Menu
Expat.com

Exchange canadian dollars

Post new topic

joieval52

Is it possible or worthwhile to exchange Canadian dollars while in the Dominican Republic? vs exchanging Canadian dollars to U.S. dollars (here in Canada) and then exchanging it into pesos when in DR. Does anyone have experience with this..? Thank you!

UncleBuck

Our best exchange was buying a few thousand pesos in Canada before leaving so we had some pocket money, and then withdrawing pesos with your debit card from an ATM at a bank, not one of the grocery stores.  For us, non-Scotia customers, we found the best rate for ATM fees was at Nacional, a small chain of banks.  It allowed us to take out the most pesos ($40,000 at the time, no idea if it's still the same today) for the same fee as other machines ($12,000 or less, from other banks).  Use your credit or debit card for groceries at the bigger chains, but you'll likely need cash for restaurants, especially at the beach.  Pay attention with the terminals at the grocery store or restaurants, some may ask whether you want to convert to CAD right there, but DON"T DO IT.  Your bank will always give you a better rate than those machines will, and it's the company that supplies the machines that get the extra fee, not the vendor.


My strong advice is don't exchange CAD for USD and then pesos, you lose so much on the multiple exchanges. 

joieval52

Good Morning, thank you for taking the time to reply. I appreciate it. Have a good day!

jayroyf

I agree with the previous comment. The more exchange currency, the more it will cost you. We do exactly what Uncle Buck does and it seems to be the safest, most secure and least costly way.

joieval52

Okay, thanks again!

Steverino7777

I set up a Scotiabank account in Canada and bring my Scotia ATM card down here where I withdraw pesos at the international exchange rate without any ATM fee.  Easy and excellent exchange rate....

gmcmenemy

@joieval52 Our recommendation would be to exchange Cdn to Dominican peso in Canada. Continental Exchange gave us a good seniors rate. Better than a cdn bank.and a better rate then we have found in DR so far.You can also order smaller bills which are useful.

Mmr986

If you have an account here in DR you can easily transfer Pesos to that account from your Canadian Branch, usually takes 1 - 2 days to arrive. As a comparison $1000 Canadian transfers to $40,000 RD using REMITLY.

The same $1000 exchanged at a TD bank in Canada will give you $36,630 and exchanging $1000 at the BANCO Santa Cruz in DR will get you $37,000.

WillieWeb

@joieval52 Our recommendation would be to exchange Cdn to Dominican peso in Canada. Continental Exchange gave us a good seniors rate. Better than a cdn bank.and a better rate then we have found in DR so far.You can also order smaller bills which are useful.
-@gmcmenemy


You could be carrying quite a bit of money by doing this.


I prefer a bit at a time....ATM/Debit card method

Articles to help you in your expat project in Dominican Republic

All of the Dominican Republic's guide articles