PBH / colombia (travelguide, pictures) / post

Buying Property - Changing Money into Pesos

For those who have bought property here, what is the best way to get on top of the exchange rate.

I was going to use a forex place out of NZ that I use for my currency exchange (have them change USD or GBP into pesos for me at a better rate and then deposit in pesos into Colombia) but they, and now a second, have said they cannot change to col pesos (no reason given as yet).

If I change from my Panama or aus bank I know the exchange rate will be very very bad.

Any idea from those who have done this?

By bickerss on May 23, 2008, 11:11 in Friendly Talkzone.

Noelito40 says on May 23, 2008, 11:51:

bickerss, just a note that the laws here stipulate that all incoming external funds must be denominated in US$, so for example when I transferred plata from Ireland, I had to go, Euros to US$, and then to COP pesos.

One tip though is that when I transferred to my COL bank Banco de Credito, they have an intermediary bank with which they have a Euro account, so the money was transferred to that intermediary from my Irish account, but it was not converted in COP immediately, instead, a currency trader from Banco de Credito called me daily to keep me aware of the 2 cambios (euro/$) and ($/COP) and when she thought the rates were good, she called me and on the spot I made a call on the rates. (Granted you lose interest each day while your money is "in transit" but...)

I posted a thread on this type of transfer recently so more info there...

Noelito

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dwr says on May 23, 2008, 12:03:

make sure you check tax details. The Dian will eventually appear for where large transactions are concerned.

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Frank Rizzo says on May 23, 2008, 13:19:

dwr's right....depends on how much you're sending....if dian is interested or not.

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bickerss says on May 23, 2008, 15:38:

Thanks very much all. Noelito - didnt know that; I thought I would be able to change into locak currency and send from my forex account. I will search for your thread.

For DIAN I believe the form 4 and 11 go towards that check (and for negating tax on removal of funds from Colombia)?

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tejasmarcos says on May 23, 2008, 16:16:

it all moves through an intermediary bank - citibank in new york.

trying to walk a straight line on sour mash and cheap wine...

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SFJohn says on May 23, 2008, 22:16:

I bought an apartment in Medellin in December... I am about at the end of my process to get my permanent resident investor visa (I hope) so I will post the details when I am done. The seller in Colombia had their account with Davivienda, and their intermediary bank is Citibank in NYC. My bank in the USA transferred my money to Citibank, and then for a reason nobody could explain to me, it took another 10 days for my money to be converted to COP and deposited at Davivienda. "Coincidentally" the dollar was weakening during those ten days so I expect someone was trying to make an extra few million pesos.

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tejasmarcos says on May 24, 2008, 08:49:

Welcome back SF John!

trying to walk a straight line on sour mash and cheap wine...

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