Remember to bring cash

[jvoorhees]

One thing I noticed on my recent trip to Colombia was that cash was really needed.
 
Back home in the states, I never have any cash in my wallet.  I use my credit card everywhere.
 
But in Colombia you definitely need it.  First off, you travel by taxi everywhere.  And the taxies need cash.  Most of the stored and restaurants seemed to take credit cards, but most people seemed to pay in cash.
 
Just a heads up to anyone heading down for the first time and not used to carrying cash at all.

[dennislevy]

Colombian law says you can legally bring 10,000 USD into the country. 


And if you try and bring more.....and DAS finds it on you...........or in your luggage at the airport, they will confiscate the overage and there is a process to get the majority of it back..but you will pay a fine.

[benjio]

I hit up the Citibank ATM in the Airport or the nearest location to the airport the taxi drivers knows of as soon as I arrive. The minimum I'll usually take out is $2 Million COP. That way, whether I stay for a week or a month, I usually won't have to go back.
 
A couple of great tips a gringo gave me during my second trip to Colombia: ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS carry lots of small bills in sequencial order in the pockets of your pants. It's extremely rare that taxi fare cost me more than $25,000 COP...even riding around in Bogota. A $20K Bill, three or four $5,000 and 20-30 $1000 Peso bills is usually perfect for me. I do this for a few reasons. The first is taxi drivers love to act like they don't have change when it's time for a gringo to pay. Say your fare is $17,000 COP and you have a $20,000 Peso Bill. They'll swear they don't have 3 $1000 peso bills. Sometimes being so cheap and crooked they'll pull out $2,000 pesos and expecting you to be satisfied with that, while they come up on $1000 Pesos. Doesn't even seem worth the trouble to me but that's how petty some of these crooked bastards are. Most gringos would look at that small amount of money and not worry about it. With me it's a principal. The United States may be the only society on Earth where keep the change is actually a valid expression. If you have a bunch of $1000 Peso bills, you'll never have to worry about the taxi driver having enough change. Another way this has helped with out is with street vendors. If I want to buy a pastelito de carne or something like that, and I have all my bills in sequencial order, I can go into my pocket and pull of the $3000 pesos the pastelito is going to cost me without flashing my entire wad of money. WIth other street vendors, if given a price of something I want to buy and it's more than I have in my pockets, I'll sit and haggle with them. Haggling is part of the culture in Colombia. EVERYONE does it. A great haggling tool is pulling out that wad you have and showing them. MIRA, ESTE ES TODO QUE TENGO!!!! Then they'll start coming down on that gringo price. Another great reason for the wad is just in case you are robbed. If you have a $20,000 Peso Bill wrapped around a bunch of $1000, it's going to give the thief the impression he's getting a lot of money from you, so they'll usually take that wad and hurry up and leave before attracting attention. Little will he know that it's probably only $35-$50,000 Pesos. If you're going to carry around a large amount of cash, keep the big bills in your sock. Go to a bathroom if you need to get to it for any reason.

[fathertime]

One thing I noticed on my recent trip to Colombia was that cash was really needed.
 
Back home in the states, I never have any cash in my wallet.  I use my credit card everywhere.
 
But in Colombia you definitely need it.  First off, you travel by taxi everywhere.  And the taxies need cash.  Most of the stored and restaurants seemed to take credit cards, but most people seemed to pay in cash.
 
Just a heads up to anyone heading down for the first time and not used to carrying cash at all.

I usually carried around  too much cash, but usually in different pockets.   I used credit cards quite often in restaurants though.  I felt better though having cash on me just in case. 


Fathertime! 

[JimD]

I would recomend against using a credit card in hotels and restaurant in Colombia if you can possibly avoid it. Some months ago I stayed at the Radisson Hotel in Ciudad Jardin (used to be the Pacifica Royal) and paid with a credit card. It was the only time I´d used it in Colombia for several years. A few weeks later I got a message from the credit card company saying to contact them before attempting to use the card. Turned out several suspect purchase attempts had been made in the US totaling a couple of thousand dollars which the stores had refused (one was an attempt to buy something at an Apple store). The account was closed of course and I was none the worse for it except for the hassle of getting a new card sent to me in Colombia but I learned a lesson: pay in cash. About that hotel clerk, she sure was goodlooking.

[Traveler]

Well, yeah, the taxi drivers often complain that they don't have change if I try paying them with a 50K bill, so the advice on having small bills is right on.  But in my experience, taxi drivers have been extremely honest with giving me change.  Well, my experience is based on Medellin, maybe on the coast it's different  .
 
As for the cash, I always use Citibank because it allows to withdraw a lot more at once: $700K vs $350K at Bancolombia.  Banko de Bogota allows even less.  You pay the ATM fee for each time you use it, so it's better to withdraw more money less frequently than reverse.

[jvoorhees]

Colombian law says you can legally bring 10,000 USD into the country. 


And if you try and bring more.....and DAS finds it on you...........or in your luggage at the airport, they will confiscate the overage and there is a process to get the majority of it back..but you will pay a fine.

That is a good point to be aware of.  Definitely don't want to have money stolen during customs.  Or worse yet be taken into custody for questioning.
 
But really, who needs 10,000 US for a 2 or 3 week vacation.  If you do, I'd say you're doing something wrong.  lol

[Samuel]

 

One thing I noticed on my recent trip to Colombia was that cash was really needed.
Back home in the states, I never have any cash in my wallet.  I use my credit card everywhere.
But in Colombia you definitely need it.  First off, you travel by taxi everywhere.  And the taxies need cash.  Most of the stored and restaurants seemed to take credit cards, but most people seemed to pay in cash.
Just a heads up to anyone heading down for the first time and not used to carrying cash at all.

Bringing cash (American dollars) with you to Colombia isn't really necessary when a debit card will suffice.  You won't get a good exchange rate converting dollars to pesos but you will when using an ATH (ATM) to withdraw cash using a debit card.  Just notify your bank and credit card company that you will be traveling.


JimD brings up a good point about not using your credit card at certain establishments.  For the same reason I would never recommend using a debit card other than at an ATM as recovering stolen funds from a debit card is more problematic than reporting fraudulent use of a credit card.