Todays bench mark # is 19.75 so I guess it all depends on how much your transferring.. and what are the other cost? This money transfer thing is a HUGE Rip off. Just like The Fideiocomiso.. / The COST of living in Paradise.. :frusty: So right off the top comes $500USD for sending the money by wire / Not by truck

 

What other firms are you considering - and why ? What has your research turned up thus far ? Why Actinver ?

 

I built a house so a large sum of monies in a Mexican bank were not necessary, I had 3 USA bank accounts that were fee free or fee reimbursed and I could withdraw $5000 USD a day from ATMs...
Since you are not buying a completed home where you need a large sum all at once but paying a little at a time you will save any transfer fees........

 

How many bank ATM machines do you have to visit to acquire $5000 USD's a day hahahaha Honestly I have never heard of a Bank Card that allowed $5000 USD's a day withdrawl's Which banks do you use?

 

He said that he had multiple cards, which would allow him to use the same machine in a single visit. Your bank will allow you to raise your daily limit, and you can seek out machines with high limits to satisfy your needs.
We purchased two homes in Mexico in 2001 and 2004, without a Mexican bank. Transfers to the seller‘s account can be arranged for closing day, with phone or online confirmation at the time of closing.

 

Having been traveling Mexico most of my life there are certain tricks you learn about different scenarios.
As far as ATMs go I would advise folks not to use stand alone private ATMs especially in high traffic tourist zones. Usually the fees are quite high and are more likely to being "fixed" so you card is cloned and information can be stolen...
Use only bank ATMs at banks and find machines where you swipe the card instead of insert it so it may be swallowed. At least if a bank card is swallowed you may be able to have the banker open the ATM to retrieve the card...
Lastly inform you banks that you will be traveling and using their card in foreign ATMs......

 

I use ATMs to get my "walking around" money but not for the large sums needed for building a house. I was using Scotiabank and transferring money directly from my Bank of America account, via international wire transfer, when needed. But, the fees were getting so high, and the exchange rate BofA was paying was always 50 to 80 centavos below the published exchange rate.

One of my neighbors works at Intercam Banco and they offered me a lot more personal service than I was getting at Scotia. First, Intercam has their own accounts at several large US banks. So, when I want to do a transfer, I can transfer US dollars to one of their US accounts. That saves me the international wire transfer fee and means that Intercam sets the exchange rate. And with that, I can call or email my banker at Intercam and get that day's exchange rate. The money is almost always in my Mexican Intercam account the same day I make the transfer and I get the exchange rate they tell me I will get.

They actually called me one day last week to let me know that they could give me an exchange rate of 20 pesos to the dollar. Unfortunately, I had just made a large transfer the week before and did not have money available to take advantage of the rate. But, the rate I get from Intercam is always very close to the published exchange rate.

 

I had my limit raised at my US bank one day to US $2000. When I went to ATMs and tried to withdraw money I ran into their maximum withdrawal per transaction. When I tried to do multiple transactions, I ran into that Mexican bank's daily limit (equal to their maximum single transaction limit, 6000 pesos for one bank, 9000 pesos for another). So I had to visit multiple ATMs from different banks.

This was last July.

 

I have a HSBC account in the US and a Afirme account in Mexico. I transfer monies from my primary account to the HSBC account and then wire transfer to the Afirme account. It's a straight 35 dollar fee no matter the amount I transfer. Hope this helps.

 

I have used Actinver for 2 years now without any problems. I have sent wire transfers several times and have always received higher than local exchange rates. The transfer fee is $35 CAN regardless of amount. The only downside with Actinver is that they do not have their own bank machines so you will pay a fee for withdrawals unless you go to the branch. They do have a debit card and you can get cash back when purchasing items at Wallmart, etc.

 

We have a home in Tulum and want to open a bank there. Limited choices: Bancomer, Scotia Bank and HSBC. We really don't like the HSBC as the people were not too acommodating. Bancomer was excellent and we are leaning there. Comments or experiences?

 

I did not have the best experience with Bancomer but that was mainly because of assumptions I made regarding BBVA Compass bank in the U.S. and their relationship to BBVA Bancomer. Shortly before I moved to Mexico I opened an account at BBVA Compass in Dallas. I even asked specifically at the branch where I opened my account if I could easily and inexpensively transfer money to a BBVA Bancomer account in Mexico and was assured that I could. My assumption was that I could make the transfer online while in Mexico. That turned out to be wrong. What I found out after opening accounts in both banks was that each time I wanted to transfer money from Compass to Bancomer, I had to physically walk in to a Compass branch in the U.S. to do the transfer.

Additionally, I assumed that my BBVA Compass debit card could be used fee free at BBVA Bancomer ATMs. Wrong again. Whenever I used my Compass card at a Bancomer ATM, I was charged TWO fees; one by Bancomer and one by Compass. Needless to say, I was not happy with this arrangement.

Now, none of this is really a reflection on BBVA Bancomer and your situation is probably completely different from mine. I did close my BBVA Bancomer account because it was not what I needed and did not work the way I thought it would. However, under different circumstances, I would not hesitate to open another Bancomer account. Here in Colima where I live, Bancomer has branches all over and even more ATMs. When I closed my Bancomer account, I opened one at Scotia and have been fairly pleased with them.

 

ATM's will work for progress payments for the construction but try to get a ard w low transaction fees - I use Schwan and they do intl wire for $25.00 USD its not expensive at all - takes about a week - my MX bk charges nothing to receive. You may need a large sum to close on your property purchase, but my advice: I've been living and building in MX f many years - use a Notary (worth every centavo) and do NOT make anything BUT small payments for designated progress points in your construction - you can hire YOUR OWN engineer or architect to review your contractors bid - and do a very detailed breakdown of each and every phase of construction - assign an appropriate value to that phase and pay when IT IS DONE - "pago por concepto" - this is what I would advise. Architect charge to do this maybe $500 USD (this does NOT include any design work) and for that they will check each phase as its done and let you know its OK to pay. Don't get into any scheme which calls for large payments (you may be abused by front-loading the job and the contractor may very likely run out of money to complete your job) and don't pay for "precio unitario" like by the square meter - the square meter of an empty shell is a heck of lot less valuable than a completed livable structure. as always YMMV

 

Here in Cancun I've been using the HSBC atm in one of the downtown Chedraui's. The downtown ATMs charge 23 or 33 pesos fee depending on the bank, vs more than 90 pesos for the standalone ATMs in the tourist hotel zone. (The bus costs 10.5 pesos each way, so it's cheaper to pay for the bus to the cheap ATM than pay the ATM fee!). Plus the ATM is probably safer than the standalone ones in the tourist zone.

I use the HSBC atm because they let me withdraw 9000 pesos at a time for their 33.35 peso fee, vs some of the other banks that charge only 23 pesos but only let you withdraw 6000 pesos per fee.

HSBC seems to give me a very good exchange rate.

Yesterday, my cellphone app reported Banco de Mexico's interbank rate was 18.6060/18.6110 (buy/sell). The same app reported HSBC at 18.23/18.81. But my withdrawal of 9033.35 pesos (including the HSBC atm fee) landed in my US bank account as a charge for 485.03, which works out to 18.6243, which is pretty close to the interbank rate. (I'm a little foggy on buy vs sell when it comes to currency transactions, it seems to me I should have got a number that's lower than 18.60, right?)

My US credit union attaches a 1% international transfer fee to that. So including all fees I am getting 9000 pesos for US$489.89, or an 18.3714 exchange rate with all the fees rolled in, which is still better than the reported buy rate for HSBC.

(I usually grab some groceries and otherwise take my wad of cash straight home and leave most of it along with my ATM card where it's safer than walking around with it. I also try to shield with my body from any prying eyes that might see the big pile of money coming out of the machine)

After my house sells in the US I'll look into getting a different bank than my credit union to see if I can find a way around that 1% fee. The guy I had talked to at the credit union claimed they reimbursed that fee, but I've seen no reimbursements and it's been a couple months since I started getting hit with that fee on every transaction. The money from the house will give me cash to invest at Schwab or Citi or some other place that will give me free international transfers and charges.

Does anyone know whether it's my credit union or HSBC that is setting the actual exchange rate used for the transfer? I guess that's akin to asking whether the interbank exchange is conducted in dollars or pesos.

As an alternative to the ATM fees, my credit union charges $40 for an international wire transfer, so maybe I could open a mexican account and wire a larger chunk of money at a time to it at a time, but I wanted to settle on a particular US bank and credit card before I chose a mexican one, if indeed I get a mexican one.

 

We had an HSBC Premier account in the US. We used that account to open our (very basic) HSBC Mexico checking account - before we ever moved here. We hated HSBC US and actually within the last couple months closed down that account. We LOVE our HSBC Mexico relationship. We have since grown our HSBC Mexico capabilities.

We have a BofA Visa blue card and a Schwab One Visa debit card both of which give us the same exchange rates. I can't recall ever using the BofA card at an ATM but I do use the Schwab card at an ATM when it feels good. By far we spend most of our money at Costco (except perhaps our property taxes which we paid via the BofA card). I kind of oscillate between using the Banamex Costco card and the BofA visa - depending on my mood.

We never pay a wire fee to anyone. When we pull dollars from Schwab at the ATM we pay something like 0.5% exchange rate. When the charge is posted to our account (next day) they reimburse the 33 peso ATM fee from HSBC. When I want to pull a larger amount - say to buy a car - I call Schwab (which has our standing wire orders), ask what rate they can give me and if I like it they wire the funds to Mexico at no cost other than the agreed upon exchange rate. Sometimes less than 0.5%.

I'd love for someone to point out a flaw in my approach as I am always trying to improve things.