Exchaging money in Colombia

Exchanging money is different in different countries and Colombia wasn’t the exception. This might have been the most “interesting” place where I exchanged money, hahaha. As in many places the exchange houses give you a better rate than the banks. There are some exchange houses in downtown, airport and bus terminal.

What makes it different? Well, in order to exchange money you have to present your ID and some places will even ask you for your passport. I tried to do it with my Peruvian ID, but wanted the document I used to go into the country. They will also take your fingerprint in order to register it.
At the end they will give you a looooong receipt that contains your name, ID Number, amount of money, etc and an affidavit saying you are exchanging money just for your personal use, bla bla bla.

This whole process might take quite a long time, so my suggestion is that if you are with friends let one exchanging all the money under his name, so you’d avoid the whole paperwork and could save some time. It’s not fun, but is the only way to do it. Stores don’t take foreign currency, so you have to do it eitherway. Another tip: ask for small bills, since sometime is difficult to get change specially in small shops.

this is a exchange house in dowtown: www.titan.com.co