dinero
Money in Santo Domingo: what you pay and what you get charged
Pesos, ITBIS, the legal service charge and ATM fees: how a bill in the Dominican Republic is built, and which surcharges are not legal.
There is a bill that repeats all over Santo Domingo and almost nobody explains it before you sit down: you order something for RD$1,000, the total comes back higher, and two lines appear that were not on the menu. That is not a waiter’s mistake. It is how the price is built here.
This guide does not tell you how much money to bring: that depends on how you travel, and any number would be invented. It tells you how money moves once you are here, what you get charged for moving it, and which charges are not legal.
The peso, in your hand
The currency is the Dominican peso, written RD$. The Central Bank is the only institution allowed to issue notes and coins, and what circulates today is notes of RD$2,000, RD$1,000, RD$500, RD$200, RD$100, RD$50 and RD$20, plus coins of RD$25, RD$10, RD$5 and RD$1.
Before you change money, two reference points. On 20 October 2026 the Central Bank published an exchange rate of 61.0876 pesos to the dollar for buying and 61.5200 for selling. That is the market reference, not what the counter gives you: banks and exchange houses apply their own margin, so compare before you change.
The other reference is inflation. In September 2026 the annual rate was 5.12 %, the monthly rate 0.33 % and core inflation —the measure that strips out food and fuel, the prices that move most— 4.61 %. In practice: menus get updated, and a price you read in a blog two years ago no longer exists. The figures here are dated. If you read this months later, check the day’s rate before you change anything.
A restaurant bill, line by line
Consumption tax here is called ITBIS and the general rate has been 18 % since 2016. There is a reduced 16 % rate for a closed list of foods (yoghurt and butter, coffee, edible fats, sugars, cocoa and chocolate). In a normal restaurant you will see 18 %.
Not everything carries ITBIS. Ground passenger and freight transport, health care, education, residential rent and financial services are exempt, among others. That is why the metro, which is ground passenger transport, does not charge you tax.
The law allows three ways to show a price: with taxes included, with taxes itemised separately, or with a notice that taxes are not included. All three are legal; what is not legal is a total that appears with no explanation.
A round-number example: an order of RD$1,000, plus 18 % ITBIS (RD$180), plus the 10 % legal service charge (RD$100), totals RD$1,280. If the menu said RD$1,000, the difference is not a scam: those are the two lines the menu does not always show.
The service charge: what the law says and what happens at the table
The 10 % legal service charge is mandatory in hotels, restaurants, cafés and bars when you eat on the premises. It comes from the Labour Code and it is shared in full among the staff who served you: it is not the owner’s income.
That same 10 % cannot be applied to takeaway or delivery orders. Pro Consumidor, the public consumer protection body, states this explicitly, and if a takeaway counter charges it you are entitled to claim it back.
What you do decide is the extra tip: if the service was good, it goes on top, in cash, straight into their hand. The legal charge does not reward anything; it is charged whenever you eat in, good service or bad.
One detail we could not pin down with a source: what that 10 % is calculated on. On the counter it is almost always applied to the consumption, not to the total with ITBIS, but we found no rule fixing it. It is flagged below rather than invented.
Cash or card: where there is no choice
The law is clear on two points that save you money. Prices must be expressed in the national currency, and they cannot be changed according to the payment method. Charging you a percentage extra for paying by card goes against the law, even though you will run into it.
If it happens, ask for the receipt with the surcharge itemised and file a complaint with Pro Consumidor. Without a receipt, a claim is much harder.
Accepting dollars is a different matter: a commercial courtesy, not an obligation. The legal price is in pesos, and anyone taking dollars is usually applying a rate in their favour. Change money at a bank or an exchange house and pay in pesos.
There are places where a card is not a real option: the corner shop, the shared taxi (fixed route, split between passengers), the motorbike taxi and the metro ticket window. The tip is separate: it is left in cash, into the waiter’s hand, because there is no card terminal for it.
Getting cash: the real cost of the ATM
With a foreign card in a Dominican ATM, three costs stack up and you rarely see them together: the fee the bank that owns the machine may charge, your own bank’s fee for withdrawing outside its network, and the currency conversion if your account is not in pesos.
The published figures we found are not what you will be charged, and it is worth not confusing the two. Banco BHD, for instance, publishes in the fee schedule for its Mi Primera Cuenta account RD$65 for withdrawing at another bank’s machine inside the country and RD$250 for using an ATM abroad: that is what it charges its own customer, not what a Dominican machine charges you. There is no consolidated public table for foreign cards, and there is no documentation that every machine charges a fee at all.
So the only reliable check is the screen: the fee usually appears before you confirm. Withdraw less often and more per transaction, and if the machine offers to convert the charge into your home currency, decline and let your own bank do the conversion.
Paying with your phone
There is a mobile payment system, tPago, that works by dialling *150# from the handset, with no internet needed, and lets you pay affiliated shops without taking out a card. It is useful if you live here. As a visitor it does not help you: you have to register beforehand, in person, at a participating bank.
Mistakes that cost money
- Assuming the menu price is the bill: ITBIS and the legal service charge are added.
- Accepting a surcharge for paying by card: it goes against the law, and you claim it with a receipt.
- Paying in dollars at a shop offering you “a convenient rate”.
- Turning up at the metro or the corner shop with no cash.
- Withdrawing cash many times in small amounts and paying the fixed fee every time.
With that you can break down any bill on the trip: find the consumption, add 18 % if it is a taxed service, add 10 % if you are sitting inside the premises, and check that the result matches what you are asked to pay. When it does not match, ask for the receipt: it is the only document you can claim with.
Sources
- Central Bank of the Dominican Republic — homepage (exchange rate and inflation)
- Central Bank of the Dominican Republic — Banknotes
- DGII — ITBIS (main taxes)
- DGII — Guide 7: ITBIS (reduced rate and zero rate)
- Pro Consumidor — Statement on the 10% legal service charge
- Consumer Protection Act (full text)
- Banco BHD — Mi Primera Cuenta BHD, costs and fees
- Banco Popular Dominicano — tPago, Welcome Kit
- DGII — Tax laws index
- Pro Consumidor — Resolution 1438-2022 (art. 228 of the Labour Code)