Hopping Mad at Actinver

simpsca wrote:I know Actinver holds US dollar checks 4 weeks before you can assess funds. And Canadian checks are 8 weeks. Have you talked to Aurora Michelle, manager of the Ajijic branch? There was one occasion she released some of the money prior to it being available for a friend of mine.

Intercan is the best place to cash checks or wire transfer into Actinver. Same is the problem at Multiva - they will hold checks for 21 days if USD - don't know the hold on Canadian checks.

PS Some doctors and hospitals will give you payment terms for the surgery team and hospital. Ask your doctor if he can negotiate that for you.

Multiva holds checks for two weeks and even though I didn't have enough money in my investment account, they still transferred mney to my ATM account and let me withdraw it. I guess they knew after 11 years that I was good for it.

You don't need cash for a hospital or a Doctor, they all take credit cards and most want them upon entry to the hospital.

Dawg, the banker, will tell you that this "check holding" game is meant as a way to rip you off. Well, not you individually but the banks/investment houses are playing the float. Maybe your $500 personal check seems insignificant but imagine the millions of dollars in the clearing system at any one time and the earnings the financial institutions gain by telling you you cannot have access to those funds for weeks is very significant indeed. A con game of the most despicable kind. I´ll tell you this. When I write a check at Intercam drawn on my U.S. bank, it always clears in a couple of days so this weeks long hold is a bad joke. The old Lloyd where all of us old goobers kept our accounts a few years ago, played these games and, in return, treated us to bad American coffee. I opened an account with them in 2001 and closed it in 2003 so I can´t say the predecessor Actinver is the same old fashioned financial house but if they are putting weeks´ long holds on your checks or charging for services, find s new a financial institution with whom to de busiiness.

When we closed our Lloyd account years ago, we opened accounts at Bancomer and Banamex which never charge us any fees for any services including automatic payment of all utlilty bills if we maintain certain reasonable minimum balances (the equivalent of less than $200USD at Bncomer and less than $2,000USD at Banamex for a more complex relationship with more client options) and we have found both banks to have provided excellent service overall.

Of course, there is always a cost to maintaining minimum balances in any bank so I am not totally stupid but the way Lloyd used to assess chickenshit charges to so many transactions was unacceptable. If your bank is still doing that, get rid of them and move on.

I found if I wired my money not to Lloyd of then Lloyd-Actinver, I had much faster access to my money. What I did was wire it to the stock brokerage part of Actinver, not the bank. Then when I got the money, I think within a day, I could transfer it to then Lloyds and have access to the funds in Lloyds within another day.

The last time I did that was two years ago, I do not know what the rules are today.

Recently, I deposited a$1000.00 usd check in Actinver and they held it for 6 weeks. They also put a hold on an amount in pesos to cover the $1000.00 usd check plus another $8000.00 pesos for some reason. When I asked why so much was on hold the woman whipped out this form like the one I had signed when I deposited the check. The form said that Actinver could hold the amount of the check plus the equivilent of $50.00 usd untill the check cleared. I made the observation that $8000.00 pesos was a lot more than $50.00 and she said that was for in the case that the peso fluctuated...? Ridiculous. My money is going elsewhere.

You get a better exchange rate if you wire money than if you deposit a check. I don't know about fees...

I was told that benificiarys had to present in person to collect, something to consider when designating a benificiary.

Yes, that is what I was told, 6 weeks. That is why you need to wire said money to your brokerage account, not your bank account at Actinver. The sad thing is they have always tried to explain this 6 week hold. And every few months on a forum like this , someone will be shocked by this and get very angry and promise never to use them again. Now maybe they didn't tell everyone, that I don't know, I just know that I have known it for what seems like forever. Oh for a while, if I remember correctly the holding time was 4 weeks.

And this wait period may change again as the bank section of Actinvers reorganizes, I don't know.

It would please me to no end to see hundreds of people withdraw their money from LLoyd's and go elsewhere. They continually play games and get away with it. When will you learn? Go to Multiva, Imtercam or Bancomer. No one deserves the treatment that LLoyd's gives you.

Another thing, when I deposit a check into Multiva about every 2 months, it clears Bank of America in 3 days!

This business of holding the money for weeks on end happened to the woman from whom we purchased our place in San Carlos.
The 20K I had transferred from E. Jones to her Banamex account was held for weeks.
Problem was... a mutual friend had lent her $500 with which to clear the account so the property could be transferred. What a mess... Beatríz couldn't pay it back as she had intended.and the bloody bank just kept giving the poor woman the runaround. Heartless wretches!!!
Just plain can't trust the greedy buggers. Lizzy

We don't generally use the money we have in Actinver, it is there for emergency purposes only. However, I will definitely be going elsewhere. Since last September, my hubby has now had three operations. It was a panic situation since this last one was unexpected. BTW, he's out of ICU and is being his usual crusty and saucy self. I am greatly relieved. I didn't need the stress of the money problem too. I am paying the Hospital with my American Express card which doesn't have a limit. All the Doctors and Surgeons involved wanted to be paid in cash so I upped the limits on our debit cards and am making daily withdrawals. It's a work around the problem.
But I'm still pissed at LLoyd/Actinver with which I have been dealing for seventeen years and never bounced a cheque. Customer loyalty...my a$$.

Ouch, ferret. So sorry you're going through this along with everything else. Great news that your husband is on the mend!

Lots of lessons in this thread. First being, "How accessible is your money?"....and...."Are you sure? Really sure?"

I know our house isn't in order, that way. Thanks for sharing the details.

So glad your husband is doing better. If he is being saucey, that's a good sign.

johninajijic wrote:It would please me to no end to see hundreds of people withdraw their money from LLoyd's and go elsewhere. They continually play games and get away with it. When will you learn? Go to Multiva, Imtercam or Bancomer. No one deserves the treatment that LLoyd's gives you.

Another thing, when I deposit a check into Multiva about every 2 months, it clears Bank of America in 3 days!

I don't get it, John. Before I signed up in 1997 for an account at Lloyd’s, I looked at and read the papers that I signed. And I knew about this 4 to 6 weeks delay. And because I knew about the rules, I was never surprised. What I later discovered and didn't like was the exchange rate that Lloyd of Actinver-Lloyd offered. At first I began to ask for a "preferred" rate of exchange and it was somewhat better, but it still wasn't quite as good as the competition. Then it was suggested to me that I talk to the brokerage side of the by then, Actinver-Lloyd and was told that the brokerage division had a much better rate of exchange. To check, I sent a like amount of money to Lloyd and a like amount to Actinver as close to the same time as I could. Actinver's rate of exchange was appreciably better and competitive with the other options lakeside.

And boy was I mad, not at them (like some of you) but at me, for not checking this out earlier. All of a sudden, by going to the brokerage side, I was getting a competitive rate of exchange, and I had access to my money like overnight, not 4 to 6 weeks later.

Whose fault is this that I didn't discover this earlier? It was my fault. and rather than blaming others for not doing due diligence and getting mad at them, like some of us are doing now, and posting about how you were screwed, I got mad at myself. Because it was I who screwed up. Luckily I discovered this better rate of exchange right before I began to wire large sums of money down to build my dream home. Oh and dumb luck saw me selling most of my stocks for this project right before the 2008 crash .

Let's not blame Actinver for this 4 to 6 week delay, or the fact that you chose to wire money down to the wrong account at Actinver. It was all explained in the paperwork you signed and is sometimes posted on the wall to remind us what we agreed to. And every year or two some folks who did not do their homework discover same and bitch about it on the various forums, like what is happening now

I love Actinver, they serve we just as they agreed to in the paperwork I signed. There are many very happy clients there. And I am one of them

OK attack me I know some of you will. Because I called you and me for a while, dumb for not doing your (our) homework. But had you checked the paperwork you signed when opening up your account, you would have understood. This is Mexico and things are done the same as up north.

![/quote][/i]on't get it, John. Before I signed up in 1997 for an account at Lloyd’s, I looked at and read the papers that I signed. And I knew about this 4 to 6 weeks delay. And because I knew about the rules, I was never surprised. What I later discovered and didn't like was the exchange rate that Lloyd of Actinver-Lloyd offered. At first I began to ask for a "preferred" rate of exchange and it was somewhat better, but it still wasn't quite as good as the competition. Then it was suggested to me that I talk to the brokerage side of the by then, Actinver-Lloyd and was told that the brokerage division had a much better rate of exchange. To check, I sent a like amount of money to Lloyd and a like amount to Actinver as close to the same time as I could. Actinver's rate of exchange was appreciably better and competitive with the other options lakeside.

And boy was I mad, not at them (like some of you) but at me, for not checking this out earlier. All of a sudden, by going to the brokerage side, I was getting a competitive rate of exchange, and I had access to my money like overnight, not 4 to 6 weeks later.

Whose fault is this that I didn't discover this earlier? It was my fault. and rather than blaming others for not doing due diligence and getting mad at them, like some of us are doing now, and posting about how you were screwed, I got mad at myself. Because it was I who screwed up. Luckily I discovered this better rate of exchange right before I began to wire large sums of money down to build my dream home. Oh and dumb luck saw me selling most of my stocks for this project right before the 2008 crash .

Let's not blame Actinver for this 4 to 6 week delay, or the fact that you chose to wire money down to the wrong account at Actinver. It was all explained in the paperwork you signed and is sometimes posted on the wall to remind us what we agreed to. And every year or two some folks who did not do their homework discover same and bitch about it on the various forums, like what is happening now

I love Actinver, they serve we just as they agreed to in the paperwork I signed. There are many very happy clients there. And I am one of them

OK attack me I know some of you will. Because I called you and me for a while, dumb for not doing your (our) homework. But had you checked the paperwork you signed when opening up your account, you would have understood. This is Mexico and things are done the same as up north.

OK, Pete, we have known each other for years and I am not your enemy but, while you were, I think, a successful computer geek for years, I was a successful banker since about 1966. I won´t try to talk to you about computers and would appreciate your refraining from lecturing me, a reader hereupon, on banking. Lloyd was screwing its customers to the wall for years because there was no competition. I cannot speak of Actinver but I can tell you that I, as so many other old Goobers, opened an account at Lloyd in 2001 and fled there in 2003. I cannot speak of Multivalores nor Mulitiva nor Actinver because I have had no experience with any of them. I can, however, say without equivocation, that the old Lloyd was taking its customers to the cleaners screwing them on exchange rates and nickle and diming them to death. Don´t tell me you read the Lloyd contract when you opened your account there. Nobody in the history of mankind ever read a banking or insurance contract [u]EVER! [/u]Total bullshit.

I will be pleased to debate this with you at your invitation.

Dawg

[/quote]

In the past, even though they DO say they are holding your money, IF you took in a printout from your computer showing the Canadian Account on which the cheque was written...and they saw the money was in there AND the cheque was cashed, THEN they released your funds immediately. That process used to be approximately FOUR days.
WHAT we are talking about is that the cheque, written on July 5th, was sent to a manual clearing house in Mexico and did not leave that manual clearing house until July the 15th and, as of today, has not even been seen in Canada. I think they sent it up by pony express.
So, PLEASE, Pete don't be so self righteous in your indignation that SOME of us didn't do our homework.
This is a new problem for us and we NEVER had problems with LLoyd only with ACTINVER.
BTW, the non competition clause time is over...LLOYD is back in the same business.

hound dog wrote: Don´t tell me you read the Lloyd contract when you opened your account there. Nobody in the history of mankind ever read a banking or insurance contract [u]EVER! [/u]Total bullshit.



Dawg

I tried to read a credit card contract once...

All I can say is I appreciate the way you both answered my post. Darn John, I was hoping for you to pipe in, in your usual style to get more attention

And Dawg; you make some good points. I did also had a Bancommer account, that I opened in the late 1990s. But darn it, I hated writing checks in Spanish. I couldn't then and I still can't spell worth a sh!t in Esp. My spelling in English aint much better.

Because I did not know (still don't) as much about banking as you, I read and (kind of sort of) understood everything I signed before I signed it, so I understood the 4 to 6 week hold. What I didn't understand until I met someone knowledgeable like the Dawg about the banking system was the exchange rate offered by the Lloyds as composed to the competition.

One of the reasons I made this post in a confrontational manner is to get the newbies to read this and to learn from the smart folk like Dawg when it comes to banking. (But darn it I couldn't get John to attack me)

Luckily a couple of comments made by some very knowledgeable folks maybe in 2006 (perhaps Dawg on line) I began to think I wasn't getting a very good rate of exchange. With the knowledge learned from you smart folks, I did my homework and realized what a mistake I was making by excepting a substandard rate of exchange. I thank you all for warning me many years ago. Thank goodness, I learned my lesson right before I began to wire large sums of money from the US of A to Ajijic for my home..

Now folks attack me. I probably deserve it. But afterword, learn from these posts and get the best deal you can when dealing with your financial institution, which ever one you choose to use.

PS I didn't read any banking insurance contract like Dawg mentioned. I don't remember what I read in pehaps 1997. I just know it was a long time ago and one of the things I remembered was the 4 to 6 week delay because it seemed so long.

It's was my understanding that once Actinvers becomes a bank for real, and I guess it's almost there, this wait time will be less. I hope I am right.


I meant to say in the previous post "when I wired money from B of A to Ajijic"

CheenaGringo wrote:Come on people - why are the some of the "old timers" referring to this establishment as Lloyd's?

I'm using both terms to distinguish the fact that it was Lloyd before Actinver bought it...that there were never problems with Lloyd only with Actinver...and that the non competition clause that was written into the purchase is over...and that, as a result, Lloyd is again an option for where to put your money.
Having a little daydream here...I remember when Lloyd gave thirty-eight per cent interest on the money in our Awlasa account in May of 1996. That was very nice.

Finally!
The cheque cleared our account in Toronto sometime after 11 p.m. last night.
Now I have to wait until Actinver opens on Monday.

ferret wrote:Finally!
The cheque cleared our account in Toronto sometime after 11 p.m. last night.
Now I have to wait until Actinver opens on Monday.

Good news at last!!!!!

BTW was that Awlasa account in any way tied to the stock market or was it simply a reflection of the interest rates extant at the time. I remember getting 15% in 2000.

Now that's a good question and I don't know the answer for sure. My bad.
I do know that in Jan. '96 the interest was 42% and it slowly worked its way down to the present 3.5 %...damn! I hate progress in a country!

ferret wrote:Now that's a good question and I don't know the answer for sure. My bad.
I do know that in Jan. '96 the interest was 42% and it slowly worked its way down to the present 3.5 %...damn! I hate progress in a country!

Well, actually on Cetes (the mexican equivalent of T-Bills) the current rates are just a shade above 4%, which is a whole helluva lot better than they are in Canada.

We tend to be extremely conservative investors, so usually stick to short term Cetes here, and squat in Canada, because the fees charged eat up any profits gained, which are slim pickings at best. We are currently being charged $24 a month to maintain a Canadian non-resident bank account.

These days, and this is just IMHO, anyone offering higher than say 5% interest should immediately raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Take HSBC as an example, on a long term deposit they were offering roughly between 9 and 10%. We said thanks but no thanks. My question now, is what happens to account holders who did jump at that "opportunity" and now HSBC is under investigation for possible money laundering? Just a question kids.

E-Raq, you might want to check with your bank in Canada. We are charged nothing to have a non-resident account with TD Canada Trust. That is because my hubby is over 65.
They don't tell you about it...you have to ask.

Thanks ferret, yet another complaint we'll be taking to the bank on our upcoming visit. Isn't that special, that they don't tell you. We deal with the CIBC, however due to recent problems may consider changing.

I dumped CIBC years ago because of problems.

We use Scotia in Canada and have no problems at all. They have a good on-line system and no added charges at all when you use their ATM's down here.