Welcome to Eat Baila Travel my name is Kevin and today Jenny is behind the camera just briefly
If you're wondering why i'm hanging out in a hammock that's because we're back in Mexico's paradise
don't miss out on our video on Mexico's paradise put up in the
link up here we're in Puerto Escondido one of our favorite places in Mexico
and today we have a special vlog on how to open up a bank account in Mexico as a dual citizen
So in case you're wondering why you may need to open up a bank account in Mexico well maybe you
want to purchase a car or you want to purchase land or if you want to send e-transfers because
unlike back in Chicago or in the united states there's no Zelle or cash app you might need a bank
account so you can send e-transfers to somebody in case you're going to stay at an airbnb for a month
or you want to split a tab somewhere at a restaurant so there are many reasons why you may
need a bank account in Mexico and it comes very handy i mean we have our bank accounts back in
the united states still but it's very expensive for you to be using your debit card in Mexico
as you get those foreign transaction fees. So it's important to have a Mexican bank account if you're
going to live in Mexico right uh i actually took like four trips to baby because the first time i
didn't have an id finally for the fourth time we were able to open up our bank account and this
literally was a span of two weeks of going in and out every trip was about an hour and a half
because the lines were extremely long just to open up a bank account so that's that was my experience
and i hope that this video helps you avoid those hassles and headaches and standing out in the sun
because it was super hot during that time making a transfer in Mexico or transactions in Mexico
can be kind of a headache sometimes very often they are full there are long lines and we found
having a mobile app was important to us because that way we can send transfers and not have to
wait in long lines at the bank also we're going to share with you which banks we use because we
do have a different variety of banks that we use for travel and then you can decide which
bank fits you there are different options in Mexico for banking there's Scotiabank, Santander
banco Azteca, HSBC so there are a variety of both Mexican national banks and international banks that have
branches and locations in different places in Mexico during our research ultimately we chose to
go with BBVA specifically because of the ease of its mobile app it sounds like a very simple and
basic thing because that's we're used to all banks offering really good mobile apps back in the us
but in Mexico that's not necessarily the case like Kevin mentioned that going to the bank physically
can be a hassle it can take up a half to an entire day with a good mobile app we can make all of our
transactions and get all the information we need directly from the app and avoid having to wait
in the long lines and make trips to the bank um and so for us the biggest reason we needed a good
uh a bank account that had a good uh app is that we can make e-transfers for paying locals for like
things like little like purchases or paying rent it's just so much easier to send local
money when we have a Mexican bank account we can't just simply send a electronic transfer from
our American bank account to someone's Mexican bank account because there are going to be fees
involved so we keep a few different bank accounts and i'll go over which ones we have and why
so first we um have used Citibank for a long time it's just been the bank that we've been with the
longest and so we've kept that one and we keep a majority of our savings in those in those accounts
and we have a credit card with citibank as well we have this city premier credit card that gives us
travel points and we really enjoy using that we've gotten free flights thanks to the travel points
so we we're not endorsing it but it's worked for us so i would say it's pretty good option
so when we opened up our BBVA account um Kevin is going to talk about the requirements
but what we did was send a transfer from our Citibank accounts to our baby account just one
large transfer and have that the money that we keep aside in case we need to make purchases or
send transfers and that helps us keep a budget actually when it comes to budgeting and spending
cash in Mexico we use Charles schwab we love Charles Schwab and we recommend that for travelers
again not sponsored it's just something that we've enjoyed using and we would recommend to others
we really enjoy charles schwab because it's entirely online we were able to sign up online we
got our cards through the mail and they reimburse all ATM fees anywhere in the world we're able to
withdraw from any bank here in mexico with using our charles schwab debit card and they always
reimburse all of the atm fees so we're able to get vessels directly and not even though our account
is in us dollars so we have two accounts with u.s dollars one is specifically for withdrawing cash
and traveling when we can we use our travel credit card for points and when we need to we've got that
to make local e-transfers so here are the requirements to opening up a bank account
number one very important you need your Mexican passport they're going to ask you
for your mexican passport they're going to read it off if you don't have a mexican passport yet
make sure to check out our video on how to get your Mexican passport and how to become a dual
citizen and we list out the steps in order so you can make your trip to get become a Mexican citizen
another thing that you will need to open up a bank account is another form of valid identification
which can include a driver's license or your it so here's the story when we decided to open up a bank
account in march uh elections were actually going on at the time so we weren't able to get our email
the ina is your voting card in mexico which serves as a valid identification in mexico but because
elections were going on i wasn't able to get it so i had to find another way to get an identification
and that was getting a driver's license we will definitely have a video on how to get your
driver's license because that was one adventure to get so that's gonna be in a separate video
so the third thing that you're gonna need to open up a bank account is a proof of address
here whether maybe you're staying in an apartment uh you rented out an apartment or you're at an
airbnb maybe you could ask your host to help you out with a copy of the the bill a utility bill
that you can use as a proof of address or maybe you have a friend or a friend of a friend that
can help you out you just have to show you have an address so hopefully you can get somebody to
help you out with this proof of address hopefully a landlord or a friend or a family member number
four you're going to need cash deposit in this bank account in mexico so you're going to open
it up banks always change their policies so we got two different options either we keep two thousand
pesos in the bank account for a lifetime or we buy a life insurance through baby uber for six months
and that would waive the minimum requirement for the bank account so we ended up choosing the life
insurance for six months so that we didn't have to keep a minimum of two thousand pesos
in the bank we're actually just about to cancel our life insurance because we opened up our bank
account six months ago and lastly you're going to need a mexican phone number to open up an account
with uber because your mexican phone number is what you use to open up the mobile app with bev
will not accept a foreign phone number we actually didn't have a a mexican phone number at the time
but what we did is that because our phones were unlocked we were able to buy a mexican
phone number sim card and insert it into our phone and use that as a way to open up
a bank account we purchased the sim card at an oxo it was about 250 pesos for two weeks
and that's what we use to to open up the bank account you don't necessarily have to keep
the phone number active because once you activate your mobile app you can use that for any customer
service or they can message you directly through the app if there's any issues going on with a
bank account and here's another issue that happened after i opened up my bank account
so the lady at the counter actually opened up my bank account as a foreigner
because they saw that in the mexican passport it said that i was born in chicago illinois
so because it said that they wanted they actually ended up opening up my account as a foreign this
was an issue because i am a mexican citizen and if you're opening it up as a mexican citizen then
they should open up the bank account as a mexican citizen try to avoid that mistake make sure that
when they give you all your paperwork that you really that you read it through because it was
an issue they wanted me to come back to the bank to make that change and i wasn't even in puerto
escondido anymore apparently wherever you open up your bank account that's where you fix your issues
i was actually in merida and there was no way i was going to fly back from merida to puerto
scondido to make that correction for them so to avoid all those headaches and all those
issues make sure that when they open up your bank account that you're opening they're opening it up
for you as a mexican national and that's about it as far as what you need to open up a bank account
if you have any questions make sure to comment in the comments below in regards to how our
bank account is going now how it works now do we still like it and if you opened up a bank account
in mexico make sure to share your experience in the comments down below because that could also
help other people who might want to open up a bank account with a different bank we hope you
enjoyed this video we hope it was helpful thank you so much for watching secretary clivia ciao