# Pesos to Dollars



## MissKT (Feb 24, 2013)

I am planning on traveling home for Christmas break, and I need to deposit money in my American bank account to pay off bills in the United States. 
I get paid a salary here in pesos (fixed to the Am. dollar), and I am told that exchanging from pesos to US dollars is basically going to make me cry with the exchange rate. 
So my question is: would I be better of exchanging the pesos to dollars in Mexico or in the United States. Where should I do this?

Thanks for your help!


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

What are the thoughts on using a Mexican bank debit card to pay these bills? I have used one to book a hotel and a rental car in the US.


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## MissKT (Feb 24, 2013)

I hav considered that, but ultimately I will be returning to the us and have to convert the money anyway, so I thought I'd get a handle for it now


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

We rarely go back to the U.S. - actually not at all if we can help it - but I can tell you that, when we visit France, where my wife´s extended family lives, and that is fairly often, we get our Euros from ATMs using either our U.S. or Mexican bank debit cards. We own no credit cards at all anymore and haven´t for years. We might buy a few Euros with Mexican Pesos here in Mexico at a foreign exchange outlet but really never more than 500 or even less Euros just in case we experience problems which we never have, The ATMs in France give us a decent exchange rate on either our dollar or peso accounts. I don´t see why that would not be the case with your Mexican debit card(s) denominated in pesos used at an ATM in the U.S.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=MissKT;2034257]I hav considered that, but ultimately I will be returning to the us and have to convert the money anyway, so I thought I'd get a handle for it now[/QUOTE]_

In that case, wire your pesos from your Mexican bank to your U.S. bank converted into dollars if you are speaking of a substantial sum of money here. Otherwise, draw down the funds you have in Mexico in dollars with multiple ATM drawdowns where ever you may be in the U.S. 

Your quandary is not so unusual. When I arrived here in the spring of 2001, the peso was 8.9 to the dollar. Today it is approximately 13 to the dollar. Tomorrow is anyone´s guess. If I had converted all of our savings into pesos back then I would have taken it in the shorts no matter how much interest I could have earned in a peso account in Mexico. Fortunately, we kept almost all of our money in dollars at a U.S. bank even though the return on our meager investments up there has been terrible since about 2008. 

Good luck to you..


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## Lorij (Jul 8, 2012)

IMO the best thing to do would be to simply withdraw the money in Mex and then moneygram it to someone in the US you can trust a parent or sibling and then when you arrive pay your bills however you wish. I have tried to use my HSBC card in the US and it did not work when I tried it. However I am not sure which bank you use in the US, but I use Wells Fargo and it works in Mexico. I also know that HSBC charged me more for a money transfer than the moneygram fee. Good luck, wish I could be more help.


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