Job Discussion Forums

[sarliz]

Update/Questions:
I have, little by little, added numerous cards/accounts to my paypal account, waiting 2-3 days for each step of authentication. Now, I'm pretty sure there are no more accounts to be added or wee charges to be sent to ensure that the accounts are really mine to verify or authenticate me.
Now, I'm looking at my account, and there's a tab that says "Add Funds". This is the area to upload money, and there's a little dropdown menu that I should be able to choose an account to upload from, but there's only my US checking account as an option. Equally troubling is the heading that says "Transfer funds from an account in the US". Over in "Withdraw Funds"-land, I do have the option of choosing either my Mexican or United Statesian account.
Sam, have you seen this before? What can I do? Or is this the end of the line, hope-wise?

Sara

[gypsygirl1475]

People from all over the world use paypal.

Have you tried calling them?
When I had my eBay stare over the holidays people from all over the world ordered through Paypal and people from all over the world sold on eBay using Paypal. There is a way.

Did you verify your Mexican accounts?
If so, and they are verified, then some how you should be able to use them. I think they have a chat section for costumer service.

[Samantha]

Gypsygirl wrote:

[sarliz]

Hey kids-
Still researching. So far I've come up with:

[Samantha]

Sara, I�ve paid funds from my Mexican Paypal account to someone else's USA Paypal account, no problem. I don't have a US bank account myself, because I am not from the USA.

[sarliz]

Hey, Samantha, if you don't mind could you give me details on how your Mexican paypal account is set up? That is, is it connected to your Mexican bank account only? Or do you have a Mexican-issued credit card registered to the account, also?

The more that I'm delving into the paypal help discussion boards, the option that is seeming like it might work is to have two separate paypal accounts, one connected to my US accounts, and one to my Mexican ones, and then "send money" between the two. I did a test run last night, and I could send paypal funds fine (I had a wee balance from I'm not sure what), but it seems that I can only send actual real-world money from the Mexican side if I have a credit card registered over on that end. Which I don't. Mexican debit cards don't work, because they work in pesos exclusively, which is not a currency that paypal supports. Credit cards, however, are a different story, or so says my guy at Banamex.

Next step is for me to get a Banamex credit card, which I'll be eligible for in a month. Until then, I think I'm going to convince my boyfriend, who has credit cards, to open an account and send me money, and I'll just give him cash.

Sorry for the long-winded blow-by-blow, but I'm hoping that when I finally manage to resolve all of this, the crazy narrative will be helpful to someone in the future.

S

[Samantha]

This is curious. I am pretty sure they just convert the sending currency to the receiving currency. I receive pesos when someone sends me dollars. I can send the equivalent of dollars because I think the big Paypal vault sits in US dollars, but they convert to many currencies.

I have a debit card on a Mexican bank. This is what it says inside my account when I poked around just now:

[carolync]

I heard that Bank of America has some relationship with Scotia Bank. I used my online B of A account in Mexico with no problem, but never figured out how to put money into that account in Mexico.

[MO39]

There is a relation between Bank of America and Scotiabank, some sort of agreement, I think. That's how I get my Social Security pension money every month: it's automatically deposited into my BOA account in the States, and I withdraw it here from any Scotiabank machine. But I believe the only way I could deposit money into this account would be to open an account with Scotiabank here, something I'll have to wait to do till after I get my FM3.

[Prof.Gringo]

MoneyGram

The money transfer service from American Express is cheaper than Western Union and works the same way. I asked at a currency exchange house and I believe the commision for sending $500USD or $5,000MXN to the US is about $200 pesos/$20.00 USD

[sarliz]

I finally (FINALLY!) got this figured out, and am closing the question in hopes of preventing further generations of hair-pullers.

Here's what I did:

I started a PayPal business account with one email address that is connected to my accounts in the US. I opened another regular account with a separate email address that is connected to my checking account and debit card in Mexico (the first Mexican account I started wouldn't take the debit card. I still have no idea why, but on the second account it worked, being added before I added the bank account.).

I can now use the "send money" option to send money from the Mexican account to the American one. It's free to send the money, but PayPal charges about 3.5% per transaction to receive it. If you set up a business account you get a better rate than personal accounts and unlimited receiving money transactions.

Sadly, it ain't free, but it's a big improvement on what Banamex or Western Union were offering.

Hope this helps somebody!

Sara

[NinaNina]

Just a word of warning when looking at fees for transferring and wiring money. Banks and other institutions charge an up-front fee, but they also typically take a commission on the exchange rate. For example, I was transferring a chunk of money from the U.S. (B of A) to Scotiabank (to buy a house here), and they quoted me an exchange rate that gave them a commission of $1500. This is a far cry from the little $35 wire fee they had been warning me about.

If someone has a way around paying to get a significant amount of money down here (ATM transactions can't cut it, unfortunately, due to daily limits), I'd love to know it, because we have a second payment due in a month!

--Serena
Mexican Pop Spot
http://mexpop.blogspot.com/

[J Sevigny]

Another option is to get a second Banamex card and mail it, along with your pin number, to a friend or relative in the states and have them make the payments for you.

[Samantha]

NinaNina,
I'm not sure where you are but perhaps you can find an Intercam branch in a city near you. This is how people buying houses in my area send money from the USA or Canada. They also cash foreign checks once you have an account with them. Good and safe way to send large amounts of cash.

http://www.intercam.com.mx/webintercamingles/index.htm

[NinaNina]

Brilliant, Samantha, thanks for the tip. I'll be looking into it.

Now to find the best sources around here for making our rooftop into a garden.

Thanks,
Serena
Mexican Pop Spot
http://mexpop.blogspot.com/