Dollar has more value vs Colombian Peso

[fathertime]

I noticed that in the last couple months the US dollar has really had a nice run verses the Colombian peso.  It is almost back up to 2100 per dollar.  The highest in a very long time.  Have those of you that live in Colombia (or visit often) seen a matching general price increase, or are you actually getting better values?


Thanks,
Fathertime! 

[Calipro]

I noticed that in the last couple months the US dollar has really had a nice run verses the Colombian peso.  It is almost back up to 2100 per dollar.  The highest in a very long time.  Have those of you that live in Colombia (or visit often) seen a matching general price increase, or are you actually getting better values?


Thanks,
Fathertime!

Sure you get more bang for the buck.


The problem is that when you are living on a fixed income from the states the cost of living adjustments based on the US inflation rate...do not keep up the the Colombian inflation rate which is quite a bit higher.

[kai #2]

My Colombian friend friend posted something about how they're releasing a a 20m and 50million denomination bills. I'm no economist but that's usually a sign of high inflation. As the value of the currency goes and becomes worth less higher denominations are needed to compensate

[bernard]

My Colombian friend friend posted something about how they're releasing a a 20m and 50million denomination bills. I'm no economist but that's usually a sign of high inflation. As the value of the currency goes and becomes worth less higher denominations are needed to compensate

A 50 million denomination bill?  That would be roughly $ 25,000.00


Lmao...i love how this site is at times a treasure chest of misinformation.

[Calipro]

A 50 million denomination bill?  That would be roughly $ 25,000.00


Lmao...i love how this site is at times a treasure chest of misinformation.

He probably meant 20 mil and 50 mil denominations.....the scary part is he doesn't realize that those denominations have been around for decades.

[AndyLee]

Yesterday I received 2038 pesos per dollar at the Banco de Colombia atm, and that accounts for the usual 1% foreign transaction fee. The atm charge itself is usually 4,000 to 6,000, but my bank in the US refunds that fee to me up to 8 times each month.
It feels good to be back in the 2000 plus territory after so many years of sub par rates. When I came here in 2009 it was close to 2300 and that may have influenced me to settle here.
As mentioned above, our social security bump this year is less than half the increase in the cost of living, so gradually I'm losing ground, but not enough to cause me to worry about having to jump ship and go somewhere cheaper.
I haven't noticed an increase in prices attributable to the new exchange rate per se, but in general prices go up the first of the year, regardless. For example, when I came here a can of local beer at the supermarket was 1350 pesos, now it's 1650 pesos, about 20% higher. I can live with that.
The upside of living here, of course, the weather is superb, the women are awesome and the pace of life is a heck of a lot less stressful than other places I've lived, including the US and Europe.

[bernard]

He probably meant 20 mil and 50 mil denominations.....the scary part is he doesn't realize that those denominations have been around for decades.

Yeah, some of the charlatans here just crack me up.  You have to wonder if they've ever even set foot in Colombia.  Well, at least one has been exposed.

[buencamino]

Yes the dollar is up but certainly not like the halcyon years of 2600 and up in the early two thousands,
 
Actually the fifty thousand peso note wasn't issued when I first came down here so in a way you could say it's relatively new but money seems to change all the time. There was a brief period when there was a 1000 peso coin that turned out to be easy to counterfeit. I went to visit a friend in a village once and he said don't bring any of those mil peso coins, they won't take them here. They were gone in no time. Also when I first came there were 20 peso coins in circulation. I still have a jar of them. I think the 1000 peso bill is about to be history. The parking machines at Chipichape won't take them but they'll take every thing else. Of course there is a new 1000 peso coin in circulation which is probably meant to replace the note. Two years ago the government issued five new coins. They're nice and if I were a coin collector I'd want them. They each feature a well done drawing of an important Colombian native species: the Specticled Bear for the 50, Frailejon for the 100 (It's a plant of the high mountaian paramo that looks like the Yucca of the US southwest but is actually related to the sunflower), Scarlet Macaw for the 200, Glass Frog for the 500 and the Loggerhead Turtle for the one mil coin. 

[bernard]

I think when I first started traveling to Colombia the peso was 800 to a dollar.


I won't consider the 50 mil note "relatively new" though.  It's been around for quite a while.   There has been talk of a 100 mil note, but not sure if will ever happen.  Counterfeiting is so rampant and sofisticated in Colombia, not sure if they want to add fuel to the fire with a bigger note.


The counterfeiters would have a field day with those 50 million peso notes....lmao

[AndyLee]

Last year I started seeing the new 20,000 and 50,000 notes with the metal fragments inserted to frustrate counterfeiters. For a while all the stores had a yellow pen they would mark on the note and the mark turned brown or some other color if the note was bad, but I haven't seen that in a while.
Yes, there was a news article last year about a 100,000 peso note, but like so many ideas that get floated here that one hasn't seemed to get traction and I haven't heard anything about it this year.
The 1000 peso coins were common for a while, but they've faded out too, at least in the places I've been lately.

[benjio]

A 50 million denomination bill?  That would be roughly $ 25,000.00


Lmao...i love how this site is at times a treasure chest of misinformation.

 

[Calipro]

Yes the dollar is up but certainly not like the halcyon years of 2600 and up in the early two thousands,
 
Actually the fifty thousand peso note wasn't issued when I first came down here so in a way you could say it's relatively new but money seems to change all the time. There was a brief period when there was a 1000 peso coin that turned out to be easy to counterfeit. I went to visit a friend in a village once and he said don't bring any of those mil peso coins, they won't take them here. They were gone in no time. Also when I first came there were 20 peso coins in circulation. I still have a jar of them. I think the 1000 peso bill is about to be history. The parking machines at Chipichape won't take them but they'll take every thing else. Of course there is a new 1000 peso coin in circulation which is probably meant to replace the note. Two years ago the government issued five new coins. They're nice and if I were a coin collector I'd want them. They each feature a well done drawing of an important Colombian native species: the Specticled Bear for the 50, Frailejon for the 100 (It's a plant of the high mountaian paramo that looks like the Yucca of the US southwest but is actually related to the sunflower), Scarlet Macaw for the 200, Glass Frog for the 500 and the Loggerhead Turtle for the one mil coin.

The 20 mil bill was introduced in 1996 and the 50 mil note in 2000. I don't remember but I guess the largest bill they had when I first set foot in Colombia in 1993 was the 10 mil bill.

[Awesome]

A 50 million denomination bill?  That would be roughly $ 25,000.00


Lmao...i love how this site is at times a treasure chest of misinformation.

Lmao!!  My buddy k2 is easily confused sometimes.  He claims to love latinas but lives in a city with millions of latinos and doesn't know one single latino nightclub.  And he thinks cumbia is "sideways salsa".  Jajaja!!

[fathertime]

There have been some pretty large extremes mentioned here, 800-1....and 2600-1...  Bernard if you recall back when it was 800, what was the purchasing power like?  Were the prices down at such a level that it was about the same as today, or were things 'expensive' relatively speaking.


Fathertime! 

[fathertime]

The problem is that when you are living on a fixed income from the states the cost of living adjustments based on the US inflation rate...do not keep up the the Colombian inflation rate which is quite a bit higher.

Well thanks for that info.   I guess people that plan to retire to a foreign land will have to take into account that there future dollars may or may not have the same power they do now.  There is only so much  most workers can do though, you can sacrifice years to build a higher residual retirement, or enjoy some earlier years, and take your chances later on. 

Fathertime!     

[utopiacowboy]

I think when I first started traveling to Colombia the peso was 800 to a dollar.


I won't consider the 50 mil note "relatively new" though.  It's been around for quite a while.   There has been talk of a 100 mil note, but not sure if will ever happen.  Counterfeiting is so rampant and sofisticated in Colombia, not sure if they want to add fuel to the fire with a bigger note.


The counterfeiters would have a field day with those 50 million peso notes....lmao

That would have been back in the mid 1990s. When I first started going to Colombia it was around 3000 which was pretty much the high water mark.

[robert angel]

Globally the US dollar was worth a lot more in most places,  probably peaking around mid 90s.You got about 25% more pesos for a buck back then in the Philippines. Perhaps the low was last year,  when for a time, Canadian and Australian dollars were worth more than Yankees.

[Calipro]

http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=COP&view=10Y


For guys that are looking to make some major purchases in Colombia....I think the dollar will peak some time next year....year and a half as the prime interest rate gets raised in the US.

[benjio]

http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=COP&view=10Y


For guys that are looking to make some major purchases in Colombia....I think the dollar will peak some time next year....year and a half as the prime interest rate gets raised in the US.

That's good to know Cali...I'm still seriously considering retiring there and I'd rather purchase real estate now as supposed to trying to imagine what the market will be like in 15-20 years.


The value of the Brazilian Real was heavily inflated before and during the World Cup (more or less R$1.95 v. $1.00 USD), but it's finally starting to normalize again at around R$2.40 - R$2.50 per $1 USD. I'm thinking the same thing will probably happen during the Olympics.

[kai #2]

My bad, it wasn't 50 mill, but it was a way larger denomination though. I couldn't find the thing she posted

A 50 million denomination bill?  That would be roughly $ 25,000.00


Lmao...i love how this site is at times a treasure chest of misinformation.

[fathertime]

http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=COP&view=10Y


For guys that are looking to make some major purchases in Colombia....I think the dollar will peak some time next year....year and a half as the prime interest rate gets raised in the US.

Hey Calipro,  you may be right although I see it a little differently.  Our interest rates currently are super low and despite this our dollar is currently appreciating in Colombia.  If indeed US interest rates go upwards that may well strengthen our dollar further.  If that is the case I can see the argument being that the dollar has a lot of upside vs the some currencies like COlombia's.   Of course there are a lot more factors then these one of which is what is happening in Colombia, but we shall see.  Maybe 2500-1 will be back, maybe more!  I hope so.


Fathertime! 

[utopiacowboy]

Hey Calipro,  you may be right although I see it a little differently.  Our interest rates currently are super low and despite this our dollar is currently appreciating in Colombia.  If indeed US interest rates go upwards that may well strengthen our dollar further.  If that is the case I can see the argument being that the dollar has a lot of upside vs the some currencies like COlombia's.   Of course there are a lot more factors then these one of which is what is happening in Colombia, but we shall see.  Maybe 2500-1 will be back, maybe more!  I hope so.


Fathertime!

The dollar is having a nice run based on speculation that Janet Yellen is going to raise interest rates. She and her compadres are complete idiots. The economy is in the toilet and interest rates are not going to rise for years. In fact the Fed is going to be back with QE4 before it is said and done not to mention QE5 and QE6... The US is an empire of debt which is doomed to follow Japan into the trash can of history.

[buencamino]

  Imagine living in Venezuela. Maduro today announced another salario minimo increase, this time 15% to take effect on Dec 1^st.  This to be added to the 10% in January  and the 30% in April. All of this to keep the salario minimo a step ahead of huge inflation. What  crazy economy!

[fathertime]

Over the weekend the US Dollar hit over 2200 to the Colombian peso...a new high watermark for this go around. 


Fathertime! 

[Awesome]

Over the weekend the US Dollar hit over 2200 to the Colombian peso...a new high watermark for this go around. 


Fathertime!

Wow!  I wish I was able to travel to colombia right now to take advantage of that exchange.