BajaNomad

Àre all ATMs charging a currency conversion charge?

philodog - 1-8-2023 at 05:39 PM

Every atm i have tried charges a 5 to 7 percent fee to get pesos. Is this all of them now? I don't remember ever getting this before.

Cancamo - 1-8-2023 at 06:10 PM

Simply choose the option on the lower left of the screen, (not the obvious one on the lower right),declining the conversion.

The transaction will go through with just the bank fee.

john68 - 1-9-2023 at 08:18 AM

Several times I have had the Bancomer ATM in Los Barriles cancel the transaction when I refused the conversion. Nice.

pauldavidmena - 1-9-2023 at 09:06 AM

Quote: Originally posted by philodog  
Every atm i have tried charges a 5 to 7 percent fee to get pesos. Is this all of them now? I don't remember ever getting this before.


Is this happening at both ATMs in Todos Santos? And as a follow-up question, are there any more than those two?

gnukid - 1-9-2023 at 08:20 PM

Quote: Originally posted by john68  
Several times I have had the Bancomer ATM in Los Barriles cancel the transaction when I refused the conversion. Nice.


When you click decline, on some atms it kicks out the atm card first, then processes the withdrawal and the money comes out about 5-7 seconds later. Many people abandon and walk away and the money is picked up by the next person. Check your statement.

BajaBlanca - 1-10-2023 at 08:15 AM

gnukid is spot on. That is exactly how it works here in Turkiye (Turkey). I guess people used to forget their cards, so now it comes out first.

And it is sometimes tricky to not use the conversion.

gnukid - 1-10-2023 at 02:18 PM

If you did get charged for withdrawal after decline and didn't receive the money, you can try to do a contest charge from your bank since you won't be on camera receiving the money, they usually refund it to the account after a period of negotiation.

RFClark - 1-10-2023 at 09:12 PM

We get pesos from the Banknorte ATM in TD. We always decline their rate w/o a problem. That said sometimes the ATMs are out of money.

A Tip to ATM users, if the ATM is going to give you cash it will start making a whirring noise right after you finish clicking all the buttons for the transaction. No whir, No money. At least at BN!

john68 - 1-11-2023 at 07:22 AM

My experience at Bancomer/BBVA in Los Barriles is that transaction is declined when currency conversion option is rejected. Intercam is the only alternative in LB and it doesn’t run this annoying and expensive little game on its ATM.

Don Pisto - 1-11-2023 at 11:32 AM

Quote: Originally posted by john68  
My experience at Bancomer/BBVA in Los Barriles is that transaction is declined when currency conversion option is rejected. Intercam is the only alternative in LB and it doesn’t run this annoying and expensive little game on its ATM.


im not sure if its the bank or the card, up here the Schwab card no problemo but the CapitolOne card won't be accepted if the conversion is declined. this at Santander. no idea why?

john68 - 1-11-2023 at 04:00 PM

Don't know as I only use Schwab card. It works well everywhere but Bancomer/BBVA.

philodog - 1-15-2023 at 11:18 AM

[/rquote]

When you click decline, on some atms it kicks out the atm card first, then processes the withdrawal and the money comes out about 5-7 seconds later. Many people abandon and walk away and the money is picked up by the next person. Check your statement. [/rquote]

Damn, hope this didn't happen to me. I declined, took my card and left. Sure enough the money was withdrawn from my account. I contested it, we'll see how it goes. It doesn't make sense that the transaction would continue once you declined. But it is Mexico, not everything makes sense.

AKgringo - 1-15-2023 at 11:23 AM

What I understand is that you are declining their rate of exchange, not the transaction. The witdrawal then proceeds at the rate of exchange charged by your bank.

That is my best guess, not a known fact!

Hook - 1-17-2023 at 09:05 AM

I have definitely had declining the conversion lead to no cash. But it's possible that the machine was out of cash already. Busy town, San Carlos.

In the interest of field research...

pauldavidmena - 2-6-2023 at 08:40 AM

I conducted an experiment on consecutive days at the same ATM, Bancomer in Todos Santos. I withdrew 7,000 pesos on Saturday, declining the initial bank fee. My card was returned and the transaction cancelled. Re-inserting my card, I accepted the initial bank fee and was then asked about a second fee, which I assume was the conversion charge. I accepted that and received my cash - the equivalent of $400.28, or 17.48 pesos to the dollar.

On the following day (Sunday), I withdrew 7,000 pesos again, from the same ATM at the same bank. This time I declined the conversion fee, and after a brief pause, I heard the sound of cash being counted out by the machine. Checking my bank statement, the withdrawal was for $378.43, or 18.50 pesos to the dollar.

Given that it was a weekend, I don't think the full peso difference could be attributed to fluctuations in the exchange rate, but I could be wrong. I'll repeat the experiment and report back later in the week. In the meantime, coffee awaits.

BornFisher - 2-6-2023 at 09:00 AM

That is taking one for the team.
I get dinged 3% plus $5 for using the ATMs. My primary bank is Bank of America. I can avoid the $5 if I use a certain bank (Scot?????).

boe4fun - 2-6-2023 at 09:45 AM

Quote: Originally posted by BornFisher  
That is taking one for the team.
I get dinged 3% plus $5 for using the ATMs. My primary bank is Bank of America. I can avoid the $5 if I use a certain bank (Scot?????).


That is too true! I hope Paul enjoys that coffee. I personally would recommend setting up a Charles Schwab checking account with their card. Been using mine on my last several trips to Baja, no ATM fees and no other problems. Just let them know when you’re out of country.

philodog - 2-12-2023 at 12:57 PM

Update: My bank refunded the money to me. I still don't know if the money was actually dispensed or not but I went back to the same machine, asked for $1000 pesos, declined the conversion fee and sure enough it dispensed the 1000 pesos anyway! Next time I'll do the experiment of taking out money both with and without the conversion and see what the difference is with the exchange rate. Also the CITI machine did not charge a conversion fee.

4x4abc - 2-12-2023 at 01:53 PM

Quote: Originally posted by philodog  
Update: My bank refunded the money to me. I still don't know if the money was actually dispensed or not but I went back to the same machine, asked for $1000 pesos, declined the conversion fee and sure enough it dispensed the 1000 pesos anyway! Next time I'll do the experiment of taking out money both with and without the conversion and see what the difference is with the exchange rate. Also the CITI machine did not charge a conversion fee.


check the facebook groups in Baja.
ATM conversion comes up every week.
Basic understanding:
if you accept the proposed rate, you get robbed in fees
if you decline, the market rate of that day is used and you get robbed a little less.
don't forget - ATM machines are big money makers
of course not for you

Pending transaction snaffu?

AKgringo - 2-12-2023 at 02:21 PM

Twice I have had duplicate transactions show up while using an ATM at the Walmart in La Paz.

I used a debit card issued for my money market fund with Edward Jones, which is serviced by BNY Mellon. The withdrawal from savings goes through, but an equal amount shows up as a pending transaction.

I called the customer service number on the card and reported the duplicate charges, but the CS agent could not see the pending transaction. It was never processed, but showed up on my online access for about a week before it disappeared.

I don't remember which bank ATM I used, they have several different options to choose from.

surabi - 2-12-2023 at 02:31 PM

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc  

Basic understanding:
if you accept the proposed rate, you get robbed in fees
if you decline, the market rate of that day is used and you get robbed a little less.


Exactly. There is no need to experiment. You always get a worse rate if you accept the machine's currency conversion.

baja-chris - 2-13-2023 at 12:35 PM

Aside from the currency conversion rip-off, there are bank accounts other than Schwab that do not charge fees for using ATM's in Baja.
I'm using Chime and I've been told Ally is also a fee free option. You still pay whatever fee the local ATM charges but you avoid an out of network fee from your bank plus the common international transaction fee. For example BofA fees can be as high as $15 per transaction.
I thought that was outragous and went into the bank to complain and they reversed those fees going back a few months but they could not prevent them from continuing. So I opened this Chime account and it works great. Costs nothing to move money into it from my normal banks.

mtgoat666 - 2-13-2023 at 01:06 PM

Quote: Originally posted by baja-chris  
Aside from the currency conversion rip-off, there are bank accounts other than Schwab that do not charge fees for using ATM's in Baja.
I'm using Chime and I've been told Ally is also a fee free option. You still pay whatever fee the local ATM charges but you avoid an out of network fee from your bank plus the common international transaction fee. For example BofA fees can be as high as $15 per transaction.
I thought that was outragous and went into the bank to complain and they reversed those fees going back a few months but they could not prevent them from continuing. So I opened this Chime account and it works great. Costs nothing to move money into it from my normal banks.


i use fidelity. no atm fees anywhere in the world