Medellin Reports

[Villainy]

I'm in the same boat as Lucky Nuts, my bank will refund all the fees. So, I always withdraw whatever I need. I only care about the best XE rate.

I've written about this before. You will not be getting the XE rate. That just isn't how it works. The XE rate is a market transaction rate. It is going up and down throughout the day. What you get (assuming you decline the Bank's Conversion rate. Which is a total rip off) is the Visa interbank rate. This rate is set every night at about midnight EST. It reflects what is happening in the currency exchange markets (I. E. The XE rate).

So if you se the XE rate climbing during the day. Wait and get your money tomorrow because Visa will likely raise their inter-bank rate. If you see the XE rate declining during the day and you need money, get it today because most likely the Visa rate that you get from your Colombian bank will be less tomorrow.

On Friday night the rate is set for the weekend (meaning Saturday, Sunday and Monday). Why Monday? Because Sunday at midnight there were no transactions on Sunday with which Visa would modify their rate.

You can search for Visa Exchange Rate. Put in any amount (it really doesn't matter) and put in a 0% bank fee. Then put in United States as the card issuing country (unless your bank is from another country) and put in Colombia and you will get the Visa Rate for the day. Compare that to how much it cost you when you do a withdrawal and you will find that it matches exactly.

[Zeos1]

My experience is that Bancolombia gives the full XE rate if you find their machines that don't ask you to accept a conversion rate (which will rip you off). Looking at my last statement I made many pulls of 600 mil pesos (the ATM max) the last week of September and paid as low as $156.05 and as high as $156.42. So the conversion rate ranged from 3845 at best to 3836 at worst which is right at where XE.com showed the official rate those days. I should mention my bank pays all ATM fees so maybe that's why I'm able to get the full exchange rate from Bancolombia's ATMs.

All the banks I know do the exchange at your home bank. So the exchange rate does not depend on which bank you withdraw money from. That is true for Canadian banks, the big 5. Not sure about US banks. Some of the Canadian banks charge 2. 5%, others 3. 5%. So for me it doesn't matter which Colombian bank I withdraw from. I try to get one with no ATM fee (Scotia / Colpatria) and one that will give me the greatest amount to minimize the impact of the $5 foreign cash withdrawal fee (again, all the Canadian banks have at least a $5 fee for this).

[Arthur62]

... There were four cops in my hotel room pointing their guns at me initially while telling me that I would be going away to prison for a long time, for infantile porn in my phone and for having an underage girl in my room, who they dragged back in as part of the act, even though none of it was true. They are using a 19 year old girl for the sting and all the photos in my phone are of adults.

I managed to flush all my Tussy after they found it and while the cops were still in the room at the same time. If I do say so myself that took some steel Kahuna's but they were more interested in extorting several million pesos from me than anything else. More to come but hopefully that's enough to convince you to stay away from her....

Osteo, your posts are inspirational and educative and you are a guide for many old and new mongers: please stay free & healthy and -keep publishing!

[Beobeo]

Best ATM to use is Davivienda. They allow 2,000,000 each hit (most machines), no withdrawal fees rfom the Colombian bank. That also saves on fees at your end too. Just decline the conversion bcos no doubt your bank will give you a better rate when they get the transaction posted.

My experience is that Bancolombia gives the full XE rate if you find their machines that don't ask you to accept a conversion rate (which will rip you off). Looking at my last statement I made many pulls of 600 mil pesos (the ATM max) the last week of September and paid as low as $156.05 and as high as $156.42. So the conversion rate ranged from 3845 at best to 3836 at worst which is right at where XE.com showed the official rate those days. I should mention my bank pays all ATM fees so maybe that's why I'm able to get the full exchange rate from Bancolombia's ATMs.

I'm in the same boat as Lucky Nuts, my bank will refund all the fees. So, I always withdraw whatever I need. I only care about the best XE rate.

[Lucky Nuts]

I normally just go to whatever closest available to me, a lot of time Bancolombia. What are the best ATM to use for the best conversion rate?

My experience is that Bancolombia gives the full XE rate if you find their machines that don't ask you to accept a conversion rate (which will rip you off). Looking at my last statement I made many pulls of 600 mil pesos (the ATM max) the last week of September and paid as low as $156.05 and as high as $156.42. So the conversion rate ranged from 3845 at best to 3836 at worst which is right at where XE.com showed the official rate those days. I should mention my bank pays all ATM fees so maybe that's why I'm able to get the full exchange rate from Bancolombia's ATMs.

[JustTK]

One thing about checking cedulas everyone should be aware of. There are fake cedulas out there. Some girls use stolen cedulas

I know its not smthg that will come in to the corrupt Colombia police behaviour, but I am curious what the actual law would be when someone uses a fake cedula. Given that you're a tourist and not familiar with what a real cedula looks like, surely equity would dictate that you could not be found guilty under these circumstances? . Hypothetically.

[JustTK]

I normally just go to whatever closest available to me, a lot of time Bancolombia. What are the best ATM to use for the best conversion rate?

Best ATM to use is Davivienda. They allow 2,000,000 each hit (most machines), no withdrawal fees rfom the Colombian bank. That also saves on fees at your end too. Just decline the conversion bcos no doubt your bank will give you a better rate when they get the transaction posted.

[Beobeo]

I normally just go to whatever closest available to me, a lot of time Bancolombia. What are the best ATM to use for the best conversion rate?

[JjBee62]

You may recall my computer is still broken, and I'm using an old Samsung pre-Galaxy phone to post everything for the past month or so. Then, after the recent internet crash my phone has a glitch whether I type or use voice to text, it's a total PITA to post anything. That is why my posts have sounded so wonky lately and I've mentioned it several times. After having to retype the same sentence retype 5 or 6 times after a while I just have to give up. Plus, sometimes I'm stoned out of my mind but I think that is some of my best work when I read back, jaja.

As a PSA I wanted to get the word out rapidly before anybody else fell prey to Mini Vennie.

At this moment my voice dictation is working pretty good.

There were four cops in my hotel room pointing their guns at me initially while telling me that I would be going away to prison for a long time, for infantile porn in my phone and for having an underage girl in my room, who they dragged back in as part of the act, even though none of it was true. They are using a 19 year old girl for the sting and all the photos in my phone are of adults.

When I was working with webcam models I always needed 3 pictures of the girls' cedulas, only 2 for Vennies (Venezuelan cedula has the birthday on the front). One of each side and 1 of the girl holding the cedula next to her face. All the webcam sites require this for verification.

Whenever I did a photo or video shoot for a girl everything went into a folder with the girl's name along with the cedula photos. I don't normally take a lot of photos of the girls I'm with, but for those who do, you might consider a system like this, not only for organization, but to keep proof of age, if you've ever got police going through your phone and computer.

One thing about checking cedulas everyone should be aware of. There are fake cedulas out there. Some girls use stolen cedulas, while others borrow a cedula from an older sister or cousin. While the cedula may get the girl into your room it's not a failsafe proof of age. If she looks too young, it's best to pass her by.

I've often seen girls on Facebook asking who has a cedula they can borrow. One girl, who wanted to do webcam, but wasn't 18 yet said for 50 k she could get someone to make her a cedula.

Something I always look for with Facebook girls; birthday pictures. Often they will have photos of their birthday with balloons showing their age. I consider that more dependable than a cedula.

[Turgid]

......There were four cops in my hotel room pointing their guns at me initially while telling me that I would be going away to prison for a long time, for infantile porn in my phone and for having an underage girl in my room, who they dragged back in as part of the act, even though none of it was true. They are using a 19 year old girl for the sting and all the photos in my phone are of adults.....

This is the first such case I have read of. If all you have stated on the matter is the case then this is extremely worrying. What happened when you were in the room with the girl? The pictures you shared earlier are not your usual type of photos.

[Iponux]

Bancolombia doesn't treat anyone fairly and has all knids of fees they charge their customers that bank with them not unlike Bank of America and Wells Fargo in the USA. However the majority of Colombians bank with them because their omnipresent within the Country, and do have a good platform for paying people and easily transferring funds between parties with their App.

And when it comes to a favorable exchange rate when using their ATM's, well besides all the gimmicks and stuff they try to pull, they've never ever offered a good exchange rate, albeit there are others that are even worse.

Insiders tip, Scotia is your best bet irrespective of fees charged by your bank for using your card if at all.

I second that, I tried all the ATMs in Cartagena using a chase card,. Scotia was by far the best, but the inly ATM there was unreliable, bancolombia ended up same as if I had cash and went to a street cashier.

Any one tried a Citi card using Citibank ATMs? They should use visa conversion and no fees, but haven't tried yet.

[Surfer500]

There were four cops in my hotel room pointing their guns at me initially while telling me that I would be going away to prison for a long time, for infantile porn in my phone and for having an underage girl in my room, who they dragged back in as part of the act, even though none of it was true. They are using a 19 year old girl for the sting and all the photos in my phone are of adults.

I managed to flush all my Tussy after they found it and while the cops were still in the room at the same time. If I do say so myself that took some steel Kahuna's but they were more interested in extorting several million pesos from me than anything else. More to come but hopefully that's enough to convince you to stay away from her.

Hopefully your next post is not going to be from your jail cell. I guess you can't make this stuff up unless your a good fiction writer.

Waiting for the next chapter of your saga.

[Surfer500]

I'm with you man on only using ATMs but I'm familiar with the currency exchanges for my friends that come with cash so I answered the question.

On the topic of ATMs it's weird how different ATMs from the same bank will treat you differently. I only use BancoColombia ATMs out of habit and knowing I've been treated fairly over several years. Like full exchange rate fairly! So I still use them. But some of their machines will not give cash unless you accept an unfair exchange rate. I always decline it of course and they will end the transaction there. Other BancoColombia ATMs will offer a second option of cash withdrawal without the unfair exchange rate. And still other ATMs will just give the fair exchange rate without even asking if you want to be shafted with the unfair exchange rate. And each time I return to Colombia I never know which ATMs will react which way. It's sort of like slot machines jajajaa. What a weird banking system LOL!

Bancolombia doesn't treat anyone fairly and has all knids of fees they charge their customers that bank with them not unlike Bank of America and Wells Fargo in the USA. However the majority of Colombians bank with them because their omnipresent within the Country, and do have a good platform for paying people and easily transferring funds between parties with their App.

And when it comes to a favorable exchange rate when using their ATM's, well besides all the gimmicks and stuff they try to pull, they've never ever offered a good exchange rate, albeit there are others that are even worse.

Insiders tip, Scotia is your best bet irrespective of fees charged by your bank for using your card if at all.

[Beobeo]

And each time I return to Colombia I never know which ATMs will react which way. It's sort of like slot machines jajajaa. What a weird banking system LOL!

I usually cancel the transaction if the ATM does not allow me to decline conversion. A lot of time Bancolombia has 3 ATM in the same room, I just try a different ATM.

[LoveItHere69]

Monday night there were many people out until 10:00 pm. Tuesday night the amount of people were half the night before. About 9:30 I went to the side of the church headed to the bar area behind the church to where there normally is an empanda stand but not tonight. At the corner where the yellow restaurant is I stopped to chat a girl I had been with a few times. Three guys were standing together nearby but as soon as I got there they separated and spaced themselves out around the corner and thus around me and surely looking down the street for police. So I quickly crossed the street. Soon a motorcycle cop turned to go down the walkway leading to the church so I followed him back. Pretty damn positive something was about to happen. Things are changing again in Botero. Be careful. When the police leave you leave.

One my walk back to my hotel I watched a guy pull out a knife on another guy under the metro. Nothing happened but still messes with ones peace of mind. I like how cheap it is here but could never retire here. Can never let your guard down. That sucks! NO peace of mind.