# Getting dumped by Banamex? Try Bancomer.



## PanchodeSMA (Jul 25, 2013)

Saw a web advertisement today from Bancomer looking for foreign clients living in Mexico.


----------



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

PanchodeSMA said:


> Saw a web advertisement today from Bancomer looking for foreign clients living in Mexico.


This is probably old hat. Bancomer starrted its Preferred Customer Program a few years ago seeking foreign clients. The marketing program was a failure. I have been a customer of theirs in both Ajijic on Lake Chapala and in San Cristóbal de La Casas in Chiapas since 2001. Their service to bank clients is marginal at best but to each his/her own. I am seriously thinking, after all these years, of closing my account at Bancomer for a number of reasons. I also have had an account at Banamex (Mexico) since 2006 and see no advantage to either institution. I sure as hell would not close my Banamex account and move it to Bancomer. That would be a fool´s errand.


----------



## BirthAbroad (May 18, 2014)

Off topic, why does Bancomer have that outrageous 60 peso fee for using foreign debit cards in their ATM machines? All other banks charge me 24-26 pesos...


----------



## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

BirthAbroad said:


> Off topic, why does Bancomer have that outrageous 60 peso fee for using foreign debit cards in their ATM machines? All other banks charge me 24-26 pesos...


My husband was charged MXN$60 at a Bancomer cajero with his Canadian debit card. I used mine at the same machine and was charged MXN$22, both of us drawing from the same CDN bank and same account. 

The only difference is that he has a newer debit card, and our bank now issues all their debit cards as Visa debits so people can use them for on-line purchases. Mine is an old card, just straight debit. That was the only thing we could figure out for the MXN$38 difference in ATM charges per withdrawal, that if it is a Visa (even Visa debit) there is a higher fee.

We didn't choose to ask about it inside the bank, in case they decided I, too, should be paying a higher fee with my foreign card and changed the programming of the ATM. 😄

I'm holding on to my old card as long as possible!


----------



## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

I've been charged 20-something and 60 with the same card. Only reason I accepted the 60 was Banamex was out of order. Banamex ATM fee is now 30


----------



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_


BirthAbroad said:



Off topic, why does Bancomer have that outrageous 60 peso fee for using foreign debit cards in their ATM machines? All other banks charge me 24-26 pesos...

Click to expand...

_Let me make your story even better. Not only did Bancomer raise its ATM fees for the use of debit cards issued by other financial entities from the usual $20+ Pesos to $60 Pesos bu they stopped reporting ATM fees to my bank in the U.S. so, my bank that invariably immediately refunds all ATM fees to us, stopped refunding the fees since Bancomer stopped reporting the fees to my U.S. bank. It got to the point that I was having to call my U.S. bank to get my normally automatic ATM fee reversals and that was a pain in the butt so, except in an emergency, I use the ATMs of other banks whether I am in Ajijic, San Cristóbal or anywhere else in Mexico. In the first place, all other Banks in Mexico charge aound $20 Pesos for ATM transactions using the debit cards of other Banks and my U.S. bank immediately refunds those charges except at Bancomer since Bancomer doesn´t inform them of the charge. I don´t really care about the $60 Pesos but I do not like to be ripped off.

Maybe, even after 13 years, I´ll close that Bancomer account as there are lots more Banks in Ajjic nowadays.


----------



## makaloco (Mar 26, 2009)

I used my US debit card in a Bancomer ATM about two weeks ago. I got the peso amount I asked for, and my US account was charged a dollar amount plus a foreign transaction fee of exactly 3%. Where is the 60 peso ATM fee, hidden in the exchange rate or what? How do I know it was actually charged?


----------



## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

makaloco said:


> I used my US debit card in a Bancomer ATM about two weeks ago. I got the peso amount I asked for, and my US account was charged a dollar amount plus a foreign transaction fee of exactly 3%. Where is the 60 peso ATM fee, hidden in the exchange rate or what? How do I know it was actually charged?


I have the same question.

I get cash from a Mexican ATM with a US debit card. The ATM sometimes (not always) tells me there is a $30 peso charge. But the ATM gives me the amount I request. And the bank statement just shows a dollar amount withdrawn. No fee appears. The exchange rate appears competitive but I wouldn't notice if they were converting 30 pesos more than I got.


----------



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

In answer to your respective questions, on ATM transactions with my U.S. bank, I receive the exchange rate of the moment and I never encash less than $10,000 Pesos if possible but always in two $5,000 Peso increments which is the limit imposed by many Banks in Mexico. The ATMs anywhere in Mexico will always deliver the $10,000 Pesos to me but the total charge to my account, whether from the U.S. or another Mexican bank, will be the $10,000 Pesos plus ATM transaction fees and an IVA charge. My U.S. bank immediately credits back the ATM fees 
at whatever bank anywhere on the planet but the Mexican IVA (value added tax) is not refundable which is OK as it is not that significant. My U.S. bank will refund any ATM charges anywhere whether it is the equivalent of $25 or $60 Pesos or whatever Euros or Dollars. The problema I experienced with Bancomer is that they were not reporting the ATM charges to my bank according to my bank and there ATM fees were also out of line with other Mexican banks at $60 Pesos per transaction . As a result, I no longer use Bancomer ATMs except when absolutley necessary or when I am using my Bancomer debit card and there is no transaction fee. 

The only reason we have yet to close the long-held Bancomer account and opened accounts at other Mexican Banks is that they pay all of our utility bills both at Lake Chapala and in the Chiapas Highlands free of charge and moving those important services to another bank is a pain in the butt. The banks know this and that´s one reason they offer those services.


----------



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=makaloco;4141258]I used my US debit card in a Bancomer ATM about two weeks ago. I got the peso amount I asked for, and my US account was charged a dollar amount plus a foreign transaction fee of exactly 3%. Where is the 60 peso ATM fee, hidden in the exchange rate or what? How do I know it was actually charged?[/QUOTE]_

makaloco:

If you had a U.S. bank or other financial institiution that refunded the ATM charge you would only know by reading your bank statement on line from the U.S. bank. Let me take an example from my dailly computer history from my U.S. brokerage house:

This was a $5,000 Peso transaction for which I received precisely $5,000 Pesos from the ATM at an Ajijic bank known as Banco Multiva:

Banco Multiva ATM #(such and such) $391.29USD (for $5,000 Pesos that day)
Bank ATM Rebats: $2.26USD.

Were there some hiddenn charges in there somewhere. Life´s to short to woory about that. They are in business to make money in the U.S. as well as Mexico and God knows who else has their hands in the cookie jar. Ca you imagine the investmet needed to set up this system so any of us can go to a ATM almost any place on the planet and walk away in minutes as if we had hit the jackpot in Vegas? 


There you go.


----------



## makaloco (Mar 26, 2009)

Thanks, Hound Dog. I don't think my US bank refunds fees, but my withdrawals go through thusly, whether I use Banamex or Bancomer:
* I ask for a peso amount. Usually the ATM warns me of a fee and makes me agree before processing the transaction, then it spits out the exact amount I asked for.
* A dollar amount debit with the label "hold" immediately appears online in my US account.
* A day or two later, the "hold" amount is replaced with the actual dollar amount of the withdrawal and a 3% foreign transaction fee as a separate item. The total of the two is normally a bit less than the "hold" amount.

At the end of the month, my US bank charges a flat $2 fee for every "non-network" transaction, which isn't a big deal because this isn't my usual way of getting money, and emergencies are worth $2 to me.

But I still don't understand where the 30 peso or 60 peso ATM fee is hiding!


----------



## makaloco (Mar 26, 2009)

I can't seem to edit for some reason [???], but I think I finally get it now. They add the ATM fee into the dollar amount debited for the peso withdrawal, but without itemizing it.


----------

