Medellin Reports

[QUOTE=FunLuvr;2808700]If you had tried the Davivienda ATM and declined their conversion rate, you would not have paid any ATM fee. You could have taken out 2,000,000 pesos with one transaction. From the information you posted, you received 4415/1 exchange rate. That is close to the Visa exchange rate last Thursday, which is what you should receive today.[/QUOTE]I didn't see him say anything about what exchange rate he got. Assuming it is the Visa exchange rate doesn't work for me because my bank doesn't use that.

[QUOTE=Zeos1;2808705]I didn't see him say anything about what exchange rate he got. Assuming it is the Visa exchange rate doesn't work for me because my bank doesn't use that.[/QUOTE]He said a transaction fee of 18,500 cop = $4.19 USD.

[QUOTE=Zeos1;2808705]I didn't see him say anything about what exchange rate he got. Assuming it is the Visa exchange rate doesn't work for me because my bank doesn't use that.[/QUOTE]Fun Luvr is right. Unless you have some Credit Union or something really strange, almost all banks use the Visa Exchange Rate to settle ATM transactions in different currencies.

The rest of his point was exactly true too. Davienda allows a 2 million withdrawal (per transaction) and there is no fee. As long as you decline the bank's offered rate you will get the Visa Exchange Rate which is always much higher.

[QUOTE=RupertP;2808609]I'm getting into Medellin tomorrow and high on my priority list is finding a good sports bar for a big boxing fight this weekend. Do you guys have any recommendations? Preferably somewhere with some attractive girls. Thanks.[/QUOTE]Patrick's Irish Pub and Proc & Ryno's Sports Bar at Parque Lleras. Both can stream any game you want.

Does anyone know of any sports bar in Bogota that can stream any game? The ones listed in Bogota (around Zona T) seems to only show games that are on normal cable TV (such as ESPN).

[QUOTE=PigSavinBoy;2808623]Davivienda ATMs should have no fees.[/QUOTE]I decline and take Visa but best transation fee that I found.

[QUOTE=PigSavinBoy;2808623]Davivienda ATMs should have no fees.[/QUOTE]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.

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

Friday night saw a new fb girl. Young, told me she was 19. Was a crazy chica and we'll get into that later. Showed up in a little school dress with a pink thong and a white button up shirt. Sexy as fuck. Short little thing, no more than 5 ft. Stunning. Had a kid at 15, baby daddy's a jerk blah blah. We sit in the kitchen area, talk for 10 minutes before she asks me to put on some "musica". So I play my reggaeton playlist and it puts a smile on her face.

She comes to the room and begins dancing, pulls me into her and we start dancing and grinding on one another. "Ay amor, no sabía que sabías bailar" I respond: via a whisper in her ear "Si mamisita". She eats it all up. Clothes begin to come off and she pushed me on the bed. Starts grinding me on the bed putting my dick in and out of her chocha, teasing me. She starts signing and undressing. She gets on top and rides for about 10 minutes, really into it, she got crazy wet, which was nice. I flip her over and hit it doggy, what a fine little ass she has on her, again almost exploded, flip her missionary and she asks to milk outside, told her ok. She wants me to leche outside but holds my ass down when I tell her AH mami I'm lecheing.

Manage do get half out and half in. She lays there just looking at me with a sad look on her face. Knowing why she has that look I say I say "¿Por qué me abrazas?" her response: "porque te sentiste tan bien amor" I thought no wonder why this ***** had a kid at 15. I go and wipe up and when I get back a her drink is moved. OH HELL NO I THINK and I make sure I don't drink shit until she leaves. She ended up drinking from it in front of me but still.

She starts signing and dressing. After fully dressed she sits in my chair in the room and begins singing. She knows every single lyric to every single reggaeton song I shit you not. She even sings the lyrics before the song does. Never seen no shit like that. I tell her "escuchas mucha musica". She says she loves musica. We start talking about Tussi, told her I'm not interested. She does her signing and dancing while ordering an uber. 45 minutes pass and I'm just sitting there watching her while she sings to me. I ask, what time your uber come? She doesn't know. OK.

Now she's standing up in front of me holding a pretend mic in her hand singing to me. I had enough and got up and walked out. Came back in and showed her some in drivers in the area for 15000 pesos but than app goes down for maintenance REALLY!! NOW! So we talk a bit more and realize this girl is a st8 luntic, a beautiful lunatic. She says I'm going to flag down a cab told her none on my street told her only on diagonal. Se says ok and starts walking out told her Stop! Not without me your not, it was 12:00 am and this little 5 ft beautiful 19 yo in a mini dress is about to go out on the streets alone. She told me she's not afraid of the streets and began punching the air trying to show me how tough she is. I told her yea yea and walked with her to the end of my street. After 15 minutes of waiting (I was scared as fuck) not going to lie she flags down a taxi, but he keeps going. Another 10 minutes pass and apps is still down. Told me she's going to walk down the street, I told her not to but she gave me a kiss and said bye, so I said ok adios and went back to my airbnb, locked my doors and went to bed. I did tell her to text me letting me know she made it back safely which she somehow did. She was a complete nutcase.

Think I left off last report with Thursday night Girl #4. This girl looked young. Another FB paiesa. Asked her to bring her cedula. She said ok but when she arrived she "forgot it". Yea ok, let her in anyways and I began grilling her about her outfit and age. She looked like she still had on her school uniform, a school dress with a white school shirt. She brushed it off and just laughed. So I did my usual routine, bebe, comerir, etc etc.

Make our way to the bedroom and DAMN was she hairy. Not her pussy but her arms and legs. The fuck is this I thought. Turn off. But as soon as she started BBBJ me shit changed. The BBFS was even better. Best fuck of the trip so far. This girl can take a pounding and loved it. Choking her, etc. We finish cip about 20 minutes later. She asked if I smoke told her yea but don't have any, she gave me a pretty fat rouch and said she would stay to smoke with me but has to go to dinner because its her moms bday. Which I do believe because her mom called during date asking where she was. She said she don't mind me posting a photo of her so I will attach girl # 4. Saw her Friday night around 6 pm.

[QUOTE=DownLow123;2808741]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.

[URL]https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=833733[/URL][/QUOTE]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.

[QUOTE=FunLuvr;2808709]He said a transaction fee of 18,500 cop = $4.19 USD.[/QUOTE]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%

[QUOTE=Zeos1;2808749]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[/QUOTE]Thanks for the info.

[QUOTE=BlueChange;2808743]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.[/QUOTE]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.

[QUOTE=Zeos1;2808749]


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%[/QUOTE]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.

[QUOTE=Zeos1;2808749]Transaction fee is nothing to do with the exchange rate.[/QUOTE]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.

[QUOTE=DownLow123;2808741]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.
[/QUOTE]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.

[QUOTE=DondeSea72;2808370]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.[/QUOTE]Nice to know Colombian women are considered faithful. And thanks so much for recommending SJ, Costa Rica. I will check it out for sure.

[QUOTE=Davvv100;2808611].... I've been trying to find girls on FB but I haven't had any luck. ...[/QUOTE]You can find some tips in the Reports of Distinction thread.

[QUOTE=Davvv100;2808326]I wish, bro.[/QUOTE]That is a facebook girl.

[QUOTE=XXL;2808753]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.[/QUOTE]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.