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Franklin, could you tell us more about the experience of having a CDE account with Santander?
Do you have access to their Internet Banking? And when you're in Brazil, can you make purchases using a debit card? Can you make boleto payments, PIX transfers, and other common transactions from your online current account? What about investments? Do they offer the bank's own CBDs, private pensions, or any other options?I've had a CDE account with Banco Rendimento for about a year with the basic package, which currently costs R$ 29 per month. I'll tell you a little about my experience:
* I can send money to the account via Wise or any other similar company at a lower cost than ordinary SWIFT transfers. And it's much faster via Wise.
* When I'm in Brazil, there is no debit card with which I can make any payments in the shops. I end up having to use my foreign credit card for this, even though I have money in my CDE account to cover my expenses. For someone who spends a month a year in Brazil, this is a major inconvenience. What's more, if I want to withdraw cash, the only option is to go in person to the bank's office in São Paulo during business hours.
* The bank only offers its own CDBs with very poor yields. There are much more attractive options on the market for those who are tax residents in Brazil and can choose the bank with which they have a relationship.
* To make investments and redemptions in these bad CDBs, I have to stay up late at night, because I live in a country with a 12-hour time difference and the bank's system doesn't allow me to schedule these operations. I understand that operations can only be carried out during Brazilian banking hours, but it's completely unreasonable that the bank doesn't even offer a scheduling option.
* When making payments via the mobile app (iOS), the app takes the date/time from the cell phone, which is set to the time zone of the country I'm in. When making payment transactions, for example, this causes all sorts of errors because the time differs from the current time in Brazil. It's a very amateurish implementation.
* If I want to speak to anyone at the bank, the service is only available during Brazilian business hours. There is no 24-hour call center like most other banks offer.
* There isn't even a savings account available with the CDE account, even though it is an investment exempt from income tax and would therefore have no regulatory obstacles due to its non-resident status.In the end, the money I invest in the bank's bad CDBs yields below inflation. In other words, I only lose money on this account. In short, I'm not happy at all, but I'm forced to keep it for lack of choice.
