Duales vs. Transcard - which is better for Americans?

I'am american and I opened an account in 1997 to 1999 not really sure which year. Didn't have a problem opening one. Still have it. Don't know if one still can do it. Don't know why I really still have it.



I'll be down I Panama soon so I am going to check out this Epay thing when I'm there face to face. Not that I really need one for Cuba. I get a one to one exchange rate with no fees.

The Amigo card is NOT the Transcard I referred to and is a profound failure as a financial device. that's based on my own empirical experience in struggling to use it.

Carlan, if you have the older Transcard account then you should be able to continue to use it. They are no longer available to foreigners but Transcard tells me all those of us with the older cards are "grandfathered" in. That's very good news because the older Transcard rates and services are essentially the same as those offered by Duales today. The Amigo card is nothing like either of those cards. It should, perhaps, more appropriately be called the "my fren'" card.

Now the shill instructs us that the Amigo Card doesnt work. Dulles is the "only option" because he says so, obviously.

What disinformation. Buyer beware!

The Amigo Card does work...............sometimes. In prior posts I reported that my experience with it had several thousand dollars unavailable to me for about 4-5 days (right after Wilma) and it took me three trips to their little office under The Havana Libre, and the intervention of a good friend, in order to get access to my money again. Shortly thereafter they messed up my account so that I couldn't withdraw funds from the Hotel Riviera and that took another trip to the office to straighten out. Add to that their inordinately complicated fees which come out much higher than Duales and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize what the better choice is. You only have to be a tiny bit smarter than E_A, and that manifestly does not require much brainpower.

I know I can't even open a bank account in Canada unless I live there.

This is not true. I am an American not living in Canada and I have a Canadian bank account. (At one time I had two, but closed one because I didn't need both). You can even get a US$-denomimated bank account linked to the Cdn$ account.

What you can't do is get a credit card (Visa or MasterCard) or a debit card. My friend who works at Royal Bank tells me it's because of US laws.

Please believe me, Jim, I want to believe you, AND I contacted the Royal Bank and the other big one there over a year ago about doing exactly that. They both told me flatly that I could not do that unless I had an address of residency in Canada, which I do not.

I love to hear how you accomplished that so I might follow suit, but as I recall, you owned some property there or had some other Canda connection that qualified you and which I didn't have.

Please do elucidate, mate.

I opened my account at Bank of Montreal before I bought property in Whistler. Yes, I did it in preparation for when I"d need to write Canadian checks, but at that point I hadn't even applied for a mortgage, let alone get approved nor close on the property. I have never had an address of residency in Canada, and in fact my "condo" in Whistler is specifically not legal as a residence.

I don't know what the problem, why they told you "no". Were you trying to open an account over the phone or by mail, and they meant you have to do it in person? I did open my account in person, in a Bank of Montreal mini-branch located in a Safeway.

Maybe a summer weekend in Vancouver is in order. You'd be hard-pressed to find a nicer place to be, than Vancouver's West End in July or August. Unfortunately, we're still not gonna get a visa card.

Did you do that PRE 9-11 ?

No. December 2003.

Pelo -- I called TD/Canada Trust. An American CAN have a Canadian bank account BUT you have to appear in person with a birth certificate, and government issued ID. And a US bank credit card. She said under some circumstances, a "secured" credit card might be able to be issued, but was rather vague on this. If you want me to check with my branch tomorrow I could do that.