Medellin Reports

[Charm City Dave]

Get the T-mobile One Plus plan and you will not have to worry about wifi. You can use your internet overseas for free. I even have free calls to and from Mexico and Canada and my bill is only $70.

I use between .5 and 2 Gigs of data a month and my bill is $25 to $40. My max bill is $80 but only if I use 6 Gigs or more of data, which has never happened. I get full LTE speeds, not 3 G like you frequently get on T-mobile. Google billing and customer service is way superior to T-Mobile and it uses both the T-Mobile and Sprint Networks which makes it more reliable. I have used it in Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Canada, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. When the T-Mobile partner network was down in Peru, I was fine my phone auto-switched to the Sprint partner network. I had T-Mobile a few years ago and had awful billing and customer service problems.

When I'm on wifi, I get free calling back and from the US. When I'm out and about on the cellular network it is 20 cents a minute. I get unlimited SMS around the world.

One of my favorite features is they give you a free 2nd Sim card you can put into a laptop, tablet or 2nd phone. I use it in a 2nd, cheap unlocked phone which I tend to take out at night in case it gets jacked.

Here is a link for a $20 credit signing up for the service.

https://g.co/fi/r/AV50AT

[Turgid]

............. Local food's still great value. If you enjoy it, consider bringing a bottle of your favorite BBQ and hot sauce from home. Rico!

At the Plaza Minorista a lady sells bottled marinade that includes all sorts of ingredients and spices which she makes on the spot. Delicious.

[Mr Enternational]

Calle 53/ Avenida Degrieff area late at night is still Apocalypse now. The cool guys wear flip flops and shorts there and always have their backs to a wall when checking their iphones.

That was me. And it is a Galaxy, not an iPhone.

The airport shuttle behind hotel Nutibara for 10 k cop doesn't operate 24/7 anymore.

It did not operate 24/7 before. There were a couple of hours late in the night that it did not run. Like from 2 am to 3:30 or something.

[Bill]

I see noticeable changes in the last year. Still night of the living dead after dark but slightly less than before. Cops are shooing younger groups away from the Iglesia de la Veracruz church bar area looks less rowdy and populated during weekend nights. They installed new pedestrian tile, and a historical see through plexiglass of what could be ancient aqua ducts.

New D1 grocery store on calle 51 past carr 54.

Forward progress probably not good for the hobby IMHO.

Calle 53/ Avenida Degrieff area late at night is still Apocalypse now. The cool guys wear flip flops and shorts there and always have their backs to a wall when checking their iphones.

I used two decent, close by 5 mil cop s/t hotels to take sg's and most traveled to or knew about them.

Lots more Venezuelans freelancing in Botero plaza. DR flashback.

The airport shuttle behind hotel Nutibara for 10 k cop doesn't operate 24/7 anymore. Casas still great at the lesser known ones.

Asking prices creeping up from hotels to casas to sg's.
Local food's still great value. If you enjoy it, consider bringing a bottle of your favorite BBQ and hot sauce from home. Rico!

[Mr Enternational]

Probably I don't understand how to use whatsapp. Utube videos and google aren't helping. I added them to my phone's contacts but they don't show up on my whatsapp contacts. So maybe they don't have the app. This fshit is frustrating maybe I will have to text them on my home plan and see if they respond.

LOL. Nobody is going to respond to a text. That is pretty much an American thing these days. Nobody that travels overseas or lives in a different country uses SMS anymore. After you have added them to the contact list in your phone using the +57 3xx-xxx-xxxx, go to whatsapp and click the magnifying glass at the top right. Type in the name that you saved in your contacts. If they have whatsapp then it will pop up. Click on it and type.

How did you meet this person? Because these days whether I meet a person online or in person, I do not ask for their phone number. I instead ask if they have whatsapp. Then they will say yes, this is the number. I will put it in my phone and send them a message immediately that says "from Me".

[Bill]

You need to type in the country code.

+57 xxx xxxxxxx.

To return to you they need to type +1 xxx xxxxxxx.

Probably I don't understand how to use whatsapp. Utube videos and google aren't helping. I added them to my phone's contacts but they don't show up on my whatsapp contacts. So maybe they don't have the app. This fshit is frustrating maybe I will have to text them on my home plan and see if they respond.

[Fun Luvr]

Can I get a straight answer? Tmobile told me I have to dial 011 57 then the local one digit code, then the persons seven digit number.

The girls are giving me 10 digit numbers beginning with 300 or 301 followed by 7 more digits. WTH? LOL.

I am fairly sure the one digit code is for landlines, sorta like area codes in the US. The ladies are giving you their cell phone numbers. No one digit code required.

[Mr Enternational]

Tmobile told me I have to dial 011 57 then the local one digit code, then the persons seven digit number.

LOL. Damn I am feeling old now. I remember the one digit thing you used to have to do for a landline. I have not dialed one of those in years (because like Orgasmico said everyone has used whatsapp in recent history). The cell phones always had the 3 digits starting with a 3 at the beginning. 300, 316, 312, etc.

Get the T-mobile One Plus plan and you will not have to worry about wifi. You can use your internet overseas for free. I even have free calls to and from Mexico and Canada and my bill is only $70.

[Big Boss Man]

I have a USA Tmobile plan and have my USA phone with their Tmobile chip. Do you know the procedure to text a girl that gave me a local 10 digit number and I use Whatsapp on a Wifi connection?

You need to type in the country code.

+57 xxx xxxxxxx.

To return to you they need to type +1 xxx xxxxxxx.

[Zdaman101]

I have a USA Tmobile plan and have my USA phone with their Tmobile chip. Do you know the procedure to text a girl that gave me a local 10 digit number and I use Whatsapp on a Wifi connection?

To text in a foreign country you have to use the + symbol in front of the country code before entering the ten digit number. It's the same as a call. +57-xxx-xxx-xxxx.

[Bill]

I have a USA Tmobile plan and have my USA phone with their Tmobile chip. Do you know the procedure to text a girl that gave me a local 10 digit number and I use Whatsapp on a Wifi connection?

[Orgasmico]

Is it best to use Whatsapp?

Are you from another country? Everyone here does use WhatsApp.

[Bill]

Can I get a straight answer? Tmobile told me I have to dial 011 57 then the local one digit code, then the persons seven digit number.

The girls are giving me 10 digit numbers beginning with 300 or 301 followed by 7 more digits. WTH? LOL.

Is it best to use Whatsapp?

Thanks in advance!

[Knowledge]

It's good to have a backup card, that is great advice. Using ATMs in secure locations is also excellent advice. I didn't mention it because it's been covered so many times here, but so has everything else about ATMs so that was my bad.

As far as card fees, unless you are going to be making withdrawals several times a day for weeks on end, I don't see how the fees can amount to enough to to change your plans or even think about. Lots of credit unions and banks, and the ISG brokerage favorites on here offer no fee ATM cards. Shop around and find the deal that works best for you. That concludes this week's personal finance content. Anybody else notice the trend of nicer Veracruz girls who show up around the front of the museum about 9 am Until early afternoon? Some of them are kind of nice.

Unless you have a low limit on your card (s) I would definitely wait. You can also change cash at a Cambio at I assume a better rate and no lower fee in Medellin. Avoid the Cambios at the airport, they have no fees but their poor rates more than make up for that. Remember a fee is only one part of the cost, a poor rate can cost you more than any fees. ATMs may charge up to three fees a local ATM fee, your bank ATM fee and finally a transaction fee (usually 1% to 3%). Your existing bank can advise you on what those banks charge in fees. Local banks in Medellin will charge fees (if I remember correctly) of $3 to $5 per transaction on foreign transactions. ATM exchange rate are based off the existing international bank exchange rate.

Schwab and Fidelity offer ATM cards that charge nothing for international ATM withdraws and even refund any local ATM fees..

[Charm City Dave]

Looking for advice for lowest fees on obtaining COP. I am from the USA and have the option of getting it from my local bank. Just for reference, getting 2 million Pesos will impose a fee of about $40-$50 dollars. I have read you can get COP from the Airport ATM but limited to about 600,000 and the fee is $2-$3? Is this true? I know one can likely make multiple transactions and end up with 2 million for around $8-$12. I did something similar in DR but found that some of the ATMs ran out of money frequently.

Would you recommend I get it ahead of time and take a hit on the fee or wait and chance it for lower fees?

Unless you have a low limit on your card (s) I would definitely wait. You can also change cash at a Cambio at I assume a better rate and no lower fee in Medellin. Avoid the Cambios at the airport, they have no fees but their poor rates more than make up for that. Remember a fee is only one part of the cost, a poor rate can cost you more than any fees. ATMs may charge up to three fees a local ATM fee, your bank ATM fee and finally a transaction fee (usually 1% to 3%). Your existing bank can advise you on what those banks charge in fees. Local banks in Medellin will charge fees (if I remember correctly) of $3 to $5 per transaction on foreign transactions. ATM exchange rate are based off the existing international bank exchange rate.

Schwab and Fidelity offer ATM cards that charge nothing for international ATM withdraws and even refund any local ATM fees. The Fidelity fees hits in a day or two. Schwab bundles them and give you one rebate with all fees at months end. I don't know how often you travel internationally, but I'm out of the country over 6 month a year. I have both these cards and they save me hundreds of dollars year in ATM fees. I think on both cards you can set the daily withdrawal limit and can take multiple withdrawals until you hit that limit. Amazingly Schwab has no minimum balance requirement. I'm not sure about Fidelity. At one point Capital One had an ATM card with a similar benefit but I'm not familiar with it. Plenty of ATMs in Medellin and the only time they may run out of money is on the weekend, especially Sunday. The airport has several ATMs and one always seems to have enough money to get me into town.

While I rarely need the withdrawal power of two cards, its nice to know if one is lost or stolen (I've had both happen internationally) I have a backup. My ATM card was stolen in Medellin and I lost on in the Atacama desert in Chile.

More of a concern in Medellin will be security. I tend to take money out of ATMs deep inside malls or the supermarket and never at night in an on the street ATM.