transferring money wire, bank & credit cards, exchange rate

facebook wrote:You can also use Remitly to get pesos at the bank. It's online, they withdraw US$ from your US account, you pick up pesos from Bancomer. They use the daily exchange rate. You can receive funds the same day for a small fee or no fee if you can wait 3-4 days. Limit is placed by Bancomer of $650 per transaction up to $3000 a month.

bpe wrote: Methods to transfer US funds to Bancomer: Wells Fargo has a relationship with Bancomer and allows a customer to use their Express Send service for $5.00 per wire transfer. Set up is a hassle but after that you can send a max of $3,000 in increments of $1,500 each month. This can be done online. If you have a Charles Schwab brokerage account you get 4 (?) free wire transfers per month and can move dollars down that way. I am sure there are other cost effective ways.

lpg wrote:How to get a better rate on international money transfers – t
Posted by: @lapazbay.com tom@la
Date: Mon Jul 24, 2017 10:18 am ((PDT))

With many US, Canadian and other international citizens residing here in La Paz, we’ve all come across a situation where transferring money from abroad to Mexico has been a necessity. Whether it’s simply moving a lump sum from an international bank to a Mexican institute for living purposes, or in order to purchase property here, it’s a common theme among us foreigners. But due to exchange rates and bank charges, on many occasions we can sometimes feel we’re not getting ‘value for money’ on our transfers and it can often complicate transactions. Right now, if you’re banking with Bancomer, for every US dollar you’re sending over you’re set to receive $16.97 pesos in return – some $0.72 pesos less than the ‘Google exchange rate’. While that may not seem a great deal at first, with larger transfers it soon adds up and on a transfer of say $1,000 USD we’re suddenly talking about a difference of $720 pesos – or roughly $40 USD. Now for further extremes, if we’re considering the price of a property for $200,000 USD whereby the transfer is going into a Mexican account, that’s a difference of some $8,000 USD. There are alternative methods to sending cash over, such as MoneyGram and Western Union, but my personal recommendation is renowned exchange companies Transferwise and Fcexchange. https://transferwise.com/ https://transferwise.com/ https://www.fcexchange.com/uk/home https://www.fcexchange.com/uk/home The way such companies work is they have accounts all over the world, therefore they can receive a deposit in US dollars (from your US bank) and release Mexican Pesos (to a Mexican bank) without money actually crossing borders. The huge benefit of that is they avoid bank exchange rates, and instead charge a fixed fee while offering a higher exchange rate to the benefit of their clients. For instance, Transferwise are offering an exchange rate of 17.71 right now, therefore should you send $1,000 USD from your US account to a Mexican account, you will receive $17,535 pesos after fees (Transferwise fee is roughly 1% on smaller amounts, and less on larger sums). A transfer of $200,000 USD would see a return of $3,394,000 pesos with Bancomer, yet a return of $3,518,241 pesos with Transferwise (after the Transferwise fee of $1,420.06 USD). That’s a difference of $124,241 pesos, or $7,019 USD. You can even negotiate with such exchange companies to get a better rate, which is a valuable tool if you have a preference of company but have seen better rates elsewhere. If you aren’t familiar with such companies and their methods, please have a look at the links I posted above – from personal experience they’re incredibly efficient and reliable. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to ask. I hope you guys find this useful. Tom La Paz realtor (+52) 158 3874

he BEST solution is to get a wells fargo account and wire the money to
yourself at any telegrafo telecomm office here in Mexico or around the
world. Wells Fargo has a system called EXPRESS SEND. It only costs $5
and one can transfer $1500 dollars a day.

I'm not sure you can do that. When I set up Express Send with WFB, I had
to go into a branch and do the first transfer in person. That's about
three years ago, so maybe it's different now. You can call WFB and they
will tell you the current regulations on all of this.


It works great though. The fee just went up from $4 to $5.😊 I don't know
of any other way of transferring money down here that costs that little.

> YOU CAN ALSO try paypal, and you transfer from your account in US/CAN
> into your paypal account , and then from It into your Mex account if you
> have one. No expensive charges. I used tonlive in Australia.... and it was
> painful to see how much money the bank took in each transfer. Paypal was
> the solution for me.

lpg wrote:Our bank, First Republic, refunds all atm and foreign transaction fees.

The mobile transfer service now offered between U.S. and Mexico

There is a new option for transferring funds from the United States to Mexico with the entry in the market of the digital remittance firm Remitly.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Seattle-based company, which launched three years ago, has until now focused its service on the Philippines and India, where its customers are sending more than US $500 million annually through the mobile service.
The company says it recently processed its one-millionth money transfer.

Remitly yesterday announced its expansion into Mexico, where its service is available through half a dozen banks and 11,000 pickup locations.
It guarantees transfers from a credit or debit card within minutes, and those from a bank account within three business days at fees it says average 2%, compared with the average among its competitors of 7.9%.
It also promises competitive exchange rates. Today’s rate was 16.23 pesos to the dollar, according to its website.
The company says the world’s “single largest corridor for international money transfers” is that between the U.S. and Mexico, with more than $24 billion transferred annually.
In addition to its mobile application, the company boasts it has an advanced fraud detection system. The service is available on Android, iOS and online, and is authorized in 45 U.S. states.
Remitly describes the process of making international money transfers as “antiquated” despite the increasing integration of the global economy through technology.
Founder and CEO Matt Oppenheimer said it was while living in Africa that he realized how “incredibly difficult, expensive, arduous and slow” was the process of sending money across international borders.
“We started Remitly because we knew we could change that.”
The startup has raised $22.5 million from sources such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ company, Bezos Expeditions.

Safe money transfer options:     American Express offers a Bluebird Debit card that has some significant advantages. The Bluebird card can be linked to an existing debit card account or checking account. There are no international transaction fees. There will be a standard charge for using a debit card at a “non participating” ATM. If you setup the Bluebird account with direct deposit, Amex will waive the ATM charges. If you have someone in college or perhaps a worker in the East Cape, you can transfer a set amount into the account and make it available to the card holder. Link:https://www.bluebird.com/ If you give the card to someone else, they do NOT have access to your linked account information!!! Only you can transfer money into the account. Only the card holder (with the pin) can withdraw money.

      Wal-Mart offers a direct money transfer from one store to the other via Walmart2Walmart. If you find yourself or a family member in need of immediate cash, you can use Wal-Mart to send money to that person in 10 minutes. Wal-Mart offers the same service to worldwide Wal-Mart stores as well under their “Moneygram” program. Fees start at $4.95. Link: http://www.walmart.com/cp/Online-Money-Transfers/1089406    Thecomputerguy [email=(thecomputerguys@usa.com] [/email] 

Yes, Fidelity reimburses all ATM fees and provides other services.

Schwab is just great  Besides ATM fee reimbursement and no foreign transactions fees, they have the best,- bar-none - customer service. Jim 

BankOfInternet.com is a good one, they reimburse up to some set amount of ATM fees each month, and as far as I know don't charge for conversion to foreign funds. but Schwab is probably better. ---

After reading those same posts on this site I opened a Schwab banking account a few months ago to avoid the ever increasing fees charged by both Mexican banks dispensing cash and BOA.

I did it from Mexico and the only way, or at least the easiest way, to do it was to open a brokerage account at CS, which can be done online, as well as the new bank account. Then arrange, also online, for transfer of funds from BOA to the new Schwab brokerage account. Funds can then be moved online from the brokerage account to the CS bank account.

There is no minimum balance that must be maintained.

Initial daily limit on debit card withdrawals is 10,000 pesos.

The CS debit card also acts as a credit card.

Interest accrues on the monthly balances in both the bank and brokerage accounts.

It works like a charm. I should have done it ten years ago.

Oh, Looks like Fidelity has the same thing. Most of our investments are through them so I could just open up the checking account feature. Wow, this is good stuff.

It's called a Fidelity Cash Management Account:

https://www.fidelity.com/cash-management/fidelity-cash-management-account/overview 

"TD Bank, Charles Schwab and Capital One 360 are some of the few banks that don't charge any foreign transaction fees":
http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money/2013/07/17/Save-Money-Summer-Travel-Avoiding-ATM-Fees 

Jim, I have a B/A acct in Santa Fe NM and I can transfer a max of $1500 three times a month for no charge--they wire it to a bank in NYC and in two hours max the money shows in the Santander account and I can put it in either of my two accounts. No cost.

David at the bank can explain it. My partner is Mexican so that helps in the communications. I still don't understand how to pay bills or transfer between accounts using their internet system.

Ross

Ross in La Paz

I opened an account with Santander ( B of A association) They really don't
acknowlegde B of A and have to pay a wire fee to move money but I don't
get charged for ATM fees. I got checks, debit card and they do auto pay for
CFE.

I use the down town branch .. by the Malecon. There is a wonderful young
man immediately to your right when you enter that speaks great english. I
think Manuel is his name.

Jim

Subject: Re: [LPG] ?Suggestions aboutl mail and banking for expats in La Paz?
POR FAVOR

Bancomer offers low/fee no fee accounts when you maintain a minimum balance of 1000 pesos. You need only your passport and 30 minutes time to open the account and you can deposit checks from the US or Canada. You will have your debit card issued at the time you open the account and it is backed by Visa so you can use it anywhere. Bancomer does not charge a fee if you use the debit card for purchases in Mexico, the US or Canada. I have a contact at the main branch on Isabella Catolica if you would like her information. I've had the account open for about 6 months and it's been 100% worry free.
Glenn

I don't think there is an efficient way to receive mail down here except for going UPS or FedEx and they are awfully expensive. Most of us use the Club Cruceous mail service. Basically, people going up to the states take all outgoing mail and incoming mail from the U.S. goes through the CC P.O. Box. To become a member it's only 100 pesos a year. If you want to receive mail here I'd recommend having the sender write, "Via Tijuana," on the bottom of the letter otherwise it will go through Mexico City and you may or may not receive it.

I have a bank account at Sandliner and I like them a lot. They have an agreement with Bof A so there is no charge when I use the ATM.

BankNorte has a similar agreement with Wells Fargo and people here seem to be happy with it.

Everybody has there own preferences but I have a land line TelMex which includes internet service. It runs around $600 pesos a month. I haven't had many problems just a couple of small things that were easily taken care of.

I haven't heard of any good way to get English speaking, good movies and tv down here so I simply download whatever I want to watch and delete what I had watched the evening before. I've come to like it a lot better than cable or satelite because I can watch whatever I want whenever I want. I have instructions that I've written on how to do it. If you want a copy I can send one to you.

Good Luck,

Don

Transferring Money To Mexico - I just came across this site that enables you to transfer money online from the US to anyone in Mexico (or anywhere else in the world) for as low as $2.99. It's cheap and easy to use.
www.Xoom.com
You sign up online and create a profile to link into your bank account and/or credit/debit card. You can then specify an amount and a recipient. Money can be transferred directly into the recipient's bank account, or your recipient can pick up the money in minutes in Mexico at Bancomer, Banorte, Banamex, Santander Serfin, Scotiabank, HSBC (Bital), BANSEFI, L@Red de la Gente, and others. You can also transfer money to FAMSA, Soriana and CitiClub stores, making it more convenient to pick up the money after hours or on the weekend. Your recipient has to produce proof of identity before they can pick up the money.

Although it costs more, the transfer process by credit/debit card was very quick, taking just over 4 hours to complete the electronic transaction from our card directly into our Banorte account. If you're not in a rush, you can also elect to transfer by "eCheck" from your US bank account. eChecks take longer to process (up to 5 business days) but the rates are far lower, especially for larger amounts. Here are some examples of the service charge:
US Dollar
Send Amount Value Service
>From US bank account Standard Service
From Credit Card
$25.00 $2.99 $2.99
$50.00 $3.99 $3.99
$100.00 $4.99 $6.99
$250.00 $4.99 $9.99
$500.00 $4.99 $15.99
$750.00 $4.99 $19.99
$1,000.00 $4.99 $25.99
$1,500.00 $4.99 $38.99
$2,500.00 $4.99 $63.99
$2,999.00 $4.99 $75.99

NOTE: If you elect to transfer to a Mexican bank account, be sure it's a peso account. I tried to transfer dollars to a Mexican dollar account and it was eventually returned.

Certainly much cheaper and more convenient than bank wires or Western Union. - , www.Xoom.com, Todos Santos