Paying bills in Dominican Republic

This is a topic with no real answers.  What I mean is this:

Electricity:  My Electricity supplier is CEPM and I work with them on a monthly basis to pay electricity on multiple properties.  Some months we get a paper invoice, some months we get an email invoice, some months we get both and other months we get neither. Also it varies for each property.   I prefer to pay online.  Preferably through the bank.  However, sometimes the payments go through and sometimes they don't (Banco Popular).  Every time there is a discrepancy we have to waste a day of our time and go to the CEPM office to resolve the issues.  CEPM Telephone support is useless at best.  So, sometimes we make a payment online through the CEPM website.  Sometimes their billing system recognizes the payment and sometimes it doesn't...back to the CEPM office, the story continues but by now you get the drift...

Telephone, Internet and CATV - CLARO:  Pretty much the same kind of expectations as you get from CEPM.  Differences: No paper invoices, only email when it works.  Payment methods are the same as above and again when something doesn't work you have to go to the office and waste a day off from work to get it resolved.

In rental situations, I include maintenance fees and CATV\Internet\telephone in with the rent.  Electricity I always charge based upon usage as the cost varies greatly from client to client.

To sum it up, if you have a credit card or a Dominican bank account you can usually pay online.

Good info.

Do not expect to receive a bill. Getting cut off because you did not get a bill - common.  And nit an excuse here. They dont care if you got a bill or not.

It is your responsibility to know when bills are due and go find out what you owe!

Shorter term and toyrism rentals often include services in the rent.

Longer term rentals rarely unclude anything.

Mail does not function. Often bills are delivered by messenger which means you may or may not receive them.

Payment locations vary by provider!

I used to have a Dominican Credit card but after it being "stolen" for the third time (they tried to charge $125,000RD one time) I canceled it.

Getting a bill form electric company (ede Norte), phone companies are a hit an miss deal and as Planner said not receiving it is not an excuse to not pay it.

So to keep things straight I take one day a month and make it bill paying day.  I can have up to 7 or more to deal with on that day.  I start before 10 am and pay 3-4 by lunch time. Have a nice lunch in town and then head out to pay the rest.  Usually home by 3pm or so.  I pay them all at the companies offices and make sure I have STAMPED receipts for all transaction.  This used to be a pain in the ass but I now sort of enjoy the day out and about.

Bob K

I might add I would not trust paying on line to be safe or many times to even work.  I avoid it like the plague here but do pay all my US bills online


Bob K

Good point -  keep your receipts forever!!!! Just keep them,  you are guaranteed to need them if you do not.

Motos & edeNote are alike; motos never have change & edeNotes's printer is out of order!

I have started to week out and in fact I only have records  and receipts for 6 years on Ede Norte, Claro and Orange

Bob K

Paying bills is more hassle here compared to the Netherlands.  Always have to keep an eye out that we're getting the invoices (they slide them under the door of our appartement) and some are send through email.  These invoices can be paid at many points, you just know what to look for. For instance some can also be paid a pharmacy.  And yes that they are saying is very true. If you forget one they'll cut you off. Happened to us with the water and internet.

I keep a calendar with bills and approx. due dates so I can make sure I get them all and pay them all.
knock  on wood I have not missed one yet.

Bob K

I do the same and set reminders on my phone.

Up until last year I paid all my Dominican generated bills with cash. Any bills I have outside the DR I pay electronically ie mortgage and credit cards.
It used to be a lot easier for me to get my money into my hands in the DR. Most of my income is earned in the states. From 2000 to around 2010 the ATM's would allow you to withdraw up to your ATM card's daily limit. Then the local banks all got greedy limiting withdrawals to, depending on the machine, 1000-10,000rd.
Luckily for the past year I can use my credit cards just about everywhere. Even in the smaller colmados. This has been a great relief

At most ATM's I can wd  10,000 RD at a time up to my daily limit of  20,000 RD. 


Banco Popular machines are the worst  or were as I could only wd 2,000RD at  a time and each time incurred a fee of 195 RD - I bank with Scotiabank so I use their atm whenever possible, no fees.

I have not used an ATM here for many years.  Stopped when Scotia bank no longer waived fees for my BOA debit card.

Bob K

Great information and something I wouldn't have thought to ask about. Another question I have (working on relocating to live/work in DR from US) is how easy or hard is it to receive money transfers, like paychecks, from a US bank to Dominican. Or what is recommended for receiving US earnings in DR? Thank you.

Easiest way it to have them deposited in your US bank and then transfer or write checks as  you need.
We usually just write a check to our DR bank account every 6 months or so to cover the next 6 months and have all our "pay" checks (social security, rental monies) deposited in the US bank.

Bob K

Hi Priscilla......in regards to one of your original questions.......my $300.00 rent includes over 300 cable channels, electric and everything else such as free WiFi.  The WiFi works very good.  In a nutshell it all comes with the rent in my case.  It's in a very upscale area I might add.  Bills included 😁😃

On the other extreme your rent includes absolutely nothing but the building. Yiu arrange everything. This is common with longer term rentals and areas away from tourism. When i say nothing -  i mean not even a light bulb!!!

Absolutely not even a light bulb.  Youre so right.  I asked to have a new bathroom sink fixture installed and it was done.  I have a ceiling fan but i asked for another fan and they gave me a brand new oscillating fan which works perfectly.  I just asked for a new shower head and it will be done very soon!   Landlord is very nice.

We did a long term rental when we first got here.  Landlord made most repairs but we had to do some as well.  Sometimes like with replacing fans that were old and dingy the landlord agreed to purchase the fans and we had them installed.

Bob K

WE are a bit off topic here as this is about paying bills not rental contracts.

Bob K

Confused............in the first paragraph of Priscilla's question, she brought up rentals.  She questioned bills being included in the rent.  In order to effectively answer, I gave my particular case where they are included, and another example was given to the other extreme to indicate that sometimes the bills are not included.  Longer term rentals may not include the bills, etc.  So the rental contract answers were in response to a question in her first paragraph.  I felt like it was a completely thorough answer.  Isn't there a question a few posts above that should've been referred to another topic already discussed though?

Well it was related in a round about way.

You applying for a job as moderator or expert earls????   If I was this picky I would never get anything else done!

Wrong answer. ......dont have to work.....

Seen waaaay too many discussion threads go off topic to be called out.  I would suggest the question be re-routed in regards to picky.  However i would call it petty instead.

OK kids lets play nice

Bob K

Earls is free to do the job instead of complaining.  He is free to accept the massive salary that we receive and spend his time doing this.

Another verbal attack???

We get paid

Bob K

no attack, simple facts.   Yes BOB we got a raise this year. What you did not get yours......LOL