ATM withdrawals

Charles Schwab. Awesome service! I think our daily limit is $5000, USD. But you can have them raise it with a phone call.

@sailcompania Thank you!

Watch.out. You could still get hit with Exchange rate fee no.matter which Bank card you use and which Colombian Bank ATM you use.

The lowest overall fees Up.until reciently have been at Colpatria ( non Scotia bank branch).and Davivienda .but are subject yo change anytime and may vary firm city to city.

Check against the official Banco de la República or XE.com rate at or before1 pm  on that day.or on previous Friday on weekends and Lunes Festivos..to see how much they are charging you.

Charles Schwab, TD Bank and Capital One 360 all offer zero foreign transaction fees for ATM withdrawals. Charles Schwab has no minimum balance requirements for ATM refunds, while TD Bank requires a balance of $2500 for ATM refunds. Capital One has no ATM refunds.

The exchange you get really depends on your debit card and bank. It's best to check with your bank and look at their their terms of service to see how they calculate foreign exchange.

For example, the Schwab Visa debit uses Visa Internationals exchange rate with no markup. So you can withdraw cash or make a purchase at any store or ATM in the world and you'll get charged Visa's rate. You'll inevitably encounter cases where an ATM or store terminal will ask you to use their exchange rate, however, you can reject this and choose "local currency" to use Visa's rate.

Other banks are a little bit more secretive of how they calculate the exchange rate. It's possible that they leave you at the mercy of the foreign ATM to do the conversion. It's best to avoid these banks and choose one that advertises zero foreign transaction fees and has clear terms on how they calculate the exchange.

How you get and/or keep a Charles Schwab card if you are no longer residing in the US?  In Thailand, there have been recent posts were people had their accounts/cards cancelled when they went to renew and listed their residence address being in Thailand.  If you no longer have a legit US resident address this may be a problem later on.

The local  ATMs dont ask..they just give you their rate.. unless  you withdraw cash with a Credit Card rather than debit card

@jimgilly I believe most people either don't bother updating the address in their bank or use a friend or family members address in the US.

@Quechimba I have heard of this happening to people when using Davivienda ATM's on this forum post. Apparently when a Davivienda ATM detects a foreign card, it will force dynamic currency conversion (DCC) on you! If you decline their rotten rate, it will cancel the entire transaction. They won't let your proceed with using your bank or Visa/Mastercards exchange rate, what a bunch of scammers.


Therefore, I think Davivienda should be avoided like the plague as they're tricking people into DCC. So far, I haven't had any issues like this with Colpatria, Banco Caja Social, Bancolombia. Has anyone else seen the exchange rate being forced like this at other Colombian ATM's?

louis_e>: what makes you say that 'Davivienda should be avoided like the plague'.

Publishing the actual rate is anything but tricking people, and since rates go down as much as up you may get a better deal. You are in no way obligated to accept their price.

@Tubes Search on Google for: DCC scam

There are thousands of examples of people being tricked by ATM's and POS systems into accepting ridiculous exchange rates because they let the ATM or POS system do the exchange rather than their bank. DCC overrides the normal exchange rate that your bank would give and uses whatever rate the merchant pulls out their rear end.

Davivienda takes this one step further by not even giving you the choice to choose your banks rate.

It's pretty much robbery by choice. Davivienda's rate was laughably bad in the picture I showed. I'm not sure if they charge an ATM fee as well, that would add insult to injury. It's better to use an ATM that has a flat fee or no fee and that lets you use your banks exchange rate. Your banks rate will always be better than any DCC rate.

You can use a PO box fe your US Bank accout.

Getting a Charles Scwab, Captol 1 or similar account only  pays off for people with their source income in the US.

And they only cover the "published"  "on screen" local ATM fees .Not the "hidden" exchange rate fees. 

You can eliminate the pubished fees by going to specific Colombia Bank ATMs that have "zero" published fees. Last time I checked these were Davivienda and Colpatria ( non Scotoabank subsiduaries only)..but can change suddenly

To check the total net charges , irregardless of type, you have to compare the exchange rate you get when you take money out of the ATM to the official rate in XE.com or the Banco de la Republica,or Visa at the last close of business.Its a little more complicated than that, but close  enough for practical.purposes.

@quechimba Even if Davivienda's not charging any ATM fees, the exchange rate they are giving has the fee built in. From what I calculated below, the fee can be as high as 26,000 COP. That's the highest ATM fee I've seen in Colombia.

In the picture I attached in my previous post, the person is being charged 91.40 GBP (3829 GBP/COP). Since their card (Revolut) uses the interbank rate, for March 8th they should have been charged a rate of around ~4110 GBP/COP which gives 85.15 GBP. That's a difference of 6.25 GBP or 26,000 COP according to todays XE rate.

Therefore, it would make no sense to use a Schwab visa debit at these Davivienda ATM's since:
- You won't have an option to use Schwab's Visa exchange rate and will be forced into using Davivienda's garbage DCC rate
- You will not be refunded any ATM fees since Schwab can only refund actual ATM fees, not fee's baked into bad exchange rates you accepted

Whereas if you were to go to Bancolombia and use a Schwab card:
- You will automatically use Schwab's Visa exchange rate (or at least have the option to choose it)
- You will be refunded the ~14000 COP ATM fee Bancolombia charges