TRAVEL FINANCE6 min read
Colombia
•June 5, 2026
DolarPeso Team & Global Boy X
Currency Exchange Specialists
Helping tourists, expats, and digital nomads get the best value when spending in Colombia
You tap your card at a restaurant in El Poblado and the terminal asks: "Pay in US dollars or Colombian pesos?" It feels helpful—your own currency, no math. But choosing dollars there is one of the most common ways tourists quietly overpay in Colombia.
That choice is called Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), and it almost always works against you. Here is how it works, what a recent Credibanco adjustment means if you see a refund and a new charge, and how to keep more of your money.
DCC is the option a card terminal or ATM gives a foreign cardholder to pay in their home currency instead of the local one. In Colombia, that means a screen offering to charge you in USD (or EUR, GBP, etc.) rather than Colombian pesos (COP).
It sounds convenient—you see a familiar number instead of "85,000 COP." But the catch is who sets the exchange rate. With DCC, the local merchant's payment processor sets the rate at the moment of sale, and that rate usually carries a markup of roughly 3% to 12% over the real interbank rate.
If you decline DCC and pay in pesos, your own bank or card network (Visa/Mastercard) converts the amount later using a rate that is typically much closer to the real market rate. In short: paying in pesos almost always wins.
Say you buy a dinner that costs 200,000 COP. Here is roughly what happens each way:
Pay in pesos: your card network converts 200,000 COP at close to the real rate. At about 3,560 COP per dollar, that is roughly $56.18.
Pay in dollars (DCC): the terminal applies its own rate with a markup. A 7% DCC markup turns that same dinner into about $60.11—you pay several dollars extra for nothing.
On one dinner it is a few dollars. Across a two-week trip—restaurants, taxis, tours, shops—those markups stack into real money, often 5% to 10% of everything you spend on the card. And remember: even when you pay in pesos, your home bank may still add its own foreign-transaction fee, so stacking DCC on top makes it worse, not better.
If you used a foreign card in Colombia earlier this year and noticed a refund followed by a new charge, here is the likely explanation. Credibanco, one of Colombia's main card acquirers, issued an official notice to merchants about an operational adjustment in some international DCC transactions.
According to that communication, between January 29 and May 22, 2026 a number of international purchases using Dynamic Currency Conversion were billed at a lower value than the amount originally authorized. The issue was corrected between May 27 and May 29, 2026.
As part of the fix, the initial charges were refunded to the cards, and the transactions were re-sent to the bank the same day for the correct amount shown on your receipt (voucher). So on your statement you may see a reversal of the first charge and then a new, correct charge that matches your voucher.
Credibanco was clear that this was not fraud and not a security incident—it was a billing-level correction on the cardholder side, with no financial impact to merchants, and it is fully resolved. If you see this pattern from a Colombian purchase in that window, it is expected. As always, compare the final charge against your paper or emailed receipt, and contact your card issuer if anything does not match.
Always choose to be charged in pesos (COP). When a terminal or ATM offers your home currency, decline it and pick "pay in local currency."
Watch for pre-ticked boxes. Some terminals default to DCC; if the cashier already pressed "USD," ask them to run it in pesos instead—you have the right to choose.
Use a card with no foreign-transaction fee, and let your own bank do the conversion at the network rate.
Check the receipt. The voucher shows which currency you were charged in; if it says USD when you expected COP, that was DCC.
Best of all: carry pesos for everyday spending so the question never comes up. Cash sidesteps DCC, card surcharges, and ATM fees entirely.
The simplest way to dodge DCC, ATM fees, and surprise card markups is to arrive with pesos already in hand. That is exactly what DolarPeso is built for.
You exchange your dollars online (card, Cash App, Apple Pay, or USDC stablecoin) at a transparent rate, then pick up Colombian pesos in cash at a verified partner location in Medellín. No hunting for ATMs, no terminal asking if you want a worse rate, no guessing what your bank will charge.
When you pay in cash pesos, what you see is what you spend. Check today's rate before your trip and you will know exactly how far your dollars go—no DCC surprises on the statement later.
Lock in a transparent rate and pick up cash pesos at verified partner locations across Medellín. No hidden markups.
✈️ Planning your Colombia trip? Compare flights and hotels on our Travel page.
Travel FinanceHow to Get Pesos in Medellín: The 5 Ways (And Which One Saves You Money)Compare ATMs, airport booths, banks, street changers, and DolarPeso. Real costs, real risks, and the smartest option for tourists in Medellín.7 min readProduct UpdateBre-B: Get Pesos Sent Straight to a Colombian Bank in SecondsBre-B is Colombia’s instant-payment rail. Now you can receive pesos to any Colombian bank in seconds—or still pick up cash in Medellín. Here’s how it works.6 min readComparisonDolarApp vs DolarPeso: What Actually Changed and What You Should UseDolarApp rebranded to Arq Finance and pivoted to neobanking. If you need cash pesos in Colombia, here's what matters and what your real options are.6 min read