# Don't have all your eggs in one basket.



## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

Nationwide Outage Hits Bank of America: Customers Unable To Access Accounts | Zero Hedge

So you are an expat in Mexico and simply refuse to trust a Mexican bank with any of your precious savings. After all - you can't trust those nasty Mexican banks. Rather - you will leave your monies solely in the US and just draw on those funds as needed. Well - perhaps you should rethink that some.

I - personally - only realized that something was up when I fired up Quicken this morning to update our accounts and quicken said it could not access BofA.

Lesson : divest.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

horseshoe846 said:


> Nationwide Outage Hits Bank of America: Customers Unable To Access Accounts | Zero Hedge
> 
> So you are an expat in Mexico and simply refuse to trust a Mexican bank with any of your precious savings. After all - you can't trust those nasty Mexican banks. Rather - you will leave your monies solely in the US and just draw on those funds as needed. Well - perhaps you should rethink that some.
> 
> ...


Did you mean:
Lesson: diversify


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## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

TundraGreen said:


> Did you mean:
> Lesson: diversify


You have earned my second 'like' !

Although - we could twist it into divesting out of solely US bank deposits


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

horseshoe846 said:


> You have earned my second 'like' !
> 
> Although - we could twist it into divesting out of solely US bank deposits


Agreed. That occurred to me as well.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

I use Citi Bank, Schwab Bank and Capitol One 360 all with bank / debit cards for fee free ATM withdrawals ...........works great for me......I'll keep my money in the USA......


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## Meritorious-MasoMenos (Apr 17, 2014)

horseshoe846 said:


> Nationwide Outage Hits Bank of America: Customers Unable To Access Accounts | Zero Hedge
> 
> So you are an expat in Mexico and simply refuse to trust a Mexican bank with any of your precious savings. After all - you can't trust those nasty Mexican banks. Rather - you will leave your monies solely in the US and just draw on those funds as needed. Well - perhaps you should rethink that some.
> 
> ...


I've read that IRS regs put in 4-5 years ago gives big hassles at tax time for Americans with foreign bank accounts. Not true? I have no idea, with accounts with several US banks sufficient. They all have Phone, life chat and secure messages free for overseas residents.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Meritorious-MasoMenos said:


> I've read that IRS regs put in 4-5 years ago gives big hassles at tax time for Americans with foreign bank accounts. Not true? I have no idea, with accounts with several US banks sufficient. They all have Phone, life chat and secure messages free for overseas residents.


Not a big hassle if all you have is some deposits in foreign banks. If you have a total of more than $10,000 USD in foreign banks, you have to file an FBAR once a year before June 30th. If you exceed some higher thresholds for foreign financial assets, you might have to file an 8938 as well.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

horseshoe846 said:


> Nationwide Outage Hits Bank of America: Customers Unable To Access Accounts | Zero Hedge
> 
> So you are an expat in Mexico and simply refuse to trust a Mexican bank with any of your precious savings. After all - you can't trust those nasty Mexican banks. Rather - you will leave your monies solely in the US and just draw on those funds as needed. Well - perhaps you should rethink that some.
> 
> ...


Yesterday morning, the 19th, I transferred money from BofA to HSBC and it took two hours. If there was an outage, I missed it. 

I use Google Sheets to update my accounts and not Quicken.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

joaquinx said:


> Yesterday morning, the 19th, I transferred money from BofA to HSBC and it took two hours. If there was an outage, I missed it.
> 
> I use Google Sheets to update my accounts and not Quicken.


You are a braver person than I if you let Google keep all your financial data.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

TundraGreen said:


> You are a braver person than I if you let Google keep all your financial data.


Not all. Who do you trust? Those who rely on their computer for storage risk crashes and, one day, a dead computer.


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## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

joaquinx said:


> Not all. Who do you trust? Those who rely on their computer for storage risk crashes and, one day, a dead computer.


I have used Quicken for maybe 30 years now - since the time it was a one man operation. I like it because it will update the information for our US accounts with a single mouse click. Does Google Sheets provide that sort of feature ?

Most times I have the Quicken files on a USB dongle inserted into the USB port on my router. That allows me to access the files from my laptop or my desktop. When I'm done updating the USB device I a make backup to the local hard drive.


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## UrbanMan (Jun 18, 2015)

chicois8 said:


> I use Citi Bank, Schwab Bank and Capitol One 360 all with bank / debit cards for fee free ATM withdrawals ...........works great for me......I'll keep my money in the USA......


Many US banks now ask that you set a Travel Alert if you intend to use your cards outside of your home state. If you don't set the alert and you attempt to use your card out of state, or country, they might lock your account. 

Do all of you set repeated travel alerts for your cards?


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

horseshoe846 said:


> I have used Quicken for maybe 30 years now - since the time it was a one man operation. I like it because it will update the information for our US accounts with a single mouse click. Does Google Sheets provide that sort of feature ?
> 
> Most times I have the Quicken files on a USB dongle inserted into the USB port on my router. That allows me to access the files from my laptop or my desktop. When I'm done updating the USB device I a make backup to the local hard drive.


Google Sheets is a spread sheet app. It updates after every entry. I also down load the spreadsheet in Excel format to my hard disk. 

I can access the information everywhere. On my laptop, tablet, and cellphone even when I went to Florence, Italy.


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## circle110 (Jul 20, 2009)

UrbanMan said:


> Many US banks now ask that you set a Travel Alert if you intend to use your cards outside of your home state. If you don't set the alert and you attempt to use your card out of state, or country, they might lock your account.
> 
> Do all of you set repeated travel alerts for your cards?


I just tried to call Capital One 360 with a travel alert and they told me that their new chip design is secure enough that they have now stopped accepting travel notifications and say their card works world-wide.

Schwab knows that I "spend a lot of time" in Mexico so they have never rejected the use of the card in Mexican ATMs.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

joaquinx said:


> Not all. Who do you trust? Those who rely on their computer for storage risk crashes and, one day, a dead computer.


I was thinking more about what they do with the data, rather than worry about losing it. Does Google look at financial data for information to sell to advertisers the way they do with people's choice of search words and like they used to do with people's email? I heard that they recently stopped reading all the email on their system.

I used to use Quicken, but they stopped producing a Mac version so I switched to GNUCash. All my files are stored locally on my computer, locally on a backup drive, and in the cloud with a backup service.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

TundraGreen said:


> I was thinking more about what they do with the data, rather than worry about losing it. Does Google look at financial data for information to sell to advertisers the way they do with people's choice of search words and like they used to do with people's email? I heard that they recently stopped reading all the email on their system.
> 
> I used to use Quicken, but they stopped producing a Mac version so I switched to GNUCash. All my files are stored locally on my computer, locally on a backup drive, and *in the cloud with a backup service.*


That is where my Google sheets are stored - on Google Drive, a cloud storage service.


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## UrbanMan (Jun 18, 2015)

circle110 said:


> I just tried to call Capital One 360 with a travel alert and they told me that their new chip design is secure enough that they have now stopped accepting travel notifications and say their card works world-wide.


If you drop your card on the ground, and someone travels to another state or country and uses it - how does the fact that it has a chip help in any way? Or someone learns your account number and security code, and starts doing on-line transactions - how does the chip help? 

I get that the chip makes it much harder to create a forged copy of a card, but that's only one of the worries.



TundraGreen said:


> All my files are stored locally on my computer, locally on a backup drive, and in the cloud with a backup service.


Another possibility is to email yourself your key files (as attachments to an email), and save the emails in a folder within your email account. A do-it-yourself cloud.


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## dwwhiteside (Apr 17, 2013)

TundraGreen said:


> Not a big hassle if all you have is some deposits in foreign banks. If you have a total of more than $10,000 USD in foreign banks, you have to file an FBAR once a year before June 30th. If you exceed some higher thresholds for foreign financial assets, you might have to file an 8938 as well.


Actually, the deadline for FBAR filing has been changed and is now April 15th; same as the tax deadline. 
https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/new-due-date-fbars-0

I was a couple of weeks late this year but, according to the above referenced site, they are granting automatic extensions to October 15. Still, technically, the FBAR filing date is no longer June 30; it is now April 15.


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## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

dwwhiteside said:


> Actually, the deadline for FBAR filing has been changed and is now April 15th; same as the tax deadline.
> https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/new-due-date-fbars-0
> 
> I was a couple of weeks late this year but, according to the above referenced site, they are granting automatic extensions to October 15. Still, technically, the FBAR filing date is no longer June 30; it is now April 15.


April 15th is an easy date for me to remember - so I have always filed the FBARS (online) when I do my US federal taxes. AND - since the data required for an 8938 is virtually identical to an FBAR - I complete and transpose the data from the FBAR, complete an 8938 and file that with our taxes as well - even though we are under the higher threshold. 

As a fulltime resident of Mexico I believe they allow you to file US taxes later than April 15th - so it is kind of interesting that they would move-up the deadline for FBAR filing.

Some banks - like Banamex - now issue us US 1099-INTs for our accounts in Mexico. They are in English and reports values in USD. That is all great - but every year I have to beg them to provide the info before April 15th so I can use it to file our taxes. It would be great if ALL Mexican financial institutions would do the same for their US customers.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

horseshoe846 said:


> As a fulltime resident of Mexico I believe they allow you to file US taxes later than April 15th - so it is kind of interesting that they would move-up the deadline for FBAR filing.


The IRS filing deadline for fulltime expats is June 15.


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## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

Isla Verde said:


> The IRS filing deadline for fulltime expats is June 15.


But I suspect that if monies are due - they are due on April 15th ?

Here is a related question - As a SS recipient - are you required to make quarterly tax payments ?


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

horseshoe846 said:


> But I suspect that if monies are due - they are due on April 15th ?
> 
> Here is a related question - As a SS recipient - are you required to make quarterly tax payments ?


Re your first point, I suspect you're right.

I am a SS recipient - know nothing about quarterly tax payments. This year, for the first time since moving to Mexico, I did owe some money to the IRS, which I paid when I filed my returns.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

Isla Verde said:


> This year, for the first time since moving to Mexico, I did owe some money to the IRS, which I paid when I filed my returns.


I wholeheartedly agree with the general advice to not have all your eggs in one basket. I have two US-based checking/ATM accounts. If I had only one and that ATM card was compromised, I might run out of cash before a replacement card could arrive! 

With US-based accounts I have no complications to make payments to the IRS when I have to. I can just give them my routing/account info and have them suck the money right out like a vampire!

I can't imagine personally not keeping at least one US-based account, but for those who want to have all their money in Mexico, or who don't have enough cash for more than one account, can you pay the IRS using a Mexican peso-based checking account? My guess is that you can, but it's not as easy.

Regarding needing to make quarterly payments, see figure 2a in this: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p505/ch02.html

If you are going to end up owing the IRS less than $1000, don't worry about it.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

I have a debit and a credit card with BofA and a debit card with HSBC in Mexico. I never use my BofA debit card in Mexico or anywhere else. I'll use my credit card to either buy items or get cash from an ATM. I transfer funds from BofA to HSBC and use that card for local transactions and internet purchases in Mexico. BofA credit card for purchases from the USA. To pay off my BofA credit card, I simply transfer money from one account to another online to BofA.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

joaquinx said:


> I have a debit and a credit card with BofA and a debit card with HSBC in Mexico. I never use my BofA debit card in Mexico or anywhere else. I'll use my credit card to either buy items or get cash from an ATM. I transfer funds from BofA to HSBC and use that card for local transactions and internet purchases in Mexico. BofA credit card for purchases from the USA. To pay off my BofA credit card, I simply transfer money from one account to another online to BofA.


What fees does it cost you to transfer money from your US account to your Mexican account? Do you pay an international wire transfer fee?


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

eastwind said:


> What fees does it cost you to transfer money from your US account to your Mexican account? Do you pay an international wire transfer fee?


It's with xoom.com. 4.99usd for each transfer. The rate is a bit better than a debit/credit card. I get two hour service from the time a initiate the transfer to the time it's in HSBC.


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## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

joaquinx said:


> It's with xoom.com. 4.99usd for each transfer. The rate is a bit better than a debit/credit card. I get two hour service from the time a initiate the transfer to the time it's in HSBC.


I'm sorry - I simply cannot accept that a PayPal service (xoom) is the best way to move money from the US to Mexico. But this has been re-hashed time and time again on forums such as this. I can only assume it is more profitable for the forums to not provide concise info on this topic and rather have the same topic come up every couple months for viewer-ship ratings.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

horseshoe846 said:


> I'm sorry - I simply cannot accept that a PayPal service (xoom) is the best way to move money from the US to Mexico. But this has been re-hashed time and time again on forums such as this. I can only assume it is more profitable for the forums to not provide concise info on this topic and rather have the same topic come up every couple months for viewer-ship ratings.


I never stated that xoom what the best way to transfer funds nor the worst. I suggest that you do your own research and find a better method and then let us know your finding.


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## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

joaquinx said:


> I never stated that xoom what the best way to transfer funds nor the worst. I suggest that you do your own research and find a better method and then let us know your finding.


Oh but I have sooo many times over the years. If it weren't such a terrible time to exchange dollars to pesos (17.48 at the moment - down from 22.00 earlier this year) I would suggest a contest where at a specific (pre-arranged) moment we all execute a currency trade and compare results. 

I personally don't care at all about the immediate availability of the funds. I can wait three days for the trade to settle. When I want to move more than $1000 USD to Mexico I call the international currency desk at my broker and get a quote at that moment. 

To get spending cash (7000 pesos) - I have no problem using our US ATM card - no fees

The ATM/Credit card exchange rates are established at the weee hours of the morning and apparently honored throughout THAT day. 

BofA offers a variety of credit cards - at least 4 - only one is appropriate for an expat living in Mexico looking to avoid exchange fees and get the best exchange rate - as well as picking up reward points.


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## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

TundraGreen said:


> I was thinking more about what they do with the data, rather than worry about losing it. Does Google look at financial data for information to sell to advertisers the way they do with people's choice of search words and like they used to do with people's email? I heard that they recently stopped reading all the email on their system.
> 
> I used to use Quicken, but they stopped producing a Mac version so I switched to GNUCash. All my files are stored locally on my computer, locally on a backup drive, and in the cloud with a backup service.


So - I noticed the link at the bottom of your postings - I think I would like to set up something similar - not for financial gain - but simply as a place I could store my research on a topic. The software you are using seems perfect for my needs. Can you provide a link to learn more and possibly which hosting service you are using ?

btw - I have printed off your history of gaining citizenship - I'm using it as our guide - but we are already ahead of your schedule having our apostatized birth certificates ready...


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

joaquinx said:


> I never stated that xoom what the best way to transfer funds nor the worst. I suggest that you do your own research and find a better method and then let us know your finding.


Yes please do. There are those here who advocate Schwab, and I followed their advice, and it works well - I just use an ATM and Schwab refunds the fee.

But it's hard to tell about the exchange rate; it seems reasonably good. If someone can quote something Schwab and Xoom advertise such as "you get the interbank rate plus 1%" that provides for a time-independent comparison that would be very helpful.

Five bucks for a transfer is much cheaper than the forty-something fee my old bank charges for international wire transfers. Is there a dollar limit on the size of the transfer? 

Another issue is safety. What happens if the xoom transfer goes awry? Perhaps xoom can be cheaper because they are optimizing away verification steps and/or the ability to unwind the transaction in case of error. Or perhaps xoom is cheaper just because the banks have taken advantage of consumers to charge outrageous wire fees. Would you trust xoom with enough money to buy a house?


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## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

I -PROMISE- I will never make any post of any kind that deals with monetary issues on this forum in the future. (Is there a cutey icon for that ?)


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

horseshoe846 said:


> I'm sorry - I simply cannot accept that a PayPal service (xoom) is the best way to move money from the US to Mexico. But this has been re-hashed time and time again on forums such as this. I can only assume it is more profitable for the forums to not provide concise info on this topic and rather have the same topic come up every couple months for viewer-ship ratings.


If the topic has been discussed often on this forum, it is because it is one of interest to the members. This has nothing to do with increasing the forum's ratings.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

horseshoe846 said:


> (Is there a cutey icon for that ?)


This: 

:fingerscrossed:





:behindsofa:


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

Xoom is a business, it had a rate of 18 even when the peso was higher. Today it is 17.0550.

From their own site today it says....

Locked-in exchange rate 1 USD = 17.0550 MXN
*In addition to the transaction fee, Xoom also makes money when it changes your U.S. dollars into a different currency. Xoom rounds to the nearest whole peso.

https://www.xoom.com/mexico/fees-fx


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

eastwind said:


> Five bucks for a transfer is much cheaper than the forty-something fee my old bank charges for international wire transfers. Is there a dollar limit on the size of the transfer?
> 
> Another issue is safety. What happens if the xoom transfer goes awry? Perhaps xoom can be cheaper because they are optimizing away verification steps and/or the ability to unwind the transaction in case of error. Or perhaps xoom is cheaper just because the banks have taken advantage of consumers to charge outrageous wire fees. Would you trust xoom with enough money to buy a house?


There is a 999.99 usd limit on transfers to HSBC and similar limits to other Mexican banks. Not only is the high fee associated with bank wires, but also the exchange rate is terrible. Probably its only use would be transferring large amounts for car or house purchase.

I've been using xoom for three years or so in a bank to bank manner without any problem. I have heard transfers to agents such as Electra have gone awry. The reports have mentioned problems with the cashier not having the money and yet the money is said to be withdrawn. People have given the cashier the code for withdrawal before asking if they had the money.

The funds are deposited in HSBC even before they are withdrawn from BofA. Or so it seems.


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

Xoom is a part of Paypal, I have never had a problem. You do however need a bank account to deposit it in, I don't think you can pay bills to businesses with it. When I go to the states for an extended time I deposit money into my caretaker's account to watch the house, mow the grass, etc.

As mentioned the $4.99 fee is a lot lower than a $40.00 electric wire transfer. You may lose some to the peso exchange rate because they use a locked in exchange rate.


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## UrbanMan (Jun 18, 2015)

Isla Verde said:


> If the topic has been discussed often on this forum, it is because it is one of interest to the members. This has nothing to do with increasing the forum's ratings.


And the world changes, meaning that what was best in 2016 might not be best now. Its good that the topic surfaces regularly, its an opportunity to possibly hear about something new.

In addition, not everyone has exactly the same circumstances. For people with a low level of resources, Schwab/Cap One might not be the answer.

I've read that some come to Mexico for the winter with $10K in hundred dollar bills, and convert to pesos at the casas de cambios or retail bank branches as needed. More than a bit crazy imo, but some expats are crazy.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

UrbanMan said:


> I've read that some come to Mexico for the winter with $10K in hundred dollar bills, and convert to pesos at the casas de cambios or retail bank branches as needed. More than a bit crazy imo, but some expats are crazy.


Present company excepted, of course!


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

UrbanMan said:


> …
> I've read that some come to Mexico for the winter with $10K in hundred dollar bills, and convert to pesos at the casas de cambios or retail bank branches as needed. More than a bit crazy imo, but some expats are crazy.


Lest anyone think that is a good idea, I suggest not. It can be a pain to change US dollars into pesos (and I suspect Canadian dollars aren't any easier). Maybe it is different in tourist areas, but in Guadalajara I had a visitor here who wanted to change US dollars to pesos and we went to three or four places without success. Finally we went to my bank and they allowed me to deposit the dollars in my account, then withdraw pesos to give to my visitor.

Not to mention that crossing borders with $10,000 in cash is inherently risky and usually has to be declared on customs forms.


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## UrbanMan (Jun 18, 2015)

TundraGreen said:


> It can be a pain to change US dollars into pesos (and I suspect Canadian dollars aren't any easier). Maybe it is different in tourist areas, but in Guadalajara I had a visitor here who wanted to change US dollars to pesos and we went to three or four places without success. Finally we went to my bank and they allowed me to deposit the dollars in my account, then withdraw pesos to give to my visitor.


Your telling me that the cambios located all around the tourist hot spots in Guad, were unwilling to do exactly what it is they exist to do? I'll agree that there are not as many in Guad (per capita) versus the popular beach towns, but last time I was in Guad, they were not that hard to find.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

UrbanMan said:


> Your telling me that the cambios located all around the tourist hot spots in Guad, were unwilling to do exactly what it is they exist to do? I'll agree that there are not as many in Guad (per capita) versus the popular beach towns, but last time I was in Guad, they were not that hard to find.


We tried several banks and one place that I would call a casio de cambio. There are not places on every corner advertising money changing like there are in Tijuana or Puerto Vallarta.


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