# Cashing a US check in Mex



## KaiyanaM

Hi all, 

I'm going to be moving to Leon GTO in a couple months and was wondering if I could cash US checks anywhere in Mex? And also if the mail from the states is reliable enough to receive checks via mail. 

I currently live in Tijuana and cross monthly in Cali to do my banking. Thanks for your time and responses!


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## TundraGreen

KaiyanaM said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I'm going to be moving to Leon GTO in a couple months and was wondering if I could cash US checks anywhere in Mex? And also if the mail from the states is reliable enough to receive checks via mail.
> 
> I currently live in Tijuana and cross monthly in Cali to do my banking. Thanks for your time and responses!


I once wrote a check drawn on a US bank in dollars and deposited it to my Mexican bank account. At the time, the balance of the account was greater than the check. If I recall correctly, they charged me a 1% fee to deposit the check. They credited the account with the funds immediately.

I would not rely on regular Mexican mail to receive checks. It seems to arrive pretty consistently, but it is very slow and sometimes never gets here.


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## Isla Verde

KaiyanaM said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I'm going to be moving to Leon GTO in a couple months and was wondering if I could cash US checks anywhere in Mex? . . .
> 
> I currently live in Tijuana and cross monthly in Cali to do my banking. Thanks for your time and responses!


I think it will be difficult to have US checks cashed here. A few months ago I asked my Mexican bank (Santander) if I could deposit a check drawn on my Bank of America account to my Santander account. I was told it would take at least a couple of weeks to clear and that I would be charged an insane service fee, something like 20%.


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## makaloco

Bancomer accepts personal checks from my US account for deposit in my Bancomer peso account. There's no fee, the exchange rate is set at the time the check is presented for deposit, and the funds take about eight days to clear. Exchange rate is not the best but acceptable. They also once deposited a US check from a third party made out to me, and it worked the same way. To my knowledge they will not cash foreign checks.


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## Isla Verde

makaloco said:


> Bancomer accepts personal checks from my US account for deposit in my Bancomer peso account. There's no fee, the exchange rate is set at the time the check is presented for deposit, and the funds take about eight days to clear. Exchange rate is not the best but acceptable. They also once deposited a US check from a third party made out to me, and it worked the same way. To my knowledge they will not cash foreign checks.


Useful information - thanks for posting it.


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## TundraGreen

makaloco said:


> Bancomer accepts personal checks from my US account for deposit in my Bancomer peso account. There's no fee, the exchange rate is set at the time the check is presented for deposit, and the funds take about eight days to clear. Exchange rate is not the best but acceptable. They also once deposited a US check from a third party made out to me, and it worked the same way. To my knowledge they will not cash foreign checks.


Out of curiosity, was your Mexico balance sufficient to cover the checks you deposited? That greatly reduces the risk to the Mexican bank since they can freeze sufficient funds in the account to cover the check until it clears and they get the money from the US.


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## sparks

KaiyanaM said:


> I'm going to be moving to Leon GTO in a couple months and was wondering if I could cash US checks anywhere in Mex? !


Think ATM and Debit card


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## makaloco

TundraGreen said:


> Out of curiosity, was your Mexico balance sufficient to cover the checks you deposited? That greatly reduces the risk to the Mexican bank since they can freeze sufficient funds in the account to cover the check until it clears and they get the money from the US.


No, my Mexico balance is usually nearing rock bottom! But when I say that the funds take eight days to clear, I mean that the deposit amount is frozen during the waiting period. I get a receipt showing the peso conversion and date of availability. The deposit is credited but not included in "available balance" until the date shown. So there isn't much risk to the bank. Obviously the method requires a bit of advance planning on my end, but I can nearly always predict any need for funds beyond my Social Security deposit. For small amounts of cash, I just use an ATM. But for larger amounts that would involve several ATM transactions (thus several fees in my case), it works better to deposit a check. The third party check was sent to me by a US financial company as a class action settlement. If Bancomer hadn't accepted it for deposit, I'd have had to DHL it to the US to have someone deposit it there, which would have been more time-consuming and expensive than waiting out the eight days.


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## RVGRINGO

sparks said:


> Think ATM and Debit card


I agree 100% with Sparks. Keep your US account and use online banking and bill pay conveniences for US needs. In Mexico, get cash from the ubiquitous ATMs. You may want your bank to increase your debit card daily limit to $1000 USD, as most have a default amount that is lower. It worked for us for over a decade.


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## KaiyanaM

Thank you for all your responses, I found it all very helpful! I really appreciate it


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## maesonna

Good advice above. You are much better off not counting on being able to cash US cheques in Mexico. But as to the question of whether you can or not: I’ve received different answers from the same bank regarding the same cheque!
A couple years ago I had a U.S. cheque to deposit in my Bancomer account. It was just after the money-laundering measures had been put in place, so banks were clamping down on cash deposits and foreign currency. When I presented the cheque (at my home branch) and asked whether I could deposit it, the teller consulted with an executive, who pored over the regulations and finally concluded no. They suggested I take it to a _casa de cambio_.
I tried at several _casas de cambio_ and they were adamant that no _casa de cambio_ had been able to change foreign cheques for some time, and that only a bank could do it, if anyone could.
So I took the cheque back to the same bank a few weeks later, and they accepted it for deposit, no problems, no fee.


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## KaiyanaM

Isla Verde said:


> I think it will be difficult to have US checks cashed here. A few months ago I asked my Mexican bank (Santander) if I could deposit a check drawn on my Bank of America account to my Santander account. I was told it would take at least a couple of weeks to clear and that I would be charged an insane service fee, something like 20%.


I was planning on using Santander since I understand they're affiliated with BOA (my bank) so this is very good to know. Wow, 20%?! Thats ridiculous!


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## KaiyanaM

TundraGreen said:


> I once wrote a check drawn on a US bank in dollars and deposited it to my Mexican bank account. At the time, the balance of the account was greater than the check. If I recall correctly, they charged me a 1% fee to deposit the check. They credited the account with the funds immediately.
> 
> I would not rely on regular Mexican mail to receive checks. It seems to arrive pretty consistently, but it is very slow and sometimes never gets here.


That sounds great, I'll look more into it here! Ya, I heard the mail isn't very reliabe and/or verrry slow so I guess its best not to count on it. Especially for receiving mail from the states.


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## KaiyanaM

makaloco said:


> Bancomer accepts personal checks from my US account for deposit in my Bancomer peso account. There's no fee, the exchange rate is set at the time the check is presented for deposit, and the funds take about eight days to clear. Exchange rate is not the best but acceptable. They also once deposited a US check from a third party made out to me, and it worked the same way. To my knowledge they will not cash foreign checks.


Do you think its still the same if I am cashing a US check from someone else, and not from myself? Thank you!


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## KaiyanaM

RVGRINGO said:


> I agree 100% with Sparks. Keep your US account and use online banking and bill pay conveniences for US needs. In Mexico, get cash from the ubiquitous ATMs. You may want your bank to increase your debit card daily limit to $1000 USD, as most have a default amount that is lower. It worked for us for over a decade.


I will definitely keep my US account open and use the ATM and my debit card. I'll call this week about the daily limit. Thank you to you and Sparks for the advice


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## KaiyanaM

maesonna said:


> Good advice above. You are much better off not counting on being able to cash US cheques in Mexico. But as to the question of whether you can or not: I’ve received different answers from the same bank regarding the same cheque!
> A couple years ago I had a U.S. cheque to deposit in my Bancomer account. It was just after the money-laundering measures had been put in place, so banks were clamping down on cash deposits and foreign currency. When I presented the cheque (at my home branch) and asked whether I could deposit it, the teller consulted with an executive, who pored over the regulations and finally concluded no. They suggested I take it to a _casa de cambio_.
> I tried at several _casas de cambio_ and they were adamant that no _casa de cambio_ had been able to change foreign cheques for some time, and that only a bank could do it, if anyone could.
> So I took the cheque back to the same bank a few weeks later, and they accepted it for deposit, no problems, no fee.


Good to know! Wow, sounds like you had a little bit of a hard time depositing it. I'm glad you finally got to. Thanks for the info!


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## makaloco

KaiyanaM said:


> Do you think its still the same if I am cashing a US check from someone else, and not from myself? Thank you!


In the case I mentioned, they treated the third party check the same as they do my checks to myself: deposit only, wait eight days, etc. But the third party check was from a company, not an individual. No idea if that made any difference. As others have mentioned, banking regulations and policies change, and what's possible one month may not be possible the next. In some cases, the decision may be at the discretion of the bank officer who's helping you. In others, it may depend on the amount of the check.


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