ScotiaBank in DR revisited topic

For us, with sending an international wire Santa Cruz, there is always a fee taken.  It used to be $25. $15 for the intermediary bank and $10 for Santa Cruz.  With there new system, it seems to be $40 or more, with non explanation as to why, or warning of the increase.

Every bank I have ever used here whether for personal or business all take a fee for receiving an international wire transfer.

@planner agree, I use Fedility Investment Banking. There international wire transfer are free and all ATM fees local and international are reembursed back to my account.

However, BPD takes out approx 7 dollars to accept the wire to my dollar account.

Well when I have done this with Scotia, send myself money into my Scotia account here, the fee is a tax.  But then when I transfer to another account at another bank, they also take the tax.  Scotia seems to take more tax.   This really irritates me and I went into bank to get explanation but they do not provide it.   I closed Scotia account as I am Canadian, but they are not the same bank here as in Canada.   That is the beauty of having different accounts at different banks, you can see how they treat you and your money.

For me, I find that Banco Santa Cruz is the best when it comes to fees.  When I transfer into this bank directly to them in my account (from Canada), they DO NOT take "taxes".   I wont ask why.   I am using British based transfer service called WORLD REMIT (now only has a phone app, cant transfer using a computer).   I pay $4 a transfer and its limited to $3000 per transfer.

Karin

@ondami

Not sure if this reply helps but we use a WISE.com account to travel and hold money we want to use overseas. Help to keep our home bank account out of fraudsters reach when using debit cards. Its good for changing currencies and a debit card is available with Wise. Might not help you pay some local bills in the DR, But I haven't really looked into that yet!

I use bank to bank transfer (SWIFT) from Europe to the DR (Popular). There are 2 optional fees, about 10eu for the sending bank and 10eu for the receiving bank. One or both can be paid by the sender or receiver. Nowadays I pay both in advance because I noticed that in the DR they take more than the fees in the EU.

Weird - using wires or Remitly, I have never had any fees taken by BSC for receiving the funds. We transfer USD to USD.

@ddmcghee what is BSC?  Where is it that you are located that BSC does not charge you for receiving funds?

@ondami Banco Santa Cruz, i use the branch in Las Terrenas, but my account was opened in Santo Domingo

@ddmcghee thank you.

I will be living, God willing, in Punta Cana.  Not sure if each branch of Scotia Bank operates differently.

Banks...ALL banks...what a scam.

Have a grand day!

We send a monthly wire transfer to Banco HD Leon.  They routinely charge a $7 fee for every wire transfer. 

BHDL also takes out what seems like a LOT of taxes...though they didn't for about the first year we were with them. 

We're reasonably happy with BHDL...but about every 3 years our accounts seem to get arbitrarily frozen, and we must be in-country to get them unfrozen ... and man, it is like pulling teeth to get it done.

>> Happened again this year -- in January, after arrival, we had to spend 9+ hours in a BHDL branch over 3 days before getting everything fixed.  It was truly a keystone cops skit in Espanol -- the bank reps made just about every mistake and error one can conceive of, while insisting that WE were the ones causing the problems.

>>  Just to give you a flavor:  BHDL utilizes "code cards" where you have to match a code on the card with the one requested by your ATM.  They set up entirely new cards for us -- but then switched them, giving me my wife's code card, and my wife my code card.  Within minutes, our accounts were completely locked again, and we had to re-start from scratch...AGAIN!   

>> And that was just ONE of their errors.  Those were long, tedious days sweating in a too-warm branch. 

In the end, the BHDL "executive account representative" turned completely, abjectly apologetic and begged forgiveness for the bank's many errors. 

• If not for that apology, we'd have walked out the door to a different bank and opened new accounts, then immediately closed the BHDL accounts and transferred the entire dollar and pesos amount of funds.
• As it is, they get a temporary reprieve and opportunity to prove themselves. 
• This is, after all, the 2nd time this completely freeze-out has happened, necessitating a complete re-setting up of our contrasenas (passwords), ATM cards, pins, code cards, etc., in person in the country.  We are losing patience, but we're not sure any other DR bank will do any better, if reading the forums is any indication.
• So the next (3rd) time will be the final straw, and we'll be gone from BHDL. 

Now, I'm not telling anyone else to stay away from BHDL.  When our accounts are working, they work well -- it's just the occasional total freeze-ups that are very concerning -- especially if we were to need unexpectedly to transfer any money back out of the bank and country  back to the US, for example.  If your accounts are frozen, you're dead in the water until you travel in person to reset them in-country.

Just be cautious of any and EVERY bank in the DR.

Probably the best advice I've ever heard about DR banks came in a now-forgotten forum here on expat.com, which advised that every single branch is an entity unto itself -- whether for good or bad. 

• If English speaking staff is present, it is only incidental, not intentional.  Good English-speaking branch one year may be an entirely non-English speaking staff the next year.   
• Managers are, reportedly, pretty dictatorial.  If your "home branch" is in Santo Domingo, but you're in Punta Cuna this year, the manager of the PC branch may (or may not) decide to work with you on account changes or openings...but can insist you do all of those at your "home" branch.
• Same if you want a loan for whatever reason.  Completely arbitrary at branch manager discretion.   
• And the branch manager sets the tone and competency levels of his branch.  If the branch manager isn't customer service-oriented, the staff won't be either.

Indeed, we've seen that come to pass at the various branches we've worked with here. 

• Our first branch was great...until it wasn't. 
• So, we switched to a different, 2nd "home branch," which was also great initially...but now seems to have had some personnel changes and suddenly, the staff just plain don't seem as competent or eager to help as when we first moved to that branch. 

I guess we'll stick with BHDL until we are sure there is another bank with consistently higher levels of higher service across all branches at all times.  I can't see changing banks just to have the same frustrations with a different bank.  BHDL is the devil we've come to know, after all.

• I am surprised that some enterprising DR bank hasn't recognized the obvious market opportunity available for a bank with consistently high customer service for expats and competent English-speaking staff. 
• Much like HSBC advertises itself as the "bank for worldwide expats" -- which in our five years' experience with them, they truly are.   We've found HSBC customer service worldwide to be beyond superb, regardless of the country we're in or where our money is held.  Our money moves quickly and easily to wherever we need it.  And we've never actually set foot in an HSBC branch, anywhere!!!!!   
• The DR bank that can, someday, deliver high-quality services to expats will be deluged with new accounts and high deposits.  It's a HUGE market opportunity for someone...if they're smart enough to take it. 
• Unless, of course, there are DR banking laws that make it difficult or expensive for DR banks to hold higher numbers of expat accounts or deposits.  That is possible, I guess -- and might explain why the lack of international orientation. 

Jim

Wow, I have been  very lucky and fortunite  with BPD , my executive account manager is Bilingual, and any issues im able to text him or call him for any banking issues anywhere in the world. I have had BPD 20 years so established history with credit, and banking has been good for me. Even have a DR checking account but LOL , never use the checks here..almost no one accepts checks...

Any bank in the US or Canada has to adhere to the laws and practices in those countries. 

These foreign banks are, despite being owned by the same umbrella corporation, under local jurisdictions for how they can deal with money transfers internationally. This has to do with money laundering issues as well as fees they charge to move money around.

It is good to get the information that some are better to deal with than others on how they charge for transferring money, etc.