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Banks in Nicaragua

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dblain123
  4/16/2015 11:54 EST

We have been banking at B of A for years. can we keep our account here in the States and access it when we retire to Nicaragua?

rtaz
  4/16/2015 14:50 EST

There's no BofA in Nicaragua.
Citibank is closing and moving out of Nicaragua.

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dollyd
  4/16/2015 20:18 EST

I do all my banking on line with my US banks and access my money at the banks ATM. I do not have an account in Nicaragua, I don't see the need for one.

dblain123
  4/16/2015 22:10 EST

Thanks. We get everything deposited in our account and mainly use our Visa debit cards to pay bills.

rtaz
  4/17/2015 12:07 EST

Hola Dollyd,
I have some questions, if you don't mind.

Who do you bank with?
What's the maximum you can withdraw?
What's the cost for atm use?
What is the cost for currency conversion?

Thanks.

elduendegrande
  4/17/2015 13:06 EST

By all means keep your US account and suck money from it thru the aTMs which are now all over the place. Most charge 1 to 1.50 per transaction, up to 500 bucks. with BAC being more expensive. Check with your bank to see their daily limit and advise them of your secondary address abroad.

Maxipali has the best convenient exchange rates, and our local one also has 3 different ATMs. And you don't need to exchange all your money, because many things here are paid in usd, particularly clean undamaged 20s.

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majicjack
  4/18/2015 08:19 EST

I am not Dolly but we have accounts with three banks in Nicaragua.. BAC, Banpro and Bancentro. We also have our accounts inn the USA. You can get debit cards from each of these banks if you have an account. Using your debit card from these Nica banks will cost you nothing if you are using it in Nicaragua. We have made purchases online up to $7100 dollars so there is basically no limit as to what you can draw out as long as the money is there. BAC does have a $400 a day limit on withdraws on American debit cards. We have $1500 daily limit on our USA accounts and this can cause a problem when trying to buy plane tickets or other large priced item's. The charge on the debit card use (USA) in most banks here is from $3.50 to $4.50.
You are also paid interest on the unused funds you have in the banks here. If you are going to draw money out of your US account and put it in a Nica account. Use the debit card, get cash at the counter and then deposit it. You will not be charged a transfer fee. It is less expensive to do business with a teller than work the ATMs too heavy. I can't tell a person how to handle their money but can say we have been banking in Nicaragua for many years and have never had any trouble or lost any money. You can arrange with the bank to call you on large purchases and multiple purchases on you debit cards and they will.
Presently the bank conversion is c$ 26.63. You can get 26.80 from money exchangers and some stores will give you 27. My wife always keeps some dollars when she is going to buy at La Union, La Colonia or Maxipali because they give you a better exchange rate than the rest. Many of the larger chain stores give a much higher rate also.

KeyWestPirate
  4/18/2015 10:51 EST

I am only paying $1.50 at a BanPro ATM for a C$10,000 pull.

C$10K is the daily limit --- (it's actually $400, a bit more) - - - that I established for my ATM card. I have a $3500 limit for it on purchases. I just bought a $900 motorcycle at La Curacao with no issue whatsoever.

Part (but not all) of my reluctance towards using Nica banks is the incredibly long lines. I spent an hour in line to pay for a C$350 ticket (no seat belt) at the La Fise in MaxiPali. No bank in the US could continue to exist with this level of customer service, but it's the norm in Nicaragua.

I guess everyone finds a financial solution that works for them. Most important for me, is the immediate email I get when my debit card is used. I know if anything funny is going on.

Scams still abound here, of every flavor, but I imagine it's no worse than anywhere else. If you let people take your money, they WILL take your money.

I will eventually have to get a Nica account. When my farm eventually fires up, I will want to pay the workers with checks, then cash them, so I have irrefutable proof of payment and an audit trail for the Ministerio de Trabajo. This will require a Nica bank.

majicjack
  4/18/2015 11:52 EST

Pirate, on the paying the employees we just use a ledger and have them sign. Paying their SS you need to get documented proof of that. We require our employees to sign a contract before going to work. Some of the folks can't read or write but they can quote you the labor laws.

KeyWestPirate
  4/18/2015 13:18 EST

Maybe I could get a copy of your contract? It would be worth the trip to Jalapa (or thereabouts).

I had a recent situation, maid who was stealing from me. should have fired her last December when the first theft happened, C$1000, but she cried, said her children would go hungry.

We tried a couple times more, counseled her, she was a good worker, diligent and intelligent, did things right. I still miss her.

We finally had another theft, about ten teaspoons, that could have only been her. She denied it, but I said "Adios" We had missed other silverware.

I was willing to settle her with a months pay as a severance (she had worked well under a year, but more than the magic 90 days).

Her vago husband had showed up drunk one night at my gate, demanding to see his wife (who was hiding from him, but not at my place). That was kind of a final straw too. He's a mean drunk who likes to start fights, shows up on her paydays to claim his piece of her pay. The story of Nicaragua,, not my problem anymore.

She called the Ministerio de Trabajo, came back with a demand for 23 Sundays paid (she only worked 4 or five days /week, but we used her once in a while on a Saturday when we had guests. Maybe five times. Accrued vacation and aquinaldo. I paid her a full year's aquinaldo last December even she had only started in September.

She managed to get a "cita" the last day before Easter week started, showed up at my door with this "summons".

I called my lawyer, he called the Ministerio, explained the facts, told them we were not going to pay ANY severance at this point, would appeal any ruling,, got a postponement for the hearing, and she never showed up anyway.

She came by again, and said she got her own "lawyer from Ocotal". Maybe there is something special about lawyers from Ocotal?

Her parents had kicked her out when she lost her job, she's living with the vagos now. It's a shame, her three kids are really nice. I picked up a Raggedy Ann doll for the youngest when I was in the US, sweet little girl.

Where this is going, I don't know. Carlos (my lawyer) says "tranquilo"; she has no money to pay a lawyer, he would have to be working on the come. And, it's going to be a long time before he sees any money.

Carlos has refused to take any money, he says: " ... wait until it plays out, I only made a phone call so far . . ."

There's more: while I was in the US she would come in at her 8:AM time, but leave at 9:30 instead of noon. The neighbors were quick to disclose this information when I got back. They thought that she was overpaid. Good old Nicaraguan chisme and envy working in my favor for once :)

So, she knows the neighbors will side with me (even as a Gringo, everyone hates her drunk husband).

I think of this as involving oneself in the Nicaragua culture . .. at least that is how I'm writing it off.


So, fellow posters:

It can happen to you too. Theft is endemic in Nicaragua, your level of tolerance may vary, but it gets old. You don't know something is gone until you miss it.

I don't think Nuria was a bad person, I suspect her husband put her up to a lot of it for guaro money. Her father had been arrested for theft too, so that might have been a factor.

I really feel for the kids, I liked all three of them. They were polite and well-behaved.

Mr Nice Guy doe not cut it here. This is my first problem of this nature in five years. There IS a sense of entitlement, maybe something left over from the communist flavor of the revolution. What's yours is mine.

Previous maids were simply incompetent.

tommyhawk
  4/18/2015 14:17 EST

Pirate, I'm really sorry to hear what you've gone through and once again feel so fortunate to live where I do. My neighbors make the annoyances of my house worth it- no view, weird lot dimensions etc. At this point if someone did steal from me it would be like yeah, someone stole from me. Happened in the US several times for much more than C1000 and 10 spoons but not by someone I trusted in my house.

A bank question- I understand BAC has a branch in Florida-if anyone has experience with that bank- is the ATM fee waived and more importantly can large sums be transferred to a Nicaragua branch easier and more reliably? I'm looking to buy an adjoining property and build a house and would like an easier way to put it together while having a US bank for social security, Paypal etc.

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majicjack
  4/18/2015 21:32 EST

I have been taken to the Ministry of Labor three times and have not lost yet. The best way to do it is; get the amount for minimum wage for the job that they will be doing, if they are on monthly salary it is a 48 hour work week. write up you contract with amount to be paid, job description. Also include that if she gets Saturday off and she is being paid monthly Saturday will be counted as a paid holiday to be subtracted from her annual vacation time and bonus. Enter the days she or he takes off in a ledger and make them sign it. Before and not after the time off. If they get an advance make the sign a ledger and put what it was for and that it will be taken from her or his next pay period. Include in the contract that if he or she steals( police will be called) or lies, failure to call incase of not showing up for work and fails to follow the job description as posted in the contract they will be dismissed. After you write up you contract refine it the best you can and then take it to the Ministry of Labor and let them read it. If it is legal they will sign off on it. If not they will help you with any changes. If you have a good contract and follow it, it will be very hard for the employee to screw you. In the old days if you were a gringo you were screwed at the Labor board. Not so anymore. It is basically about your contract and record keeping. Have the employee sign for anything you give or pay and days off the works. They maybe the most wonderful employee in the world but they can turn in a hurry. When we first got here it was lets help the poor person and do what we can. Those days are gone.

majicjack
  4/18/2015 21:42 EST

It is not the amount, it is the fact that you trusted this person in your home and they stole from you. Regardless if it is 10 cents or ten mil, a thief is a thief. I don't know about a BAC US bank but there is a flat rate on wire transfers from the US with the BAC banks here. $25.00. You can go to the US Embassy and have your social security direct deposited without being a resident and the monthly charge is $6.00 per month. This will allow you to all other types banking here. With this account you will be able to have wire transfers from the USA also.

KeyWestPirate
  4/19/2015 08:13 EST

" . .. When we first got here it was lets help the poor person and do what we can. Those days are gone . ..

It's good to hear of your Ministry of Labor experience. Your advice is sound, re the contracts, pay the minimum. document everything.

Our documentation exists, but it's a little shaky. Nuria signed receipts for her pay, and the receipt show the pay period, but we neglected to document the actual days worked in the pay period.

She was a friend of a friend, and it's easy to fall into THAT trap.

It's a balance, and a rocky road. What we view as theft in our culture, is often not theft to the Nicaraguans. "You have so much, I have so little, we should share . . . ."



I support a little campo girl who is completing secondary this year. When I met her she and her family was being evicted from the shack she lived in adjacent to my farm because her father was caught growing marijuana. The second time.

He was actually growing it in the middle of a Caña Taiwan field of mine. This makes everyone nervous in Nicaragua, Nicas included, because it gives the Sandi government the opportunity to seize your property.

Anyway, Yaritza had just started secondary, and was going to have to drop out. I stepped in found her a boarding spot with a teacher in Condega, got her into the Maristas private school, mid-term yet, and I pay her expenses.

I'm not trying to blow my horn here, just provide background.

The teacher speaks decent English, he was raised by Maryknoll nuns who arrived in Nicaragua after hurricane Mitch. After they left the nuns gave him enough money to build a house (the son they never had) ??

He's not a bad guy, always short of money, but he and his mother have contributed mightily to Yaritza's social development, disclipline.

Anyway, to finally get to the point of the story: I pay Eddy $50 /month to board Yaritza. Their home is humble, Yaritza sleeps with Eddy's mother. This is twice the going rate for boarding campo kids in Condega. Many have to board because of the distance and limited bus service. Generally, the family gets $25 and some labor from the kid. Many families take gross advantage of the "some labor" part and the kid becomes a little slave.

Eddy asked me a month ago if I could pay him the monthly stipend in three month increments, so I said "sure", with some minor trepidation. The little girl is really skinny, and Eddy is really fat, but, hey, I think that she is getting enough to eat. She gets great grades.

She went through a rough patch when she hit puberty, but we got through it without serious problem, and she settled down and became a serious student.

She is one of the few Nica kids I know that actually enjoy his/her studies. She masters the material rather than just absorbs enough to get past the next exam.

Yesterday, Eddy shows up, all serious. I assumed he was going to tell me he'd spent the $150, and they were out of food, but that wasn't the case.

He simply wanted to increase the $50 to $75 after the end of the current three month period. He knows that this is a small sum, and that I am not going to disrupt Yaritza's homestay the last few months (she'll finish in November), so why not?

He's getting double the going rate (Yaritza works too, cleaning their house, but it's a small house).

We have big plans for Yaritza, but she will finish high school at 15. I worry that she will not be mature enough for the University.

I just rented a house in Estelí which would provide a good base for her, but she can't stay with me because of her age. Even with Ariana living there full time.

I would quickly become the victim of an extortion conspiracy. Despite my desire to see her complete her education, I might just have to walk away.

So, to re-iterate:

" . .. When we first got here it was lets help the poor person and do what we can. Those days are gone . ..


Nicaragua!

majicjack
  4/19/2015 08:35 EST

The kids come under a totally different scheme of things. We buy school uniforms, shoes, paper note books and even let them do some work on the computer. Made the mistake of showing how much information was on the computer. Police come by with their memory stick and we print off what they need.. Little things are still happening with us. However trying to be Santa to all that come with a hard luck story, supposedly need medicine, no food and whatever else to get money. They have been informed we are not into banking so don't ask. Quilali is so much different than the other part of Nicaragua we have lived in or been in. The mountain people are different. Crime here is almost nonexistent. It is very laid back and tranquil. If we were still in the production stages of life, we wouldn't mind raising a child here. I have worked the dredge farther north from here on the Honduras border and the people in Nicaragua are the same there as here. This is the first time we have lived full time in the mountains and we are very happy we made the move. I imagine it is pretty close to the same culture where you are at? We didn't come down here expecting miracles and everything fall into place. You have to work at making it here and remember this is their country and you are the one that may need to do a little changing. No different than the rest of the world. 90$ are good, 5% are bad and another 5% are real bad. We never have and never will consider living where there are a bunch of Americans. It that is what we wanted to do we would have stayed in the states. Then again, I am not going to live in a country that would elect Obama and even consider electing Hilary president.

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