If you're planning to come to Mexico, this video
is going to save you hundreds of dollars.
I'm going to give you ten different options on how
you can get pesos for your visit to Mexico and
what the fees are going to be like in this.
And the difference from the worst option to the
best option is going to save you hundreds.
So the first option is using an ATM in Mexico.
Now, there are ways to use an ATM to your
advantage, but this is how most people go about it.
So let's say the average person wants to
withdraw $300 from an ATM in pesos.
Well, they're going to pay an ATM fee, which it
will range between like a $1.50 to $10 or
$12 on the high end, but let's say that's $4.
Then your bank is probably going to charge a fee
for using an ATM not associated with your bank.
I know some banks don't do this, but
most banks do, and that might be $3.
Then your bank is probably going to
charge a 3% foreign transaction fee.
3% of 300 is $9.
And then let's say your card is issued by Visa.
Visa is going to move the exchange rate a
little bit and not give you the real exchange
rate, and they're going to charge about 0.5%.
You won't see that as a direct fee, but it will be
a fee in terms of the exchange rate that you're given.
But if you don't want to pay this fee, you can
accept the ATM's fee, but that's usually six to 7%.
So you don't want to do this.
However, to decline this fee, this gigantic fee, you typically
have to press the big red button on the ATM.
You may think that you're canceling the transaction by pressing
that big red button, but no, you're just declining that
gigantic fee that the ATM is going to charge.
But most people don't know any
better and they just accept that.
They just hit the green button.
Yes, yes, I accept. I accept. Right.
And then they're hit with all of these fees.
We add all of these up and you
come out to a total fee of 11.8%.
Now, if you decline this fee, you might be
able to get this at about 5.8% fee.
So these are really, really big
fees, and this adds up quickly.
Now, later in this video, I'm going to share with you
how to use atms without paying such high fees like this.
But your average person coming here using your average
bank card in the US would be paying between
5.8% and eleven, 8.8% depending on whether you accept
the ATM's fee or not, or the exchange rate
fee that the ATM wants to charge.
So for every $5,000 you spend in Mexico, you could be
paying as much as $590 in fees using this method.
So this is actually a very bad way to
go compared to some of the other options.
I have to show you Jordan from
the future, jumping in here really quick.
Regarding atms, you can save a little bit of
money oftentimes by going to a partner bank.
So you can look this up to see if your
bank in the US has a partner bank in Mexico.
For example, if you have a Bank of
America debit card, you can use a Scotiabank
ATM without paying those ATM fees.
You're still going to pay foreign transaction
fees, and you're still going to pay
a little currency conversion fee.
However, that will save you money.
But in a little bit, I'm going to talk about
how to save even more money using atms in Mexico.
Another very popular way to go about it is
like, let's say a couple is coming to Cancun.
They don't want to worry about
exchange rates or pesos or anything.
They're just going to bring a bunch of dollars
and pay in dollars everywhere because all the businesses
around Cancun are going to accept dollars.
Well, in that case, at your average business,
you're going to pay a difference in the
exchange rate of about eight to 10%.
But this can actually vary greatly.
It could be as high as 15%, maybe even more.
Or sometimes it can actually be in your advantage
to pay in dollars because not every business keeps
up with the exchange rate day to day, and
the exchange rate fluctuates a lot.
So sometimes it's actually in your best interest to
pay in dollars, but on average, you would be
paying about 8% to 10% in fees.
Or in other words, for every $5,000 you spend, you're
going to be paying an extra $400 to $500.
Another very popular way to get pesos is to
bring dollars or whatever your currency is and then
exchange it at a money exchange in Mexico.
And the fees are going to vary on this.
The exchange rates at each money
exchange place is going to vary.
Maybe it's like between five and 10% fees,
but I think on average, like your average
place might have about a 7% fee.
But remember, you're going to be paying this fee, converting
your dollars into pesos, and then you're going to pay
the fee again, converting whatever pesos you have left back
into dollars at the end of your trip.
So you really want to exchange the
exact amount that you're going to need.
And if you exchange the exact amount on a
$5,000 spend, you're paying about $350 in fees.
Another way that you can get pesos is before your trip,
you go to your bank and say, hey, I would like
to order however much in pesos, like $1,000 in pesos.
And they'll be like, okay, we can
do it at this exchange rate.
And your mileage may vary here.
Depending on the bank, it will probably be a
different exchange rate, or they'll have a different fee
structure depending on how much you're converting, but you
might pay about 6% in fees.
But keep in mind that it's pretty
hard to determine exactly how many pesos
you're going to need before your trip.
So you might order not nearly enough or way too many.
And if you order way too many, well, then
you may have to go to a money exchange
at the end of your trip and convert them
back into dollars or whatever your currency is.
But if you order the exact amount of
pesos, you might pay about a 6% fee.
Or if you're spending $5,000, that would
be a total fee of about $300.
Another option that's often overlooked is you can go
to a money exchange place in your home country.
So let's say you're coming from the USA.
You can usually get a better rate doing this
because like a money exchange in the US, for
example, people typically go there wanting dollars, not wanting
pesos, so they give you a better rate, typically.
But again, your mileage may vary on this, but
instead of paying the 7% you might pay at
a Mexico money exchange, you might pay four to
6%, or in this case, two to $300.
But again, keep in mind that if you exchange too
many dollars into pesos, you're going to have to pay
fees again to exchange them back into dollars.
Another option is to actually not pay
with cash because you can actually pay
with card at most places in Mexico.
So let's say you pay with
your average credit or debit card.
You're going to be charged a 3% foreign transaction fee,
and then you won't get the real exchange rate.
Visa or Mastercard or American Express or whatever it is
will take a little bit of a fee in the
exchange rate and you'll end up paying about 3.5% on
each transaction or what comes to $175 fee
If spending $5,000. The next option is
getting a debit card from wise.
So wise allows you to spend
in a bunch of different currencies.
So what you can do is you can load
dollars onto your card and then you can spend
using your wise card anywhere in the world.
You can also withdraw cash from atms using your wise
card, but there will be a fee for that.
But basically, if you're using your wise card to
spend, you're going to pay a 2% funding fee.
So let's say you want to fund it with $1,000,
you're going to pay a $20 fee on that.
And then when you spend it in whatever currency it is,
it's going to be about a zero point 57% conversion fee.
And then there's also a $9.01 time fee to get the card.
So what that totals to, if you're going
to be spending $5,000, is a 2.75% fee
or a total of $137.50.
And the last two options on this list are going
to be your very best bets for getting the very
best price on pesos when coming to Mexico.
And the first of these two options is using a
no foreign transaction fee, credit card or debit card.
There aren't very many debit cards that offer
this, but there are a lot of credit
cards that offer no foreign transaction fees.
So, for example, just about any card that's
branded as an airline card or a hotel
card, whether that's a Marriott card, a Hilton
card, a southwest Airlines, Delta Airlines, almost all
of those have no foreign transaction fees.
And then you also have some others
that have no foreign transaction fees.
Like, for example, some from Capital one. Done.
The Amex Green card, the Amex Gold card,
the Amex Platinum card, and then there's some
from chase as well that are really popular.
The names of them are slipping my mind.
The Sapphire reserve, the Sapphire preferred card.
Anyway, there's a lot of them, but just about any
card that's sold or branded or advertised as a travel
card will typically have no foreign transaction fees.
And on this you're going to pay no fees at all.
But Visa or Amex or Mastercard or whatever it is
will give themselves a little bit of an advantage when
it comes to the exchange rate, and you end up
paying about a 0.5% fee or on a total spend
of $5,000, you're looking at total fees of $25.
Now, recently, just within the past couple of months,
some of the credit card terminals in Mexico are
trying to get you to charge in dollars.
On some of them, you have to press the red
button a couple of times to be charged in pesos.
Now, this is probably at like 10% of
them here where I'm living in Queretaro.
However, it's something you need to watch out for,
because if you do get charged in dollars, you're
going to add like five or 6%.
So you go up into this range
here instead of at this range.
So that's just something to watch out for.
But so far, in my experience, that only
happens with Visa and Mastercard every single time
I've paid with an American Express.
That is not an option on the credit card
terminal at the restaurant or whatever vendor I'm with.
So paying with an Amex, an American
Express, I'm getting this every single time.
And by the way, I'll link to some great cards
that have no foreign transaction fees in the description of
this video and probably in the pinned comment as well.
So look for that below.
And the final option is to get a bank account with
Charles Schwab and you get a Charles Schwab debit card.
The great thing about this is Schwab doesn't
charge any fees when using somebody else's ATM.
And also at the end of each month, they
refund any ATM fees that you were charged.
Plus, they don't charge a foreign transaction fee.
So literally, the only fee is just the difference in
the conversion rate from the real conversion rate to whatever
it is that Visa or Mastercard is charging.
So that's going to be about a 0.5% fee for a total
fee, if you were to withdraw $5,000 dollars in pesos, of $25.
But keep in mind, remember this example where you
have to decline the conversion rate at the ATM.
You have to do that here, too, to get this.
Otherwise you're going to be paying about six or 7%
on every transaction that you withdraw from the ATM.
So that would put you in about this range here.
So you're going to see on the ATM,
do you want to accept our conversion rate?
You say, heck no, I don't.
And you're going to smash that big red button just
like you're going to smash the like button on this
video because I just saved you over $500 by using
one of these options instead of one of these options.
Anyway, hope this helped you out.
Hope it saves you a lot of money.
And go check the description for those no foreign
transaction fee cards that are going to save you
a lot of money on your trip to Mexico.
And next, you can click on this
video, and I'll see you over there.