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Opening a Mexican Bank Account


Frijoles

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I'd like to open an account in a Mexican bank and have money transferred via Canadian Forex, etc. Just a simple account to transfer the money and take it out at the ATM or transfer and take out a large sum (or write a cheque) to buy a car. Wondering which is the best Mexican bank to use. I know that I must keep a minimum balance in order not to pay service charges, but they vary from bank to bank. What is your experience? Recommendations? Thanks in advance.

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Bancomer, which we use, does not charge for checks and Canadian checks take 21 days to clear. US checks require 8 or 10 days to clear.

saludos

Sonia

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I also use Bancomer. They can be a PIA at times but in retrospect they're a lot friendlier than my old experiences at Bank of America who really didn't care about the customer.

There will be some small setup fees. Nothing serious. A small charge to gain access to home banking and bill payer. You get a debit card that can be used instead of carrying cash to Costco an have the means to pay local bills online like Telmex, CFE, Telecable, insurance and lots of other stuff. You can transfer money to accounts at other banks too for a small fee such as the checking account of a car dealer. You can write a Bancomer check too for the purchase.

I think the minimum balances are pretty low but don't know exactly how much. I keep a larger balance to get their "preferred" status to minimize time in lines.

They charged about $600 or so for an incoming wire. The fee wasn't consistent so it must be by some formula.

While many hate Mexican credit cards I have a gold one, pay the $750 fee and use it a lot. The credit limits are puny compared to the US but the card comes in handy at time.

I stumbled onto credit card points this year. After building a bunch not knowing what to do with them I went to Tio Sam's to buy a $1200 peso microwave. The lady asked if I wanted to use points. Porqué no? Got the microwave for no cash money. It more than paid for the yearly fee.

Hope this helps. It's really pretty easy. To open an account you just need the usual documents. Passport, immigration and CFE bill.

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Be aware that Bancomer (and probably others) will show the check as cleared and in your account but it might not be "available" for another business day. We had that problem recently when trying to buy a car. We went online eight days later and there it was...showing in our new balance. After going to Guad and making the deal later that day, we were informed that our check which they took to the nearby Bancomer in Guad had bounced. Oh, they also charged us about 1,000 pesos for the bounced check charge. After we took them a screen shot of our statement on the day in question and writing a complaint letter in Spanish which had to travel up the food chain, they did remove the debit from our account. When asked why the money showed as on deposit but was not actually available, they said it just takes another day or two to be usable. When asked why they didn't just not show it available until it actually was available, they just said that was their policy. So, be careful.

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I opened an account at a Scotiabank branch in Guadalajara and use xe.com to transfer funds from my Canadian bank account to the Mexican one. Takes about 3-5 days to clear, limit of $10,000 CDN per active transfer, no transaction fees. I use the Scotiabank Mexico debit card to withdraw from ATM's here and pay in places like Costco, Wal-Mart, etc.

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I opened an account at a Scotiabank branch in Guadalajara and use xe.com to transfer funds from my Canadian bank account to the Mexican one. Takes about 3-5 days to clear, limit of $10,000 CDN per active transfer, no transaction fees. I use the Scotiabank Mexico debit card to withdraw from ATM's here and pay in places like Costco, Wal-Mart, etc.

So, you're Canadian bank is Scotiabank? Does xe.com give a good exchange rate?

Thanks to everyone for responding. This is good information.

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No, I currently have my Canadian accounts at TD Canada Trust. I have to pay $34 pesos for each withdrawal to the Scotiabank ATM beside Wal-Mart and $29 pesos to use the ATM machines at the Scotiabank branches in Guadalajara. I'll be moving my Canadian account(s) over to Scotia in Canada next trip up there.

xe.com is showing that as of market close $1 CDN = $12.4907 MX

I just did a sample trade of $10,000 CDN and the "effective" exchange rate given to buy MX pesos with CDN$ was $12.0322 - so xe.com pockets around 3.8% as their transaction fee to do the trade (direct debit of the Canadian account and transfer by EFT).

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  • 2 weeks later...

See my post above. The date stamp availability is only a suggestion, as is the online statement showing the deposit has gone through and is available. We just recently had this exact problem. So again, I say be careful...give yourself an extra day or two and don't expect a logical explanation.

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I have a small investment account ($300.00) at O'Rouke , by Black Coffee. I can write a US check for any amount and as soon as it clears , 3-7 days never more, I get the money. No fees and pays at the rate on the day it clears. Very simple and great people to work with.

DJ

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IMHO, BancoMultiva is the friendliest and easiest bank in the area. They can do anything you need. I routinely wire transfer funds to them and get an excellent exchange rate. The manager is Clara, who speaks perfect English, and she is the person to talk to about your needs.

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IMHO, BancoMultiva is the friendliest and easiest bank in the area. They can do anything you need. I routinely wire transfer funds to them and get an excellent exchange rate. The manager is Clara, who speaks perfect English, and she is the person to talk to about your needs.

Ditto here.....

but isn't the bank manager Antonio Medina and the investment division, and over all manager, Erika Torres.

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You could also try InterCam (corner of Carretera & Galeana); They didn't charge us for wire transfers when we did our house purchase or when we wrote writing cheques. You need a passport or some other form of idea to bank there. They have an ATM inside and you can get a debit card.

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Opened a Bancomere account about 10 days ago, and was told that they would put a 10 day hold on funds for a deposit of US personal check. Friday, I tried to deposit a check from my US account, and was informed that the account needed to be open for 6 months before I could do so. I plan to check with the main branch this week if this is standard procedure, or just mis-informed employees of a smaller branch.

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Opened a Bancomere account about 10 days ago, and was told that they would put a 10 day hold on funds for a deposit of US personal check. Friday, I tried to deposit a check from my US account, and was informed that the account needed to be open for 6 months before I could do so. I plan to check with the main branch this week if this is standard procedure, or just mis-informed employees of a smaller branch.

That's what I was told as well,they also told me that I couldn't deposit a US check that exceeded the average balance of my account.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Bancomer used to be the best, recently they have been failing.

Actinver and Multiva have given my clients problems more than once so I would not recommend them.

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  • 4 months later...

A friend recently told me that you now need 8,000 pesos as a minimum balance at Bancomer.

I checked with Bancomer and yup, it's the case. I find that's a lot of money but what can you do.

I don't know how much of a minimum is necessary at other Mexican banks.

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