Don't Count on 20-1

[amoses]

If someone is coming this summer, should they buy pesos now? And how would you do that?

 

[Christi]

Wow. I got close to 21 in MC last week.

That was last week - we were all getting that last week

 

[ggunn]

If someone is coming this summer, should they buy pesos now? And how would you do that?

I wouldn't. You have just as much chance of taking a loss as making money. Also, unless you are wanting to buy tens of thousands of dollars worth of pesos, the potential gain is just not that great.

 

[JamesBon92007]

The Oanda exchange rate is currently posted as 19.8299 to one. I expect my Schwab ATM card to produce pesos at the Mega ATM's @ a rate near 19.68 to 1 USD, and pickup the fees. Will test it out on Sunday.

You don't have to pay any fees when you get your pesos?

 

[gopbroek]

You don't have to pay any fees when you get your pesos?

Of course not, Schawb (and I have heard Fidelity also) offer totally free checking accounts with zero cost or balance requirements (I believe they would like any future brokerage business and offer it as a loss leader) and they pick up any ATM fees. When you withdraw currency from an ATM your bank has to reimburse the dispensing ATM's bank for the funds. Any fees or exchange rates charged to your are set by you bank, the ATM just gets a dispending fee. Schwab consistently charges me 0.15 MXN below the average Oanda rate. Makes it kinda nice to preload the account and just use it for travel and not have to get large amounts with each transaction, but I normally get pesos in 6K blocks anyway.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Of course not, Schawb (and I have heard Fidelity also) offer totally free checking accounts with zero cost or balance requirements (I believe they would like any future brokerage business and offer it as a loss leader) and they pick up any ATM fees. When you withdraw currency from an ATM your bank has to reimburse the dispensing ATM's bank for the funds. Any fees or exchange rates charged to your are set by you bank, the ATM just gets a dispending fee. Schwab consistently charges me 0.15 MXN below the average Oanda rate. Makes it kinda nice to preload the account and just use it for travel and not have to get large amounts with each transaction, but I normally get pesos in 6K blocks anyway.

I haven't examined my receipts all that closely but I did notice that I pay lower fees for fewer pesos so it didn't seem to make that much difference if I got smaller amounts and made withdrawals more often. Of course if there is a way to reduce or eliminate those fees I'd rather give the money to a local in the form of tips or whatever.

 

[geokr]

The Oanda exchange rate is currently posted as 19.8299 to one. I expect my Schwab ATM card to produce pesos at the Mega ATM's @ a rate near 19.68 to 1 USD, and pickup the fees. Will test it out on Sunday.

How did it go?

 

[kss1dvr]

Using a Schwab debit card I got 19.25002 on March 7 with the Oanda rate at 19.5467, but that is with the ATM fees charged to the transaction.

It will be better than that once the fees are refunded. Last time I used a Bank Norte ATM it was $2.53 in fees, which would work out to a 19.44 exchange rate.

Pretty good way to get pesos.

 

[gopbroek]

How did it go?

On the 27th of February the average Oanda exchange rate was 19.895:1. I pulled out 5K MXN for a charge of 255.33 USD but the following day the ATM fee of $1.57 was refunded so the total cost was 254.76 USD which works out to 19.626 : 1
I am happy with only a 0.269 spread off FOREX but it was higher than the typical 0.15 difference I usually see.

 

[JamesBon92007]

I see that it's down to 18.66:1 today (April 7). I think I got mine (left with about $2400.00 MX) at about 20.4:1 so the difference ought to just about pay for my taxi from the airport (PVR) to my hotel next month

Anyone happen to know the current taxi rates in Puerto Vallarta? When I was there in 2013 it was $100 MX to the airport and $200 MX from the airport.