For those of you following the saga of the 18 grand I wired to BanColombia.......

quantum says on Dec 1, 2008, 14:46:

Sounds like Costa Rica in the old daze circa 1990-95. U eventually get yur money back but they get to play with it for awhile. Multiply yours by 10,000 and imagine the extra profits they skim. Thats the banking game for ya......

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johnny2008 says on Dec 1, 2008, 15:18:

Congratulations

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Mononoke28 says on Dec 1, 2008, 15:25:

Phew!!! Good for you!

Diana

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Cheers Terry says on Dec 1, 2008, 16:08:

What a absolute joke their banking system is.

Congrats on getting it back.

Cheers,
Terry

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Brians says on Dec 1, 2008, 16:24:

Colombian Banking is probably the worst in the world but also the most profitable. Look at the numbers.

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manINred says on Dec 1, 2008, 16:29:

That's because the Colombian banks don't mind stealing money from their customers, and they don't mind being overt about it.

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gringoloid (Trustee board) says on Dec 1, 2008, 16:30:

glad to hear the good news.......i bet that in the future, you're going to be like a lot of us and hit the atm everyday until you get the money you need.

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calipro says on Dec 1, 2008, 16:52:

gringoloid

If someone is going to file a form 4 and 11 I don't see anyway around wiring the money down to BanColombia or some other bank in Colombia.

According to BanColombia if I had been in Colombia to accept the wire with the documentation that they asked for they would have deposited the money into my account.

I'm going to meet with a BanColombia official this Wedsday to discuss what happen and present my documents to see if I can get some kind of guarantee that my funds will be deposited the next time I wire money down.

If not I think I'll just start renting instead of buying.

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Brians says on Dec 1, 2008, 17:00:

Calipro just make sure you can pull back the wire if not credited in time. I actually have not had any problems with wires One time my secretary did not put name on account and only account number. The money did not show in 3 days and it was a rather large wire. They will not credit to an account without a name and corresponding account number which is understandable. Anyway it sat in Bogota at banco de credito's account and we simply reversed and resent with corresponding name. A lot of the time you may be talking to the wrong people. The money can be traced from sending source you just need to be on top of it. Now mine might have taken longer if I were not able to speak directly to Bogota and the Bank's people processing wires. If not for me being able to speak spanish then no one at my company would have been able to communicate. Thus a lot is lost sometimes in back office communications.

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gringoloid (Trustee board) says on Dec 1, 2008, 17:02:

maybe we can stir up gringo spy.........he mentioned a company that brings the money in for you.......anybody know the name of that company?

calipro........after what i went through with that bank wire with colmena.....NEVER AGAIN with a bank!

seriously though, i opened a brokerage account with Helm Financial Services last week. now i haven't done a wire yet, but they're telling me it's not going to be a problem.

i know, famous last words.

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calipro says on Dec 1, 2008, 17:08:

I'm certainly open to looking at other ways of getting money into Colombia.

Does Helm Financial Services have an office in Cali?

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Brians says on Dec 1, 2008, 17:14:

Helm Financial is part of Banco De Credito. Most professional bank in Colombia. You should have no problems GL. I email them whenever I send one and they look for it and pop me an email to the conversion ratio.

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calipro says on Dec 1, 2008, 17:16:

Brians

I don't know how to contact the wire department of BanColombia but my Chase Bank here in the states was sending a request through the official wire channels and wasn't getting any kind of a reply what so ever.

I guess someone at BanColombia reads a little english because the money just showed up unannounced in my bank account today.

I did file a complaint with the Defensor del Cliente so maybe that was why the money was returned.

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Brians says on Dec 1, 2008, 17:41:

They actually should call the wire area in Bancolombia but someone who speaks spanish. I feel your pain as it is something no one wants to deal with except the owner of the money.

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twmcm says on Dec 2, 2008, 06:21:

Assuming it is a SWIFT, the originating bank can take it back under many circumstances.

Or did you simply do a Fedwire to their correspondent in the US? That can't be easily rescinded by the sender, but you have other recourse.

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wabbits says on Dec 2, 2008, 10:22:

I myself had planned to wire a much smaller amount of 3k to a friend's account here. It it safe to assume it will go more smoothly, as it is under 5k? or would it be better to simply withdraw from the ATM? (I'd prefer the transfer because the atm charges me 1%).

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gringoloid (Trustee board) says on Dec 2, 2008, 10:40:

wabbits.......don't do it, man.

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pedro (☼Travelguide writer) says on Dec 2, 2008, 10:47:

Noelito40 says on Dec 2, 2008, 11:03:

Gloid, I'm with Banco de Credito too (Part of the Helm Group), and I had no problems transferring a sizable chunk from Ireland to Colombia, back in April. They even had an intemediary dollar account, so I was able to transfer my euros to USD, then their broker watched the USD v COP rate and when it was at a reasonbale rate, she called me and okayed the transfer. All in all went pretty smoothly, and only took about 10 days...

Noelito

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jonas says on Dec 2, 2008, 11:14:

calipro: I remember someone posting that he took the ATM slips (receipts) to Banco de la Republica and they accepted them for the form 4 / 11.
Anybody know?

Mi alma se la dejo al diablo

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gringoloid (Trustee board) says on Dec 2, 2008, 11:17:

i went in and made my first deposit at Helm today........the money went into Banco de Credito but they put it into a CDT from Banco Popular. that was a little strange, but 10.2 % interest.

i forgot to ask the guy if a depositor could deposit dollars into the Miami branch of Helm and then just wait for an opportune exchange rate .....and then make a phone call and exchange the money into pesos. that way you would be all ready to do the deal and get a good rate.

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gringoloid (Trustee board) says on Dec 2, 2008, 11:17:

Helm is in Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Cartagena, and Medellin.

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tomtom33 (☼Travelguide writer) says on Dec 2, 2008, 12:04:

jonas says on Dec 2, 2008, 13:22:

tomtom33 you reckon it could be done with a shoe carton full of receipts enough to buy a flat?
how much of the ATM were you able to register? Did you have to provide proof for your remodelling expenses?

Mi alma se la dejo al diablo

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tomtom33 (☼Travelguide writer) says on Dec 2, 2008, 13:28:

jonas says on Dec 2, 2008, 13:33:

Well, I guess you did what everybody on this board thought impossible . Kudos.

Mi alma se la dejo al diablo

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paisa29 says on Dec 3, 2008, 05:23:

Wabbits...disculpa la intromisión, yo se que este no es mi
tema pero te recomiendo que escuches lo que dice
pablo (amigo) y tambien gringoloid, ellos llevan algún tiempo aquí
y saben como funcionan estas cosas,
Es una lastima que (Gringoinbogota) ya no esté en el foro
porque es alguien que tambien sabe bastante sobre finanzas,
pero si tu deseas puedo ponerte en contacto con él.

"Fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality" Conrad Hilton

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