Colombia Forum

EpaEpaEpa
Joined 2019
Posts: 403

5 years ago

Banking In Colombia...Or Not

5 years ago

I'm new here and apologies if this has been covered ad infinitum. If you retire and move to Colombia you may think you'll need to open a bank account and even have your pension income deposited to it. Personally I think you are much better off keeping your banking in your home country and getting cash via atms. At least one bank account in the US, Capitol One 360 charges no atm fees and if you use Colpatria or BBVA atms in Colombia they don't either and lately at least they have given the official (Banco de la Republica) exchange rate. If you do open an account here you generally must show a letter from your pension source stating the amount. I am still not clear on the Declaration de la Renta (wealth tax) requirements for pensioners per se but apart from that you must declarar renta if your bank deposits totaled more than $46'418.000 or about $15,500 US in 2018. The limit could go lower next year. The only reason I can think of for having your pension deposited in a Colombian bank is if you want to finance a car or similar large purchase. That is typically a requirement of the financing entity. If financing isn't a need for you then just paying everything in cash and staying off the radar is the way to go even though it will involve standing in lines at banks.

I'm curious to hear others' opinions on this.

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