# Tulum



## mayans2012 (Apr 13, 2014)

I Greg and wife Rosalinda would like to move to Tulum. I was their on top of Archiological site 38 yrs. ago. Camped their 30 days. I told my self to return when I retire. Visited Tulum November 2013 again. Still feels like home. I found several places I can afford in town. Have ?? on how one gets their Social Sercurity their. I now have it deposited in American bank and use ATM. But what if my card broke ? Must be another way. Also how do expat get mail their ? And I see some Americas work their, maybe on the sly.?


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

mayans2012 said:


> I Greg and wife Rosalinda would like to move to Tulum. I was their on top of Archiological site 38 yrs. ago. Camped their 30 days. I told my self to return when I retire. Visited Tulum November 2013 again. Still feels like home. I found several places I can afford in town. Have ?? on how one gets their Social Sercurity their. I now have it deposited in American bank and use ATM. But what if my card broke ? Must be another way. Also how do expat get mail their ? And I see some Americas work their, maybe on the sly.?


Get a second debit card account at your bank. Do a transfer on - line the amount you will be withdrawing that day to the account with a few dollars in it. Use a Mexican bank´s ATM. 

Have all your important incoming mail changed to a commercial PO box by phone or their website.

Have a friend or relative in the US go to your commercial PO box and read your mail to you over a Magicjack you have in Mexico with a US #. If you need something have them register the letter and send it to you. $18.00 US per letter and they will arrive in Mexico.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

You could open an account in a Mexican bank and do wire transfers or use xoom or western union or some agency to transfer funds from your US bank to your Mexican one. You can use your Mexican bank to pay bills you incur in Mexico such as utilities, etc.


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## mayans2012 (Apr 13, 2014)

*weastern union*

So it does work , If I'm in Tulum,MX. Go online to Western Union and send money to my self from my American bank.


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## mayans2012 (Apr 13, 2014)

So some one could get my mail, then email me whats in the mail.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

After a while you live in Mexico you get almost no mail. We get everything via e-mail. Except for IRS and SS security we gt no mail in our Mexican P.O. Box.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

citlali said:


> After a while you live in Mexico you get almost no mail. We get everything via e-mail. Except for IRS and SS security we gt no mail in our Mexican P.O. Box.


Citali is right. I use my son's address for a US mailing address. He throws everything in a box. I visit him once a year and while I am there I go through the box and throw everything away. One year I forgot to look at it, so the next year, I had to throw away two years worth.

Very rarely, things are mailed to that address that I actually want. Generally, I know in advance that these are going there. For example, I bought something on Amazon and had it mailed there a few months ago. I recently got a state tax refund check there, that I wasn't expecting. It is a rare occurrence to get any useful mail there.

In summary, I find it useful to have a US mail address, but it doesn't get used much. If it wasn't convenient, I could easily get by with no address in the US.


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## vantexan (Sep 4, 2011)

While I was briefly living in Mexico I received USAToday and a couple of magazines with a Kindle App on my iPad. We also had USTVNow on the iPad connected to a TV. Might not be something you care about but there are options to keep you connected if you want.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

TundraGreen said:


> In summary, I find it useful to have a US mail address, but it doesn't get used much. If it wasn't convenient, I could easily get by with no address in the US.


It is nice to have, yet in the past year I have received two items. One a change in procedures from my stock broker and my bank debit card. My friend emailed my the contents of the letter from the broker and FedExed the card to me. I haven't used my debit card in six months after finding a cheaper way to transfer money to my Mexican bank account. Yea, nice to have.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

It is nice to have if you want to open a bank account or get new credit cards . Or maybe it is irrelevant now I do not know but I know that we were not able to open a bank account from Mexico as we did not have a US address.


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## mayans2012 (Apr 13, 2014)

Yes the only thing I thinck about receiving in Mexico mail would be Social Sercurity. So they do send it to your mail box at/ your place or do you rent mail box at post office.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

mayans2012 said:


> Yes the only thing I thinck about receiving in Mexico mail would be Social Sercurity. So they do send it to your mail box at/ your place or do you rent mail box at post office.


That check from SS will be difficult to cash in Mexico. Most have a direct deposit to a US bank and then withdraw money from ATM's or a transfer by wire or western union or other electronic transfer.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

joaquinx said:


> That check from SS will be difficult to cash in Mexico. Most have a direct deposit to a US bank and then withdraw money from ATM's or a transfer by wire or western union or other electronic transfer.


Forget about cashing checks from the US in Mexico! I have my monthly SS checks direct-deposited to my Santander account right here in Mexico. I can withdraw the pesos I need from any Santander ATM at good exchange rates and with no service charges being deducted.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_


Isla Verde said:



Forget about cashing checks from the US in Mexico! I have my monthly SS checks direct-deposited to my Santander account right here in Mexico. I can withdraw the pesos I need from any Santander ATM at good exchange rates and with no service charges being deducted.

Click to expand...

_Well,actually as Dawg has experienced it, here is the situation:

We normally live off of (feeless) ATM transactions for daily cash needs anywhere in Mexico but, when at "Lakeside" on Lake Chapala which encompasses an área between the Pontzitlan Municipality line and the Chapala Municipality line and the far western reaches of the Jocotepec Municipality, we can cash checks on our U.S. bank account up to $3,000USD a day converted to pesos at the Ajijic branch of INTERCAM thereby, normally, precluding the need for wire transfers of USD to MXN. Those checks drawn on our U.S. bank provide us _*instant *_credit for Mexican Pesos in cash and we walk those Pesos a few blocks down to our Mexican bank where those Pesos are deposited at will with no problem. 

You folks are needlessy complicating financial transactions in Mexico and there are places down here where your foreign checks are welcome with instant credit offered but I wouldn´t try that in Chiapas. .


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

Hound Dog said:


> . . . we can cash checks on our U.S. bank account up to $3,000USD a day converted to pesos at the Ajijic branch of INTERCAM .


Once again, INTERCAM is not everywhere in Mexico.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_


joaquinx said:



Once again, INTERCAM is not everywhere in Mexico.

Click to expand...

_This is true which is why I explained that the personal check cashing service on our U.S. bank is available to us is Ajijic where Intercam has an office. and we have an account. My response was to a comment that personal checks drawn on a U,S, bank are non-negotiable here in Mexico and, therefore, uneeded. There used to be an Intercam branch in Tuxtla Guttiérrez, Chiapas but they are no longer in business. The point was that, if one has an account at Intercam, one can cash U.S. dollar based checks at any Intercam branch in Mexico up to a certain amount for instant credit and Intercam is widely located all over Mexico in places where their business is warranted.

If I am in Chiapas or anywhere else in Mexico where there is no Intercam office and in need of large amounts of U.S. funds expeditiously, wire transfers from the U.S. to one of our Mexican bank accounts are free of wire charges and affected overnight. Frankly, ATM withdrawals get us by so why worry but checks drawn on U.S. bank checking accounts are, indeed useful here in Mexico on occasion.

By the way, since this thread is about Tulum, there is an Intercam branch in Playa Del Carmen not far up the road from Tulum so don´t throw away those U.S. checks if you are moving to that área.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

joaquinx said:


> That check from SS will be difficult to cash in Mexico. Most have a direct deposit to a US bank and then withdraw money from ATM's or a transfer by wire or western union or other electronic transfer.


I haven't started to receive SS payments. However, my understanding is that paper checks were discontinued a year or two ago. From what I've experienced, it took about 3 weeks for funds from USA-drawn checks to appear in my Mexican bank account.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

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Longford said:



I haven't started to receive SS payments. However, my understanding is that paper checks were discontinued a year or two ago. From what I've experienced, it took about 3 weeks for funds from USA-drawn checks to appear in my Mexican bank account.

Click to expand...

_I am not surprised to hear that the SSA may have discontinued paper chacks as a way to forward monthly benefits to qualified retirees and others, especially those residing overseas. We have been having our monthly benefits electronically transferred to our U.S. bank account for years and those funds appear in our account on the third day of each month without fail. I understand that the same service is available for any Mexican bank accounts as well but we prefer to keep those benefits on deposit in our U.S. bank and access those funds through ATM machines just about anywhere in the world. That way, we mitigate sovereign and currency exchange risk. 

The old three week hold on U.S. Dollar checks drawn on a U.S. bank and deposited in a Mexican bank or most investment houses was a commonplace irritant when we arrived in Mexico in 2001 but, as I stated earlier, today that inconvenience can be avoided by expats opening accounts at investment houses such as Intercam where U.S. Dollar checks drawn on U,S, Banks are instantly honored in Mexican Pesos up to $3,000USD which can then be deposited at one´s personal Mexican bank in cash for instant credit. Intercam is not a commercial bank strictly speaking but an investment house offering corporate and personal financial services from estate planning ro payment and currency services, investments and insurance. If all one wished to do is cash checks at a teller window and walk out with cash in hand then the company is pleased to offer that service at preferential exchange rates.

Intercam, which is headquartered in Mexico City, has branches offering this service in most Mexican states and one can see if they have an office near one´s residence by searching Intercam branches on the internet. I am sure there are other financial houses offering this service these days but Intercam is so convenient to my residence at Lake Chapala, I haven´t seen the need to look into that. The old three week rule for receiving funds at a bank for U.S. Dollar checks drawn on U,S, Banks is no longer a problem for expats moving to Mexico.

By the way, my personal Dollar checks drawn on my U.S. bank usually clear my bank within three business days.


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