Best Place To Get $400 Us Converted To Pesos?

[uncfnp]

I have followed this thread and i may have just missed or forgot it if answered but why not just take cash and exchange it at the banks there without the risk of an atm hijack.

And two, for a ten day stay, how many pesos do I need on hand?

Thanks

 

[mediumone]

I have followed this thread and i may have just missed or forgot it if answered but why not just take cash and exchange it at the banks there without the risk of an atm hijack.

And two, for a ten day stay, how many pesos do I need on hand?

Thanks

1) You'll get a slightly better rate at an ATM
2) You'll spend about an hour less in line at an ATM than at a bank.
3) The odds of an ATM hijack are about the same as an ATM hijack in North Carolina, provided we compare apples to apples, which is to say, use an ATM in a bank, bank foyer, the airport or Mega.
4) The odds of losing or otherwise being relieved of your stash of cash before you exchange it are much, much, much greater than an ATM hijack.
5) Ever wonder why there is always one person who has their card compromised at XYZ ATM, but nobody else does, and there have been literally hundreds of locals using that same ATM without issue? I wonder that all the time.

I have no idea how many pesos you're going to need, as I don't know how much you eat, where you eat, and what else you might be inclined to spend money on.

When I use an airport ATM, (which is my very first stop after customs), I'll withdraw 6 or 7,000 pesos to get me started for our 11 day stay in a condo.

 

[uncfnp]

1) You'll get a slightly better rate at an ATM
2) You'll spend about an hour less in line at an ATM than at a bank.
3) The odds of an ATM hijack are about the same as an ATM hijack in North Carolina, provided we compare apples to apples, which is to say, use an ATM in a bank, bank foyer, the airport or Mega.
4) The odds of losing or otherwise being relieved of your stash of cash before you exchange it are much, much, much greater than an ATM hijack.
5) Ever wonder why there is always one person who has their card compromised at XYZ ATM, but nobody else does, and there have been literally hundreds of locals using that same ATM without issue? I wonder that all the time.

I have no idea how many pesos you're going to need, as I don't know how much you eat, where you eat, and what else you might be inclined to spend money on.

When I use an airport ATM, (which is my very first stop after customs), I'll withdraw 6 or 7,000 pesos to get me started for our 11 day stay in a condo.

Actually ATM's and CC's worry me in the US too. My partner is a paranoid conspiracy theorist and some of it has inevitably rubbed off. And I have had my AmEx hijacked with no clue where they got the info. Fortunately AmEx picked it up almost immediately and notified me.

And as for pesos to keep on hand, just looking for a ballpark number. Eric and I are pretty low maintenance.

 

[ggunn]

And as for pesos to keep on hand, just looking for a ballpark number. Eric and I are pretty low maintance.

As my dad always used to say, "How long is a piece of string?" How many pesos you should have on hand depends on what your expenditures are and how often you want to go to the well. I pay in cash with pesos for just about everything while I am there and I go to the ATM and draw out the maximum whenever I run low. I use the same one every time and I save and check all my receipts with on line banking.

I do not try to figure out my total expenditures for my time there and carry the whole wad in cash from the start. I think the chances of something happening to that wad of cash are higher than of something going amiss with the ATM card, and I know that if I have card trouble I have recourse with my credit union. If I lose or get relieved of my stash of cash it's just gone.

 

[mmmbelows]

Actually ATM's and CC's worry me in the US too. My partner is a paranoid conspiracy theorist and some of it has inevitably rubbed off. And I have had my AmEx hijacked with no clue where they got the info. Fortunately AmEx picked it up almost immediately and notified me.

And as for pesos to keep on hand, just looking for a ballpark number. Eric and I are pretty low maintenance.

None, just bring an ATM card and pull pesos out of a bank ATM.

If you're paranoid and a worry wart, simplest security is to open an account with your bank that is just for travel, fund it with a fixed amount just before you leave and sweep back out whatever is left when you return. Only use that account to pull money from an ATM abroad. Your risks and frustrations if something happens to compromise it is at least are just limited to that account.

 

[ggunn]

None, just bring an ATM card and pull pesos out of a bank ATM.

If you're paranoid and a worry wart, simplest security is to open an account with your bank that is just for travel, fund it with a fixed amount just before you leave and sweep back out whatever is left when you return. Only use that account to pull money from an ATM abroad. Your risks and frustrations if something happens to compromise it is at least are just limited to that account.

Second that, and with on line banking you can adjust the contents of your travel account on the fly. A precaution: some institutions as a default turn on "overdraft protection" on a secondary account to tap your primary account if the secondary one gets a request it cannot cover, and they won't necessarily tell you about it. It defeats the purpose of the secondary account, which is to firewall your primary account. They say it is for your protection but it is actually for theirs. Turn it off.

 

[uncfnp]

Thanks guys. I had actually given this some thought. Will head to the bank tomorrow and set it up. And make sure the overdraft protection is off.

 

[gopbroek]

Second that, and with on line banking you can adjust the contents of your travel account on the fly. A precaution: some institutions as a default turn on "overdraft protection" on a secondary account to tap your primary account if the secondary one gets a request it cannot cover, and they won't necessarily tell you about it. It defeats the purpose of the secondary account, which is to firewall your primary account. They say it is for your protection but it is actually for theirs. Turn it off.

My primary bank is a credit union and while they will let me open a secondary account, they do not have provisions to firewall the primary and secondary accounts. This is precisely what led me to look for a secondary account with another institution for travel and go with Schwab.

 

[ggunn]

My primary bank is a credit union and while they will let me open a secondary account, they do not have provisions to firewall the primary and secondary accounts. This is precisely what led me to look for a secondary account with another institution for travel and go with Schwab.

Too bad. My bank is also a CU but they let me turn off the overdraft protection once I realized that it was on. It defaulted to "on" and they didn't tell me about it, but a PayPal transaction that was supposed to roll over to my credit card rolled over to my primary account instead.

 

[uncfnp]

Thanks again. I think I got all the bases covered. A Schwab debit card on the way as my main funding and a bank account with limited access as backup. Yep. Paranoid.