Expat Community > Colombia

TRNTNDR
Joined 2016
Posts: 87

Davivienda rejects Visa and Canadian Scotiabank cards

5 months ago

I know the topic of accessing money from foreign bank accounts has been done to death, but what I experienced yesterday may be a new twist.

For the past several years I've been accessing my Canadian pensions, which the government of Canada refuses to pay into a Colombian bank, by using my Scotiabank Visa card to extract the daily maximum (2 million COP) at Davivienda ATMs up the amounts that I require to live each month. All worked well, and I also avoided paying any fee at the Canadian end by ensuring that there was always enough money in the Visa account in Canada to more than cover the cash advances. So there was no fee from Scotiabank in Canada nor from Davivienda.

A few months ago that changed when Davivienda commenced charging a 15,000 COP fee for each transaction. Still no great problem for me. I merely considered that fee part of the cost of the privilege of living here; a slight negative on a balance sheet that still tips over onto the positive side.

All of that changed abruptly yesterday. I went to one of the Davivienda ATM's that I've used in the past, but my card was rejected. I then tried several other Davivienda ATM's, with the same result. Nothing, Only a rejection slip. I also tried my Canadian Scotiabank Debit Card, still with exactly the same results.

Now in a bit of a panic, since I urgently needed money for something before the end of next week,I called the Canadian Scotiabank help line. To cut a long story short, on the advice of the assesora there I ended up having to resort to using Western Union in order to ensure that I'll have the money in Colombia in time for when I need it. But that's not a long term solution, due to the fees they charge as well as the daily maximum allowed ($999 CDN).

So, my first question is, has anyone else experienced this issue at Davivienda ATM's? I know for certain that it commenced yesterday, May 31st, as I had made withdrawals as I normally do the two days previously (May 29th and 30th). And I don't think it was my Visa card that was the problem, since exactly the same happened with my backup card.

Incidentally, the advice I received from Scotiabank in Canada was to consider using a firm called "Wise" for my monthly transfers going forward. I've never heard of them. Does anyone have experience using them? Reliability etc?

To sum up, after 14 years of living here, and with this experience yesterday on top of whats going on with EPS Sura (a whole different subject) I'm starting to question whether Colombia is for me long term. It's the final straws that end up breaking the camel's back.

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