Changing Money in Mexico
Heading for a vacation in Mexico and trying to decide, do I take my credit cards? How much cash should I take? Should I change everything into pesos before I go? Well here are some answers for you so you can travel like a seasoned veteran,
First of all, never get pesos in the US - you will pay a premium to do so. You can pay in US$ for tips or taxi or whatever, till you get to an ATM or a cambio. You will still come out ahead.
I advise AGAINST credit card use in Mexico. Credit card fraud in Mexico is one of the highest in the world, at one point they were #2, and if that has changed, they are still in the top 5. In most cases you get hit with big conversion fees when you use a credit card in Mexico anyway. Read the fine print on your card agreement, or check and see what it really cost you in the end...
ATM - the best bet for getting pesos. If you have a PayPal account with a debit card, they charge just $1 fee for ATM withdrawals anywhere in the world. Depending on your bank, those fees vary. My banking relationship with my bank currently has NO ATM fees anywhere for my personal account. My business account is $5 for any other bank ATM. Then you'll also pay the local ATM fee, but in most cases in Mexico, it converts to less than $1US.
Over the years comparing every way to convert funds, the ATM is consistently the best and easiest. After considering all fees and what I actually get in hand for pesos, ATM is highest. You can take along cash and go to a cambio, but you pay them fees to convert - you won't get as good of an exchange rate. They'll say "no fees" but the rate will be 12 to 1, when the ATM is 13.4 to 1, etc. The same goes for exchanging at a hotel or shop - you get screwed at those.
Most tourist areas will accept US$, but you are crazy to pay that way in most cases. This is because for the sake of easy math, most will use a 10 to 1 exchange rate, and history over the last 5 years has the rate much higher than that, all but a few months a couple years ago.
It is harder and harder to find anyone that accepts traveler's checks anymore. I do not recommend them for Mexico.
Contact you bank before you travel. Whether you plan to use credit card or debit card, no one wants their account frozen for suspected fraud while they are in another country. Let the bank know your travel dates, and what area you'll be traveling to. It is much easier to catch fraud later if someone does steal your information. Back when I still did use my credit card in Mexico I had a problem. Since I travel so often to Mexico, my CC company did call to make sure both my husband and I were in the US first before cancelling my card. My card was being used in another area of Mexico that I don't travel to much. So they caught it right away.
One last little tip - NO US coin in Mexico. All US coin is worthless there. Do not tip with it - it is worthless to anyone that gets it. I do pay my friends in Mexico for their US coin when they are stuck with it. I'm not thrilled to get all that coin, but I feel awful for them stuck with something useless because people from foreign countries visited them uninformed, and just assume that the rest of the world should use our currency, our language and our customs. It happens a lot.
