My wife and I bought a home in BCS in late 2018 and were traveling back and fourth regularly until March of this year when things shut down. I like
to keep a significant credit on my utility accounts (six months or more) and since March I have have made 2 payments of about 600 pesos to CFE, one
via Western Union and one via Xoom. Both services confirmed the payments were successful but neither appear as credits on the CFE app. Has anyone
else had this happen? I’ve been told many of the CFE offices are not open and I wonder if this is somehow the cause, staff not processing or
recording payments. Any ideas?
Michael RocketJSquirrel - 9-17-2020 at 02:21 PM
I use WU for my business and while you may have confirmation that the money was sent, I can't see CFE sending someone to a WU office to stand in line
and pick up your 600 pesos. Why should they? That needs to happen to pay your bill. It's just not going to happen. WU is NOT going to deliver your
funds to CFE.
CFE needs to go and get the money and have all the details needed to obtain the funds: Your name, from where the funds were sent, exactly how much,
etc. If you don't have the right answers... you don't get the money. FAR too much hassle for a utility company to mess with. FAR easier to just shut
off your utilities off until YOU figure our how to pay THEM. Don Pisto - 9-17-2020 at 02:35 PM
can you add credit at OXXO?CasaMaximus - 9-17-2020 at 02:37 PM
WU and Xoom have access directly to the financial institutions they partner with. Someone still needs to record the payments.
You can pay directly in to an individual’s bank account as well, I pay my gardener this way. My housekeeper doesn’t have a bank account and picks
up at the OXO.CasaMaximus - 9-17-2020 at 02:40 PM
Here is a list of the bills you can pay via WU. You provide your account number and for a few dollars they do the rest.
I contacted a bill paying service in La Paz and at least in their case (two weeks ago) they said that office was closed. Does anyone actually on the
ground in Baja know if their CFE office is open?
[Edited on 9-17-2020 by CasaMaximus]
[Edited on 9-17-2020 by CasaMaximus]CasaMaximus - 9-17-2020 at 02:56 PM
I’m not recommending either service but here is what Xoom says it will do. As noted both services show a successful credit to my CFEcontigo but
neither have posted to my account during COVID.
As noted above, I am aware of the services offered, but do they really work? My experience for this type of payment is - no. Happy to hear
otherwise! pacificobob - 9-17-2020 at 03:21 PM
xoom used to work. then suddenly it didn't. now if i am out of Mexico I use my bancomer debit card on the CFE website. John Harper - 9-17-2020 at 03:30 PM
xoom used to work. then suddenly it didn't. now if i am out of Mexico I use my bancomer debit card on the CFE website.
I dont have a Mexican credit card and I am on the fence about getting one just to pay CFE. Thank you for the tip about xoom. I am going down next
month and I will stop in to my CFE office and pay it forward for a year.msteve1014 - 9-18-2020 at 07:46 AM
Ask your gardener or housekeeper to pay it. You are sending them money anyway, and they have to pay their CFE bill at the same time.defrag4 - 9-18-2020 at 09:54 AM
ive paid through xoom and it works even if the site didnt update, last month i had the same problem and went down to the office to double check, didnt
want them to cut off my power in the middle of summer!weebray - 9-19-2020 at 11:32 AM
CFE is one of the last instutions to come into the 21st century computer wise. I know of no way to pay online without a Mexican credit card. I find
this odd as their service has been upgraded significantly in the last few years. The central office in La Paz has a 24/7 kiosk but is frustratingly
ineffecent and quirky. Expect to spend some time there around cut-off dates.pacificobob - 9-20-2020 at 04:50 AM
no need for a Mexican credit card. a Mexican debit card works. i have also heard [not from an impeccable source] that an an american express card
works. anyone have información on that?karenintx - 9-20-2020 at 05:32 AM
Absolutely you can pay with Am-Exp. We have doing this for a while.
Login to our account, "select pay online", fill in the blanks. Once the transaction is completed we received a confirmation from Am-Exp via our cell
phone (we are set-up for alerts when our card is charged) and from "Multipagos Solucion de Cobranza Ellectronica (via email).
Our CFE account immediately shows "Paid Out in the Receipt Status Box"
I use Chrome since it automatically translates into English.
We use to pay credits but had our "credits" just disappear on more than one occasion. CFE would make it very difficult to get the pesos back but they
under estimated this gringa. The last time it happened I kindly handed my "adogado" business card to the branch manager and told him he could deal
with my attorney. Within five minutes I was handed the pesos that had "just vanished". pacificobob - 9-21-2020 at 03:40 PM
i called for an amex card today. ill report back. CasaMaximus - 9-21-2020 at 09:17 PM
If suspect just like here in the North its tough getting to do what they normally do. We made the offer on our house 2 1/2 years ago and it took 6
months to close during hurricane ALMO. Nothing moved in municipal offices for weeks and months at a time. We celebrate our closing next month and
will pop in to the CFE office in Todos Santos and use the kiosk. At least we will have a direct link to the payment through CFE. Until then best of
luck with partner payments.CasaMaximus - 9-21-2020 at 09:20 PM
ive paid through xoom and it works even if the site didnt update, last month i had the same problem and went down to the office to double check, didnt
want them to cut off my power in the middle of summer!
Good to know, thank you. BajaBlanca - 9-22-2020 at 04:48 AM
It sure does seem that CFE has to jump into the 21st century with all the foreigners that live here!weebray - 9-22-2020 at 09:41 AM
CFE has upgraded to the 21st century where the rubber hits the road - equipment and service. They are rapidly updating older infrastructure and have
shown remarkable progress in disaster response. If you have a problem with your service you can no longer diagnose the problem and call them out to
affect repairs. Problems with your or their lines are now required to be verified by an electrician "licensed" by CFE. Their billing services, pay
kiosks, and public service representatives are still playing to 1979 rules. You will find this problem over a large range of Mexican companies. The
old rules of adversarial relationship between employer still exist in many businesses. This produces public servants with poor attitudes that are hard
to remove and unhappy to be there.RocketJSquirrel - 9-22-2020 at 12:28 PM
I have nothing but love for the CFE folks in my area. About six years ago a very tall palm tree just 50 meters from here shed some fronds onto the
power line during a heavy storm and shorted out our whole neighborhood. CFE guys came out in the middle of the storm, solved the problem THEN craned
up to the tree and trimmed the loose fronds IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STORM. Insane!
Not even a flying squirrel would have tried that.
The copper wire from the power lines gets stolen with semi-regularity in this area and those same CFE guys are faithfully out to get it out sorted as
quickly as they can.
So... not everyone is unhappy with CFE. To me... CFE is: "Una empresa de clase mundial" Gracias to them! weebray - 9-22-2020 at 04:39 PM
What i just saidRocketJSquirrel - 9-22-2020 at 05:00 PM
and I am agreeing with you. CasaMaximus - 9-23-2020 at 02:04 PM
Like always, Baja continues to teach me patience just as it did to my 16 year old self who wandered in in 1982. I suspect, based on some of your
responses the pesos I paid via WU and Xoom are there but the app doesn’t see them. I will follow up next month once I’ve been in the CFE office.
Thank you for the many observations and shared experiences.CasaMaximus - 10-12-2020 at 03:32 PM
I made it home Yesterday to Todos Santos and went in to the CFE office. Both the WU and Xoom payments were there. They still do not show on the CFE
app. For what it is worth the SAPA (water) office is closed for the duration. There was no indication when they would return.
