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What kind of exchange rate are you getting when cashing a check?


valbogyo

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That has not been my experience at Bancomer. I write US Wells Fargo checks to myself for deposit into my account and typically wait until I have $5000 US available for deposit as they call their banking center to get you the higher rate for amounts over $5000, usually about 0.35-0.50 centavos per dollar more. If you go to the desk banker for any amount less than that, they just initial your check and you get the rate in their system when you go to the teller window. The amount is not changed on the day the funds "mature," it is the rate and total printed on your deposit slip that they hand back to you. The funds are held for 9 full calendar days, so not available until the day after the date printed on the receipt. When they call for a rate for you, you need to go into the Preferred Customer line and get to someone quickly so the teller can enter the special code they get in time before it expires. That happened to me only once on a "slow-go" day and then I had to repeat the process for the rate which then was only a hundredth of a centavo different! Holding the funds doesn't bother me but unnecessary fees would like $45 wire transfers. We live so inexpensively here that I make the deposit only two or maybe three times a year, and I can plan ahead. I keep other funds available at Actinver for emergencies which can be transferred once a week on Thursdays for free to my Bancomer account. Moving $4000 US from Bancomer to Actinver to earn some investment interest typically costs me $4.70 pesos.

A higher rate for xchange over 5,000.00 - not according to Info I was given this week from Bancomer

My account at Bancomer was set up by a very good friend who was an Investment Banker, account is at Bancomers Private Bank-- Banco Patrimonial - have a personal banker who handles everything-never go into branch except to use an ATM - been very happy for 5 years. I rent my house -must pay in pesos-not practical to do the BofA ATM thing-- instead,keep several months expenses in my peso account. Last week needed to add $$ to my account and Peso was moving up rapidly. Ordered a wire transfer in dollars from B of A to Bancomer- If wire is converted to Pesos B of A rate is lower and even as a B of A Platinum Customer (extra privileges) you pay outgoing fee of $45.00 ( incoming wires are free)

I Wired 10,000.00 to my Prefered Bancomer checking account- Daily rate posted for Venta Dollars was 12.78

-When I checked my deposit ----I received Compra Dollars rate of 12.52- My banker gone for day

Called Mexico city Prefered Customers Agent- He thought I received wrong rate-said 12.78 BUT Nothing we can do

call your banker Next day talked to Banker - he too thought I should have received 12.74- i thought as a private bank customer we would get a higher rate - BUT he didn't know for sure----He needed to check with International dept for confirmation -

Final word from Bancomer International

Deposits made by Wire or Checks deposited in Mexico get the INTERNATIONAL INTER BANK RATE which is FIXED DAILY-

not the higher Monetary Money Market Rate-which is posted on Bancomers web site

As a result, I feel like I lost $2,600.00 MXN to Bancomer in the daily rate exchange --Plus additional cost of IVA and commission.

For future transactions-need to find a better way- have long time Mexican friend from Zacatecas who is VP in International Exchange Banking at Wells Fargo Headquarters in San Francisco-he just sent me his personal home email address..said to write him there....will talk to him this week....

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My RBC Wealth Management account uses BNY Mellon for their cash management services. They told me they use Visa's posted exchange rates for any foreign currency transactions. The Visa website has a calculator. As John S says, it will vary a little during the day depending on currency movements. I got as high as 12.67 last week. This was a US dollar transaction.

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A higher rate for xchange over 5,000.00 - not according to Info I was given this week from Bancomer

My account at Bancomer was set up by a very good friend who was an Investment Banker, account is at Bancomers Private Bank-- Banco Patrimonial - have a personal banker who handles everything-never go into branch except to use an ATM - been very happy for 5 years. I rent my house -must pay in pesos-not practical to do the BofA ATM thing-- instead,keep several months expenses in my peso account. Last week needed to add $$ to my account and Peso was moving up rapidly. Ordered a wire transfer in dollars from B of A to Bancomer- If wire is converted to Pesos B of A rate is lower and even as a B of A Platinum Customer (extra privileges) you pay outgoing fee of $45.00 ( incoming wires are free)

I Wired 10,000.00 to my Prefered Bancomer checking account- Daily rate posted for Venta Dollars was 12.78

-When I checked my deposit ----I received Compra Dollars rate of 12.52- My banker gone for day

Called Mexico city Prefered Customers Agent- He thought I received wrong rate-said 12.78 BUT Nothing we can do

call your banker Next day talked to Banker - he too thought I should have received 12.74- i thought as a private bank customer we would get a higher rate - BUT he didn't know for sure----He needed to check with International dept for confirmation -

Final word from Bancomer International

Deposits made by Wire or Checks deposited in Mexico get the INTERNATIONAL INTER BANK RATE which is FIXED DAILY-

not the higher Monetary Money Market Rate-which is posted on Bancomers web site

As a result, I feel like I lost $2,600.00 MXN to Bancomer in the daily rate exchange --Plus additional cost of IVA and commission.

For future transactions-need to find a better way- have long time Mexican friend from Zacatecas who is VP in International Exchange Banking at Wells Fargo Headquarters in San Francisco-he just sent me his personal home email address..said to write him there....will talk to him this week....

Maybe change the type of account to the "savings account with debit card" at the regular Bancomer. That's what I have and the situation I outlined above will then apply to your deposits. It would appear the Banco Patrimonial has different or stricter rules as to when the exchange rate is applied. The higher rate for $5000 and above still applied in Feb. when I made my last deposit. I will make the next one next week and will post an updated notice if they don't honor it the same as before.

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Where does one find the "International Inter-bank rate" for reference? This sounds like jive to me. I recently did a wire transfer and the rate was very close to the Forex and Yahoo rate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interbank_foreign_exchange_market

Pretty good explanation of how the currency exchange market works: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_exchange_market

Hurts my brain, but I see I have accidently made thousands and lost hundreds with a few exchanges over the past few years. I was going to buy a house, moved money from Canadian funds to US and it sat there for a few weeks. US dollar went up a lot and my home purchase did not complete. Money back in the Canadian account..... a few thousand more than I started out with...that was fun. Was very proud that I used HiFX in the UK for my last transfer of Canadian to Peso recently. Then the peso dropped a few days later. :010:

I think this is an area that we (those with foreign income) should really study. I am beginning to see I should only move amounts over a certain limit as the exchange rate is better. Also.... I have not found anything as good as HiFX, but I am still looking and learning from people here. I think we should do a realtime experiment. Agree on a date and time and, between a few of us, call our banks (or check on line) and ask what rate we would get on 10K or 50K. Then we can report here and compare.

Should we try?

Checks vs wire

Preferred customer vs standard

Added fees from source and destination banks.

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