½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

I didn't realize there was an issue. We have a USD account here but only use it as a parking place for money we transfer to DR until we need it in our DOP account for cash withdrawals or local payments. We pay our US credit cards from our US bank account.

I'm curious to know how you pay your US credit cards with US cash in the DR.

There is no issue nationally. I suspect it's that bank.  I will message your privately as I exchange a lot of US dollars for pesos monthly and can help you

@Stacy ST

Stacy:

We also hold dollar and peso accounts at BHDL.   

While we haven't tried to obtain any amounts over US$1200 over the last three months, we've had no problems getting US cash in our hands at the two different BHDL branches we use in Veron and Punta Cana (San Juan Plaza), nor the branch in Santo Domingo during a short visit there in February.

You might try simply going to a branch in another town. Don't mention any problems you've had at your primary branch.

I agree with others, this sounds like a branch issue, not a BHDL or dollar issue.  I'd guess the branch manager at your preferred location just doesn't want to bother with dollars, for whatever reason he might have.

1. I emphasize this is only speculation on my part. 
2. But if you read through the old expat.com posts on DR bank accounts, there is a clear pattern described of branch managers in the DR having a LOT more authority (or power, if you want to call it that) to do things than we're used to in the USA or Canada, where standards across branches are quite uniform. 
3. They can arbitrarily add requirements for opening accounts, for example.  They can refuse to process loans if you're not applying at your "home" branch (but if they want to, they can process that loan app).  They can toss you out the door for being difficult (e.g., asking questions they don't want to answer). 
4. Why might they do this?  Perhaps BHDL branches are rewarded for having peso deposits over a certain level.  Or perhaps they are penalized for dollar deposits under or over a certain amount.
5. Again, only speculation on my part. 

When you figure out what the problem is/was, please report back in this thread so that we know the rest of the story.

Jim

ExpatRusher

p.s.: while my post above focused on getting dollars in cash, it illustrates there is no shortage of dollars in the DR.  It is no big deal for us to withdraw $1k or more in dollars, which we've done several times since early January.  And it should be even easier for them to simply transfer from your pesos account to your dollars account.  We do it on a regular basis and have NEVER had a problem with those transfers.   It is VERY odd that your branch seems to be having an issue with this. 

@ddmcghee It's actually the DR credit cards that we have to pay in USD.  Not sure if you have one, but when you get a DR credit card, you have both pesos and dollars charges on the card, and you have to pay them seperately.  We do still buy some things from the US for my husband's company, so we therefore we have to pay this off with USD.  But, to answer your other question, with BHD we are able to do international transfer to USD account, which we send to Chase to pay his Chase credit card.  It's a costly transfer so we usually only send big chunks ($60 BHD and $15 Chase), but that's the price we pay for having DR company that still buys products from US!

@ExpatRusher

Wow, that is strange to hear you say you have not had issues getting dollars.  I've actually been trying to do it through our bank representative (becuase she claimed she had more "power" then the branches to make this transfer in higher amounts), but she claims "there are no dollars in the treasurey".  I had asked my accountant, and he said that's a global issue, which is why I thought it was a DR issue, but maybe not.  Thanks for all the advise everyone - this has been super helpful!!

@Stacy ST. I usually did exchange at Western Union.  So far was very happy with them. Much better rate then my bank (Santa Cruz)

@Stacy ST

My bank is only distributing 1000 dollars a month from accounts it's due to the high exchange rate according to my bank officer

So it's not physical currency you need, just USD in your BHD USD account? Can you not transfer it through their online app? I bank with BSC but do all my transfers between my accounts and pay bills through the app.

(Note: I'm glad I haven't bothered with a Dominican credit card! 😀)

@ddmcghee

Unfortunately, no we cannot transfer money online or with the app.  We can do dollars to pesos just fine, but not pesos to dollars; it's annoying!!  We have to go into a bank in order to do the transfer from pesos to dollars, so when we finally got an account rep for my husband's business accounts, she said she could do the transfers for us without going into the bank, but so far she has not been able to do it becuase "there is no money in the treasury".

I use both banco popular and Banreservas, business and personal accounts.  In all of these I can transfer pesos to dollars without issue.  No idea what's going on with banks these days.

See the chart near the bottom of the page.

Perhaps, and this is just a guess so don't hang your hat on it, some banks are hanging on to Dollars.