Mexican Bank Account

RichD wrote:

I am waiting to find out is HSBC truly dispenses dollars and that would help me

You probably get the dollars at the "buy dollar rate", after the necessary amount dollars is taken from your US account at the buy peso rate to complete the transaction. In other words, double dipping on exchange rates.  I can't see how anything else would be legal under the banking regulations for exchanging and/or buying dollars within the Republic.
You could do the same thing at Intercam and other Mexican banks in person, just not at a machine, i.e., take in your dollars, buy pesos, and then buy back the dollars, if you wanted to exchange USD checks for US currency.
Cheaper to find tourists with USD currency and buy direct. That is how some businesses like Superlake get cheaper dollars for purchases they have to make in USD.

Even though there isn't any FDIC in Mexico, bank failures have been rare and I don't remember any depositors losing money because of this. A failing bank is usually forced into a merger with a stronger bank and depositors accounts protected.
This is in the Mexican peso world and nothing to do with the relative value against other foreign currencies, that is a different matter.
If the inflation rate doesn't get out of hand here, the ex-pats will not be to adversely affected.

Of course it affects expats, who have to make the decision to keep their money in their national money or to have pesos down here. I am sure happy I kept my money in dollars ..

slainte39 wrote:

Intercasa wrote: the fact that Mexican banks steal peoples money   

In my experience, that is pure nonsense.

Never lost a peso nor heard of anyone losing money through theft by a bank here. More expat drivel.

gringal wrote:One difference between Mexican banks and U.S. banks.  No FDIC.  Good reason to limit the amount you put in them.

Now why in the world would you (and slainte) make such an assumption?

The Mexican "FDIC" is known as IPAB, or Instituto para la Protección al Ahorro Bancario and insures peso deposits to roughly the equivalent of 100,000 usd.

Clete wrote:

gringal wrote:One difference between Mexican banks and U.S. banks.  No FDIC.  Good reason to limit the amount you put in them.

Now why in the world would you (and slainte) make such an assumption?

The Mexican "FDIC" is known as IPAB, or Instituto para la Protección al Ahorro Bancario and insures peso deposits to roughly the equivalent of 100,000 usd.  

Yep! You are correct, I forgot about IPAB.  The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has been utilized many times in the US whereas I believe most, if not all, recent bank failures in Mexico were resolved by mergers and takeovers.

brigitte wrote:Of course it affects expats, who have to make the decision to keep their money in their national money or to have pesos down here.  I am sure happy I kept my money in dollars ..

I was only addressing the value of their pesos here (whatever the amount) and not what they hold somewhere else in another currency.
Better in Mexico than Zimbabwe.
Foreigners buying pesos that have US dollars are not affected by the inflation rate here like the Mexican population that earn and live by the Mexican peso.

Clete wrote:

slainte39 wrote:

Intercasa wrote: the fact that Mexican banks steal peoples money   

In my experience, that is pure nonsense.

Never lost a peso nor heard of anyone losing money through theft by a bank here. More expat drivel.

Now you have. Unfortunately, it is the truth. It happens.

I have some good Canadian friends who are snowbirds, have been coming down for several years, and owned a house out east of Chapala. One year when they came back they went to get money out of their account at Actinver and whoops! Their account no longer existed. 30,000CDN - gone.

Actinver said, so sorry, we had a bad employee but he's gone now! My friends said they wanted their money back but Actinver said too bad, so sad. . . They hired many lawyers and in the course of their investigation they discovered two other Actinver customers that had suffered the same loss. They have never recouped their money and it cost them a bundle trying to. Too bad, so sad . . .

Aparently IPAB doesn't cover theft.

Clete wrote:

slainte39 wrote:

Intercasa wrote: the fact that Mexican banks steal peoples money   

In my experience, that is pure nonsense.

Never lost a peso nor heard of anyone losing money through theft by a bank here. More expat drivel.

Really????

Here is the most infamous recent event    http://www.cbc.ca/news/scotiabank-manager-s-death-probe-reveals-multimillion-dollar-fraud-1.2125652

There have a been a few documentaries about this event and the many other occurrences of fraud/money laundering in the Mexican banking system. I had a personal experience where our "Chili Cook Off" deposit at Actinver was changed days after the fact. They said they recounted the money and changed it even though we had a deposit slip that said otherwise.

Not to mention their bs life insurance/service charge monthly. Just try to cash it in.

Yeah, Actinver, great place to put your money. NOT!

As I said earlier, MultiVa or none.

The fraud and money laundering is a fact, but the question here is whether depositors suffered the loss.  The news report doesn't answer the question. Banks all over the world including London have had these kind of fraud and money laundering problems.
I can't comment on or dispute what Trailrunner has posted but still say that "I" have not known anyone that had their bank deposits stolen.  It sounds like these people, the Canadians (and the other two victims), would be a good subject for Dale Palfrey and the Guadalajara Reporter to do an investigative journalism piece on.  
If their claim is true, Actinver should be exposed. Many posters on this forum, including Mexico Pete and gringal have accounts there.
I know nothing about Actinver, as I have never done business with them, but still recommend Multiva , Intercam, and CIBanco.

It is true, Slainte, believe it.

The Guad Reporter would NEVER do a negative, slanderous, exposé  story on anything around here! Same as you will never see a bad review of the plays at the Little Theater or any real critiques of much of anything. Why? It's too small of a town, the repercussions would be too great, and they're not that kind of a 'hard news' paper. Actinver would just deny and ignore it anyway and nothing would change.

A prominent Mexican businessman told my friends to take a full page ad out in the Informador or one of the others detailing their experience. They said they would be afraid to do that. Don't blame them.

Wasn't Actinver a private bank until a couple years ago?

Spencer has had several cases of people losing money at banks.

Lloyds bank morphed into Actinver. At least it's in a beautiful old building with easy parking.
It looks like most of them play fast and loose with their customers' money. Banamex got me for 10,000 pesos some years ago, the first time I had that much in the account. I made a feeble attempt to retrieve it but got weary of the stone wall and abandoned the effort.
After that, haven't left much in any Mexican bank and clear most $$ monthy.

solajijic wrote:Wasn't Actinver a private bank until a couple years ago?

When it was Lloyd's yes sort of. They weren't really a bank they were an investment firm. They purchased Lloyd's and subsequently acquired the Mexican American Express Bank.

Wasn't somebody squawking not too long ago about Bancomer and some employee taking money out of their account? He got the run-around and went complaining to some government agencies and was like a terrier with a bone. Maybe it was on Chapala.com. If he didn't get his money back, he sure raised a big stink. I think he had a lot more money in his account than I would keep in Bancomer or any other bank here. I keep enough in my account to cremate me plus my SS and since I tap into it all the time I would quickly know if someone got sticky fingers.

As many have said before: "Don't deposit any more than you can afford to lose."

I went today to the HSBC branch to see for myself the ATMs. It was a good news, bad news discovery. The good news is that they do in fact have an ATM that delivers US dollars. The bad news is that they had no dollars in it to dispense.

gringal wrote:One difference between Mexican banks and U.S. banks.  No FDIC.  Good reason to limit the amount you put in them.
When Banamex USA threw its Mexico residents under the bus, I started having my SS check auto deposited into Actinver.  Lower fees; no problem getting cash out; good parking; pleasant personnel.  Have had no problems.

You are misinformed Gringal. The equivalent to FDIC in the State is IPAB in Mexico--Insituto par la Proteccion al ahorro bancario which covers $400,000 UDs which varies depending on the exchange rate. The last time I looked it was at 1.65 million mex. pesos.

But, what's the criteria to collect? Does the bank have to fail?
My friends who lost their whole account to a in-house thief we not compensated in any way from any source. IPAB or no.

I suppose it works the same way as anywhere else in the world. Internal loss due to thief or mismanagement does not count. The bank has to go under.

RichD wrote:

Gamina wrote:The local HSBC branch in across the street (north) from Walmart.  They have two ATM machines.  One that dispenses pesos and the other dispenses US dollars.

Are you sure? Have you received dollars from one? The people a S&S say that the dollar machine only has choices for withdrawal in dollars, but dispenses the peso equivalent.

I have used the local HSBC bank in San Antonio for 7 years. They have two ATMs one dispenses pesos the other dispenses pesos or dollars-you pick which you want.

I say beware of Mexican banks and say this as a litigating attorney here in Jalisco. In 2 weeks we have hearings about a local bank selling life insurance to expats and then making excuses not to pay. One policy they said the guy canceled and then we asked why he would cancel a paid policy and then they said he canceled in August, a month after he died, pure scams, lies and BS, avoid putting any substantial sums in Mexican banks, you have little protection, clerks who have no training or education who lie and are threatened if they dont sell products where they promise returns people never get.

So just to recap the most recent bank scams...

1) Life insurance sold to expat, he died but his family cannot collect as bank insists they have Mexican account but they dont live in Mexico and policy never required that.

2) Client deposits US check in his account and bank manager and other approve it, head office in Guadalajara rejects it saying a corner measuring less than 1/4 inch was missing, original US bank didnt deny and then they said difference in exchange rates and are trying to withhold $16,000 pesos from client for a check they authorized then decided not to accept.

3) Client has check stolen and name obviously forged as her name was spelled wrong, bank refuses refund, refuses to show video of who cashed it and called client a liar.

4) Client had notarized power of attorney to take funds out to pay hospital bills, bank said legal department needed to authorize and ignored client and employee co account holder drained 2 million pesos and fled and didnt pay bills thinking expat would die in hospital leaving family to pay bills as guy got injured and guy left him bleeding at home for days. Ministerio Publico has had file a year and little movement, always an excuse and pressure to support the guy who took money from the head of the Chapala Municipal legal dept because he is his client.

These are banks mentioned in this thread.

I'm happy to name that it was Lloyd/Actinver who screwed my friend John on that life insurance scam they are pulling when he lost his wife. He never got a cent and he spent a lot of money with lawyers trying to get the money.

Totally agree. Stay away from Mexican banks, they are ballsy and arrogant and you have no recourse.

AND, I just remembered, the above fine financial institution is one and the same where another Canadian couple friends of mine lost their whole 30,000 dollar account. Poof. Flat out disappeared! Too bad, so sad.

No, they never got a peso.