Printable View
Right before every trip, I find myself going back through recent tr's trying to find the most updated rates. I'm usually hitting a street guy my first day and never sure how far off their offer is. Frankly, it's a pain in the ass and I thought it might be good to have one place where we can update current rates.
So far this week (Sosua);
43:1 street guy next door to Rockies
43.45:1 Western Union
41.5:1 Super Pola (they don't accept >$50 US bills)
43 pesos to the dollarQuote:
Originally Posted by Irie
$34.89 for a TLN
$11.63 for a BBBJ
$27.91 for an afternoon session
It doesn't get better than this for me
Plan and simple, buying pussy:mrgreen:
43.4 : 1 in RUSA yesterday
DR1 has a sticky thread on rates with several updates each day from dozens of different cambios:
http://dr1.com/forums/living/77301-t...ange-rate.html
I don't think we can better that here.
43 pesos to the dollar
$34.89 for a TLN
$11.63 for a BBBJ
$27.91 for an afternoon session
And I never ever have to send any money.
Those are the prices at that exchange rate.
I highly doubt anyone can beat the Rate of the guys by the Orange store past Banco Popular in the back there. There is a Thread on it somewhere. there is also a SALON or Nail place back there as a reference..
I have personally seen the local business owners go there.
Supposedly according to ISOC members here, the Street CHENGE guys go there also ?, although i have never seen that.
The two guys who sit outside this place are security and one of them also runs money to and from the street changers with his moto. One of the most trustworthy street changers is Maffeo (something like that), works out of this place too and can be found walking up and down the beach..Quote:
Originally Posted by JD426
I went to the location by orange store in august to make my exchange a couple times. Always gave good rate and don't need to have passport like at western union.
had to get out the calculator and see how much this is compared to what mi use to paying the last two years........Quote:
Originally Posted by Seņor JDR of Medellin
and actually it's pretty close to the same.......that's if I paid the local rate and not just taxi fare which would happen
just an FYI........
if mi was just a tourist on the J island.......mi be hard pressed to get the gurls to accept those prices above.......most Prosts would settle for about double those figures
and talking about hookers and not the machine gurls off the internet.........which is a totally different ball game
I have an app on my iphone that tells me the market rate every day.
For example today the market rate is 43.8
I know I will never get the market rate but I would expect a rate about .5 less or about 43.3 unless it is the evening or a weekend than it's probably gonna be worse.
With that rate, If I can't get 43 I will walk away cause I know there is someone that will give me that rate even on the street.
But always count it out as that is another way some of them make a little extra on you.
Do I need two BBBjs a day, noQuote:
Originally Posted by SeaWeed
Is 500 pesos two days pay for them yes.
Casa de Cambio Ortega is giving 43DOP -1US. which is next to the mini mart and across the street from the new pizza shop.
Whatever you do don't change money at Merengue they give a whoppppping 35DOP - 1US which is worse than the airport 36DOP- 1US.
Quote:
Originally Posted by j_d66
I was just going to say, "Hey guys, this is the 21st century. Just go online to get the current exchange rate" (or "market rate" as JD points out). Keep in mind that the rates can and do change throughout the day. Here's a link to one
http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/...rom=USD&To=DOP
And as JD has also pointed out, your probably not going to get the market rate from a street guy or cambio house (the spread is their profit margin). But you should use the MR as your starting point in negotiating your exchange rate (In the DR, almost everything is negotiable!)
And in addition to JD's observations about a lower rate at night and on weekends (thats been my experience tambien), I've found that the more money you are exchanging at one time, the more chance there is to negotiate a higher rate.
Since I spend alot of time in the DR (140-160 days a year), I like to have multiple options for accessing cash.
I've established a relationship with a cambio (exchange house) in Sosua to cash my personal checks. The deal I've worked out is I walk in there with a screen shot of the current MR. He gives me that rate minus 0.5 if I'm writing a check for $500. If I write a check for $1,000, he gives me the MR minus 0.25
I use the cambio to write checks several times a year just to keep that relationship/option available. But mostly I just get my cash from an ATM. Banco Progresso (next to the SuperSuper) usually allows withdrawals of 20,000 pesos at a time. My American bank gives me the MR on these withdrawals, and they dont charge a convesion fee. Plus they reimburse any ATM fees (currently 120 pesos at Banco Progresso).
I also have a peso account at BanReservas.. I set it up maybe 7-8 years ago, and it was a lengthy PITA process. I usually just keep between 5-20K pesos in that account as a convenience. (Their ATM fee is only 25 pesos for account holders).
And in the event that the "system" goes down for any length of time (electrical, computer, etc), or if anarchy breaks out ,:rolleyes: I always have a few hundred in both dollars and pesos in my travel safe.
Come on now, Seaweed. It was you who convinced me to book a trip to Negril with all of your wonderful stories. Don't go talkin' me out of it now. :wink:Quote:
Originally Posted by SeaWeed
Google wallys exchange cabarete .....you can get daily rates ....today's rate 43.50 usQuote:
Originally Posted by Irie
it has a conversion table that does five currencys
Sure we can... go to the Banco Central website, and download their daily rate sheet, which all the cambios use as a reference.Quote:
Originally Posted by weyland
www.bancocentral.gob.do and click on "mercado cambiario"
The interest rates for CD's are still in the crapper... 6.25% I've got another year of 13% to go. I wonder where it will be then?
On Friday, the exchange rate at Caribe Express was 43.90 to the US Dollar, but I got 44.00 from a local place... Generally it was ranging from 43.9 to 44 around town...
The government has said that inflation has decreased to around 3%...so the real rate of return is about 3% which is not terrible compared to the rest of the world. But I suspect that the real inflation rate is much higher.Quote:
Originally Posted by MrHappy
BBBJ's at 500 = $11.39Quote:
Originally Posted by jose1234
ST at 1,000 = $22.78
LT at 1,500 = 34.17
Ten day trip should run under $500.:corky:
Last week;
43.5 on streets of Sosua (most tried starting at 43.0...........not)
43.95 Caribe Express Cabarete
i didn't save a receipt, but it was in the low 44's at the ATM.
I got 2252 Colombian pesos to the US$ today. I think we'll see 2300 before the end of the week...:p