# Mexican Banks



## Valdezanais (Jun 28, 2016)

I have heard Mexican banks function differently than US banks. I need some advice on to which mexican bank works best from your experience. Any advice is appreciated!


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

Valdezanais said:


> I have heard Mexican banks function differently than US banks. I need some advice on to which mexican bank works best from your experience. Any advice is appreciated!


I'm still fairly new to dealing with Mexican banks but I've discovered that they're generally worse than U.S. banks with even more cumbersome regulations, nuisance fees and unfriendly credit card terms featuring usurious rates. Been with Santander for six months and it's particularly bad---still can't set up direct deposit and nobody at the local branch is authorized to do much except for the manager who is rarely there. Now I'll yield to the old-times here who've far more experience and we can both listen to what they have to say.


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## Corri (Nov 2, 2013)

Banamex? Maybe. Depends on what you want to do and how much you have to deposit.
It does have one very obvious value however, it has chairs to sit in while you wait for your number the show up!


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

Corri said:


> Banamex? Maybe. Depends on what you want to do and how much you have to deposit.
> It does have one very obvious value however, it has chairs to sit in while you wait for your number the show up!


Remember to avoid the banks, any bank, on the 15th or the end of the month. At Banamex, you won't even find a seat.


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## Anonimo (Apr 8, 2012)

Banorte has served us well. By the way, I understand that it's the only wholly-owned Mexican bank. All the others a foreign owned.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

That honor might not be considered an asset.


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

Corri said:


> Banamex? Maybe. Depends on what you want to do and how much you have to deposit.
> It does have one very obvious value however, it has chairs to sit in while you wait for your number the show up!


Then Banamex has something my local Santander never thought of: Numbers! At my branch there's no concept of first come first served. Customers don't sit to wait lest they be ignored and left sitting for hours. So they hover around the cubicles and often barge in with questions while the bank officer is servicing another customer.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

perropedorro said:


> Then Banamex has something my local Santander never thought of: Numbers! At my branch there's no concept of first come first served. Customers don't sit to wait lest they be ignored and left sitting for hours. So they hover around the cubicles and often barge in with questions while the bank officer is servicing another customer.


Banamex has a number system and seats for people waiting for the tellers as well as for the bank officers. When you enter, you tell them whether you want a teller or client service or an officer. They give you a number and you sit down while you wait. It is a great system. I don't know why other banks don't implement it.


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## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

My local Bancomer branch uses numbers (_fichas_) too.


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## Bodega (Apr 20, 2016)

*A cultural quirk*



perropedorro said:


> Then Banamex has something my local Santander never thought of: Numbers! At my branch there's no concept of first come first served. Customers don't sit to wait lest they be ignored and left sitting for hours. So they hover around the cubicles and often barge in with questions while the bank officer is servicing another customer.


You raise an interesting point. Countless times, I have seen people here in Mexico ignore the queue and approach a teller, an official, a technician, etc, to ask questions, sometimes a quite complicated question. I've never witnessed an objection by anyone in the queue, and the desk jockey always accepts and answers the question, so I'm left to believe that this is simply the way it's done. Like other anomalies (anomaly to me, quite normal to those involved) I can only assume it is a part of the culture to allow this, if it is only to ask a question. If the person was planning to actually initiate a transaction, they would not think of bucking the line. Personally, I find myself unable to do this, but, as it seems to be cultural, I do not feel that the perpetrators are rude, they are simply doing things the way they've always been done.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Bodega said:


> You raise an interesting point. Countless times, I have seen people here in Mexico ignore the queue and approach a teller, an official, a technician, etc, to ask questions, sometimes a quite complicated question. I've never witnessed an objection by anyone in the queue, and the desk jockey always accepts and answers the question, so I'm left to believe that this is simply the way it's done. Like other anomalies (anomaly to me, quite normal to those involved) I can only assume it is a part of the culture to allow this, if it is only to ask a question. If the person was planning to actually initiate a transaction, they would not think of bucking the line. Personally, I find myself unable to do this, but, as it seems to be cultural, I do not feel that the perpetrators are rude, they are simply doing things the way they've always been done.


Your example is illustrative of an aspect of the culture in Mexico that I have observed in other circumstances.

Another example is vehicles blocking intersections when traffic is stop and go. In the US, it is considered rude to pull into an intersection when there is insufficient space to clear it on the other side. If the light changes while one is in the intersection, it blocks the cross traffic. In Mexico, this principle is mostly ignored. But the surprising difference is the tolerance of the cross traffic that is blocked. In the US, one is risking a road rage attack for blocking an intersection. In Mexico, people calmly wait for it to clear.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

TundraGreen said:


> Another example is vehicles blocking intersections when traffic is stop and go. In the US, it is considered rude to pull into an intersection when there is insufficient space to clear it on the other side. If the light changes while one is in the intersection, it blocks the cross traffic. In Mexico, this principle is mostly ignored. But the surprising difference is the tolerance of the cross traffic that is blocked. In the US, one is risking a road rage attack for blocking an intersection. In Mexico, people calmly wait for it to clear.


Some people who have suffered a high level of abuse that blocking an intersection is only a mere inconvenience.


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## dwwhiteside (Apr 17, 2013)

I guess a lot depends on what sort of services you need or want from a bank. I've opened accounts at three different banks here in Mexico. The first was BBVA Bancomer. The reason I chose them is because I had opened an account at BBVA Compass in Texas. My thought being, "It's all BBVA so it should make transferring money between the US and Mexico a breeze." Boy, was I wrong about that.

Not only did I find out that every single time I wanted to transfer money from my US account to my account in Mexico, I had to physically go into a US branch to initiate the transfer; I also found out that I could not even use BBVA Bancomer ATMs with my BBVA Compass debit card without paying a fee, to both banks.

So, I switched to Scotiabank. I really thought things were going well with Scotia. We had a construction project going on and I was transferring a significant amount of money into my account every month to buy materials and pay workers. Then, I thought to establish some credit here in Mexico. I tried four different times to get something, anything from Scotia that would help me establish some credit here. Every time I was turned down.

I am now banking with Intercam. I know this bank is not nearly as large or well known as some of the others but, their people are very, very customer service oriented. In fact, my banker at Intercam regularly contacts me when the exchange rate is favorable for making a transfer. I have not yet requested any type of credit from Intercam so we'll what happens when I do. But I am pleased with the service I am getting from them when it comes to transfers from the US and general deposit account maintenance.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

perropedorro said:


> Then Banamex has something my local Santander never thought of: Numbers! At my branch there's no concept of first come first served. Customers don't sit to wait lest they be ignored and left sitting for hours. So they hover around the cubicles and often barge in with questions while the bank officer is servicing another customer.


That's odd. At my Santander branch in Mexico City, bank customers wait in an orderly line till one of the tellers on duty is free and beckons them over. No hovering or barging to speak of!


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## pappabeemx (Jun 20, 2016)

*Not a happy camper*

When I first moved here there was a BBVA branch across the street from WallMart. The lady who worked there, Pheoebe, was great. She got my account opened, suggested the typo of account I should have and she set up direct pay for the utilities.

Everything was great they even deposited my US checks with no cost. Then they closed that branch, started adding costs to my transactions and removed the special services that I was receiving,

I closed the account and decided that I didn't need a local account, I can get cash from ATM machines all over the area, don't need checks, many places are now starting to accept my US credit cards and, if I run out of cash, many places will wait till tomorrow for me to pay the balance. What do I need the problems with a local bank?

It did take me almost two years to make the change. So OK, I'm a slow learner.


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

Isla Verde said:


> That's odd. At my Santander branch in Mexico City, bank customers wait in an orderly line till one of the tellers on duty is free and beckons them over. No hovering or barging to speak of!


Sure, the regular line for simple transactions at the teller windows works that way, but if you've got anything requiring the attention of one of the bank officers sitting at a desk, chaos reigns. Take-a-number would be an improvement.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

perropedorro said:


> Sure, the regular line for simple transactions at the teller windows works that way, but if you've got anything requiring the attention of one of the bank officers sitting at a desk, chaos reigns. Take-a-number would be an improvement.


Not at my bank. There is a row of chairs for bank clients to sit on till they are called by the next available customer service rep. No chaos at all. Maybe chilangos have better manners than the inhabitants of Colima.


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

Isla Verde said:


> Maybe chilangos have better manners than the inhabitants of Colima.


It looks that way, as far as banks are concerned.. Now you want to talk about driving habits? Modern chilango drivers are as ruthless and bloodthirsty as their ancestors, Tenochtitlán's Aztec warriors going into battle. 
I actually love visiting CDMX for my ration of monuments, culture and the arts....or a good fútbol match. But the traffic....


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

perropedorro said:


> It looks that way, as far as banks are concerned.. Now you want to talk about driving habits? Modern chilango drivers are as ruthless and bloodthirsty as their ancestors, Tenochtitlán's Aztec warriors going into battle.
> I actually love visiting CDMX for my ration of monuments, culture and the arts....or a good fútbol match. But the traffic....


The CDMX traffic is not a problem for me - I either walk or take public transportation, generally during non-rush hours.


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## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

Isla Verde said:


> Not at my bank. There is a row of chairs for bank clients to sit on till they are called by the next available customer service rep. No chaos at all. ....


This has also been my experience in Tepoztlan. Customers are orderly and appear to be patient while waiting in line.

What frustrates me is when there is a very long line-up, people waiting patiently, then 2 of 3 tellers close their windows (presumably for a break) leaving only 1 teller to deal with the many waiting customers. Actually, a couple of months of go ALL of the tellers were closed for several minutes in the middle of the afternoon, and the line just got longer and longer. I was the only non-Mexican in line, and as far as I could observe was the only one very annoyed by this. Everyone else just stoically waited. (Actually, I just waited, too. What else could I do? But I did not feel stoic.)


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## ExpatEmigre (Nov 22, 2015)

ojosazules11 said:


> This has also been my experience in Tepoztlan. Customers are orderly and appear to be patient while waiting in line.
> 
> What frustrates me is when there is a very long line-up, people waiting patiently, then 2 of 3 tellers close their windows (presumably for a break) leaving only 1 teller to deal with the many waiting customers. Actually, a couple of months of go ALL of the tellers were closed for several minutes in the middle of the afternoon, and the line just got longer and longer. I was the only non-Mexican in line, and as far as I could observe was the only one very annoyed by this. Everyone else just stoically waited. (Actually, I just waited, too. What else could I do? But I did not feel stoic.)


I would have very quietly Lost My Mind.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

I still do not know why an American expat would even need a Mexican bank account, I have a Citi bank account that allows me to withdrawal from any Banamex ATM fee free. I also carry Capitol One and Schwab Banking cards for emergency use if the Citi card gets eaten, they are both fee reimbursed monthly...I usually pay my property taxes once a year along with my water bill, I put a few thousand pesos at the local CFE office once a year and they deduct the CFE bill from my credit...Seems the Mexican banks are allways screwing over their customers...

I only carry cash for gas and food...Sometimes I get gas from the food,LOL


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

chicois8 said:


> I still do not know why an American expat would even need a Mexican bank account. . . .


Once I went into a store in Mexico to buy a large ticket item and asked if they accepted credit/debit cards from a US Bank. They replied, No. The choice I had to make was to go to the nearest ATM and withdraw around 14,000 pesos or use my debit card from a Mexican bank. Now, I could have gone to Sam's or Costco, but they didn't have the item I wanted.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

joaquinx said:


> Once I went into a store in Mexico to buy a large ticket item and asked if they accepted credit/debit cards from a US Bank. They replied, No. The choice I had to make was to go to the nearest ATM and withdraw around 14,000 pesos or use my debit card from a Mexican bank. Now, I could have gone to Sam's or Costco, but they didn't have the item I wanted.


I also get charged a fee if I use my US credit card in Mexico. I don't do it often so have not investigated if I could get a better deal with a different credit card. Mostly, if it is from the US and priced in dollars, I use a US credit/debit card. And if it is Mexican and priced in pesos, I use a Mexican debit card. I have one US debit card that charges me no fees at ATMs anywhere in the world. I use that for getting cash or moving money to Mexico.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

Well different strokes for different folks, for me cash is king, I don't use credit cards, have one.


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## Tio Copas (Jul 7, 2016)

Bodega said:


> You raise an interesting point. Countless times, I have seen people here in Mexico ignore the queue and approach a teller, an official, a technician, etc, to ask questions, sometimes a quite complicated question. I've never witnessed an objection by anyone in the queue, and the desk jockey always accepts and answers the question, so I'm left to believe that this is simply the way it's done. Like other anomalies (anomaly to me, quite normal to those involved) I can only assume it is a part of the culture to allow this, if it is only to ask a question. If the person was planning to actually initiate a transaction, they would not think of bucking the line. Personally, I find myself unable to do this, but, as it seems to be cultural, I do not feel that the perpetrators are rude, they are simply doing things the way they've always been done.


I found line jumpers to be common in Italy, also.


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## ExpatEmigre (Nov 22, 2015)

There are no lines in Italy. There is the person at the front & then at best a delta of others scrambling behind.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

ExpatEmigre said:


> There are no lines in Italy. There is the person at the front & then at best a delta of others scrambling behind.


That reminds me of the situation in my bank in Texcoco when I lived there in the late 1970s.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Line jumping is comon in a lot of places, I attacked RUssians at the airport that cut the line in front of me i Mexico City aad made them go back, same in Paris with Swedes. In Marseille jumping lines seems to be the local sport as well.. If someone cuts the line in front of me , I just do not let them get away with it. Nothing stoic about me and I usually get th offender to go back in is place.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

citlali said:


> Line jumping is comon in a lot of places, I attacked RUssians at the airport that cut the line in front of me i Mexico City aad made them go back, same in Paris with Swedes. In Marseille jumping lines seems to be the local sport as well.. If someone cuts the line in front of me , I just do not let them get away with it. Nothing stoic about me and I usually get th offender to go back in is place.


Good for you, citlali! I have done the same a few time in Mexico. I probably got away with it because of my _canas_.


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