Exchanging money

A common question I get is "what is the best way to get money into Colombia?".

Here is a a basic run down to help all those wanting to visit Colombia and aren't sure about bringing cash or how to get cash.

In general when transferinf / withdrawing under $2K the atm is faster, easier and less money than a bank transfer. There are sites like xoom.com that can transfer small amounts of money quickly.

I use ServieBanco ATMs because I can withdraw $780.000 mil at a time and their bank fee is about $7 mil. CitiBank will allow you to withdraw a max of $800.000 mil but charge about 13 mil.

Talk with you bank about fees. Some banks like federal credit unions wave the ATM fee and some will even cover the other bank's fee. Using your ATM will get you the transfer rate of the previous exchange closing date. Making a wire transfer usually gets you the lowest exchange rate of the 3 days unless you can exchange the currency in the bank and transfer COP but the bank usually takes a 2% cut depending on how much you transfer.

You can also talk to your bank about raising your withdrawal limit.  Some are $500 max and others are $1,000 USD. You need to do this before you leave and you might need to go into your bank. For security reasons you should creat a 2nd account with card that doesn't have over draft protection.  Keep some money in be account and when needed transfer money into the account.  Bring a 2nd backup card with you just incase.

You can also use your visa or MasterCard / check card to make purchases. Just run it through as a credit card and not an ATM. I use a PayPal bank card because I get 1% cash back which compensates for the 1.8% exchange fee that PayPal charges.  Most bank / credit cards charge an exchange rate fee. 

Always be sure to tell your bank that you will be traveling so they don't freeze your card and it is working by the time you get off the plane. It is almost always better to use the ATM than exchanging cash. .

As for opening an account in Colombia without a cedula can cause you issues. You can open an account with your visa depending on what type of visa you have but just don't keep too much money in it as the funds could become frozen. If you have a legit COL account don't deposit more that 10 million per month and don't save more than $10k USD at any time to avoid paperwork and the possibility of having your account frozen. Deposit too much money into your account and they will start asking you questions and require paperwork.   They want to make sure you are not accepting cartel money (volunterie or involunterie).

If you want to exchange cash banks and western union will require paperwork to exchange and private exchange places won't ask questions. But be sure to check the average exchange rate with Western Union and use that to negotiate a better rate with the private exchange shops.

Don't worry about the chips. The chips are only to prove that card was in fact present when being used. It is actually more for the protection of the bank than yours. If your card is used and doesn't have a chip you have more legal stand point to dispute the transaction and the bank is more at fault because they didn't give you a card with the security chip. 

That's my 500 pesos worth.  Hope it helps and I didn't confuse you.


Cheers,
Michael