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Transfer money to Banco de Bogotá

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UnBuenHombre
  8/1/2020 14:50 EST

Hi, All,
My Colombian wife and I recently signed the promesa to buy some property in Jamundí, Colombia, for which we are very excited.
We transferred a relatively sizable sum from Chase Bank in the States to the property owner's account in the Banco de Bogotá in Cali. The receiving bank has now refused to release the funds to the property owner because they are "no longer allowing transfers from the United States for the purchase of real estate" and are going to send the money back. Does anyone have any advice as to what we should do? We managed to get through to the receiving bank today (Saturday) and the person on the other end of the line said that there was nothing that they could do, but that the transaction ought to be feasible. Does it sound as if something underhanded is going on? Thank you for any insight you can give me.

fredah
  8/1/2020 15:22 EST

I had a problem when we first moved to Colombia in 2017. We opened an account at Banco de Bogota and wanted to transfer funds. They refused and we closed the account. We then opened an account at Bancolombia and have had no problem with transfers. Sometimes they ask for the source of the transfer (pension, savings, social security) but they don't ask what the money is for.

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fredah
  8/1/2020 15:33 EST

As an addendum our account in the US is Chase and because of our various accounts there is never any fee

Blenheim
  8/1/2020 15:40 EST

Not surprising about this with the bank----People should file a form 4 paperwork, with the Banco de Republica, which will then send a letter stating it guarantees the money is legally being brought in to the country, and not drug money-

(Do people think money actually came from legal sources which built many of the malls built in Colombia???)

The advantage with this, if selling out later on--one can take that money out of Colombia tax free---or If enough brought in -then another advantage is immediate permanent residency and cedula--

Or--many people simply make several trips at 10 k a trip, then with accumulative monies pay cash in this way for a place--not a bank and issue then--However pay taxes leaving if selling out as above if having not filed a form 4--

There is a posting from 2014 headed
("hink i screwed up- form 5 vs. form 5"
which may help you--

ponymalta2
  8/1/2020 17:21 EST

Probably nothing underhanded except being Colombia (a) tremendously ineptness at all levels of Colombian societies emerges at times or (b) Banker trying to squeeze facilitating payment from seller (c) the bank has had its hand slapper recently by regulators so temporarily coming up with inane excuses to reduce their paperwork.

We had an issue several years ago, which was crazy- we finally had to have lawyer camp out at the bank and refuse to leave for 3 days until resolved. We learnt from that lesson, not enough for relationship with bank manager, but also with manager handling foreign payments- since then everything smooth, costs a few bottles of single malt every Christmas- and a blanket letter signed by local accountant ( I hesitate to call them a CPA). so no more issues, Just the way Colombia works- the ineptness and bureaucracy and corruption can actually end up delivering an easier experience than in the US or UK.

Tell your seller what happened- money is everything for Colombians , he will sort it out pronto unless he is incompetent as well.

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