Walk into a colmado — the small corner shop that anchors almost every Dominican neighbourhood — and you'll notice the till is often just a cash drawer and a good memory. A new analysis of the country's payments scene argues that habit is exactly what fintech startups keep underestimating, and it doubles as a useful reality check for travellers who assume the whole world taps to pay.
The numbers tell a split story. The Dominican Central Bank logged 2.5 million card transactions initiated through digital wallets in September 2025, worth RD$4,351.6 million. Yet its 2023 national financial inclusion survey found nearly 56% of respondents still received their main income in cash, and a similar share preferred it that way. Dominicans aren't rejecting digital tools — they layer them. A worker might take home cash, send a transfer to family and pay by card at the supermarket in the same week.
Enter Paydoly, a US-founded fintech led by Edward A. Nupa, who previously worked in banking operations at PNC and analytics at Fiserv. The company is building a wallet, transfers, QR-code payments, payment links and a quick-sales tool for Dominican consumers and merchants. But it's early days: private beta, roughly 100 merchant sign-ups, and authorisations still in progress. The article's sharpest point is that sign-ups prove nothing — the real test is whether a shopkeeper, after a long day, chooses to use the app a second time. Will the money arrive? What does it cost? Can she reconcile it at closing? If those answers are murky, the payment method loses to cash, which never needs a customer-service call.
The piece also suggests banks and merchant associations could help by connecting startups with real shops willing to describe how they actually collect payments — less ribbon-cutting, more problem-solving.
Why should a traveller care? Because it explains the country you'll actually encounter. Card machines are common in supermarkets, hotels and city restaurants, but the places that make a trip memorable — the corner store, the street vendor, the roadside jugo stand — run on cash, mostly Dominican pesos. Digital payments are growing fast, but they haven't displaced cash, and any new app you're asked to scan may be brand new even by local standards. Carry pesos in small bills, treat cards as a supplement rather than a safety net, and don't be surprised if the smoothest transaction of your day happens with paper money at a counter that hasn't changed in decades.
The Dominican Republic clearly has the technology and the entrepreneurs. The harder job, as this analysis puts it, is getting those tools into ordinary daily routines — including the ones visitors wander into. The winner at the colmado counter will be whichever payment method takes work away from the merchant rather than adding a second job after closing time.
