Putting Your Pesos to Work: Using Colombian CDTs as an Expat Investor
I still remember a muggy Thursday afternoon in Medellín when my friend Andrés insisted I join him for a cafecito in Laureles. He slapped a crumpled receipt on the table, grinning like he had just won the lottery. The paper showed the interest he had earned from a six-month Certificado de Depósito a Término—the Colombian […]
Tax Implications of Earning Interest on CDs Abroad: What Every Expat Needs to Know
A Morning in Medellín and an Unexpected Lesson in Interest Income Last March, while sipping a steaming tinto on a café terrace overlooking Medellín’s lush Aburrá Valley, I noticed the notification ping from my Mexican online banking app. It was a simple message: “Interés abonado – certificado de depósito.” The night before, the six-month certificate […]
How Safe Are Dominican Banks for Large Deposits?
I still remember the sticky Caribbean heat the afternoon I wired the proceeds from selling my Medellín apartment into a high-ceilinged branch of Banco Popular on Winston Churchill Avenue in Santo Domingo. The teller’s counter fan hummed, the queue inched forward, and my taxi driver, who doubled as my impromptu financial adviser, warned me that […]
Investing in Certificates of Deposit in the Dominican Republic: An Expat’s Guide to Safe Yield
A Caribbean Morning and an Unexpected Lesson in Savings Roosters were crowing somewhere beyond the mango trees when I first learned how seriously Dominicans take banking. I had just moved to Santiago de los Caballeros from Medellín, still half-asleep from the 4 a.m. red-eye that had delivered me—and my two overweight suitcases—to Cibao International Airport. […]
CD Interest Rates in Colombia vs. Brazil: An Expat Banking Perspective
From Caribbean Breezes to São Paulo Street Beats: My First Wake-Up Call About Idle Cash The realization hit me on a steamy Tuesday in Santo Domingo, just a few months after I had left a corporate job in Denver for a one-way ticket into Latin America. I was sipping café con leche on El Malecón, […]
Can Expats Access Brazil’s High-Yield Savings Accounts?
It was a humid Tuesday evening in Recife, and the beach kiosks were pumping out forró so loud I could feel the percussion in my flip-flops. I had just come off a video call with my old roommate from Medellín who was bragging about the 10% annual return he was getting on a Colombian CDT […]
Unlocking Dominican Fixed Deposits: An Expat’s Guide to Banking Peace of Mind
A Coconut Stall, a Thunderstorm, and My First Fixed Deposit I still remember the scent of roasted coffee beans drifting from a tiny colmado on Calle El Conde in Santo Domingo. I was crouched under a metal awning—rain hammering overhead like a thousand tamboras—when my phone buzzed with a push notification from BanReservas. “Depósito a […]
Using Certificates of Deposit to Strengthen Your Residency Application
The Morning the Notary Bartered for Coffee in Santo Domingo I still remember the smell of freshly ground cafecito wafting through a cramped notary’s office in Santo Domingo. It was 8:17 a.m., already sweltering, and the notario publicó was refusing to stamp my residency documents until he’d secured two tiny espresso shots from the colmado […]
Currency Risks with Certificates of Deposit in Colombia: What Every Expat Should Know
Three years ago in Medellín, I found myself sipping a tinto on a cool Andean morning, scrolling through my Dominican Republic online banking app and watching the Colombian peso swing wildly against the U.S. dollar. Just forty-eight hours earlier, the peso had slid nearly 5 %. My freshly opened certificate of deposit—“certificado de depósito a […]
From Santo Domingo to São Paulo: Weighing Local Bank CDs Against USD Offshore Accounts
I still remember standing in the crowded lobby of a branch of Banco Popular Dominicano, fanning myself with a withdrawal slip while bachata floated in from the street. A teller had just offered me a “certificado de depósito a plazo fijo” — basically a certificate of deposit, or CD — paying 8 % in Dominican […]