Colombia Expat Forum

JeffPerren
Joined 2011
Posts: 25

12 years ago

How Best to Xfer Funds From Colombia to U.S.?

12 years ago

I apologize if this question has been asked before, but I often see threads on how to move funds from the U.S. to Colombia; it's rare to see anything on how to transfer money from Colombia to the U.S. My search didn't bring up anything useful.

My Colombian fiancee has just received her K-1 visa and we'll be relocating to the U.S. (I'm a U.S. citizen with bank accounts, etc.) So, like many, we're faced with how best to move her considerable savings safely and cost-effectively to a U.S. bank from her Davivienda account.

Any suggestions?

I have read about Western Union, Xoom, Moneygram. They seem to be a little pricey and geared toward sending individuals money from the U.S. to Colombia. We want to xfer her money to a U.S. account that bears her name.

I've also read about foreign currency exchange, which might ultimately be the best way to go since there are no fees, just the ding you get whenever you exchange one currency for another. How to get the funds into the trading account appears more difficult than in the U.S. (Few people in Colombia appear to use checking accounts so how to get the money into the trading account within a week?)

PayPal might be one possibility but there, too, getting the money into the PayPal account can be tricky. I do it all the time using my U.S. bank account but their customer service doesn't say whether this is possible with a Colombian bank. They answer only with boilerplate about foreign currency exchange and the fees appear substantial.

It might be best to open a Citibank account here, get an ATM card and then withdraw the funds in the U.S. Again, the rep in Bogota was not very helpful when asked for information about this scenario. Also, there is no Citibank branch where we will live (Northern Idaho) so the ATM fees might add up.

Davivienda informs her there is a 16% fee on any wire transfer to a U.S. account; which is totally unacceptable.

Naturally, we want to avoid carrying large sums of physical cash to the airport, especially since it would be in the form of pesos not dollars, and therefore bulky.

So, I thought I'd ask those with experience on this forum.

Ideas?

Thanks for any practical suggestions based on actual experience.

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