situation here. However, it seems each bank has different rules, and possibly the bank manager can use their discretion, or not, to ignore/change these, so you can be frustrated. It pays to shop around, and be patient and polite.

Hi Rob, I've just bought a bar in Medellin and need to transfer some money which is fine but like you the bank are asking for proof of income before they will accept the transfer. Could you please tell me which uk documents you used? The bank, Caja Social, are being very unhelpful!

Unless you have a cedula or id that shows you are a legal resident (in a sense this document is equivalent to the United States' green card) and that you have established your residency legally in Colombia.  The banks will not allow you to open an account. When you have your cedula you will be able to open an account.  However at that time the banks will ask you to proof that your money is obtained legally and you will have to give them account information on where you money is and the account numbers then you will be charge a certain amount for transferring your dollars to a Colombian account and a certain amount for converting them to Colombian pesos then monthly you will be charge a certain amount (which increases the more money you put in) for keeping your money in the bank monthly.  I recommend you keep you money in the USA. I use my Master card to pay for most anything and this one does not charge international fees.  Also using a bank card ( I use my Wells Fargo as well).  At the present time your card must have a hologram chip to be accepted at all ATMS in Colombia.  The banks are in the process of replacing all ATMS to accept only cards with a hologram chip (for security purposes). Mine does not have one and I am finding that my choices are getting smaller when it comes to ATMS.

I hope this helps.

Thank you, that is very helpful. Do you know which documents they will accept as proof of income? I don't have bank statements because I bank online and can only download them as a spread sheet. Paperless banking uff!

When I tried to open my account they (all of the banks I attempted to open an account with) wanted my account numbers, names of the banks for them to directly check into my accounts and payment slips from work or government reports of my retirement. Although I only wanted to open an account for myself they insisted in me having to release all of my husbands account also.   I did not trust releasing this information and decided then to keep my accounts and moneys in USA.  I applied with Banco de Santander, Banco de Colombia, Davivienda, Banco de Bogota and Citibank in Colombia.  I never proceeded with opening an account.  It has been a few years now and I have not needed to have a large amount of money sitting in a Colombian account (you loose lots of money, when you decide you want to convert Colombian pesos back into dollars). You can have someone you trust in USA sending you the sum lumps you need.  I highly recommend Dolex.  Dolex in the USA will accept your printed statements and will tell you what the yearly lump sum is that the US government allows to have sent to you yearly (there is a limit to what you can send from USA and there is a limit that Colombia allows a person to receive yearly). You can receive this money s monthly or in a few lump sums The money does not have to be sent to an account, you can pick it up at the bank without having a bank account (there is a particular widow and line for that at the bank)  just make sure you always go to a different branch to pick up.  You do not want anyone keeping track of when and why you go to the bank.  A lesson to be learned from the State Department and those sort of agencies.   I believe this is much safer. Also, when living in Colombia do not respond to any questions via the phone of people impersonating bank employees asking you to confirm account numbers.  This might happen even when you have no accounts in the country.

Thank you very much for some really good advice and for taking the time to help me.

Wondering can i use my Bank of America Debit card to withdraw money from ATM machine? or do i have to have Debit card of those bank which has branch here like Citibank?

Maybe, it depends on the kind of card you have, the bank that issued it and if it has the required hologram (chip) for security.  The ATM will identify themselves with the Interbank Network symbols like PLUS.

I found only one bank ATM that would issue me money when I did not have a hologram on my card.  There are many different ATMS at the airport and you can try your card on every one of them until you can get some money.  They are all located on the second floor at the check in level. Be careful and don't let anyone see you entering your numbers.  There really are professionals watching.

If you cannot get money at the airport then you can try at the bus terminal stations or Metro Stations also at the MALLS.

Do not exchange much money inside the airport (before you leave customs) the exchange is extremely poor.  Go to The mall of OVIEDO in Medellin.  Most exchange houses are located there and the rates are much better.  The Oviedo Mall is really close to the Hotel Sheraton.  Bring your passport with you.

Hello Carl,

Hope things are good. Let me know if you are looking to exchange us dollars. I can definitely hook you up with a better rate.