Hi ya'll, My name is Mitchell, I am a gringo-cuencano moving to Cuenca in September with my wife and kids. Got some questions regarding banking, credit cards, internet, cell phones, etc.
1) I work for a web design company in Boca Raton and will continue to do so from Cuenca. My boss asked me to open an account in PNC Bank since he has the company account there and will be easy for him to do direct deposits. Do you have any experience with this bank? How about the fees to withdraw money from ATM's in Cuenca? Is it true that the US government is now charging credit/debit cards a small fee for using them abroad?
2) I also plan to take my credit cards with me. Have you had any issues with them in Cuenca? Same question: any fee when using them in the grocery store, restaurant, movies, etc. I plan to pay Netflix and some services such as utilities, cable and internet with my cards. Has anybody done this with an American Credit Card?
3) Internet: I need fast internet to be in touch with my boss via Skype and to upload files to our server in Boca. What internet do you recommend? TV Cable? ETAPA? any other ISP that I am not aware of?
4) TV Cable or DirecTV? I know that DirecTV has Second Audio Programming in English and that is crucial for me and my kids. We all speak Spanish but I want my kids to watch TV only in English as a way to keep their accent in shape 
5) Cell Phone: Movistar or Claro? My parents live in Cuenca, retired. They have Movistar but when we use Viber or Tango with our iPhones I get a bad connection with them, whereas a friend has Claro and I have skyped him to his phone when on the street and the connection seems better. What's your suggestion?
6) IRS: Do we have to travel to the consulate in Guayaquil to file taxes? Can we do it using Turbo Tax or any of those online services?
Those are my major doubts. I have spoken to friends over there regarding these issues, but some of them don't know or have a cuencano point of view. I would like a gringo perspective.
Hope to meet some crazy gringoes in Cuenca soon!
Gringo-Cuencano moving to Cuenca in September 2013
I can help with the PNC bank question. I use a PNC account. They say they charge a $5.00 fee for every foreign ATM withdraw. I have never been charged, and I'm not going to ask them why. Maybe it was because I told them I was living here. My parents also have a PNC bank account, visited Ecuador, and they were charged the $5.00 fee. I would expect to pay the fee. Some ATMs don't accept my card. Produbanco won't take it. I have good luck with Banco Pichincha, Banco Internacional, and Banco Guayaquil.
My credit cards are Visa but were issued through PNC. I'm not charged any fee per transaction, and I think it's because Ecuador uses the US dollar. I remember whenever I used the cards in Canada, I was charged a percentage of the transaction, I assume because the currencies were different.
My mind drew a blank:
http://askville.amazon.com/acronym-init … d=20605289
Thank you very much jm. That helped a lot! I was going to tell the bank about me moving to Ecuador, even though I do not have my credit cards with them (one is CitiBank and the other is CapitalOne and I have used both in Ecuador before and no fees) I will need to withdraw some money and open a local bank account (my parents say that Banco Bolivariano is a good deal).
Have you ever deposited PNC checks into a local Ecuadorian bank? Do you know how long it takes to clear?
Thank you so much again
Can confirm capital One charges no foreign ATM fees.
mugtech wrote:Can confirm capital One charges no foreign ATM fees.
Thank you mugtech. How do you manage your monthly statements? Online or do they mail them to Ecuador?
live in USA, get them by mail, but online is an option.
Plan to do everything online, amigo. Mail service here is not dependable.
How about computer hardware? Is it reasonable/accessible to buy hard drives, mother boards, laptops, tablets, etc? Or better to buy in the US and have it shipped in?
If I were in the market for any of those things I would mail them over here, especially if I know they fall under the 8.8 pound shipping threshhold.
Sorry?? 8.8 lbs? Never heard of that? Could you elaborate?
4 kg
I can ship any weight package anywhere. I am assuming there is some tax avoidance related to the weight? I also do understand 8.8=4, I would have thought there was more to it than that.
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