US/Mexican Bank Agreements for no fee transactions

La Osita · #1 (**permalink**) 24th March 2011, 06:40 PM

I have an US bank account with Wachovia/Wells Fargo. Does anyone know if Wachovia has an agreement with any of the Mexican banks that allows ATM debit card withdrawals without incurring a fee for the transaction? thx

La Osita · #2 (**permalink**) 24th March 2011, 06:51 PM

I forgot to ask if anyone knows which Mexican bank offers the lowest fee for a US debit card withdrawal from one of its' ATMS. The banking system here is difficult at best as I don't have an FM2 (or FM3).

conorkilleen · #3 (**permalink**) 24th March 2011, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itnavell

I have an US bank account with Wachovia/Wells Fargo. Does anyone know if Wachovia has an agreement with any of the Mexican banks that allows ATM debit card withdrawals without incurring a fee for the transaction? thx

I have a Wachovia account as well. I also have a BoA account. Wachovia was no help as it seems they dont have any affiliations in Mexico.

My main bank is BoA and they have an agreement with Santander for no fees transactions.

tjfjrabm · #4 (**permalink**) 25th March 2011, 01:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by conorkilleen

I have a Wachovia account as well. I also have a BoA account. Wachovia was no help as it seems they dont have any affiliations in Mexico.

My main bank is BoA and they have an agreement with Santander for no fees transactions.

also scotia bank has no fee with bofa. fyi hope this helps

conorkilleen · #5 (**permalink**) 25th March 2011, 02:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjfjrabm

also scotia bank has no fee with bofa. fyi hope this helps

GOOD TO KNOW! Thanks. That makes my options allot better.

La Osita · #6 (**permalink**) 20th April 2011, 12:18 PM

I discovered this past week that Wells Fargo offers a service called Express Send. This allows me to send money to Mexico either in the form of cash or directly to a bank account (there are a number of them on their list) for a flat rate $6 fee. Once Wells Fargo sets the service up on the account transactions can be processed via online banking. The service has a $1,500 limit per day and as far as I can tell no cap on monthly or yearly totals. Once established, the funds are available immediately upon sending them (at least this is what they say).

Right now I'm liking this, as my funds stay in the USA up and until I want them in Mexico... the fee seems pretty low. I just did a 'test' run and sent $100 to Bancomer as cash. My fiance will pick it up. We want to see how much/if any funds Bancomer takes from the total. My experience with Mexican banks thus far has not been the best...

conorkilleen · #7 (**permalink**) 20th April 2011, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itnavell

I discovered this past week that Wells Fargo offers a service called Express Send. This allows me to send money to Mexico either in the form of cash or directly to a bank account (there are a number of them on their list) for a flat rate $6 fee. Once Wells Fargo sets the service up on the account transactions can be processed via online banking. The service has a $1,500 limit per day and as far as I can tell no cap on monthly or yearly totals. Once established, the funds are available immediately upon sending them (at least this is what they say).

Right now I'm liking this, as my funds stay in the USA up and until I want them in Mexico... the fee seems pretty low. I just did a 'test' run and sent $100 to Bancomer as cash. My fiance will pick it up. We want to see how much/if any funds Bancomer takes from the total. My experience with Mexican banks thus far has not been the best...

My money stays in the US as well until I want it in Mexico. I just take cash out of the ATM with 0 fees.

I understand if you don't want to switch banks however. I know BOA has a easy send program called safe send or something like that. The fees are ridiculous. Mexico, as I have found, is a cash society anyway so it really wont help me here to have a mexican Bank account unless I want to get a cell phone plan or make payments on merchandise.

La Osita · #8 (**permalink**) 20th April 2011, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by conorkilleen

My money stays in the US as well until I want it in Mexico. I just take cash out of the ATM with 0 fees.

I understand if you don't want to switch banks however. I know BOA has a easy send program called safe send or something like that. The fees are ridiculous. Mexico, as I have found, is a cash society anyway so it really wont help me here to have a mexican Bank account unless I want to get a cell phone plan or make payments on merchandise.

I agree with your take on Mexico being a cash society. My fiance has a bank account that we use just to handle the utility payments, etc. (BOA foreclosed on my house in FL (I lost my job with the school system) three years ago, so BOA is out of the question.) For all the problems/issues that Mexico has, I've been treated a whole lot better in Mexico than I was treated in the US when I lost my job and subsequently lost everything I had worked towards for 25 years. I'm not a big fan of banks whatever the country! If I find that Bancomer doesn't take a huge chunk out of the money sent thru Wells Fargo I'll be very happy.

conorkilleen · #9 (**permalink**) 20th April 2011, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itnavell

I agree with your take on Mexico being a cash society. My fiance has a bank account that we use just to handle the utility payments, etc. (BOA foreclosed on my house in FL (I lost my job with the school system) three years ago, so BOA is out of the question.) For all the problems/issues that Mexico has, I've been treated a whole lot better in Mexico than I was treated in the US when I lost my job and subsequently lost everything I had worked towards for 25 years. I'm not a big fan of banks whatever the country! If I find that Bancomer doesn't take a huge chunk out of the money sent thru Wells Fargo I'll be very happy.

I'd be curious to know what your threshold is for a "chunk". Are you willing to sacrifice up to 15-25%. It it was that I would look into Western Union or another money sending service. Where I was living in North Carolina there were allot of Mexican stores and money sending services with very small fees. (ex. $200 cash sent to Oaxaca from the US had a $7 fee. I think with some services, on the other end the person receiving the money had to pay a few pesos as well). These services were really targeted for the non-documented in the area, however.

I think you will be fine with Wells Fargo...its the other end of the line you need to watch out for as you stated.

joaquinx · #10 (**permalink**) 20th April 2011, 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by conorkilleen

Where I was living in North Carolina there were allot of Mexican stores and money sending services with very small fees. (ex. $200 cash sent to Oaxaca from the US had a $7 fee. I think with some services, on the other end the person receiving the money had to pay a few pesos as well).

This begs the question: what was the exchange rate when sending 200 usd. I don't believe that it was a "good" rate.

I have a Mexican bank account in which I keep a few thousand pesos. I use it to make purchases rather than my US bank debit card. If I lose it or have it stolen, the lose is small and I can get it replaced quickly. Not so with the US card where I keep all my funds. Replacement is real difficult. The US card is for withdrawing funds from the ATM - nothing else not even Internet purchases.