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@Steverino7777 My local Scotiabank branch in Toronto claimed there was no connection/no way to connect DR and Cdn accts. Obviously,  you have found otherwise.

@ddmcghee good morning. Does Santa Cruz have English speakers here in Las Terrenas. My Spanish is good. But I do not want to make any mistakes with regards to international bank transfers

@Steverino7777 My local Scotiabank branch in Toronto claimed there was no connection/no way to connect DR and Cdn accts. Obviously, you have found otherwise.
-@Lyon4to

You can move money from Scotiabank there to Scotiabank here just like any international wire. You can remove money from your Canadian account using a scoria ATM here without fee. That is the extent of the connection. 

@LT American  Yes - the manager speaks English, and several of the customer service folks know enough! If you bank with BSC and have online access, you can do the transfer yourself. I've not done an international wire through their portal, but I've done a ton to other banks in the DR and know that International is one of the options.

FYI I bank @scotiabank which has an agreement with banco popular , no fees for using ATM for their customers and withdrawal limits are based on each customers bank limit regardless of ATM used Scotiabank or Banco Popular dominicano.  This applies to accounts in the Dominican Republic 🇩🇴

Already noted in post #8

I am having a difficult time with Banco Santa Cruz regarding charges levied on my account. They took away my online access and then charged me for not managing the account. They are not very forthcoming on information on their bank accounts and specifically the charges on them.

@planner

Wiring $$ from Scotiabank Canada to Scotiabank here can only be done in USD which means having USD accounts in both locations. I found that out early.....

Not true.  Any bank will accept dollars to pesos but the exchange rate will never be in your favor.

So Planner, what do you auggest an ex-pat do with their pension deposits thst originate from the United States? 

Open a dollar account and transfer your pension and then convert to pesos as needed.  You open both peso and dollar account at same bank.  You can go and take dollars put or you can convert the pesos and leave in your peso account for local expenses

@rayc1234

We've been using Banco Santa Cruz for 3.5 years now with no issues. We were given fee schedules when the accounts were opened and get emails whenever the fees change.

@planner thank you for confirming.  Can an ex-pat deposit their pension directly into an account in DR to avoid having to do wire transfers every month?

No idea, for this you need to go to the source of your pension!

Many people dont like depositing into foreign accounts

it alerts the authorities that you live outside the US and that creates additional annual reporting

personally, i would continue US deposits

I do not recommend auto deposits into DR banks for retired us citizens from the Social Security Administraion

.

This will alert them to sending snail mail letters to verify you are still alive in the DR.

The time it takes to get that snail mail, via EPS or other forwarder, and your response back

via snail mail might mean your deposits are stopped and you have to jump through hoops to restart it.

Keep those deposits going into a US bank and transfer money via wire transfer,  Paypal into Banco Popular, deposit good old US checks, whatever transfer service you prefer etc, into your US dollar account here is my recommendation, That has avoided the Social Security inconvenience.

@planner

Sorry, but I spoke directly to Scotiabank manager about transferring money I that is what I was told - now that was just over 3 years ago so perhaps I'll have to ask again when backin Jan!!!!

The Cdn ScotiBank debit card works for free in the  DR ATMs

Maybe no need to transfer/wire funds

Can i open online a bank acCount in DR ? American , Usa   ,  Europe union citizen.

thank you

Entering the DR on a tourist card, you can open a bank account within 30 days.  You will need to know what documents the bank needs in order to do that. So contact the bank directly for that information.

@windeguy

However, the other end of the coin it works perfect for me to have my SSA DD for 6 years into BPD.

No you cannot open a bank account online. In person only.

Hi there!

My Wife & I are planning to retire in Jarabacoa.

What are the pro's & con's?

Thanks

FJ3

Did you read the thread?

I have opened accounts with Banco Popular, Banreservas and Ademi. The later one I prefer to wire money into as they have a better exchange rate (today 59.50 vs 58.34 and 58.57 at the other two banks) They do charge $20 dollars for receiving the wire (if it's small amount might not be worth it, for bigger amounts it is).

Opening an account was easiest with Banco Popular, it took about 30 minutes at the branch, and I left with an open account. With Reservas and Ademi it was 3 and 4 days respectively.  With Popular they stick you with a 150 $RD a month life insurance plan when opening the account.

Ademi @Ozama Branch in Santo Domingo Este never hardly has any person in the bank, other branches I seen don't have much traffic either. They cater mostly to PYME and Micro PYME and that might contribute in less customers in branch. Also, with Ademi ATM card you can (supposedly, haven't tried yet) withdraw at all Dominican ATMs free of charge.

For those of you that are looking into putting some money into a interest bearing instrument, interest on savings in the US or Europe is a joke.  Ademi gives 9.4% interest for a 6-month CD and if the amount is greater than 10000 USD they negotiate the interest rate with you.  For 50k they offered me 10%.  Banreservas 8.15 and Popular 8.10 also negotiable based on amount of deposit.

One thing to keep in mind, FDIC like depositor insurance in the Dominican Republic is limited to 500000 $RD per customer (not per account), so if you are a cautions person you might want to spread your funds around different banks.

For small transfers I use BHD because BHD is practically the mother company if Ria transfer. RIA transfer is very low. For any other Bank I think thee is an international plot to limit RIA.

So, my Social Security retirement and other retirement money from the US will go to Citibank that charges a lot of money for transfer. I suggest that you use Citibank to transfer every 3 months instead of every month because it is the same fee for up to $50,000.00.

However, customer service at all banks in DR is awful and very bureaucratic.

Berthold

@planner

That is exactly what I do. In DR, I pay everything with my Dominican credit cards and take out cash as needed. At this point, I have not needed to do a large international bank transfer so I use for money transfer companies such as Remitly or Jubielee a couple of times a month.

@Gylla

Applying the the original post, I use both banks with a slight preference to Scotiabank over Popular. The biggest reason I have a American Express credit card with Scotiabank and I have had good customer service so far.

The Scotiabank website and banking app is easier to use in my opinion. If you ever need to call, both have English speaking customer service reps. Wherever you are in the world, you can withdraw cash from your Scotiabank account using a Scotiabank ATM without withdrawal fees (at least that has been the case for me).

Popular is everywhere so that is a plus. Dominicans are more familiar with Popular then Scotiabank. Popular has more products to offer, but I prefer the credit card points and miles options with Scotiabank.

In the end, I recommend opening an account with both banks in addition to Banreservas. All 3 banks have their niche. Banreservas tends to have the best rates and is geared to the both those with shallow and deep pockets. Scotiabank is familiar to foreigners and has the best credit cards. Popular is widely used and have a variety of products.

As a  Canadian snow bird down here in Casa de Campo, I opened a Scotiabank acct. in Canada and pay my D.R. bills with credit cards from Scotiabank Canada. My balances are automatically paid off at the end of each month in my Canadian accts. and no wire transfers to the D.R. are necessary.

I also take pesos from Scotiabank machines here in the D.R.  and do not pay a fee for cash because I use my Scotiabank cards.

When I am using my credit cards in the grocery store etc. the machine prompts you to pay the bill in either Dominican pesos or Canadian dollars. Always pick pesos because my Canadian bank then determines the exchange rate and not the store here, which  charges at a higher rate.