Medellin Reports

[Davvv100]

Every guy I know who uses seeking has gotten tired of the hookers and is looking for better. They do not go on the site looking for love. With men, sex comes first and then love, and it is the opposite for women...

I didn't want to quote the whole thing but great post.

[Surfer500]

Tens of thousands of young men earning western wages staying in Medellin for the long term. I think that this is not bode well for mongers. Medellin already has increased numbers of men visiting. The promotion of the digital nomad Visa I think will eventually change Medellin for the worst and drive up prices. How can I not drive up prices when you have so many westerners coming earning Western wages needing to rent and looking for girls? That is my take on the digital nomad Visa.

A different take for you on the digital nomads of which the government is estimating there will be about 45,000 of them issued in the next year and a half. I would estimate that maybe 1/2 of the Visas will go to women, and the other 1/2 say to men, some of which are gay. Of those men, a lot of them will be "non-mongers", being younger guys, so I see little impact on mongering prices, however as you mention, as Colombia develops tourism wise, especially Medellin, it will drive prices up for everything which is no surprise. And even with increased pricing that has been going on, the Country is still a bargain. Where can you get gasoline for around $ 2 USD, and get fucked for as low as $ 10 USD short of going to India or somewhere in Africa. I have noticed a logarithmic increase in tourism since the Pandemic in Medellin. Everything changes as your aware, but it's going on all over the World with prices going up everywhere, but Colombia is still at a fraction of pricing compared to other mongering venues. We can all complain about it, but there isn't much we can do about it.

[Elvis 2008]

My point in the grander scheme and in terms of the law of averages is that if you want a girlfriend look for a normal girl that is not p4 p. Seeking is not the best way to find that. There is nothing wrong with having a sugar baby if you know what you are getting into and know what you want. Can that relationship transform? Sure. His and other people's posts are proof. But, a site like Seeking is explicitly designed to link sugar daddys to babies. Now does Seeking magically have all the most attractive girls ever on it who would never open a personal Facebook or Instagram account? I don't think so.

LOL. Like so many guys here, you are literally doing the sour grapes thing. Whatever preconceived notions you have of seeking, they go out the window when you meet the women. Most of the women I put in the hooker or never want to see them again category straight up. But there are a few that are in the possible sugar baby category, and a very few move up into the SB / GF category, and the women are judging me likewise.

But you have two things way wrong. Every guy I know who uses seeking has gotten tired of the hookers and is looking for better. They do not go on the site looking for love. With men, sex comes first and then love, and it is the opposite for women.

The second thing you have way wrong is that women do not go on the site because of its name. They go on it because their friends have, and their expectations are whatever their friends got: money, Iphone, husband ETC. Yes, there have been many women who have gotten their husbands from the site.

The less important thing is every guy I know who uses seeking knows there are the hooker types on the site. And sure why wouldn't the hooker types use seeking in addition to FB or IG? Yeah, I would not be shocked if there were an 80 or 90% overlap. However, what you do not see is the beautiful women who fucked me and expected no compensation. Heck, I had one girl I gave a few hundred bucks to try to give me the money back because she wanted to be my GF. I cannot tell you the top seeking girls do not use FB or IG, but I would be surprised if they did. They do not need to.

What you do not see that I do is a guy who has his big head trying not to be envious of what this guy Davv got and a little head that is envious, and you are trying to rationalize how your dick is feeling. I know when I was married, I had all the bullshit excuses about staying married that I am sure you have.

If you are really married, then you should be happy with what you got but obviously you are not and want better. The best you can get when you are married is a SB looking mostly for money, and it does not make much sense for you to have a SB or babies unless you are in Colombia. To get a quality GF, you would have to lie and lead her on. A woman is not going to open up to a married man as compared to when you are single. I have been in both spots. I know.

Obviously, your brain is winning the battle with your dick, and that is fine. It is only when your dick wins, and I am 99% sure it will eventually, that you should even look at seeking. So it is not for you and quit the nonsensical worrying about others. They have experience with the site, and you do not.

[MoonShot]

Tens of thousands of young men earning western wages staying in Medellin for the long term. I think that this is not bode well for mongers. Medellin already has increased numbers of men visiting. The promotion of the digital nomad Visa I think will eventually change Medellin for the worst and drive up prices. How can I not drive up prices when you have so many westerners coming earning Western wages needing to rent and looking for girls? That is my take on the digital nomad Visa.

[Turgid]

I have done it countless times in many of the casas. Never had a problem. Just do it discretely.

It depends on the girl. Some girls have very strong ties with the management of the casa and they will tell if you ask to meet them outside. I once gave a tip to a girl at Zandaly and I saw her give it to the mamasan.

[DonCarlos1234]

Well of course it is possible to walk into a barbecue restaurant and pick out a couple of dishes to make up a vegetarian plate, but how many vegetarians are regularly walking into a meat house to get a vegetarian meal? If one wanted to find a needle it would make much more sense to go to the sewing aisle at Walmart than to look in a haystack.

Seeking is a haystack full of hookers. Who pays $100 to dig through hundreds of hookers in hopes of finding the 2 chicks that stumbled on the site by happenstance and are not there to sell pussy? There are not women signing up for the site that are not initially looking for what the site is advertising the same as no chick's first introduction to facebook was to sell pussy.

SA has changed. I'm guessing maybe it's full of Ho's now (I know I left there with too many numbers, too many options, a year ago. And I questioned why I even posted about it here but then you & Elvis seem to be paying attention. And not all the girls I've found in Colombia were on SA. Just some of the best. They were difficult to let go.

[Zeos1]

Thanks for this heads-up. So Davivienda will give you 500 USD each time, not bad, I thought the limit was much lower. This would suggest if you live long-term in Colombia (and cannot often bring in loads of cash from abroad), the best strategy to spend your money is to use your foreign credit cards. Having a Colombian bank account to do SWIFT transfers is not a good idea as the bank will screw you on transfer fees + lousy exchange rate + ATM charges every time you use your colombian debit card.

By the way, can you use Master cards as well as Visa? I'm trying to devise a financial strategy for Colombia. Maybe simply flying in with 5 or 6 different credit cards is the simplest way, considering I may lose 1 credit card a month inside some ATM. Having replacement credit cards + PIN sent to Colombia being suicidal, they need to get sent back home where I can recover them three times a year.

Davivienda allows 2 million withdrawal, which for me in Canadian dollars is over $500, but in US dollars I'm not sure, may be a bit more or less. I just used that number as an example. And I was not talking about credit cards, I was talking about a debit card transaction. For me that is a separate card, but for Americans I'm not sure.

For sure it is best to decline the rate the ATM offers you. It usually offers a 6 or 7% cost which is higher than your own bank or your own bank's clearing house will end up passing on to you.

[Nounce]

.... I've been trying to find girls on FB but I haven't had any luck. ...

You can find some tips in the Reports of Distinction thread.

I wish, bro.

That is a facebook girl.

[Artvand1]

I have a friend that lives in MDE. He loves it. I believe he is retired.

The thing I can't get around in MDE is that where there is smoke there is fire. I've been doing pretty serious research on Scopalina and the dangers of MDE. I'm not gay, but I don't have anything against gay people whatsoever. The intel I received is that the gay pay for play scene in MDE is thriving and there is a huge scopalina risk for gay, affluent Gringos. Similar risk for affluent out of shape Gringos constantly looking to low ball chicas over $6. The Police in Colombia aren't all that respected by Colombians. Whatever you do don't count on them for anything. Check out the you tube videos of Americans that got scoped, overweight, out of shape, and effeminate seem to be common themes.

My Spanish tutor is from Bogota. She has told me that there is no safe place in Colombia, even for Colombians.

The Colombian chicas are flat out gorgeous. The Colombian men I've met in the US have told me that if a Colombian lady really loves you then they are surprisingly faithful. I juxtapose that with the Colombian men I met in MDE, they sure do seem to call ladies Putas, and they do it often.

I believe a suburb of SJ, CR would be a far safer place to be a digital nomad. Great weather, big CIA ops center, lots of retired CIA live there. The Switzerland of Central America.

Nice to know Colombian women are considered faithful. And thanks so much for recommending SJ, Costa Rica. I will check it out for sure.

[LoveItHere69]

I checked "Decline banks exchange rate" and said the transaction was successful but did not spit any money at me. I'm not the only one, other people have been scammed a couple years ago by same bank. Careful of Davivienda bank.

I Around three years ago I declined the conversion rate and it said there was an error and kicked my card out. Happened at 3 different banks but only stole from me one of those times. Months later I tried a bank in another city and the same thing happened and it stole my money. I use Charles Schwab and my money was returned. I will never use that damn Davivienda ever again.

[Fun Luvr]

Transaction fee is nothing to do with the exchange rate.

No one said the transaction fee has anything to do with the exchange rate. You said you didn't see him say anything about the exchange rate he got. He stated the transaction fee was 18,500 which was equal to $4.19. How do you suppose he determined the USD amount of the transaction fee? He must have determined the exchange rate then divided it into 18,500 to get $4.19. Even if his bank showed the transaction fee as a separate entry, they would have had to know the COP amount and used the exchange rate to come up with $4.19. The Colombian banks who own the ATM's do not send USD amounts to the clearing houses, because they don't know what the USD amount is. That is determined by the clearing houses.

[XXL]

In my case if I withdraw cash from Davivienda
1. There is no ATM charge
2. My bank charges $5 per foreign transaction
3. My bank charges 2.5% compared to the mid market rate at the time you withdraw the cash. So on my typical $500 approximate withdrawal my currency exchange cost is $15.50, my home bank fee is $5.00, total $20.50. If I deal with a bank here in Colombia that charges an ATM fee that is over and above the $20.50.

And the only way I will really know the cost of the currency exchange is to either just believe my bank, that it is 2.5%, or look at the rate I got and compare it to the published mid market rate on that day at that time of day. Which is hard to do. But I have done it and it does seem to correspond to what the bank says they charge, which is 2.5%

Thanks for this heads-up. So Davivienda will give you 500 USD each time, not bad, I thought the limit was much lower. This would suggest if you live long-term in Colombia (and cannot often bring in loads of cash from abroad), the best strategy to spend your money is to use your foreign credit cards. Having a Colombian bank account to do SWIFT transfers is not a good idea as the bank will screw you on transfer fees + lousy exchange rate + ATM charges every time you use your colombian debit card.

By the way, can you use Master cards as well as Visa? I'm trying to devise a financial strategy for Colombia. Maybe simply flying in with 5 or 6 different credit cards is the simplest way, considering I may lose 1 credit card a month inside some ATM. Having replacement credit cards + PIN sent to Colombia being suicidal, they need to get sent back home where I can recover them three times a year.

[DownLow123]

Transaction fee is nothing to do with the exchange rate.

There are 3 components to the cost of using and ATM in a foreign country..
1. The fee that the ATM charges
2. The foreign withdrawal fee that your bank may or may not charge.
3. The exchange rate that is used for the transaction

Most of the time the biggest cost by far is the exchange rate used for the transaction. That will be determined by what sort of foreign exchange clearing process your bank uses. Most USA banks seem to use the VISA facility for this, if you use your debit card to withdraw money. And assuming your debit card is operated on the VISA network with your bank. And the cost there might be around 1% for US banks, or based on the previous day's VISA exchange rate...not sure. But if you are lucky or unlucky enough to have a Canadian bank it is a whole different process, usually. Anyway. Then for sure the exchange cost will be your largest cost in the process.

In my case if I withdraw cash from Davivienda
1. There is no ATM charge
2. My bank charges $5 per foreign transaction
3. My bank charges 2.5% compared to the mid market rate at the time you withdraw the cash. So on my typical $500 approximate withdrawal my currency exchange cost is $15.50, my home bank fee is $5.00, total $20.50. If I deal with a bank here in Colombia that charges an ATM fee that is over and above the $20.50

Thanks for the info.

Is your pin over 4 digits? 2 years back they changed it so if your pin is over 4 digits it won't read it but will deducte it. I had a 6 digit pin I had to change to 4 in order to use here.

Now that you mention it I believe it was. What a royal PIA that was. I'm contemplating re-trying Davivienda bank with the 4 digit pin.

[Zeos1]

He said a transaction fee of 18,500 cop = $4.19 USD.

Transaction fee is nothing to do with the exchange rate.

There are 3 components to the cost of using and ATM in a foreign country..
1. The fee that the ATM charges
2. The foreign withdrawal fee that your bank may or may not charge.
3. The exchange rate that is used for the transaction

Most of the time the biggest cost by far is the exchange rate used for the transaction. That will be determined by what sort of foreign exchange clearing process your bank uses. Most USA banks seem to use the VISA facility for this, if you use your debit card to withdraw money. And assuming your debit card is operated on the VISA network with your bank. And the cost there might be around 1% for US banks, or based on the previous day's VISA exchange rate...not sure. But if you are lucky or unlucky enough to have a Canadian bank it is a whole different process, usually. Anyway. Then for sure the exchange cost will be your largest cost in the process.

In my case if I withdraw cash from Davivienda
1. There is no ATM charge
2. My bank charges $5 per foreign transaction
3. My bank charges 2.5% compared to the mid market rate at the time you withdraw the cash. So on my typical $500 approximate withdrawal my currency exchange cost is $15.50, my home bank fee is $5.00, total $20.50. If I deal with a bank here in Colombia that charges an ATM fee that is over and above the $20.50.

And the only way I will really know the cost of the currency exchange is to either just believe my bank, that it is 2.5%, or look at the rate I got and compare it to the published mid market rate on that day at that time of day. Which is hard to do. But I have done it and it does seem to correspond to what the bank says they charge, which is 2.5%

[BlueChange]

I decline and take Visa but best transation fee that I found.

Fuck Davivienda! I spent almost an hour at the bank asking them to return my 1. 000.000 mil they stole form my bank but not spit money out. I checked "Decline banks exchange rate" and said the transaction was successful but did not spit any money at me. I have capital one so called them and the transaction went through on there end and the rep said the ATM should have gave you money. After using google translate with some manager at the Davivienda bank almost an hour did they tell me they will credit the account but my take 7-10 bussiness days. Still recieved no answer why ATM did that. I'm not the only one, other people have been scammed a couple years ago by same bank. Careful of Davivienda bank.

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=833733

Is your pin over 4 digits? 2 years back they changed it so if your pin is over 4 digits it won't read it but will deducte it. I had a 6 digit pin I had to change to 4 in order to use here.