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bajajudy
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Location: San Jose del Cabo,BCS
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Quote: Originally posted by MitchMan  | | Judy, what amount(s) is/are the account balance(s) that you are required to maintain at First Republic Bank for the benefit of using their ATM card
for withdrawal of pesos at banks in Mexico with no fees? |
Sorry Mitch..just saw this
We have no minimum. There are no ATM fees anywhere. We used it all over Europe.
Edit to add something to woody's comment.
I personally prefer my money in a US bank(FDIC). We have peso and dollar accounts in Banorte for our business but we keep the balances down just in
case they decide to devalue the peso again. Well actually I guess that it is being devalued daily anyway with the fall of the peso. I read that it
will be at 15 by March.
[Edited on 2-8-2015 by bajajudy]
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Hook
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Judy, the First Republic website seems to indicate the minimum balance for NO FEES OF ANY KIND is 3500.00 US.
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bajajudy
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I was only talking ATM fees.
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kiterkip
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Huh? I have a C Schwabb account with the soul purpose of ATM & Foreign Transaction savings while in Mx. My "investment" account sits at about $2K,
and I have my checking account set with a $500USD limit balance & per-day transaction.
The card was blocked a few weeks ago... 3 minutes on the phone (Skype) and no problem since. Never have had problems over 4 years.
Maybe my days are numbered with this great bargain.
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Hook
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I emailed First Republic, asking them if there was a way I could determine what my exchange rate would be on the day I conduct a transaction. I asked
for an online source for this information.
This is the link they sent me. A rather generic Visa card link.
I put in a value for tomorrow and it gave me back 14.85. Right now, on XE.com, it's hovering around 14.95. Pretty decent rate, really.
For the bank fee on the calculator, enter zero.
http://usa.visa.com/personal/card-benefits/travel/exchange-r...
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Tod
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Got blocked again today at Bannorte ATM. Got it open again with call and got compensated for all the calls we have had to make.
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willardguy
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got blocked for the first time last week. the rep I spoke with suggested once a month I log-in and update travel status.
sounds simple, but probably won't remember to!
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Tod
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Got blocked again today at Bannorte ATM. Got it open again with call and got compensated for all the calls we have had to make.
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Hook
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So, that's two blocks within three days, Tod?
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Tod
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No, I some how double posted. Apologies!
We have been blocked at least 5 times since we have been down from December 1 until now. Nothing the first 6 weeks and now it seems every two weeks.
The indicate the BanNorte ATM in Todos has a lot of fraud. I don't know about that but it is very heavily used...pretty much nonstop every day.
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MitchMan
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Used BofA debit card for 5 years exclusively at Santander, then went to Charles Schwab for the last 1-1/2 years used exclusively at HSBC.
Becoming concerned with the posts saying that HSBC is taking some debit cards.
Anybody have suggestions for safe Mexican Banks to use Schwab debit card for peso withdrawal in La Paz?
Over the past 6-1/2 years, I have used the Visa website: http://usa.visa.com/personal/card-benefits/travel/exchange-r...
to estimate what the exchange rate might be at the bank when the debit card is used to withdraw pesos. On the average, all things being normal, and
NOT during a period of aggressive daily rate change, the internet currency exchange rate usually averages about $0.07 MXN higher than the actual rate
experienced at the Mexican bank ATM. Not bad at all.
There usually seems to be a time lag of about a day or two where the actual ATM rate seems to trail the direction of the internet rate. So, you
generally get optimal exchange rates at the ATM during periods of a falling internet rate.
I spent quite a bit of time calling BofA trying to find a source that would give me the EXACT rate to expect at any given time at a Mexican bank and
no one at BofA could ever correctly answer that question. The only think that they would say is absolute and that is that the ATM exchange rate is
set for the entire day and should not change for the day. I found that to be somewhat true, but not entirely.
During a period of fast falling internet rates, I checked the ATM rate at the ATM kiosk at 10am and it was a very good rate. Came back about 2 hrs
later after determining that I should get a bunch of pesos, but the ATM had suspended its operations. Came back 2 hours later, the ATM resumed
operation, but the rate was not good...so...the rate actually changed during the day a significant amount against my favor. Mexican banks may not be
very good at banking, but they are smart enough not to lose money if they can avoid it, no matter what bank representatives tell you about specific
policy and procedure either in Mexico or in the USA.
Not going to try to ask Schwab; pretty sure no one there will know anything reliably either. It's been my experience that bank personnel at any bank
and at all levels don't know a lot of detail stuff they should know. During my financial career, I have made a ton of money for the companies that I
worked for using their (the banks') lack of knowledge to my benefit. However, as a citizen bank customer, their stuff only causes pain. Only remedy
is to constantly ask a bunch of questions (pointed interrogation) from different people at the same bank on the same questions to try to stay ahead of
curve.
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Floatflyer
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We have been using our Schwab account about every other week in Mexico since the end of October with no problems. Yesterday we had our transaction
denied for the first time, but a single phone call to Schwab solved that problem and we went directly back to the same ATM and got money.
We called the US "call collect" number on the back of the ATM card which directly connected to Schwab with no operator involved.
And, the exchange rate for our transactions yesterday was 14.79 pesos! Yippee!!
We called Schwab before we came down to Mexico to alert them of our travel plans and we only use the ATMs in a Santander Bank. So far, we are quite
pleased with this arrangement. Best to use an ATM at an actual bank because if the machine "eats" your card, you can go into the bank and get it back
by showing ID.
Also, we tried to open an account with First Republic from our home in Washington state but were told we needed to come into a branch office to do so.
Our nearest office is in Portland, OR so will plan on doing that next trip there.
[Edited on 2-14-2015 by Floatflyer]
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