Opening a Colombian Bank Account

[Alabamaboy!]

I think this has been covered somewhere in the past, but the search capability on this site does not seem so great and cannot find the information I need.

I want to open a joint Colombian bank account during my upcoming trip. Hopefully I will have a Colombian spousal visa in hand within a few days after arriving there. I will be applying for a cedula immediately, but am told that it will probably take more than 15 business days to get it.

So my questions are: Will I be able to open a joint checking account, establish a CDT (CD), with just a spousal visa and my passport? Which banks would be most user friendly for establishing an account, or are they all pretty much the same? Will these accounts generally be able to accept electronic transfers if I want to do so to take advantage of times of improved exchange rates? With the dollar trending lower and lower over the last few years, I want to be able to take advantage of this whenever possible as a hedge against the possibility that the dollar ultimately implodes.

[Jeff S]

I don't know about Colombia, a passport is all it takes in Mexico, Japan or Europe. Joint account holders don't even have to be related anywhere I've checked. These days you can pretty much transfer money anywhere with ease. You don't raise any eyebrows until it's well into the high 5 figures. The only real concerns are terrorism and drugs, and there's so much money flying around the world at any given instant, there's anonymity in the sheer volume of transactions. Business globalization, ebay, and other e-commerce have made these things so everyday that no one notices.


You know you can use your US based account in Colombia just as if you had a local account. Your credit and debit cards work there just as easily as here, plus you can still monitor the activity online, transfer funds, pay bills back home, and all the other financial activities the modern web based systems allow.

[Alabamaboy!]

I don't know about Colombia, a passport is all it takes in Mexico, Japan or Europe. Joint account holders don't even have to be related anywhere I've checked. These days you can pretty much transfer money anywhere with ease. You don't raise any eyebrows until it's well into the high 5 figures. The only real concerns are terrorism and drugs, and there's so much money flying around the world at any given instant, there's anonymity in the sheer volume of transactions. Business globalization, ebay, and other e-commerce have made these things so everyday that no one notices.


You know you can use your US based account in Colombia just as if you had a local account. Your credit and debit cards work there just as easily as here, plus you can still monitor the activity online, transfer funds, pay bills back home, and all the other financial activities the modern web based systems allow.

Colombia is very different than Mexico, and other countries. I opened an account in Mexico with just a US driver's license. I tried in Colombia with a passport, copies of bank statements, letter from accountant, etc, etc. and got turned down by all of them. They all told me I needed a cedula. But I am specifically wondering if the spousal visa will do the trick while I am waiting for the cedula to be issued.

[Alabamaboy!]

And again, the reason I am looking at opening the Colombian account is to have it in COP rather than dollars because the dollar has been sinking against pretty much all currencies in the world over the past 10 years or so and I believe will continue to do so. And I don't want to be 7 years down the road when I want to semi retire there and find out that I cannot afford to live in a basically 3rd World country because my USD's are of little value.

[maritime04]

Alabama
 
you will need the cedula extrena to open an account, try banco colombian, or banco popular first. They may not allow you, but i have heard of many gringos opening accounts since last i tried in 2006.
 
i think youll get a contresena first before the actual cedula which can take upto 8 weeks to get, banks will not let you open an account with a contresena.

[Micky]

AB -

You can double check my info,  as is in Colombia,  answers vary much of the time.  You do have to have a cedula to open a bank account,  the spousal visa will not do.  DAS,  my first cedula was delivered to my house with in 7/10 days,  my second (this last Feb)  was,  "come back in a month and pick it up."  I am in Medellin,  and sure can not say how things would go for you in Barranquilla.  When you do the visa,  you sign a statement that says you WILL apply at DAS within 15 days for your cedula.  Also you can check the U.S. embassy,  Bogota,  website,  under "citizen services"  you can have SS or gov retirement direct deposited to Bancolombia or Bank de Bogota.  I just keep my U.S. banking,  since there is no real advantage to having an account here.  One would have to go through currency exchange,  either way,  if you have an account here or just do the ATM thing.

Micky

[JimD]

The other thing banks in Colombia are very touchy about is the source of the funds you wish to deposit in your account. They will want a letter or some documentation probobly apostilled from the source of your income. Pretty reasonable since there is so much money laundering.

[Traveler]

No, a US account cannot be used in Colombia.  I actually need to operate a bank in Colombia sometime in the future, and found this issue to be a problem.
 
To open an account in Colombia as far as I understand I need an "investor's visa", a significant deposit, and I would imagine a Camara de Comercio.  Further, US accounts of international banks that have a presence in Colombia (Citi, HSBC) cannot be accessed, except that you can use the ATM without incurring ATM charges, which is really not big help.  You can't deposit or withdraw money directly from your US account, and people can't cash your checks written against your US account.

[Calipro]

I think this has been covered somewhere in the past, but the search capability on this site does not seem so great and cannot find the information I need.

I want to open a joint Colombian bank account during my upcoming trip. Hopefully I will have a Colombian spousal visa in hand within a few days after arriving there. I will be applying for a cedula immediately, but am told that it will probably take more than 15 business days to get it.

So my questions are: Will I be able to open a joint checking account, establish a CDT (CD), with just a spousal visa and my passport? Which banks would be most user friendly for establishing an account, or are they all pretty much the same? Will these accounts generally be able to accept electronic transfers if I want to do so to take advantage of times of improved exchange rates? With the dollar trending lower and lower over the last few years, I want to be able to take advantage of this whenever possible as a hedge against the possibility that the dollar ultimately implodes.

I got a cedula extrajeria from having a spousal visa and opened up a bank account with BanColombia with no problem...it was not a joint account....got my cedula within 4 days issued from DAS in Bogota....how long it takes will depend on which city you go to DAS and request the cedula.


Bank policies very from bank to bank as to how long you need to be in Colombia and what documention will be required to open the account and the policies are randomly enforced....Colombian banking can become a nightmare if you don't know what you are doing.


You should search on poorbuthappy website for this type of topic because the limited focus of this forum really cuts down on this type of info here.


Specifically search for my posts about how I lost a $18,000 wire to BanColombia and what is took to finally get it back before you decide to start sending a lot of money down there.


Good luck

[Alabamaboy!]

I will be getting doing the cedula work in Bogota. And I will be flying into BOG for my wife's interview at the US embassy, then the next day I will be interviewing for th eColobmian visa. Then we will do the DAS thing for the cedula in BOG, then pass the rest of the time on the Coast, and return to BOG to catch the flight to LAX. If it takes no more than 7 business days for the cedula, then it will be perfect. Any more than that I guess I will need to do a power of attorney to get it picked up by the attorney.

Anyone think they would be able to send to the Embassy in LA?

[Calipro]

I will be getting doing the cedula work in Bogota. And I will be flying into BOG for my wife's interview at the US embassy, then the next day I will be interviewing for th eColobmian visa. Then we will do the DAS thing for the cedula in BOG, then pass the rest of the time on the Coast, and return to BOG to catch the flight to LAX. If it takes no more than 7 business days for the cedula, then it will be perfect. Any more than that I guess I will need to do a power of attorney to get it picked up by the attorney.

Anyone think they would be able to send to the Embassy in LA?

There is a simple form you can fill out at the time you request your cedula that gives anyone you chose power of attorney to pick up your cedula....I didn't want to spend 3 or 4 days in Bogota waiting around for my cedula so I gave my wife power of attorney to pick it up.


If you have a lay over in Bogota on your way back you might be able to go pick it up between flights on your way home....just took me mins to pick up mine after it was ready....the DAS in Bogota is much better organized than the DAS in some other cities.