Banking in the wilds of Mexico
Banking in Mexico is not for the faint of heart, but it's a fact of life you just learn to deal with from day to day.
First of all, if you have money on the US side, you have to get it here and converted into pesos (funky plastic looking money) to spend, that's not too much of a problem as most ATM cards work down here, but you have to watch out and know the fee structure. For instance Well Fargo socks you $5 every time you draw out money South of the border, so the way around that is to have a Compass Bank card which rebates any fees charged anywhere in the world. The ScotiaBank ATM is convenient and in English (mostly) and every 90 days I send receipts to Compass for rebate, that's the first problem solved.
The next little factor is the volatility of currencies on the international market. For instance when I came down a year ago the exchange rate was about 10.5 pesos per dollar, so not a bad deal, I could go get $3,000 MXD (pesos) for maybe $280-$290. However recently, as the US dollar weakened, the exchange rate was down around 9.5 to 1, so getting the same $3,000p cost more like $310 as did credit card purchases on Visa or American Express (who also adds a 2.5% surcharge in MX, so I don't leave home without it, but it stays in the pocket). Now the dollar is over 12:1 and was in the 13's a few days ago, so bringing down dollars and converting to pesos is a great deal, but you have to watch what you're doing and where, and if you have pesos and want to go NOB and convert to dollars it's a bad deal, fortunately I have some dollars I held on to for the trip in a couple weeks.
It seemed a Mexican bank account was a good idea because I pay my rent in US dollars, but my utilities in pesos and Mexico recently passed a law that any deposit over $2,500p daily is charged a 2% fee (they're learning from the US) primarily to try to get their cut of the cash economy which is tax free because it's hidden. The rental company wants a check in pesos for the utilities. Bancomer was selected to be my MX banker because they have a good reputation and also they have a "Preferred Customer Unit" aimed largely at gringos, most all their information is translated into English for the Spanish challenged among us (like me).
In the US you walk into a bank with a check or hand full of money and with your SSN you have an account - ah, but this is Mexico where your utility bill is nearly as important an ID as your passport. To open a new account you need your passport, your visa (FM3), originals of your recent electric and telephone bills, your rental agreement and oh yes, some pesos to deposit. It took me 2 1/2 months to get my FM3 visa which is another story, so finally I had it all and went to the bank and pried open an account and everything looked good until at the end he said "oh, we need 3 references from local folks" - huh? - yes, 3 and they did call to verify.
Finally I had pesos in the bank and a PCU (Preferred Cust Unit) card that gets me in line ahead of the hard working folks (a bit embarrassing actually, but I don't make the rules, I just follow them) and I was signed up for online banking and had my debit card and "Acceso Seguro" (secure access) card - more on this subject.
Equipped with an online account I decided to give it a try and started with the bank site in English as advertised and entered my online account number, NOB it's either something you choose or your SSN, here's it's the 16 digit number on your debit card. I entered that along with my contraseńˇ ¨password) and when I hit "enter" everything on the page instantly turned to Spanish? - hey, they didn't mention this part. Now comes the fun part, a secondary level of security consisting of the "Acceso Seguro" secure access card which has on the back side a matrix of numbers consisting of ten rows and ten columns creating cells with 3 digit random numbers like 033 or 987. The screen asks what's in C10 for example and you lookup and enter that number, then an 11th row has a single number in each cell and you enter what's in "M" for example which might be 5 and finally you're into the system - whew, that was fun and gosh help you if you ever loose your access card, you can kiss your pesos goodbye.
Bravely pushing ahead by randomly clicking on possibilities I managed to find my account with pesos in residence but I didn't see the word transferencia (transfer) anywhere. After a couple more false starts I found the screen allowing me to enter the rental companies account number and I elected to send $1,000p. Being aware that bank sites allow a limited amount of time before locking you out I opened a second window with Google Translate and was frantically reading and keying in phrases to translate and was doing pretty good until the last window, I locked up trying to figure out what it was asking and it timed out.
I called "HELP" which was a nice lady who spoke English and got some directions and the last window was asking if I wanted to send an Email message to the recipient and/or print the transaction, ok, that's a "duh" on me.
The next morning with coffee in hand I hit the system ready to do business. Checking my balance it appeared I actually did send the $1,000p somewhere - I fervently hoped to rentals. Showing no fear I navigated the now somewhat recognizable screens and sent some more pesos and this time printed the results and prayed it actually went to rentals, nothing gets your blood flowing like sending money into the Mexican ethernet, somewhat like the numb feeling you get in your lips when you do your taxes and it says "YOU OWE $XXXX".
I waited a couple hours until rentals was awake and called and sure enough they got the money and thanked me, so mission accomplished. As with all things in my new world, once you've been through the knothole backwards a couple of times it's not that bad and you get to give yourself a gold star for the day having achieved something new (and useful also).
The next adventure will be into the realm of "going back to work after retirement" or better known as "darn, living on a fixed income with variable spending habits is hard". We'll explore the adventures of three intrepid gringos careening around the back streets of Tonala, negotiating with suppliers in "Spanglish" and some of the foibles and pitfalls of doing business in Mexico (when you're not legally registered with a work permit) - actually not what it sounds like.
First of all, if you have money on the US side, you have to get it here and converted into pesos (funky plastic looking money) to spend, that's not too much of a problem as most ATM cards work down here, but you have to watch out and know the fee structure. For instance Well Fargo socks you $5 every time you draw out money South of the border, so the way around that is to have a Compass Bank card which rebates any fees charged anywhere in the world. The ScotiaBank ATM is convenient and in English (mostly) and every 90 days I send receipts to Compass for rebate, that's the first problem solved.
The next little factor is the volatility of currencies on the international market. For instance when I came down a year ago the exchange rate was about 10.5 pesos per dollar, so not a bad deal, I could go get $3,000 MXD (pesos) for maybe $280-$290. However recently, as the US dollar weakened, the exchange rate was down around 9.5 to 1, so getting the same $3,000p cost more like $310 as did credit card purchases on Visa or American Express (who also adds a 2.5% surcharge in MX, so I don't leave home without it, but it stays in the pocket). Now the dollar is over 12:1 and was in the 13's a few days ago, so bringing down dollars and converting to pesos is a great deal, but you have to watch what you're doing and where, and if you have pesos and want to go NOB and convert to dollars it's a bad deal, fortunately I have some dollars I held on to for the trip in a couple weeks.
It seemed a Mexican bank account was a good idea because I pay my rent in US dollars, but my utilities in pesos and Mexico recently passed a law that any deposit over $2,500p daily is charged a 2% fee (they're learning from the US) primarily to try to get their cut of the cash economy which is tax free because it's hidden. The rental company wants a check in pesos for the utilities. Bancomer was selected to be my MX banker because they have a good reputation and also they have a "Preferred Customer Unit" aimed largely at gringos, most all their information is translated into English for the Spanish challenged among us (like me).
In the US you walk into a bank with a check or hand full of money and with your SSN you have an account - ah, but this is Mexico where your utility bill is nearly as important an ID as your passport. To open a new account you need your passport, your visa (FM3), originals of your recent electric and telephone bills, your rental agreement and oh yes, some pesos to deposit. It took me 2 1/2 months to get my FM3 visa which is another story, so finally I had it all and went to the bank and pried open an account and everything looked good until at the end he said "oh, we need 3 references from local folks" - huh? - yes, 3 and they did call to verify.
Finally I had pesos in the bank and a PCU (Preferred Cust Unit) card that gets me in line ahead of the hard working folks (a bit embarrassing actually, but I don't make the rules, I just follow them) and I was signed up for online banking and had my debit card and "Acceso Seguro" (secure access) card - more on this subject.
Equipped with an online account I decided to give it a try and started with the bank site in English as advertised and entered my online account number, NOB it's either something you choose or your SSN, here's it's the 16 digit number on your debit card. I entered that along with my contraseńˇ ¨password) and when I hit "enter" everything on the page instantly turned to Spanish? - hey, they didn't mention this part. Now comes the fun part, a secondary level of security consisting of the "Acceso Seguro" secure access card which has on the back side a matrix of numbers consisting of ten rows and ten columns creating cells with 3 digit random numbers like 033 or 987. The screen asks what's in C10 for example and you lookup and enter that number, then an 11th row has a single number in each cell and you enter what's in "M" for example which might be 5 and finally you're into the system - whew, that was fun and gosh help you if you ever loose your access card, you can kiss your pesos goodbye.
Bravely pushing ahead by randomly clicking on possibilities I managed to find my account with pesos in residence but I didn't see the word transferencia (transfer) anywhere. After a couple more false starts I found the screen allowing me to enter the rental companies account number and I elected to send $1,000p. Being aware that bank sites allow a limited amount of time before locking you out I opened a second window with Google Translate and was frantically reading and keying in phrases to translate and was doing pretty good until the last window, I locked up trying to figure out what it was asking and it timed out.
I called "HELP" which was a nice lady who spoke English and got some directions and the last window was asking if I wanted to send an Email message to the recipient and/or print the transaction, ok, that's a "duh" on me.
The next morning with coffee in hand I hit the system ready to do business. Checking my balance it appeared I actually did send the $1,000p somewhere - I fervently hoped to rentals. Showing no fear I navigated the now somewhat recognizable screens and sent some more pesos and this time printed the results and prayed it actually went to rentals, nothing gets your blood flowing like sending money into the Mexican ethernet, somewhat like the numb feeling you get in your lips when you do your taxes and it says "YOU OWE $XXXX".
I waited a couple hours until rentals was awake and called and sure enough they got the money and thanked me, so mission accomplished. As with all things in my new world, once you've been through the knothole backwards a couple of times it's not that bad and you get to give yourself a gold star for the day having achieved something new (and useful also).
The next adventure will be into the realm of "going back to work after retirement" or better known as "darn, living on a fixed income with variable spending habits is hard". We'll explore the adventures of three intrepid gringos careening around the back streets of Tonala, negotiating with suppliers in "Spanglish" and some of the foibles and pitfalls of doing business in Mexico (when you're not legally registered with a work permit) - actually not what it sounds like.
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