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Wiring money to Colombia from the States.

Or really wiring money from my bank account in the states to my bank account in Colombia.

As it turns out I can’t send money directly to my Colombian bank. I have to send the money to an intermediary bank or send thru bank (CITI BANK). My Colombian bank has an account with CITI BANK and gets the money from them.

Here are the requirements (according to my Colombian bank) for sending the money from the States to them.

First and last names of person sending the wire.
First and last name of the person receiving the wire. (In this case the two are the same).

Colombian address of the person receiving the money. (That would be my Colombian address).

Bank account number for the person receiving the money in Colombia and the name of the bank.

Name of the bank branch including the city and department in Colombia.

SWIFT code for the bank in Colombia.

Name of intermediary bank in Colombia. (In this case CITI BANK) and the SWIFT code for CITIBANK.

The ABA of the intermediary bank. (I don’t know what ABA is an acronym for but it’s just a ten digit number)

The account number of my bank at CITIBANK.

Indicate what the money is to be used for. (example: to help family, family gift).

The weird part about all this is that my Colombian bank would like me to sign for the money when it arrives at their bank, accept I’m in the States sending the money. I talked to some people at the bank and apparently they are going to let a close Colombian friend sign on my behalf.

They bank seems to want me to verify that the money actually belongs in my account as soon as possible but I won’t be back down to Cali for another month. My Colombian bank seems to be willing to let my Colombian friend sign for the money and acknowledge that it belongs there.

On the Funds Transfer and Request and Authorization form from my American bank, there is a section called: Associate Accepting Wire. I put my friends name and phone number there. I hope that doesn’t give him access to the funds or he will be one happy colombiano.

Also there is no ABA number for my Colombian bank. I guess that is because the intermediary bank has one and the funds go thru them.

My Colombian bank wants my phone number in Cali on the form but there isn’t a space for it. Besides I don’t know what good it would do. I’m in the States right now.

Anyway I plan on wiring $4500 as a test run tomorrow. From what I hear you have to prove your income if you send $5000 dollars or more at a time.

I just trying to take this one step at a time. Any advice would be appreciated.

By calipro on Jul 18, 2005, 19:10 in Friendly Talkzone.

Mr. Hollywood says on Jul 18, 2005, 19:33:

A question What's the fee for doing that?

Might it just be easier to open a US citibank and a Colombia Citibank account and let them do the transfering?

Sounds like a real pain in the ass.

I imagine you're thinking about sending a large amount or else you'd just carry the damn stuff down with you.

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calipro says on Jul 18, 2005, 19:47:

Answer The fee is $45 dollars.

I hear if you have a CITIBANK bank account they let you do the whole process on line. What I don't know is if you need to have a US CITIBANK bank account in the States or in Colombia or both.

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Mr. Hollywood says on Jul 18, 2005, 19:50:

When you find out will you please let us know?

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aztec says on Jul 19, 2005, 03:23:

Wiring money to Colombia You will need to report to the Banco de la Republica in Colombia. See earlier comments by Aztec: http://poorbuthappy.com/colombia/node/7992

Search the site because there are others with experience in transferring funds to Colombia.

I have a Citibank account in Colombia and have been told you cannot simply transfer from a US Citibank account to a Colombia account.

Apparently it is true that transfers go through New York on the way to Colombia

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Dan says on Jul 19, 2005, 04:04:

I got those formularios needed from the Banko de la Republica website. I have them as PDF files ready to use them if/when I go to Colombia to live. Good luck Calipro, I'd like to know how the whole process goes for you.

Dan

God Bless America!

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tomtom33 says on Jul 19, 2005, 06:22:

ABA might be the American Banking Association. I believe that the 10 digits are a routing number used by US banks.

I had to send money to New York. Then it went to Colombia. Never had to prove anything for more than US$5000 in 2003.

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aztec says on Jul 19, 2005, 11:24:

Wiring money Definitely not true that the "limit for a wire as of this year is 2K a month into Colombia."

Must be a local bank restriction.

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DeltaDawg says on Jul 20, 2005, 10:30:

American Bank card Can I use any American bankcard down in Colombia? What Im getting at is if I leave a second bank card with significant other or very trustable friend and need to have money down there as Calipro is trying to do, can you just go into any bank and withdraw funds from ur account? I had read somewhere before that the airport has teller machines but accounts are usually limited to $300 per day. I guess you can ask your bank to raise that amount. But would that work in Calipro's case? Just ideas and wondering on feasability. When I go down hopefully in September, I want to know where I'll be able to draw my travel money from. Thanks

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jarhead says on Jul 20, 2005, 12:45:

wiring money Wiring money to a Colombian bank account from a U.S. bank account is no big deal, I do it all the time, because of bussines. There is no limit, and as long as you can justify where the money came from, it is no big issue. I use my local bank in Miami and Davivienda in Bogota, by the way it is bullshit about Citibank doing this and doing that, if you have a Citibank account in the states, Citibank is just another bank down here, I have been a member since 83 and they have not done anything special for me down here, as a matter of fact Citibank does not do wire transfers for their "regular" customers.

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calipro says on Jul 22, 2005, 19:36:

Money arrived. I sent $4500 from my account in the states to my account in Colombia Tuesday morning and it just showed up in my account today (Friday evening).

My friend in Colombia called the bank yesterday and they said that the money had arrived so he went down and signed for the money. It just showed up in my account today.

I still haven't got a clear answer from the bank as to exactly why someone in colombia has to sign for (acknowlege) that the money is to be in my account before I have access to it.

Next I'm going to send $9000. I heard that anything over $5000 and the bank will want some kind of proof of income.

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Peter J. says on Aug 11, 2005, 08:04:

Wiring Money Okay... I need to send money to Colombia ´cause: my sister-in-law is divorced, and her deadbeat, doctor husband figures he can pay child support in fruit and meat; and my father-in-law needs cataract eye surgery that he can´t put off any longer before his condition is inoperable.

When I asked my Credit Union, they agreed that they could send an international money transfer. What they needed was the international routing number to complete the transaction.

When my wife and sister-in-law walked into BanColombia, Fusa, the manager baffled and blustered his way into saying basically, "You can´t get there from here." Or, that´s how my wife discribed it to me. She recounted how the money had to be transfered through an intermediary bank (Western Union) and then into the bank account.

The whole reason I want to perform a direct bank to bank money transfer is to avoid an intermediary and all its charges...

You say, "it´s easy I do it all the time." Help me! Take me by the hand and take this step by step.

What banks in Colombia can receive an international money transfer?

What information do you have to have from that bank: International Routing Number, SWIFT Number, Account Number (obviously).

Thanks in advance, and I promise to follow up with any useful information.

Peter J.

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aztec says on Aug 11, 2005, 08:58:

Have we been there! The bank manager looks at you as if you are stupid. The fact of the matter is many of those people have no experience in these type of transactions. They are threatened by their lack of knowledge or they truly believe they are absolutely correct. To make matters worse if you insist that money indeed can be transferred via wire they become belligerent. Find someone at the bank who is more accommodating.

Follow advice given by calipro. Usually cost $45 per wire regardless of the amount.

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CaryGrant says on Aug 11, 2005, 09:30:

ATM cards I plan on sending my fiancee an ATM card. Then I can plop money in my Canadian account, and she can withdraw it the next day. The fee is about $6 per withdrawal, because apparently you get charged by both the Colombian and Canadian banks.

Limits in Canada: I increased my daily withdrawal limit to $CDN 1000 per day. As far as I know, I could have gone higher.

Limits in Colombia: All ATMs I found would allow a maximum withdrawal of COP 300,000 or COP 400,000 *per occurrence.* Meaning, keep feeding your card into the machine, and you will keep getting money. I withdrew, on one occasion, about COP 2 000 000.

This does not work for some of the large amounts being talked about here, unless you don't mind making many, many ATM withdrawals.

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aztec says on Aug 11, 2005, 09:39:

Transfer money You can wire funds from any bank in the USA to any bank in Colombia. You don't need a Citibank account in either the US or Colombia. It is true that most funds transferred in this manner will transit in each direction through New York via a Citibank intermediary. You are not involved in that part of the transaction because it is handled by the affected banks.

Banco de Colombia, Conavi, and Granahorrar are just some of the Colombian banks that will handle wire transfers.

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jtreers says on Dec 23, 2005, 15:46:

my experience I have transferred about £2,200 from Citibank in the UK to Davivienda in Bogota. It cost about £35. I checked the rate that I was given against prevailing rates in the financial markets (using Bloomberg) and the rates were competitive.

The form needed lots of information such as bank name, address, certain bank code numbers, information about the recipient. In order to get this, my recipient went into her Davivienda branch in Bogota and asked what info was required to receive international transfers. I just put everything down on the form and ordered the money transfer.

The money hit my recipient's account in about a week. Wachovia in the US was used as correspondant bank.

There was one problem. Somebody in Davivienda called her in a very desperate state. They had made a mistake (all the info that i had sent was ok, but they had made a typing mistake) and the money had been returned to Wachovia and then to my Citibank account. Davivienda ended up owing Wachovia the money. Davivienda couldn't take the money out of the recipient's account, and Citibank couldn't reorder the transfer without my permission. Of course the way things work in Colombia is that the lady in Davivienda would have to pay for the money personally or lose her job. So being the honest person that I am, I reordered the transfer.

By the way, anybody who is transferring a large amount MUST READ the postings by Viewpoint about the Form 4 and Form 11. I just did and I am very thankful that I did that before buying my house in Colombia.

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aztec says on Dec 24, 2005, 03:10:

Mario Would you send $11,000 via United States Postal Service (Dinero Seguro service)?

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rocinante says on Dec 24, 2005, 09:05:

confused? issue a "testa dura" alert

"World economic indicators point to a democrat winning 2008. It will surely be Obama. Peso 1400 by November" Feb 5, 2008

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Colombian Services says on Dec 24, 2005, 09:43:

Good Alternative to wiring money The best alternative I've found to wiring money is to open an account at www.etrade.com. There are NO ATM fees and no Colombian bank hassles, they also have on line banking and it's a breeze.

Banking with both Citi Bank and etrade works great for me, any money I need in Colombia I transfer online from Citi Bank to E trade and use my etrade ATM in Colombia, no bank charges or bank questions here in Colombia.

Best Wishes,
Bob

*********************
Miami Phone: 1-305-433-2299
Colombian Services Group:
www.Colombian-Services.com
www.FlowersToColombia.com
www.BogotaColombiaLodging.com
www.ColombiaFianceVisaService.com
www.GoLatinNow.com

Bob - www.BogotaColombiaLodging.com - www.FlowersToColombia.com - www.Colombian-Services.com

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MedellinViking says on Dec 24, 2005, 21:40:

$1/transaction Visa Check Card/ No Fee for VISA Card at ATM I use my VISA check card from my US Credit Union for just $1/transaction. My Platinum VISA from Capital One doesn't have any service charge from the ATM withdrawls. In Medellin the max I can take on each account per day is about 920.000. It doesn't matter what my bank sets the limit at. BankColombia says this is set for all atm users but they say 1 million/day but I cannot seem to get more than the 920K.

Occasionally over the last 3 years banks have told me some other wild stuff! As an earlier post alluded to, if a potentially embarrassing situation arises they tend to just make up something to save face as opposed to admitting to the shortcoming. I had the pleasure of being told a while back the there was a new 2 million a day withdrawl limit at BankColombia but I just wouldn't accept that so a call to a friend initiated a chain of calls theat eventually led back to the branch manager which led to the admission that the small branch only had 3 million total and could not give me the 6 million that was requested, and it seemed like a better idea to just tell me that there was a new rule... The fallout was I really burned my bridge with this branch manager who will never forgive me for what I did to him.

One other funny thing is, most of the Colombians I know just seem to accept this "there's a new rule" business without questioning as I see it come up every few months!

Live your fantasies because life is short and from all I've seen death is really, really long....

Live your fantasies because life is short and from all I've seen death is really, really long....

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Brians says on Dec 26, 2005, 06:50:

The $5,000 at a time is correct I wire from my Merrill Lynch account into my wife's account in Colombia. There are different ypes accounts at different banks and some banks are not International. For example she originally onl had a savings account at Banco Colombia. This was because she is here in the USA and they charge a fee for ATMs there which we weren't using. So she changed the account and then we had to change it back because it could nt acceot international wires. Merrill Lynch will not exchange to Colombian Pesos so I have to wire $5,000 max. in dollars and have Banco Colombia make the exchange. There is about a 2% fee on this exchange. You need the name, address, Bank Swift number (which your bank can get online) and account number. Anything over $5,000 requires manager approval. As far as the forms you need it is important if you are investing in real estate etc.. as the govermennt will tax I believe about 40% when you try to get it back to the states if you don't have the proper forms on file. We are spending it so we do not file but if we were investing it make sure you file the forms.

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zuan says on Dec 26, 2005, 16:27:

Money transfers to Colombia I hope this help:

Bancolombia Miami - US toll free 1 800 478 9825
BanColombia Customer Service Line in Colombia: 01 800 05 12223
CitiBank Colombia 01 800 0521210
CONAVI

Zuan
Vaaya Colombia owner
my email: elzuan at gmail dot com
My photo album

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orestesdd says on Mar 6, 2008, 14:57:

Actually the ABA number is a 9 digit number found in the left lower corner of your checks if you have a checking account.

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