Before we moved to Mexico eight years ago, we opened accounts with Schwab and Amazon Prime/Chase VISA. Neither add a surcharge and both give a fair exchange rate. Yesterday, I got $5000p at an independent ATM at the rate negotiated by Schwab. The fee and IVA were $116p which will be refunded by Schwab at month end. We went five years without a Mexican bank account without an issue.
Interesting! We also get our ATM fees refunded by our US bank. We've been planning to open a Mexican bank account but haven't made it happen yet and, like you, it hasn't been much of an issue. Thanks for reading!
Also I want to shout out to the Chime finance company, all of their cards have zero charges for international transactions (not including ATM withdrawal, but the fee there is the same as the one in the states). I guess banks vary, but every bank I’ve used always charged some fee.
Before we moved to Mexico eight years ago, we opened accounts with Schwab and Amazon Prime/Chase VISA. Neither add a surcharge and both give a fair exchange rate. Yesterday, I got $5000p at an independent ATM at the rate negotiated by Schwab. The fee and IVA were $116p which will be refunded by Schwab at month end. We went five years without a Mexican bank account without an issue.
Interesting! We also get our ATM fees refunded by our US bank. We've been planning to open a Mexican bank account but haven't made it happen yet and, like you, it hasn't been much of an issue. Thanks for reading!
I never quite understood how this worked, so thank you.
Also I want to shout out to the Chime finance company, all of their cards have zero charges for international transactions (not including ATM withdrawal, but the fee there is the same as the one in the states). I guess banks vary, but every bank I’ve used always charged some fee.
I have always wondered! Never looked into it, shockingly... But now I know, thank you!