General Info

[JustTK]

The ATMs of Davivienda are having a (reported and known) problem with international cards. Anyone know of a good alternative, meaning either high withdrawal limit or low charges?

[Gabacho]

I had an interview with a passport bro about the current batch of guys who are going to Colombia.

https://youtu.be/XKRfTFY39-0?si=zHMKj1cAclEGDuiT

Great interview Doom. So the passport bros know that they are a problem. That is good. Recognizing the problem is the first step to correcting it.

I have an Ecuador question for you bro. Are the street girls working in Salinas / La dieciocho are they mainly ecuatoriana women or are they Venezolanas?

-Gabacho.

[DoomBringer321]

I had an interview with a passport bro about the current batch of guys who are going to Colombia.

https://youtu.be/XKRfTFY39-0?si=zHMKj1cAclEGDuiT

[Gabacho]

Your Schwab account acts much different than mine. The transaction shows in my account quickly. After making a withdrawal, it shows in my account by the time I get back to my apartment. Until Friday, I hadn't made a withdrawal that charged a fee for years. I don't remember if the fee showed separately. I do remember the refund was at the end of the month or the end of my statement period, not sure which one.

I've had a Schwab checking account tied to a brokerage account for probably ten years. I don't keep any money in the brokerage account.

FunLuvr you were absolutely correct bro. My apologies for doubting you. It is in fact true that Davivienda is now charging a hidden fee of 15 mil without asking us to decline or accept it. I did some digging around and found this showing the transaction amount to and ATM fee (see the attached screen shots). One is from November without any fee and one of from December showing the fee.

Cargo de ATM $3.72 (15 mil COP) as of December 2023.

[Huacho]

The money is subtracted from your account immediately. What might confuse some people is that sometimes the transaction doesn't show up in the history buffer immediately, but your "balance available" will be subtracted instantaneously.

Yes, that's true.

[GreenBud]

Your Schwab account acts much different than mine. The transaction shows in my account quickly.

The money is subtracted from your account immediately. What might confuse some people is that sometimes the transaction doesn't show up in the history buffer immediately, but your "balance available" will be subtracted instantaneously. No way Schwab will allow us to "double dip".

I don't remember if the fee showed separately. I do remember the refund was at the end of the month or the end of my statement period, not sure which one.

The refund is given to you at the end of the month.

The refund fee is given in a separate lump sum. That irritates me. Since it's given in a lump sum, you don't know which ATM charges, and the amount. Takes too much work for me if I want to calculate.

[Huacho]

Your Schwab account acts much different than mine. The transaction shows in my account quickly. After making a withdrawal, it shows in my account by the time I get back to my apartment. Until Friday, I hadn't made a withdrawal that charged a fee for years. I don't remember if the fee showed separately. I do remember the refund was at the end of the month or the end of my statement period, not sure which one.

I've had a Schwab checking account tied to a brokerage account for probably ten years. I don't keep any money in the brokerage account.

I've had mine for more like 25 years and I do have mid-five figures in the brokerage account. E-Trade, BTW, does charge (me) a 1% foreign transaction fee, and they do this even in Panamá where the USD is used. So, I use Schwab when traveling and E-Trade at home, since I like seeing the transaction instantly. Having both is not a bad idea IMO.

[Fun Luvr]

I have both Schwab and E-Trade. E-Trade the refund of the fee is instant and shown separately. Schwab, neither the withdrawal nor the refund show up until the next business day but again is shown separately. This has been true no matter what country I'm in. Others say they don't get their Schwab fees refunded until the end of the month; these people may have a slightly different type of account? IDK.

Your Schwab account acts much different than mine. The transaction shows in my account quickly. After making a withdrawal, it shows in my account by the time I get back to my apartment. Until Friday, I hadn't made a withdrawal that charged a fee for years. I don't remember if the fee showed separately. I do remember the refund was at the end of the month or the end of my statement period, not sure which one.

I've had a Schwab checking account tied to a brokerage account for probably ten years. I don't keep any money in the brokerage account.

[Bango Cheito]

In all of these discussions it seems like people are claiming that they get the mid-market rate somehow, whether it was from closing 2 business days back or whatever. Through the Visa or Mastercard clearing systems. What about the currency conversion cost? Visa and Mastercard supposedly charge 1%. So people say that gets refunded by Shwab or whoever, but I don't get how you can look at your bank statement and not see that?

In my case it is 2. 5 or 3. 5 percent and my bank (and all other Canadian banks) charge that. And in the past they did not use Visa or Mastercard for clearing, but now some do I think, but the minimum is 2. 5%. Anyway.

So with those using American banks. Who pays the 1% and do you see it on a statement anywhere or does Shwab just pay it directly to the clearing house.

All I know is that my cost is usually around 3% and I can get pissed off about it, or I can own bank stocks and collect dividends to recoup their highway robbery.

I actually do get the mid-market rate with my Schwab card and with my Capital One credit cards. Sometimes a little bit less, sometimes even better than mid market, but always within 1% or so, and it tracks very closely in all cases. I've been watching it for years now.

[Gabacho]

In all of these discussions it seems like people are claiming that they get the mid-market rate somehow, whether it was from closing 2 business days back or whatever. Through the Visa or Mastercard clearing systems. What about the currency conversion cost? Visa and Mastercard supposedly charge 1%. So people say that gets refunded by Shwab or whoever, but I don't get how you can look at your bank statement and not see that?

In my case it is 2. 5 or 3. 5 percent and my bank (and all other Canadian banks) charge that. And in the past they did not use Visa or Mastercard for clearing, but now some do I think, but the minimum is 2. 5%. Anyway.

So with those using American banks. Who pays the 1% and do you see it on a statement anywhere or does Shwab just pay it directly to the clearing house.

All I know is that my cost is usually around 3% and I can get pissed off about it, or I can own bank stocks and collect dividends to recoup their highway robbery.

There is no currency conversion costs. The amount is charged to your card in COP but when you check your app to see transactions it will show the amount in USD.

When you do the math and take the amount you withdrew in COP and divide it by the amount your app shows for the transaction in USD then that will give you a number around 4000 and you can then compare that number to what Google says the exchange rate is (mid-market rate).

Used to always be spot on (within 50 COP) of what Google stated.

Now I'm not so sure after reading FunLover's report and my latest experience with Davivienda where I felt like they were stealing 10 mil pesos from me according to what I should have been able to pull out.

And it may sound like complaining about 10 mil or 15 mil is stupid but these days everything is getting more expensive and we've been constantly getting less and less pesos for our dollars. When I first moved into my apartment and was buying my furniture and appliances I was getting 5,000 COP per dollar; now I'm fighting for 4,000 per dollar.

[Huacho]

So with those using American banks. Who pays the 1% and do you see it on a statement anywhere or does Shwab just pay it directly to the clearing house. All I know is that my cost is usually around 3% and I can get pissed off about it, or I can own bank stocks and collect dividends to recoup their highway robbery.

I have both Schwab and E-Trade. E-Trade the refund of the fee is instant and shown separately. Schwab, neither the withdrawal nor the refund show up until the next business day but again is shown separately. This has been true no matter what country I'm in. Others say they don't get their Schwab fees refunded until the end of the month; these people may have a slightly different type of account? IDK.

[Gabacho]

I withdrew on Dec 2nd mutiple times and they didn't charge the fee, then on Dec 7th they did. I always had limit of 400 k in Davivienda for some reason, so 15 k is expensive for that now.

Colpatria used to be free but is 18.5 k for up to 900 k, since like half a year ago.

Banco de Bogota reportedly up to 1500 k for 18.5 k fee, but I didn't try personally.

Banco de Pichincha had no fee but they closed up the branch in centro, the is another ATM and branch in Poblado apparently but a bit is too far away for me to travel just for that.

Caja Social gives me up to 300 k option, no fee, but unspecified error when withdrawing on both Visa and Mastercard, so it doesn't work.

BBVA 600 k for around 20 mil fee if I remember correctly.

So at the moment for me Servibanca comes as the cheapest and most convenient with up to 2000 k withdrawal for 22.5 k fee (and it works).

OK so we are having very different results in respect to limits and fees. This ID the breakdown for me using mastercard from Capital One.

Davivienda 2'000'000 - never used to be a fee (possibly a hidden 15 k now).

BBVA 300'000 - no fee until March of 2023 (18 k fee since March 2023).

Caja Social - 300'000 - no fee whatsoever and does work.

Colpatria / Scotiabank. Has never worked for me.

Banco de Bogota. Rarely used I don't remember limit. I think 18 k fee.

Banco de Pinchicha. Never used it.

[Zeos1]

They ALL charge fees now, but Servibanca allows you to take up to 2 million at once. And if you have Schwab, those fees get refunded anyway.

What's up in the air is whether Davivienda's fees get refunded or not, since they appear not to appear as separate fees, or maybe they do.

In all of these discussions it seems like people are claiming that they get the mid-market rate somehow, whether it was from closing 2 business days back or whatever. Through the Visa or Mastercard clearing systems. What about the currency conversion cost? Visa and Mastercard supposedly charge 1%. So people say that gets refunded by Shwab or whoever, but I don't get how you can look at your bank statement and not see that?

In my case it is 2. 5 or 3. 5 percent and my bank (and all other Canadian banks) charge that. And in the past they did not use Visa or Mastercard for clearing, but now some do I think, but the minimum is 2. 5%. Anyway.

So with those using American banks. Who pays the 1% and do you see it on a statement anywhere or does Shwab just pay it directly to the clearing house.

All I know is that my cost is usually around 3% and I can get pissed off about it, or I can own bank stocks and collect dividends to recoup their highway robbery.

[AdamWl]

Not sure what card you are using but I use Capital One with a mastercard logo and the maximum I can withdrawl us 2,000,000 COP per transaction and it doesn't charge me any 15 k fee. And when doing the math, the rate I receive is in line with that of Google.

I last used the ATM on Dec 4th and will be using it again this coming Monday and will report back here what happens.

I withdrew on Dec 2nd mutiple times and they didn't charge the fee, then on Dec 7th they did. I always had limit of 400 k in Davivienda for some reason, so 15 k is expensive for that now.

Colpatria used to be free but is 18.5 k for up to 900 k, since like half a year ago.

Banco de Bogota reportedly up to 1500 k for 18.5 k fee.

Banco Pichincha had no fee but they closed up the branch in centro, the is another ATM and branch in Poblado apparently but a bit is too far away for me to travel just for that.

Caja Social gives me up to 300 k option, no fee, but unspecified error when withdrawing on both Visa and Mastercard, so it doesn't work.

BBVA 600 k for around 20 mil fee if I remember correctly.

So at the moment for me Servibanca comes as the cheapest and most convenient with up to 2000 k withdrawal for 22.5 k fee (and it works).

[Bango Cheito]

So Servibanca is another one that doesn't charge any fees??

I walk past their atms whenever I go to terminal de norte and I used to always go right past them at the entrance there to go inside and use Davivienda, this was months ago tho.

I never knew they were also a fee-free ATM, I only knew about Davivienda and Caja Social and before March of this year BBVA.

They ALL charge fees now, but Servibanca allows you to take up to 2 million at once. And if you have Schwab, those fees get refunded anyway.

What's up in the air is whether Davivienda's fees get refunded or not, since they appear not to appear as separate fees, or maybe they do.