# Canadian $ Exchange rates at Mexican ATMs



## HolyMole (Jan 3, 2009)

If this topic has been beaten to death, just say so....but if it has, I missed the best advice.
I use my Canadian Scotiabank client card, connected to my Scotiabank Canada savings account, to withdraw pesos from Mexican Scotiabank ATMs. Scotiabank has branches throughout Mexico, and charges no transaction fees or service charges when using their card at any Scotiabank ATMs worldwide. I'm not concerned, therefore, about transaction or service fees....just the foreign exchange rates I've been charged.

I've found that I am being charged approx. 2 1/2 %.....i.e. getting 2 1/2 % less than.... the posted currency exchange figures showing on popular foreign currency exchange websites like xe.com or Yahoo finance, or oanda.com., all of which quote pretty much similar figures. 

I'm constantly being told by friends, (mostly Americans, but a few Canadians as well), in Mexico that they get much more favourable exchange rates....basically they claim they get the rates showing on the on-line foreign currency exchange websites.

I complained to Scotiabank Canada, but, in addition to wasting my time by going to great lengths to tell me that currency exchange rates are constantly changing.....like I didn't know that....they told me that Scotiabank Mexico is responsible for setting exchange rates, which I thought was a nice dodge.

Several folks swore that with their (US) Capital One card/account they don't pay ANY foreign currency charges....they get the full rates shown on the above websites. One Canadian friend swears the same thing about her Manulife Canada card. I'm sceptical, finding it difficult to believe that all the banks aren't charging just about the same pound of flesh. Since when did any bank do anything for nothing?

Over the 5-6 months we spend in Mexico, I'm apparently "losing" perhaps $250 - $400 between the rates I'm paying, and those of my more fortunate friends. I've looked on-line to see if I could get better rates, but find the banks' websites 'way too confusing for a neophyte like me.

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

HolyMole said:


> If this topic has been beaten to death, just say so....but if it has, I missed the best advice.
> I use my Canadian Scotiabank client card, connected to my Scotiabank Canada savings account, to withdraw pesos from Mexican Scotiabank ATMs. Scotiabank has branches throughout Mexico, and charges no transaction fees or service charges when using their card at any Scotiabank ATMs worldwide. I'm not concerned, therefore, about transaction or service fees....just the foreign exchange rates I've been charged.
> 
> I've found that I am being charged approx. 2 1/2 %.....i.e. getting 2 1/2 % less than.... the posted currency exchange figures showing on popular foreign currency exchange websites like xe.com or Yahoo finance, or oanda.com., all of which quote pretty much similar figures.
> ...


As far as I know nobody gets those published rates except when exchanging about a million dollars, so maybe there is a bit of exaggeration going on.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

A Canadian friend wire money from his Scotia Bank to his Scotia bank here in Mexico. I don't remember the exact rate, but he was vivid. Somewhere around +5%. A large amount doesn't mean a discount as he wire the equivalent of 350,000 pesos. We who have the cursed Bank of America get no-fee withdrawals at Scotia and Santander with only a 1% conversion fee.


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## pappabee (Jun 22, 2010)

All exchange rates are set first by the Mexican National Bank and then the other institutions add what they want. You also need to know the difference between "buy" and "sell" rates.

If you go into an Actinver office they post both rates daily. I really don't think that the difference is something that we need to go over here. There are enough web sites that can explain it in great detail.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

pappabee said:


> All exchange rates are set first by the Mexican National Bank and then the other institutions add what they want. You also need to know the difference between "buy" and "sell" rates.


But Banco de Mexico says: "At the end of 1994, the Commission determined that the exchange rate would be determined by market forces (floating exchange rate/free float regime)."


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## pappabee (Jun 22, 2010)

joaquinx said:


> But Banco de Mexico says: "At the end of 1994, the Commission determined that the exchange rate would be determined by market forces (floating exchange rate/free float regime)."




That is correct but who reads the "market forces" and sets the rate. Banco de Mexico. AND, do all banks then us that amount or do some of them add a little to it?

Yes it floats, that's why it changes almost each day.


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## HolyMole (Jan 3, 2009)

pappabee said:


> All exchange rates are set first by the Mexican National Bank and then the other institutions add what they want. You also need to know the difference between "buy" and "sell" rates.
> 
> If you go into an Actinver office they post both rates daily. I really don't think that the difference is something that we need to go over here. There are enough web sites that can explain it in great detail.


It appears that everyone else is as much in the dark as I am. Knowing the difference between the Buy and Sell rates doesn't help at all. In fact those rates are posted in the bank window every morning. The rates tell you absolutely nothing about what exchange rate you'll get when you use the ATM.

As for the floating rates - yes, we all know they float. But if I check xe.com's posted rates, and run to the ATM 5 minutes later, the possible miniscule change in rates during that 5 minute period isn't what I'm referring to. 

One poster states that Bank of America is charging him/her only 1% foreign exchange. If that means a 1% charge, (i.e. 1% less than the average exchange rates shown on the 5 or 6 most popular currency websites), THAT'S the information I want......because I'm being charged approx. 2 1/2%.

Keep in mind that this has nothing to do with transaction fees or service charges. I'm referring only to the foreign currency exchange rate being applied.

The other posts about the Bank of Mexico setting the exchange rates, then letting individual banks "add" to that, if they wish, just doesn't sound credible. 

I'm really surprised that, considering how important this subject is to any expat or tourist who must use a Mexican ATM to access their NOTB cash, no one seems to have much of a handle on it.


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## tepetapan (Sep 30, 2010)

HolyMole said:


> It appears that everyone else is as much in the dark as I am. Knowing the difference between the Buy and Sell rates doesn't help at all. In fact those rates are posted in the bank window every morning. The rates tell you absolutely nothing about what exchange rate you'll get when you use the ATM.
> 
> As for the floating rates - yes, we all know they float. But if I check xe.com's posted rates, and run to the ATM 5 minutes later, the possible miniscule change in rates during that 5 minute period isn't what I'm referring to.
> 
> ...


Banks are a business, they are to make money. Pretty simple if you think about it. What ever the big exchange companies show on an hourly basis means nothing to you or me besides the fact if the exchange rate is going up or down.
If Xe says 12.750 the bank MIGHT give you 12.220. The rest is profit and a hedge if things go south in the next day or the next few hours. It is like the stock market, a game of chance and will.
350,000 pesos is nothing in the game....toss in 35,000,000 dollars and you might have a chance of playing the game. It is all about the world economy and the world's stock markets. Go big or stay home.


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## Belizegirl (Oct 21, 2010)

I complained to Scotiabank Canada, but, in addition to wasting my time by going to great lengths to tell me that currency exchange rates are constantly changing.....like I didn't know that....they told me that Scotiabank Mexico is responsible for setting exchange rates, which I thought was a nice dodge.

Scotiabank Canada and Scotiabank here are not tied together. Yes, you can use the ATMs with no fee but, cannot go to a teller and access out of country accounts or deposit money.


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## HolyMole (Jan 3, 2009)

tepetapan said:


> Banks are a business, they are to make money. Pretty simple if you think about it. What ever the big exchange companies show on an hourly basis means nothing to you or me besides the fact if the exchange rate is going up or down.
> If Xe says 12.750 the bank MIGHT give you 12.220. The rest is profit and a hedge if things go south in the next day or the next few hours. It is like the stock market, a game of chance and will.
> 350,000 pesos is nothing in the game....toss in 35,000,000 dollars and you might have a chance of playing the game. It is all about the world economy and the world's stock markets. Go big or stay home.


"Go big or stay home"? What the hell does that mean? 
No one objects to the banks making money. The whole point of my post was that using my Scotiabank client card at a Mexican Scotiabank ATM appears to be costing me a much higher foreign currency exchange rate than the bank cards being used by many of my fellow US or Canadian tourists. But if you contact any bank to find out what one can expect to pay in foreign currency exchange rates using their bank card at a foreign ATM, you get nothing but platitudes. I don't understand why, for example, a US or Canadian bank couldn't make the following statement:

"Other than any ATM transaction fee or service fee that might be levied by the Mexican bank in question, we charge a __% rate on small foreign currency exchanges. Practically speaking, that means that you can expect to receive ___% less than the average foreign currency exchange rates shown on popular currency exchange websites, keeping in mind that exchange rates are constantly changing."

There, that wasn't so difficult, was it?


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

Your bank should simply tell you that it is the card, like Mastercard or Visa, which actually charges the international transaction fee. Your bank clerk may not even know, or understand much about international transactions.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

I get a big kick out of reading about exchange rates and international transaction fees here as I remember exchanging dollar traveler´s cheques all over the world in the 1960s and what a pain in the ass that was - usually involving several hours waiting in long lines and accepting any exchange rates proferred by anyone from American Express in Paris to any number of banks in Africa or India. In those days exchanging traveler´s cheques for local currency was an ordeal that normally spoiled one´s day and was a grueling experience involving witing in several insurmountable lines.

My favoritte is this day when I started running out of money in East Africa and had money wired to me by family back in Alabama to Barclays Bank in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania only to find out that those cheques were invalid in Rhodesia, Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa where I was heading on my Cairo to Capetown journey. I told them they must be kidding but they weren´t so I headed back to Nairobi and took the non-stop to Bombay where I freely spent my money as I pleased. By the way, this is the only time this ever happened to me in my life but on that night, I was the only pasenenger on the Boeing 707 Air India flight from Nairobi to Bombay and I was treated like a king with some of the best Indian food I have ever eaten. Then I got off the plane in the pre-dawn hours in Bombay and the steets were choc-a-bloc with the poor sleeping on the sidewalks as we rode into town. The contrast was startling but educational. So I never made it to Capetown. I bought a second class rail ticket from Bombay to Shrinigar to Nepal to Delhi to Calcutta to Madras to Bangalore and back to bombay for the then equivalent of $13USD. I had a fine time there.


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