Free ATM in Colombia

[Kazeu]

So listen CAREFULLY. You want to use the Colpatria / Scotiabank ATM. NOT the Colpatria ATM. Not the Scotiabank ATM. They are different. You want the Colpatria / Scotiabank ATM. It is different. A combination of the two. I THINK it will say on the front that you can take out 2,700,000 pesos each day. I take out 900,000 3 times. Works best for me. Any other use of ATMs in Colombia is dumb. Search around and you will find the 'good' Colpatria / Scotia ATMs. Don't get fooled!

Great info! I never realized there was a difference between Colpatria / Scotiabank vs Colpatria vs Scotiabank.

[Kazeu]

One more time. Don't listen to what these other guys are talking about. If you follow my instructions the Schwab info is useless because there will be no ATM fees. And any other info is worthless as long as you use the correct Colpatria / Scotia ATM. Your limit with be 2,700,000 pesos per day whatever Schwab says. The ATM limit in Colombia is a COUNTRY limit.

I am pretty sure this is not true or may have changed recently as during my transaction the Colpatria ATM explictly told me that its limits were 4. 500.000 per day and 900.000 per transaction.

[Kazeu]

Well guys this is an important issue in Colombia, to withdraw big amounts of money.

Personally always used Davivienda, they apply international rates and no fees. I withdraw 2 times 2 million pesos (which is the max at the cajero) 4 M a day in general with no fees and at the best rate. Do not know is there is a way to withdraw more with in Davivienda.

Will try at the end of October and will let you know.

Bancolombia apply fees as well as city; Few years ago the best deal was city with like 10.000 pesos fees for 2 M pesos withdraw.

Now it is clearly davivienda, international rate and no fees.

Do someone have other experience with other banks?

I had a bad experience with Davivienda ATMs recently and my Schwab ATM card. The cash was taken from my account but I was not given any cash from the ATM machine. This happened twice on 2 different Davivienda ATM machines.

Today I used a Colpatria ATM where I made a max withdrawl of 900000 COP. I looked at my bank account after and 234.16 was charged to my account, meaning the exchange rate was 3843.5 COP / USD.

XE.com lists the rate at 3849.04 COP / USD. Not bad.

[SoloOperadas]

Well guys this is an important issue in Colombia, to withdraw big amounts of money.

Personally always used Davivienda, they apply international rates and no fees. I withdraw 2 times 2 million pesos (which is the max at the cajero) 4 M a day in general with no fees and at the best rate. Do not know is there is a way to withdraw more with in Davivienda.

Will try at the end of October and will let you know.

Bancolombia apply fees as well as city; Few years ago the best deal was city with like 10.000 pesos fees for 2 M pesos withdraw.

Now it is clearly davivienda, international rate and no fees.

Do someone have other experience with other banks?

[Zeos1]

Thanks, ScotiaColpatria and BBVA worked great; always have couple of locations in mind as they run out of cash from time to time. If you arrive at the ATM and it says it was temporarily out of order, still try as it may work since the last announcement appeared. ScotiaColpatria has a choice of making a donation to a good cause on your withdrawal.

I was always trying to max out my withdrawals to minimize the impact of my fee per transaction back home. ScotiaColpatria has or at least had a month ago a max of 900 K I think. Which worked out the best for me. But often the machines would not do it. Don't know why because they don't say. But the larger malls with machines inside were the most likely to have cash. During weekday working hours and next to an actual Scotia Colpatria bank.

A lot of locations on google don't exist anymore. The merger of Scotia and Colpatria and Citibank have resulted in redundancies and many closed locations. Locations were sometimes originally Colpatria, or Scotiabank. But are generally rebranded with the both showing.

[Questner]

Thanks, ScotiaColpatria and BBVA worked great; always have couple of locations in mind as they run out of cash from time to time. If you arrive at the ATM and it says it was temporarily out of order, still try as it may work since the last announcement appeared. ScotiaColpatria has a choice of making a donation to a good cause on your withdrawal.

[Ricky Zanchez]

Please post banking links on to how to locate the nearest ATM to Colpatria / Scotiabank, Davivienda and Pichincha branch ATMs.

If the posted search engine can identify the ATMs on VISA Plus that will be great.

https://www.scotiabankcolpatria.com/oficinas/medellin

[Questner]

Please post banking links on to how to locate the nearest ATM to Colpatria / Scotiabank, Davivienda and Pichincha branch ATMs.

If the posted search engine can identify the ATMs on VISA Plus that will be great.

[JohnnyWalker55]

One more time. Don't listen to what these other guys are talking about. If you follow my instructions the Schwab info is useless because there will be no ATM fees. And any other info is worthless as long as you use the correct Colpatria / Scotia ATM. Your limit with be 2,700,000 pesos per day whatever Schwab says. The ATM limit in Colombia is a COUNTRY limit.

It would help if you could say where it is LOL.

Is it the one in la candeleria next to parque berrio metro station "colpatria multibanca del grupo scotiabank"? That is the only one that shows up on maps.

And you didn't mention if they charge any withdrawal fees?

Right now banco Pinchincha seems like the best option, there are a bunch of them and I can withdraw a week's worth of play money at once without fees.

[Fun Luvr]

One more time. Don't listen to what these other guys are talking about. If you follow my instructions the Schwab info is useless because there will be no ATM fees. And any other info is worthless as long as you use the correct Colpatria / Scotia ATM. Your limit with be 2,700,000 pesos per day whatever Schwab says. The ATM limit in Colombia is a COUNTRY limit.

If all other info is useless, then what ATM card do you use? Or do you use your fingerprints or face recognition? Regardless of the ATM limit, you are not going to get more than the limit set by the bank which issued the card.

[Fun Luvr]

One phone call to Schwab and they will raise it to $2000. No problem. I used my Charles Schwab card to withdraw the equivalent of $10,000. USD to buy a car over the course of 5 days.

A good point about that is you can tell them how long you want the change of limit to be in effect.

[JjBee62]

One more time. Don't listen to what these other guys are talking about. If you follow my instructions the Schwab info is useless because there will be no ATM fees. And any other info is worthless as long as you use the correct Colpatria / Scotia ATM. Your limit with be 2,700,000 pesos per day whatever Schwab says. The ATM limit in Colombia is a COUNTRY limit.

I'm sorry you feel nobody else should share any ATM information.

My own experience, the Colpatria / Scotia ATM wouldn't accept my card. If someone ignores all the other information and finds themselves in the same boat, are you going to be there to get them money?

I've seen various amounts offered as max withdrawal at the same ATM, for myself and another monger. He could only pull 780 k. Seconds later, I could have taken 2,080,000 but only took 1,080,000. Another person I know reported he could only get 400 k from the same ATM.

I know my roommate pulled 6 million from a Banco Pichincha ATM, because she handed each 1 million to me to count and carry for her. I know I also pulled 3 million out from the same ATM, using a card from the same US bank she was using.

I know that I had my card rejected by several ATMs, or was only allowed smaller withdrawals than I had made before. I discovered, when I returned to the US, the chip in my card was defective. New card fixed the problem.

I know people who get charged no fee at Citibank ATMs, but the last time I checked, I was charged a fee.

If any of what I know, because I've witnessed it with my own eyes, is different from what you know, it's possible you don't yet know everything.

[JjBee62]

For me, using my Schwab card at Davivienda, the max is 400 K per transaction. I usually do two withdrawals. I haven't tried three recently, but the third has been rejected in the past. Sometimes I go to BBVA (also free withdrawals) after Davivienda and do two more withdrawals of 400 K each (also max). I have verified with Schwab that the max withdrawal is 1,000 USD per day.

Where are Banco Pichincha ATM's in Medellin?

Last time I had checked there were only 2. I just checked again and it looks like 4 now. One in Itagui, Envigado, Poblado and El Centro.

The one I've used is on Avenida Poblado, south of CC Santa Fe. Directly across from the DHL building. Security guard there day and night.

[PirateMorgan]

One more time. Don't listen to what these other guys are talking about. If you follow my instructions the Schwab info is useless because there will be no ATM fees. And any other info is worthless as long as you use the correct Colpatria / Scotia ATM. Your limit with be 2,700,000 pesos per day whatever Schwab says. The ATM limit in Colombia is a COUNTRY limit.

[Datiao]

So listen CAREFULLY. You want to use the Colpatria / Scotiabank ATM. NOT the Colpatria ATM. Not the Scotiabank ATM. They are different. You want the Colpatria / Scotiabank ATM. It is different. A combination of the two. I THINK it will say on the front that you can take out 2,700,000 pesos each day. I take out 900,000 3 times. Works best for me. Any other use of ATMs in Colombia is dumb. Search around and you will find the 'good' Colpatria / Scotia ATMs. Don't get fooled!

Nice to hear that.

Does the ATM accept Union pay cards?