Chile Forum

admin wrote:... I thought the limit was $400 per card, but that is the ATM limit in Chile. I will have to test with a couple of diffrent cards. It might be the red bank system limit in Chile per day. Still best to have backup cards: ...

I have found $500 USD or CLP equivalent is my limit for both my Citibank CIrrus debit and Everbank Plus debit cards. A $500 USD/day w/d adds up real fast. Like the E Trade card, Everbank only does 1% with no per use fee. Same with incoming wires which are free. So my current strategy is use Everbank for ATM w/ds, Everbank for incoming wires, Citibank for outgoing wires, a small and free $10 USD min. ACH deposit/month from my Everbank account to the Citibank account to keep my Citibank account free (setup from the Citibank Online platform) and pay only $4.95/month for Everbank if I fail to keep the min. average deposit of $1,500/month. ACH in and out transfers are a cinch to setup from Citibank Online. I just moved nearly $6,000 electronically in five business days between one US bank account and Citibank for free.

admin wrote:sorry, "from dollars". . . .

Understood.

Current experience with Citibank online wire transfer.

Just did a 100% online domestic (USA bank account to another USA bank account) wire. No prompts to phone in perhaps because I sent the same entity a wire in the past.

Another warning for those in the States, you must get this feature in your Citi online platform approved BEFORE you leave the States as it will require an in-person visit at a home area branch to get it done.

How do you have money wired to yourself at a Chilean bank if they won't let you open an account easily? I've been told by several folks that you need three months of local pay stubs to open an account here. Do you know if Santander allows you to have money wired to yourself or which other banks do? Then when you pick up your money, do you get a bank draft or what?

After running a trace on a wire transfer that hadn't arrived on time, I learned that the auto dealer must have gotten some of his SWIFT code numbers wrong and the wire got bounced back to the intermediary bank in New York. I don't really think anything funny is going on. I just think he doesn't handle purchases to gringoes and wire transfers very often.

My Spanish is rather limited. I'm okay in person or in email but over the phone it's rather difficult if not impossible. Rather than take the Metro and then a cab all the way from Recoleta to Las Condes tomorrow I think I'll go to the Santander branch nearby and see if they will let me wire the money to myself then issue my a bank draft. (Santander is the auto dealer's bank and I figured they'd process their own bank draft quicker than one from another bank.) Because the outstanding balance on the car was only slightly more than $US10K, I can amend the wire to $US9.9K and pay the difference in an ATM withdrawal and avoid the money-laundering review. I just don't want the bank to put any kind of hold on the money if I wire it to myself. I've been stuck in Santiago 10 days longer than I anticipated and want to speed up the process as much as possible.

Any suggestions?

This forum is a great asset.

Thanks in advance.

Casey

Thanks,

Casey