Thoughts on sending money to Colombia

[El Diablo]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: Re: A question, posted by H2-Oh on Nov 14, 2001

Howdy H2-OH,

I tend to agree in general although I imagine every case is unique and somewhat dependent on the given circumstances.  In the case of Pete, he's just a very generous and easy going guy and I don't see it as a red flag in his case at all.

If and when I finally get married to a Colombiana, I personally am not prepared to support my new family in Colombia beyond what is reasonable.  For instance the lost income of her leaving.

I think it is important for a new wife to begin seeing her U.S. family as her primary responsibility however.  I think this transition is easier for women in their 20's than women who are perhaps 30 or 35.

El Diablo

[mike kennedy]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: Re: A question, posted by H2-Oh on Nov 14, 2001

Having being a foreign exchange student in Spain, that is very true about the family. That is why they have family values. Family values are good, but can come back to haunt you a little bit if they need money down south but unfortunately it is part of the culture. I guess that is the price you pay for a MOB. That is why so many Colombian women are immigrating to countries like Mexico, and Costa Rica because there are more jobs there and more opportunity. That is how poor some of these families in Colombia are. There are even prostitutes in Costa Rica and Mexico from Colombia that send all the money back home to the family rather then blow it all on nose candy like the hookers in the U.S..

[Pete E]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: Re: A question, posted by H2-Oh on Nov 14, 2001

I think in almost every case the Colombiana will be more concearned about her family in Colombia than her family here.I think initially this will be the case and maybe when she has children here it will change.Of course this will depend on the strength of the relationship she has with her family and the extent of their needs.And usually the family here will be doing OK and the one in Colombia will be having a rough time.
I don't kid myself at all that my personal importance(not considering money issues)is below that of all off the members of my wifes immediate family.If this is not the case in a relationship then she has an unusually strong connection to you or has a bad relationship with her family.

Pete

[Pete E]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: A question, posted by Pete E on Nov 14, 2001

I erred in reffering to my wifes step father as father in law,she does not have one of these.When I met my wife her step father and her were the only ones in the family with jobs.I took 2 of the 5 people(my wife and her son) in the immediate family but about one half the income when my wife came here.When her step father lost his job they had 0 income.He could not get a job but had worked in the nursery business for many years so we helped them start the new business.

Pete

[TG]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: Re: A question, posted by Pete E on Nov 14, 2001

OK, so if she puts her American husband below the family back in Cali in order of importance, what is going to happen in the event of an economic setback? People lose jobs, factories close, all kind of bad things happen out there in the workplace....

The concern in my mind is that she will have more concern about sending money south than working and trying to make a better life for us up here. Helping out the in-laws is OK to a point, but I don't want to take on a whole group of dependents because I find a bride in Colombia.

Is there a middle ground here?

[Sol]

... in response to Thoughts on sending money to Colombia, posted by Sol on Nov 13, 2001

Well, I just found out from the travel agent and friend in Colombia who went to Western Union to pick up the cash in Bogota that:

   1. She needs a code to get the money. Annoying detail which I've resolved.
   2. They won't pay out in cash if there's more than $1100USD involved. Ouch! So,. I just spent more money than I want to think about to send her a check that she needs to deposit and wait three days to clear. Arggghhhh!!!!

The ATM thing works nicely once it's set up and alternative services to send money to Colombia might have the same problems I ran into in terms of how much money they can walk away with in cash.

Sol

[JunFan]

... in response to And, to rub salt into the wound , posted by Sol on Nov 13, 2001

I use the ATM card with my wifes family.  It was my wife's but she left it with them when she came here. It is by far the best way to send money...cheaper, more convenient, quicker, on-the-money exchange rates, what more do you want?

I have never had a problem with the quantity of money withdrawn...When I needed to send her bigger somes of money, for her trip to Bogota for instance, she simply had to hit the ATM a few times (maybe over 2 days) to get the cash.  

Mike

[Georgina]

... in response to Thoughts on sending money to Colombia, posted by Sol on Nov 13, 2001

I use the ATM option. I just tell my mother when there is money available for her to cash and she goes to the cashing machine. She only does it when I tell her. If you use this method make sure she understand she should get the money only when you intruct her to do so.

If you are uncomfortable with this method. What you can do is go to one of the hundreds of Mexican groceries stores and ask them if they wire money to Colombia (what cities?). I used to use RIA envia to send money to Peru. The fee for 300 bucks was 16 dollars. Which I considered very cheap. My mother was able to pick up the money the next day and I never had any problem with them but the ATM works better for me since I just do all the transactions online.

[Pete E]

... in response to Re: Thoughts on sending money to Colombi..., posted by Georgina on Nov 13, 2001

In selecting a money wire service not only is their fee important but the exchange rate and any charges to the person recieving the wire.I used to use moneygram.I got imformation from by wife back from her relatives that they were only getting about 1800 pesos Colombian to the dollar and were being charged a fee to recieve the money.I found this hard to believe,so I called moneygram and asked them.They could not tell me the exchange rate that would be recieved,saying it was determined in the country where the money was recieved.I called Western Union and they could tell me exactly what rate would be recieved,so I use them.
I still think we had a communication problem with her family about the money recieved,but when Moneygram couldn't tell me I dumped them.
We now use the ATM method I talked about below,except my wife still wires her brother money.Apparently he isn't supposed to know about the ATM card his mother has.I just kind of backed out and let my wife handle it.

Pete

[Georgina]

... in response to Re: Re: Thoughts on sending money to Col..., posted by Pete E on Nov 13, 2001

is that with this service that I used my mother got the actual 300 dollars. They didn't change them to soles (Peruvian money). What's more, they didn't charge her any extra fee. I paid just $16 and that was it.

[Pete E]

... in response to Ok, but the difference, posted by Georgina on Nov 13, 2001

Georgina,
It sounds like they only made the $16,which is a reasonable fee.I'm not saying all smaller wire services have a bad deal,just be carefull.I guess getting dollars is not a problem in Peru.If you took the money in dollars in Colombia(I don't know if they even allow that in Colombia)it would be a big disadvantage because they get a poor exchange rate for US money there.The story,as I understand it,is Colombians can't exchange dollars in the banks,you need to have a foriegn passport.On my first trip to Colombia the agency I stayed at would send me to the bank almost every day to exchange dollars for them because I had a US passport.I could exchange $500 a day as I recall.The rate was about 5% worse than travelers checks and 10-15% worse than ATMs.I think the street exchange rate is around 2000 pesos/dollar vs.2300 or so for the ATMs.

Pete

[El Diablo]

... in response to Re: Ok, but the difference, posted by Pete E on Nov 13, 2001

On my trips to Bolivia, the dollar was accepted as payment at many places and it seemed the dollar was very much in demand.  In Colombia, dollars aren't used unless we're talking about very pricey items like homes and such. I can't think of a reason to send unconverted dollars to Colombia unless I was laundering drug money or something.  (-:  I haven't been to Peru yet but my guess is that the dollar might be used as it is in neighboring Bolivia.

El Diablo

[Georgina]

... in response to Re: Ok, but the difference, posted by Pete E on Nov 13, 2001

Sure things should be different from Colombia. In Peru I don't need a passport to exchange money. You can go to the bank, to exchange houses or change it on the street. As much as you want. The rate is good.

My personal experience with the 2 wire companies I have used have been good. Of course, you should be careful. The thing is that since you are the one sending the money from the United States where the laws and rules are enforced. It would be stupid for them to try to cheat on you (gr?). I mean get your money and then don't send it to the person you want it to be sent.

It sounds really weard not to let nationals to exchange money. I guess the banks make money from it and if they are not accepting dollars from nationals they would be loosing tons of money. Well, I don't know too much how it is going in Colombia anyway.

[Pete E]

... in response to Re: Re: Ok, but the difference, posted by Georgina on Nov 13, 2001

Georgina,
I think the Colombian government has a law against converting dollars by Colombian nationals,it seemed to be a law,not a bank policy.I think there is a big underground market in dollars but the exchange rate is poor.I was surprised.I always thought "dollars talked" and were the preffered currency.I guess it depends on the country.If the country is trying to hold up a high rate on their own currency that real world does not support then dollars become king.

Pete

[Pete E]

... in response to Thoughts on sending money to Colombia, posted by Sol on Nov 13, 2001

Sol,
We gave my mother in law an ATM card on my wifes checking account.At first we were told we could get only one card per signer on the account,then a person told us we could get both a visa/atm card and a regular atm card.We sent her the regular card with a friend.I would be hesitent to  send it through any sort of mail service.Colombian customs opens everything,including UPS envelopes,and took $500 cash from a UPS envelope one time(yes I know it was stupid to send it that way,I just thought a UPS envelope would show up not opened).Without the PIN number I don't think a thief could do a cash advance but I would be uncomfortable knowing they had the card.
My mother in law can do a cash advance at an ATM.She got 2283 pesos to the dollar on 11/9 plus we pay a $1.00 fee per transaction.So you get good exchange rate plus they can get the money immediately.If you gave her a credit card or you did a cash advance to get the money you would pay a cash advance fee,This has usually been 2% but I have had cards offered to me recently that have a 4% cash advance fee.
One other thing,the ATM card we use will pay out money even if the account is overdrawn(I'm sure there is a limit to this).Then they charge us a $20 overdraft fee.We have paid about $300 of these this year and I hope I have got the point across to my wife that her mother needs to tell her before she takes money so this doesn't happen.This brings up the downside of this system,that it may be too easy to get the money,and the person who has the card may get to thinking they have a blank check.With a wire of course you make a conscious choice to give the money to them every time.

Pete