BBVA / Bancomer

Anyone open an account at their Ajijic branch recently? Recommendation for contact person, or general advice, pros and cons?

fyi, I spoke with Intercam but their transfer options and exchange rate were no-gos for me. Plus when I emailed follow-up q's, they didn't respond (this was before Semana Santa).

Have heard BBVA gives a better rate on transfers; in fact the Intercam rep pretty much admitted it saying I should deal with a MX bank to get best rate. Intercam is not a bank, it is a financial company.

My preference is to directly transfer $$ from my US banks to BBVA...alternate would be to use transfers via Wise. Input appreciated on this as well.

I prefer BBVA as it's an easy walk from my home.

I have a U.S. account with an insured U.S. credit union designed for those who work or live outside the U.S. and deals with my Mexican address. Very good rates on credit cards and savings accounts.
My Social Security is directly deposited in a Mexican bank account which I make sure stays below the "reporting" limit. This arrangement has been completely satisfactory for nearly ten years. If interested in details, PM me.

Have had a BBVA acct for years, funds can easily be transferred into this acct via WISE.

I’ve had a Bancomer account for 12 years. My SS has been deposited there all that time with no issues. I can’t answer about other transfers as only my SS goes in the account but one benefit is the number of Bancomer ATMs available. My issue with the one at Walmart is it spews out 1000 peso notes while I noted that the one at Andares gave out 500 peso notes. Since they’re coming out with a 2000 peso notes I hope they don’t stock the ATM with those.

gringal wrote:I have a U.S. account with an insured U.S. credit union designed for those who work or live outside the U.S. and deals with my Mexican address.  Very good rates on credit cards and savings accounts.
My Social Security is directly deposited in a Mexican bank account which I make sure stays below the "reporting" limit.  This arrangement has been completely satisfactory for nearly ten years. If interested in details, PM me.

Pretty sure I was the one who first posted about that credit union years ago, before you signed up for it. Actually any CU will accept expats, and many offer better credit card options.

And while we never opened a MX account since we first moved here in 2008, we wish to open an account at a MX bank at this time.

What MX bank do you use?

"Have heard BBVA gives a better rate on transfers"

If you use a transfer service like xetrade and I think Wise, the Mexican bank exchange rate doesn't come into play. Those are online currency exchange services- they are the ones whose exchange rate affects the peso amount. It is transferred in pesos, so there is no currency exchange involved on the Mexican bank end.

I have had a Bancomer account for about 12 years and transfer through xetrade and never had a problem.

So here's what I'm trying to avoid....Intercam checked their exchange rate while i was there. I had just used the ATM with Schwab card and got a full peso more per USD than what Intercam quoted me same hour. If I move 8K USD, it would cost me around 400 USD. I would get 152K pesos v. 160K pesos.

BisbeeGal wrote:So here's what I'm trying to avoid....Intercam checked their exchange rate while i was there.  I had just used the ATM with Schwab card and got a full peso more per USD than what Intercam quoted me same hour.  If I move 8K USD, it would cost me around 400 USD.  I would get 152K pesos v. 160K pesos.  

Just sent you a PM.

Thanks, got it.

I have had an account with them for 20 years and I am happy..It is better to get the bank in the US to send pesos , you will get a better rate that way. BBVA also pays my phone and electric bills so all I do is check them.. never late that way.

Bancomer may seize your funds and close your account if there is no activity for two years. The solution is do not let the account go dormant, whip out that debit card.

My husband s card went dormant for 3 years.. it was my account and he had a card and my card was used plenty but nothing happened to his card. I reactivated it by using the ATM once and it is working nothing was seized.
Now if my card had been inactive for 2 years I have no idea what would happened.

brigitte wrote:My husband s card went dormant for 3 years.. it was my account and he had a card and my card was used plenty but nothing happened to his card. I reactivated it by using the ATM once and it is working nothing was seized.
Now if my card had been inactive for 2 years I have no idea what would happened.

That is a good point. When we opened an account in 2006 it was created in my wife's name. We each have a debit card on that account. Later I opened a sub account in my name under the original account in my wife's name. I have two debit cards and two accounts. For some reason they would not open an independent account in my name. Ni modo

DO you mean an independent account with separate money or same money.
The accounts are not really joint account.s The titular can open and close the account changes to the contract etc.. the secondary signature can only deposit and pull money. For exemple the second person cannot close the account.. so you could not be independent on that account But do I understand right they would not let you have your own account with her as a second signature?

When the titular dies and the bank finds out about it .. you cannot do anything to the account only close it presenting a death certificate.
When te second signature holder dies nothing happens ..

BisbeeGal wrote:So here's what I'm trying to avoid....Intercam checked their exchange rate while i was there.  I had just used the ATM with Schwab card and got a full peso more per USD than what Intercam quoted me same hour.  If I move 8K USD, it would cost me around 400 USD.  I would get 152K pesos v. 160K pesos.  

But if you transfer money using an online currency exchange service, Intercam's rate is immaterial.

I have transferred from my Canadian account to Bancomer using xetrade, and the only exchange rate that comes into play is the exchange rate of xetrade.

I enter how many Canadian dollars I want to move, xe shows me how many pesos that will be according to their rate at that moment, and I can  either proceed or cancel. If I say I want to transfer $3000 CAN, and proceed, xe does an electronic funds transfer, for which there is no fee, and some days later, exactly the same amount of pesos xe quoted appears in my BBVA account.

Neither my Canadian bank's exchange rate nor BBVA's enters into the equation.

brigitte wrote:DO you mean an independent account with separate money or same money.
The accounts are not really joint account.s The titular can open and close the account  changes to the contract etc.. the secondary signature can only deposit and pull money.

My account does not share funds with the primary account. I can deposit or withdraw money from both accounts. My wife can only deposit funds into my account. In all honesty when I opened the second account, the Bancomer mgr was not very experienced.

The manager when I opened my account in 2010 was really excellent but he moved on and was replaced by one who was not customer friendly at all. I have no idea who runs it now as I never have to go in to the bank.

Kiko, Your wife cannot get a card to deposit and withdraw? That is what a secondary person can do on my account,, Just cannot do anything outside of these two functionsin the type of account I have..
I think the problem is that thsome of the managers do not explain everything very well because they are not aware of the differnces with other countries.. As you said not very experiences... they assume that foreigners knows how things work here...

mudgirl wrote:

BisbeeGal wrote:So here's what I'm trying to avoid....Intercam checked their exchange rate while i was there.  I had just used the ATM with Schwab card and got a full peso more per USD than what Intercam quoted me same hour.  If I move 8K USD, it would cost me around 400 USD.  I would get 152K pesos v. 160K pesos.  

But if you transfer money using an online currency exchange service, Intercam's rate is immaterial.

Neither my Canadian bank's exchange rate nor BBVA's enters into the equation.

Intercam told me they do not allow transfers from Wise or any other currency service, so yes I would be stuck with their awful rate. Hence my q. re: opening a Mexican BANK account, not an acct. with a financial services company like Intercam.

brigitte wrote:Kiko, Your wife cannot get a card to deposit and withdraw? That is what a secondary person can do on my account,, Just cannot do anything outside of these two functionsin the type of account I have..
I think the problem is that thsome of the managers do not explain everything very well because they are not aware of the differnces with other countries.. As you said not very experiences... they assume that foreigners knows how things work here...

Yes she can get a card if she wants one to make withdrawals.

I once transferred directly from a Canadian bank to a Mexican bank. The exchange rate was as bad as taking money from an ATM in Mexico. XE or Wise and others give a much better rate and you can see the rate before you commit to the transfer.

BisbeeGal wrote:

Intercam told me they do not allow transfers from Wise or any other currency service, so yes I would be stuck with their awful rate.

Ah, I understand now. I hadn't seen you mention that before, you just said Intercam's transfer options were a no-go for you.

I have been using Bancomer for close to 15 years now. Their security measures have become quitte paranoid, though. You need their app on your phone to make Internet purchases, and enter some codes every time.
I transfer CAN$ to MXN$ with XE, very easy, and rates are good.

peteben wrote:.... You need their app on your phone to make Internet purchases, and enter some codes every time.

Your phone app may need a tweak at a Bancomer branch. I enter only my password, then the movil app will generate the codes without any input from me. An automatic process. It took a few visits to a branch before I found a knowledgable person who understood the process. Buena suerte.

How many pesos per Canadian dollar do you get using XE or Wise?