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Gulliver
Senior Nomad
Posts: 651
Registered: 11-18-2013
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And what all this has to do with them taking money out of my U.S. bank account without giving me any cash here in Mulege is a mystery.
All pretty much a set of fairy tales as far as I can see.
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Pescador
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3587
Registered: 10-17-2002
Location: Baja California Sur
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Well Gulliver, I am sorry you are having difficulties. I have lived here full time for 10 years or so, Maintain an account with Bancomer, and do not
try to do the ATM thingy. When I need pesos, I go to the bank, give them my card, whether Mulege or Santa Rosalia, they give me the pesos, and we
have a great relationship. I can check my balances on the internet, pay some bills directly on the internet through my banking account, Pay for gas,
groceries, and other purchases with my debit card, and wire money from my US account when things get low.
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wiltonh
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Posts: 300
Registered: 2-2-2007
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We have had issues with several banks in the states so I went looking for a solution that does not require me to check each bank account every few
weeks.
I ended up with a service that monitors all my accounts and sends me an email if the bank charges me a fee. They also allow you to do budgets and
other things. You give them access to read your accounts but they do not have the ability to change the accounts. The company web site is as
follows: www.mint.com
They are now owned by Intuit. I have caught several unknown or unplanned fees this way and the bank often seems surprised that they got caught so
soon.
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Gulliver
Senior Nomad
Posts: 651
Registered: 11-18-2013
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I've been assuming that using an ATM would be the simplest thing for us given that we are here for only half of the year.
I don't remember the details now but we ran into some problem when we talked with Bancomer about opening an account. Seemed like they thought we were
moving drug money around or some such.
We'll give this some further thought. Of course now that the skid in the dollar/peso exchange rate is going the other way I'm not excited about
leaving money in pesos. In two months the amount I've had to pay for 6000p has gone from $280 to $316. Significant.
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RnR
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Posts: 836
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Quote: Originally posted by Gulliver  | | Of course now that the skid in the dollar/peso exchange rate is going the other way I'm not excited about leaving money in pesos. In two months the
amount I've had to pay for 6000p has gone from $280 to $316. Significant. |
Actually, this is the time to leave your money in pesos. You are making money when the dollar falls against the peso.
But, you have to convert the pesos back to dollars to realize the gain.
Using your numbers -
Two months ago it cost you $280 USD to buy 6,000 pesos.
Change that same 6,000 pesos back to dollars today and you now receive $316 USD.
That is a gain of 13% in only two months. Or an annualized return of 78%.
Of course, there are some conversion fees going in both directions but that is offset some by the interest earned while the money is in the Mexican
bank account.
That being said, I am not planning on investing in Mexican currency. But, a falling dollar is not an issue IF your money is already in Mexico.
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yumawill
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Posts: 103
Registered: 10-11-2016
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Language
There is no sense of "Wonderment" in the Spanish language. Like "I wonder if?"It just doesn't exist. But "Entitlement", Oh yea!
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Gulliver
Senior Nomad
Posts: 651
Registered: 11-18-2013
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Update:
Rode my bike to Santa Rosalia to try my luck at another town. No luck. The Banamex machine kicked my card back after accepting my PIN and withdrawal
amount. The Bancomer machines across the street, all three of them, wouldn't even accept anyones card. Sigh. Ninety miles of hot road and no joy in
mudville.
Anything official, like banks, was shut down for the holliday. I spaced out on that.
On arriving Back in Mulege after having a flat tire right in front of Cereso I found that my filing a dispute form with my credit union was effective.
I now have my 300 bucks back from Bancomer.
Of course I have hardly any pesos so I'm keeping a low 'retail profile' until this all gets sorted out. Barbara will be back from her mule ride in a
few days and will laugh at me and be full of ideas.
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Gulliver
Senior Nomad
Posts: 651
Registered: 11-18-2013
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Still no operating ATM in Mulege.
Besides being a pain, to say the least, this means that I'm not spending any money here. Do banks not care about the merchants here?
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Kgryfon
Senior Nomad
Posts: 624
Registered: 1-27-2009
Location: East Bay, CA
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| Quote: Originally posted by bajabuddha | | Used-to-was, unless buying a house you could take out a simple interest loan for X amount, and the principal and interest were constant. Now any loan
is amortized, making it extremely difficult to pay off early as well as funding ALL the bank's major profits up front. |
Everything you have said here about how loans work is wrong, and you have it exactly backwards. The division between principal and interest on a
simple interest loan is never constant. The next month's interest is based on the lower principal amount that is determined after deducting the prior
month's principal, so the interest portion goes down each month and the principal portion goes up each month. This is a fair way to calculate a
repayment plan. It's calculated on actual days in the month between your payments, as well as the actual number of days in the year. Totally fair.
The other loan you mention, although not by name, is based on a principal called the "rule of 78s." You can look it up if you care to. Too complicated
to explain here. This is the type of loan where the interest amount over the life of the loan is front-loaded, and is therefore a bad deal for the
consumer if you pay the loan off early. Loans you get from car dealers may be calculated on this basis. I believe they are pretty much the only ones
who still do loans like this, and for the most part they don't even do this type of loan anymore because people caught on to it.
Real estate loans used to use a 360 day year, rather than a 365 (or actual day) year, and a standard 30 day month to calculate the interest. This was
also a rip-off to the customer and has gone pretty much to the wayside.
Pretty much, you want a simple interest loan, every time.
All loans are amortized so your use of the term is not appropriate in this context. Different loan types use different amortization methods. No loan
is called an "amortization loan." It is in your best interest (see what I did there?) to learn the different amortization methods and make sure the
loan you sign up for is the best one for you.
How do I know this? I've been a banker for 40 years. Before there were computers doing all these calculations, at one time I used to sit at a
calculator with big ole account cards and hand calculate all the loan payments, distributions, etc. for every single loan held at the bank I worked
for.
Furthermore, if you let money sit in an account for years and never checked your statements, well I guess you got what you deserved. It's not like
they took all of your money in one day. You had plenty of time (years!) to see what was happening and take action. You wrote down what the guy said
on your checkbook and thought that was good enough? No. When would that ever be enough, in any situation? If you had a copy of their own brochure
that spelled out the conditions on your account at the time you opened it, ok, you *might* have a leg to stand on. But I could write down anything in
the world on my checkbook and that doesn't make it true, or enforceable. And I'm sure that the changes to the rules of your account were sent to you
in your statements. You just didn't bother to read them and now you are b-tching.
The ATM stuff you are dealing with is total BS, though. I'll give you that. But the rest is on you.
Having said all that, God, I will be glad to retire. I never wanted to be banker in the first place. I just wanted to wear nice clothes to work
instead of a fast-food uniform and have weekends off. Oh, so close! Then it's off to Mexico! Counting down...
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Barry A.
Select Nomad
Posts: 10007
Registered: 11-30-2003
Location: Redding, Northern CA
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Mood: optimistic
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Kgryfon----------Excellent!!! Many thanks for that great explanation, and here is hoping that your retirement comes very soon---------I, having been
retired for 21 years, can vouch for it-------seldom a bad day in retirement. LOL
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Gulliver
Senior Nomad
Posts: 651
Registered: 11-18-2013
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Still no joy at the Mulege ATM. Not just me. Every Gringo I've met or talked to is having the same experience.
Barbara was in Loreto yesterday and the same situation seems to exist there. Also, there doesn't seem to be any tourist retail activity. This has got
to be hitting the small businesses that sell to gringos hard.
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Howard
Super Nomad
Posts: 2346
Registered: 11-13-2007
Location: Loreto/Manhattan Beach/Kona
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Mood: I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done.
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It's hit and miss in Loreto.
The ATM's at Lays are not reliable and same with the ATM at the Santa Fe hotel
Last week I did go to the ATM at the Bancomer and was able to w/d 10,000 pesos 2 times in a row. Didn't try for a 3rd time. Felt I was lucky so
that's why I went for 2 large w/d. Now I don't have to worry about it for awhile.
There is a new bank in town and I will ask around about it.
We don't stop playing because we grow old;
we grow old because we stop playing
George Bernard Shaw
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Gulliver
Senior Nomad
Posts: 651
Registered: 11-18-2013
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Appreciate it. It's a long ways to drive form Mulege but it will be interesting to see how this sorts itself out.
We are still able to get cash back at some grocery stores with a credit card but the overhead is significant.
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Gulliver
Senior Nomad
Posts: 651
Registered: 11-18-2013
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I am seeing stuff on Facebook that the problem is much wider. All the way from one end of the peninsula to the other the machines are not taking U.S.
ATM cards.
The Mulege ATM takes credit cards. Much larger ATM fee and a fixed each time charge of $7.00 U.S. for each transaction as it shows up as a cash
advance on the card account. And I need to go online and pay it off right away so I don't get nailed interest by the tooth fairies at VISA.
It would be interesting to find out what set this all off.
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Bajaboy
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4375
Registered: 10-9-2003
Location: Bahia Asuncion, BCS, Mexico
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We had to cancel a four day mule trip to the cave paintings yesterday. Went to withdraw money from Vizcaino Bancomer with no luck. Drove up to GN
and no luck. I feel bad for our guide who lost out on $9000 pesos of business. Headed back to San Diego instead of chilling in the canyon.
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mtgoat666
Select Nomad
Posts: 17289
Registered: 9-16-2006
Location: San Diego
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Mood: Hot n spicy
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The dollar is being devalued relative to the peso. Perhaps mex banks don't want to be holding USA dollars that are losing value.
I suspect with the trump admin imploding, USA stock market is about to tank, and dollar fall further, as investors bail on a USA economy about to be
gridlocked by the implosion of an incompetent con man.
Also, there may be some banking shenanigans coming out of trump people, making dollar/peso exchange even more difficult.
The world and USA economy is about to be rocked by downfall of trump. There seems to be panic in washington D.C. as GOP4rs abandon manafort, Flynn,
and the many others that were colluding with Russians... not sure if trump can escape this treasonous story.
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LancairDriver
Super Nomad
Posts: 1587
Registered: 2-22-2008
Location: On the Road
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| Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666 | The dollar is being devalued relative to the peso. Perhaps mex banks don't want to be holding USA dollars that are losing value.
I suspect with the trump admin imploding, USA stock market is about to tank, and dollar fall further, as investors bail on a USA economy about to be
gridlocked by the implosion of an incompetent con man.
Also, there may be some banking shenanigans coming out of trump people, making dollar/peso exchange even more difficult.
The world and USA economy is about to be rocked by downfall of trump. There seems to be panic in washington D.C. as GOP4rs abandon manafort, Flynn,
and the many others that were colluding with Russians... not sure if trump can escape this treasonous story. |
Goat, since you're forecasting the market tanking, do you recommend shorting stocks and the dollar?
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mtgoat666
Select Nomad
Posts: 17289
Registered: 9-16-2006
Location: San Diego
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Mood: Hot n spicy
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| Quote: Originally posted by LancairDriver | | Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666 | The dollar is being devalued relative to the peso. Perhaps mex banks don't want to be holding USA dollars that are losing value.
I suspect with the trump admin imploding, USA stock market is about to tank, and dollar fall further, as investors bail on a USA economy about to be
gridlocked by the implosion of an incompetent con man.
Also, there may be some banking shenanigans coming out of trump people, making dollar/peso exchange even more difficult.
The world and USA economy is about to be rocked by downfall of trump. There seems to be panic in washington D.C. as GOP4rs abandon manafort, Flynn,
and the many others that were colluding with Russians... not sure if trump can escape this treasonous story. |
Goat, since you're forecasting the market tanking, do you recommend shorting stocks and the dollar? |
I never recommend market timing, currency speculation, or irrational betting like shorting. Stick to low cost index funds. rebalance on schedule,
but also rebalance when things get crazy, like after irrational run ups like last few months, and after big dips like you'll see soon. I recently
rebalanced, took advantage of profits gained last 6 months, and decreased stock funds, shifted a bit to bond funds, as it is apparent that market is a
bit irrationally bullish on trump, and trump is an incompetent con man unlikely to accomplish his BS. Still 65% stocks, but not expecting under trump
the great gains realized under Obama - wow, Obama years were great, weren't they?
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Rossman
Nomad
Posts: 205
Registered: 10-6-2013
Location: Bahia Asuncion
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| Quote: Originally posted by Bajaboy | | We had to cancel a four day mule trip to the cave paintings yesterday. Went to withdraw money from Vizcaino Bancomer with no luck. Drove up to GN
and no luck. I feel bad for our guide who lost out on $9000 pesos of business. Headed back to San Diego instead of chilling in the canyon.
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That is interesting. Yesterday was the first time in 5 attempts since the first of the tear that the Viz Bancomer would give me more than 1k pesos.
Stopped at 9k but probably would give more. Wells Fargo debit.
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Santiago
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3499
Registered: 8-27-2003
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I had no problema getting $7k NP at the BBVA ATM inside the San Yisidro crossing building next to the first bank window. Received at 18.73 after all
fees.
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