Our Mexican Bank Won’t Take Our Money
Recently we had an experience with our Mexican bank (Bancomer) that just is so ridiculously stupid and asinine that I can’t make peace with it. What happened is that someone wrote a check to my husband from a bank in Canada.
Sounds like no big deal right? But the bank would not take the check when we tried to deposit it. My husband spent over an hour trying to convince the bank to take the money, he went to two bank locations and talked to several people in management. But no amount of talking would convince them that they wanted our money.
Because the check was from a foreign bank it was likely to take 4 weeks to clear. But in Mexico, I gather, once they accept a check as a deposited item they give you access to that money, even before the check has cleared.
The bank made it clear that if we kept more money in that account they might have been able to make an exception and take this tainted, evil foreign check. But because we think that Mexican banks SUCK and so barely use that account, we don’t qualify to PUT MONEY INTO IT! Good one! Brilliant!
Now in the U.S. I’ve experienced that in a similar situation my bank would do one of two things. They would let me have access to the money, before the foreign check cleared, because they look at my long banking history and see that I’ve never been overdrawn one single time, ever. Or they would simply show that deposit as PENDING and not let me have access to the money until the check cleared.
There’s something inescapably logical about simply not letting us have access to the money until the check clears. And we do not need that money now, so waiting 4 weeks for access to it would have been fine. But no, logic seems to escape Mexican bankers.
And so I called our bank in the States, and I asked them if there would be any trouble accepting this check. They said “no, the check should clear in less than two weeks, but we’ll give you immediate access to the money.” Now that’s more like it.
So then the only remaining problem was that we needed to get the check to our bank in the States, without using the Mexican postal system (which is even more useless than Mexican banks). Fortunately I’ve got a friend who has promised to courier the check into the U.S. Postal System for us, so I think we are good to go.
I just don’t understand why on earth it has to take this much work to simply put money into the bank? Imagine that we didn’t have that U.S. account, in that case we would simply be out of luck. No wonder Mexico has a cash-based economy.
In my humble opinion Mexico will not join the first world until it has banks that actually want people’s money.
September 6th, 2008 23:49
THAT IS A STUPID WAY FOR ANY BANK TO CONDUCT
BUSINESS LIKE THAT. YOU ARE SO RIGHT!
CHECKS FROM OUTSIDE OF MEXICO ARE NOT ACCEPTED FOR DEPOSIT. WHAT A MOTIVATOR!!!
THAT CHECK WAS ECONOMIC STIMULUS FOR MEXICO.!!!
NEXT TIME TRY DEPOSITING A VIBRATOR !! PHEW !!!
THEY SHOULD CHANGE THEIR NAME FROM Bancomer TO Bancgoner OR Bancbendover!!!!
SURE …DEPOSITS IN “YOUR” ACOOUNT “ARE” LIQUID CASH TO “YOU” UNLESS THEIR IS A LOW ACCOUNT BALANCE AND CHECK CLEARNCE TIME IS AN ISSUE. BUT EVEN THEN IF YOUR ARE A CUSTOMER THERE IS AN OVERIDE TO THAT POLICY..
ONCE I TRIED TO GET BIG CASH VIA A VISA CREDIT CARD @ BANCMEX BECAUSE THE COUNTRY I WAS VISITNG ACCEPTED ONLY CASH. THE MANAGER TOLD ME I HAD TO WAIT TILL THE AFTERNOON UNTIL DEPOSITS CAME INTO THE BANK LATER ….TO GET U.S. DOLLARS.. WTF!!!!… MEXICAN BANKS HAVE ONLY OREOS ON HAND.!!!!!
I WAITED ALMOST ALL AFTERNOON AND WENT BACK.AND GOT MY CASH..
I KNEW IT WAS ALL BULL SHIT. THE TELLRS WERE SNICKERING “HERE COMES EL GRiNGO BUTTHOLE”
THIS LENDS ME TO MY OLD STATEMENT THAT “MAKING IT IN MEXICO” IS A GOOD TITLE.
I AM WITH YOU KIM. SORRY THAT HAPPENED…NO COMMON SENSE …SORT OF TAEES THE WIND OUT OF YOU…..THAT IS A THANKLESS WAY TO DO BUSINESS. HANG IN THERE LADY…I KNOW YOU WILL BRING ABOUT CHANGE TO THE MEXICAN BANKING SYSTEM !!! ALSO !!!!
JOE
PS: MY FAVORITE WAITOR AT MY FAVORITE (ALL INCLUSIVE)HOTEL ALWAYS OFFERS TO BUY ME A DRINK…HE OWES ME ABOUT 30 DRINKS BY NOW …NOW THAT IS SERVICE WITH A SMILE!!!!! OR MAYBE I OWE HIM 30 DRINKS ?????
September 8th, 2008 05:54
Even when we come to Mexico we have to make sure all of our US Bills are newer, no rips, no marks, etc. etc. Our bank here in the states always know when I’m going to Mexico because I make them go through every bill one by one to make sure it is acceptable to the Mexican Bank for exchange.
Then a few months ago I tried to fax our trust payment receipt to the fax number given to us by the bank…Ring, ring, ring….no answer. Turn the damn fax machine on if you are going to put it in the documents!!
I feel your frustration girl!!
September 8th, 2008 10:17
I would love to say that I am very surprised at your story, but I am not. Not even a little bit. Whenever an expat asks me how to open a bank account I try to talk them out of it. It isn’t worth the hassle. I actually laughed out loud at the new commercials on tv touting the power of saving and the new kid’s accounts. Are they actually going to get interest on their savings?
regards,
Theresa
September 10th, 2008 20:47
My mad math skilz are getting a workout each time I leave a comment. 🙂
Have you tried Monex?
October 19th, 2008 08:37
love your blog! did you know (THIS IS TRUE!) that the banks will not even take your CASH!!
In September I had 7000p in hand to pay my fideicomiso (required real estate trust) and banks will no longer accept CASH! you must purchase what is equivalent to a cashier’s check (and of course pay a % of the amount plus a service charge).
This was in the same bank that holds the trust, not bank-to-bank. It cost me about $40usd extra.
I could have used a credit card but the US bank that issued the card would have charged me a foreign transaction fee and I didn’t want to carry the pesos around anymore so I went with the procedure.
It took about 15 minutes and lots of extra forms and signatures and work by the cashier and lengthening of the lines with impatient folks waiting to do other important bank business.
And don’t even get me started on the internet banking! Not only must you enter a secret number from matrix which you receive (do not lose it or you are outta luck) but there are passwords and other secret codes at every level.
To pay utility bills online you must have all sorts of numbers from the bill itself and then your layers of secret codes. And if you forget one or enter it wrong, your account is frozen until you GO INTO THE BRANCH that opened your account!
So the service of paying my monthly utilities online from the US is frozen now until I return and I STILL have to ask Mexican neighbors to pay my electricity and phone bills!
And this special account is designed for ex-pats but all the online instructions are in Spanish only. Even if you are (fairly) fluent, you probably will not understand the banking terminology and will enter the wrong code in the wrong place thus invalidating the whole procedure.
October 19th, 2008 09:36
The other day my hubby tried to get his bank to simply change some dollars to pesos for him (it was $200 USD total). But the bank refused, they made him deposit the money first.
November 3rd, 2008 08:49
I suggest if you want American bank services, you stay in the states. I suppose you would like everyone here to speak English, too.
November 3rd, 2008 10:10
David – With all due respect, please tell me what is particularly American about a bank accepting a check from a client?
Give me a break!