ATM Study

I am retired here in Medellin and have my social security deposited into my USAA checking account.  (And, no you do not need a military connection to open a checking account with the United Services Automobile Association.)  They charge a 1% foreign transaction fee (FTF) on withdrawals.  The first 10 transactions each month are free, after that they charge $2 for each additional transaction.

So as not to pay, or minimize, the extra $2 charges it is necessary to withdraw as much as possible with each transaction.  First, I tested the following banks and this is the maximum they allow per transaction:

780mil – Servibanca

700mil – Citibank

600mil – Bancolombia

300mil – ATH (Banco de Bogota); Occidente; Davivienda; BBVA.

(When I say “maximum allowed per transaction” this is based on the highest amount offered on the screen.  I haven’t been successful in entering higher amounts.)

Second, on the same day (June 30, 2015) I made a 300mil withdrawal from each of the top 3 banks to see if I got the same currency exchange rate (CER).  The following resultant USD charges were before the 1% FTF:

Bancolombia - $116.09 for a CER of 2,584 COP per USD

Servibanca - $119.34 for a CER of 2,514 COP per USD

Citibank - $121.29 for a CER of 2,473 COP per USD

That’s more than a $3 difference between Bancolombia (1^st) and Servibanca (2^nd) and almost a $5 difference between Bancolombia (1^st) and Citibank (3^rd).  It certainly looks like the best value is to withdraw cash from Bancolombia!

BTW, for future reference, the currency exchange rate close on June 29, 2015 was almost exactly 2600 COP/USD.

Also interesting, is that almost all ATMs give you most of your cash in 50mil notes.  The only two times I’ve used Servibanca, it gave me all 20mil and 10mil notes.  This was the ATM located in the lobby of Torre Medica in El Poblado.  (There may be times when someone would like a lot of small bills.)

I hope others find this information helpful.  Comments are welcome.