Job Discussion Forums

[amsdf]

Anyone know what the deal is with cashing--or otherwise dealing with--American checks down here? Can it be done, or should I mail all of my just-arrived Christmas checks (props to the Mexican post office!) back to my parents in the states to deposit?


Thanks...

[Samantha]

We just did this in another thread. I can't remember which thread, because you know how we are here about staying on subject!

[amsdf]

Sorry to repeat, but can't find the other thread... if anyone knows, I'd totally appreciate it!

Drinks are on me once I have my checks cashed...

Salud!

[Samantha]

The topic of the discuss is 'Money' started January 3rd. We remarkably stayed on topic...

[MamaOaxaca]

If you have a Mexican bank account you can have them deposited into that account. It will take about 20 business days for them to clear. They must be made out to the name on your passport which also must match the name on your Mexican bank account. So if you're William and any of those checks are made out to Bill or Will, forget about depositing them into your Mexican bank. Also I assume none are for hefty amounts, but just for the record if you ever try to cash a check over 50,000 pesos and you don't have an account history of moving big amounts of money, the deposite will not go through and you will be investigated for money laundering (gotta love a country set up to keep the poor down!)

[Samantha]

Melee, wouldn't the paranoia about money laundering be in place to keep that bad and very real element out of the system? It's too bad that others are affected by the regulations but to me it's good they are keeping an eye on this bad stuff (says she who lives in Sinaloa). JMHO.

I encountered this weirdness when I opened a Paystone account. It is a Vancouver company with a US branch and is set up something like Paypal, only not nearly the same as Paypal. Their fees are LOW, you can upload money to them to have bills paid, etc etc. Good idea, or so I thought when I embarked on the project.

You can open an account anywhere in the world, so I first opened a Mexican account attached to our bank here. Their regulations are extremely tight, I then discovered. At this time, money cannot be uploaded from Mexican accounts and transferred elsewhere!! You can receive money into your Mexican account and it will deposit to your bank, but forget sending money (the money laundering rule rears it's head). Okay fine. I can receive money from others with a Paystone account.

The next bit of nonsense came when I thought, well I will just go ahead and open another attached to my Canadian account so money can be transferred to Mexican account and save ATM fees.... Oh no, you can't do that. You have a Mexican address, you have to set up a Mexican account. (Yes, thanks I've done that) You must LIVE in Canada and they will watch to see that the Canadian account is not being set up with a Mexican IP number. (or any other foreign IP address)

Round and round we go...I am thinking, what happens if you have a bank account in two countries? I tell them I have a long standing bank account and a credit card in Canada. They don't accept credit cards anyway, so that's no importa. Fine. So I am trying to wrap my head around any possible risk on their part here...Money (cash money) uploaded from a Canadian account into Paystone and then transferred to Mexico. The receiving money into a Mexican account is fine, they have already told me that. (I think there is a limit though - as Melee mentions with the checks) They couldn't really explain this but thankfully after living in Mexico so long I am used to things that don't necessarily make sense. Perhaps it is a fraud prevention measure. Time will tell how this goes.

One more thing, Melee.... Which bank do you use that you can deposit foreign checks into. We have previously been told no way but maybe different banks have different regulations or maybe this is something recent?

[MELEE]

I've deposited many checks into my formerly Bital, now HSBC account over the years. It's a nomina account so that might make a difference, and as I said, the money takes 20 days to clear.

Lot's of countries in the world have systems set up to check for money laundrering, but I don't appreciate being told, you can't deposite X amount pesos into an account that has never had more than that amount of pesos in it. Well it never will either if you don't let me deposit it. They told me just deposit it in small amounts over time. Yeah right, I closed out a retirement fund based on the idea that I'm not going to be retiring in the US, imagine me saying to them, Instead of issueing me one check, please divide it into ten individual checks because I'm small time in Mexico????

[gordogringo]

BANAMEX here will take checks. They are part of citigroup so they are reliable. You can also pay most any bill imaginable there and the atms have a dollar option. Handy when I am going to shop in the US.

[Guy Courchesne]

Melee, I deal with HSBC and never had a problem as you describe...never had the problem of having too much money to deposit that is! Anti-money laundering rules don't seem to restrictive here, at least not compared to the US. Moving around a lot of cash raises eyebrows anywhere these days.

Local cheques, in my experience, clear in under 5 days. Foreign cheques take 20 that I've seen.

[gordogringo]

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[gordogringo]

Is no service charge here to pay at the banks. It takes less than 15 minutes for me to walk to the bank, pay the bills and walk back. Midday its usually just me and a few bored tellers. The electric is paid by swiping a bar code on the bill against the screen of a matico, a converted atm.There are four matico stations around Tijuana. Each station has about 20 machines. Go to station,swipe your bill,and the screen tells you how much to pay, as in whats on your bill. You feed the money to the machine,get a reciept and you are on your way. Whole thing takes less than 20 min. from getting in to the line for machines to getting your reciept. And they have lots of attendants to help you if your money gets stuck. They do charge if you want to pay in person and not use the matico.Is 60 pesos,I think. Matico is free.

[saraswati]

I'm with Bancomer and pay everything but the water bill online. It's divine...