drzura
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Pay Water and Electricity Bill Online?
Hello,
I have a place just south of Santa Rosalia in Baja and was wondering if it is possible to pay water and electricity bills online? I did some looking
online and it appears that I may be able to use the xoom /website app to take care of the electricity bill (CFE) but have not seen anything I can use
to pay the water bill (SAPA in the Mulege district). Has anyone had any luck? Thanks in advance.
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karenintx
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I just paid our CFE online via our Am-Ex Platinum c/c.
Also pay our Tel-Mex (Tel-Mex USA...now Claro Enterprise Solutions) via our Capital One C/C.
Sorry, don't know about H2O.
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ridendude
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Are those American credit cards, or are they attached to a Mexican bank account?
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HeyMulegeScott
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When you pay the CFE bill through xoom the last time I tried you need the bill information and then you can only pay the amount due. We usually go to
the ATM before we leave for the summer and pay more so their is a balance to cover the bill.
I doubt SAPA has an online option they are stuck back in the last century.
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karenintx
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dude,
We closed our MX bank account back in 2007 after finishing our remodel so I now pay our CFE bills with our American Express Platinum C/C which was
issued in the US.
For our Tel-Mex bill...I call Claro Enterprise (formerly Tel-Mex USA) where after going thru the automated phone message (press #2 for English) I am
able to speak with a "real human being" in English. If you put $99.00 or more as a credit on your Tel-Mex account there is no service fee so about
twice a year when the peso pops-up I put about $125 USD via our Capital One C/C, again issued from the USA. Then the next day I log-on to our Tel-Mex
online account where I can see the $$ I paid plus Tel-Mex shows your credit balance. Yahoo!!!
You can pay less then $99 USD but there will be a service fee. Carlos Slim realizes there are many people that need to pay for either their own
personal Mexican phone/internet bill or maybe someone in the USA would like to pay for a family member's phone/internet bill in Mexico so he set-up a
great system.
Claro Enterprise (formerly Tel-Mex USA) 800-290-1649
Hope this helps you.
Edited to add...When I pay our CFE bill I am doing from our online CFE account that I log-on to. By using Chrome browser my laptop automatically
translates Spanish into English. There is a button on the website that reads "pay". Then I fill-in the info requested, hit the button and then you
will have about five seconds to take a screenshot of the transactions. Not to worry if you do not take the screenshot as CFE will send a receipt to
the email associated with your account.
Scott, we did that back in the day...prepaid credits on our CFE account however "TWICE" CFE conveniently took our $$$ with no explanation of where it
went. It wasn't until I handed the branch manager my MX abogado's business card did the $$$ mysteriously appeared back into our account. Little did
he know, the business card was a close friend of ours that lives in Mexico City. He is a abogado but we have never used him for anything. When I
told our friend what I did to the CFE branch manager, our friend said..."Good for you!"
I am so happy that CFE has finally started to enter the 21st century by letting a person pay via credit card online. All I can say is I know CFE
accepts Am-Ex Platinum C/C...I have heard that the other C/Cs have to be Mexico issued. I personally do not know that as I have never tried to use a
USA issued Mastercard or Visa C/C on CFE's website.
Maybe someone that has paid with a USA issued Mastercard or Visa can answer this.
[Edited on 10-8-2022 by karenintx]
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SFandH
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I'm unsure if the issue is Mexican online systems not accepting credit cards issued by American banks or American banks not accepting charges from
some Mexican businesses. I suspect the latter. Also, cards issued by different American banks may be subject to different policies, even within the
Visa/Mastercard framework.
If you think about it, why would a Mexican, or any other business refuse payment?
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ridendude
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Thanks for that Karenintx,
we're new canucks that just got a chunk of desert in Loreto. Still lots of learning involved here...
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JDCanuck
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Ridendude: If you hold a Canadian issued credit card it gets more complicated. Some Mexican based utilities (Hughesnet for instance) will accept US or
Mexican but not Canadian cards for registered automatic payments. Others will accept all 3, and some you will need to have a Mexican bank account or
pay cash at an OXXO after generating an invoice. I have not been able to determine yet why the differences.
Lencho: That was my first thought too. I checked with my Visa and they never received any requests, it was rejected by the utility for some unknown
reason.
I finally came to the conclusion it was somehow related to the fact that this auto payment format requested my postal code and would not accept the
Canadian 6 digit alphanumeric one and rejected the payment if i used the 5 digit local one at the residence. Might have been their way of confirming
the credit card was valid. Immediate payments to pay the monthly balance do not have a field for the postal code and they go through fine.
[Edited on 10-9-2022 by JDCanuck]
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baja-chris
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I was successful in creating an online CFE account and associating it with my service. I can read my latest bill. However I'm unable to figure out
how to see the amount of credit I have on account (I pre-paid some time ago and do not know how much is left or how to estimate when I should pay
again). Anyone know how to get this info online?
As far as the water service, no luck yet. This is for San Felipe.
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SFandH
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Quote: Originally posted by baja-chris  | I was successful in creating an online CFE account and associating it with my service. I can read my latest bill. However I'm unable to figure out
how to see the amount of credit I have on account (I pre-paid some time ago and do not know how much is left or how to estimate when I should pay
again). Anyone know how to get this info online?
As far as the water service, no luck yet. This is for San Felipe.
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I pay CFE in advance with cash also and have an online account. I don't think there is a display of your credited balance. Just watch for your latest
bill to see the amount due. It will be zero as long as your credited balance covers the bill.
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karenintx
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As far as I know, when you are log-in to your CFE account you are not able to prepay any money. You can only pay the amount that is due which will
appears in the top right hand corner of the bill, like SFandH said.
After I pay the amount due I then go back to the main page where it shows "Paid Out" and I print that page as a back-up.
Like I said earlier, CFE took our prepaid credit balance twice so I just don't trust them. So now I "double dot my I's an double cross my T's" just
in case I have to prove something...again!
I have signed-up to go paperless but CFE can't seem to get that done. They will send me an email advising our bill is now available to view AND they
still send a paper statement...go figure!
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