Peso vs. USD$

We'll be in Cancun next week. I've been reading that we should use US$ to pay for certain things (ie:taxi/resturants) and then others say use Peso to pay for everything. Which will give us the most for our money? The current exchange rate is $1 USD = $13 Peso.

Please give me recommendation/suggestion on when to use USD and when to use Peso.

TIA

Please, do tell. Where have you been reading to use a foreign currency while in Mexico?

The currency is the peso, and although many/most merchants indeed accept US currency, the only reason they do so is because they'll overcharge you on every transaction by about 30%.

There is no reason to use foreign currency in Mexico.

Use Pesos - get them from a bank ATM machine (Banamex, Bancomer, Sanatar, Scotia). There will be some of these at the airport. Get enough for a couple of days at a time. 1500 pesos is about $115 US, so you might want to want to get at least 3000 the first time to see how much you spend. We travel to Mexico quite often and always bring about 3000 pesos home with us for our next trip so that we can pay for taxi, tips, meals, etc. for the first day or so.

If you are using USD, the people will only give you a rate of 10 or 11 pesos per $1. So, if something costs 1500 pesos and you pay with USD, you will pay $135-$150 for it instead of $115.

Would you use USD in Europe or even Canada? In Mexico only the tourist industry takes USD as a convenience for visitors who are either unable or unwilling to use pesos. For this courtsey they charge you a premium over the cost in pesos. This is most common for visitors arriving by boat along the marina areas as they are only in Mexico for a few hours and don't care if they pay a premium for the convenience.
The small merchant raises prices when accepting USD (or discounts the price more when paying in pesos) as the merchant gets hassled and screwed on the exchange rate by the banks when they exchange dollars back into pesos. If you exchange at 13 to one the merchant gets about 11.5 or 12 to one which is an excessive exchange fee but is in fact what happens. The smaller the merchant, especially unbanked, the higher the fee.
Taxi fares are regulated in pesos. In dollars the driver can charge you whatever he wants- certainly higher than 13 to 1. The choice is yours but do not expect USD acceptance by small merchants away from the tourist zones as that would be rude and embarrassing for all.

BTW the best way of obtaining pesos at the spot Forex market is to make a peso withdraw from a bank owned ATM in Mexico. The only fee you pay over actual market exchange of the day is the fee your bank might charge you for a withdraw and a ATM withdraw fee of approx 1.50 USD equivalent IF you use a BANK ATM. Private ATMs not associated with a bank as found as a stand alone machine on the street or in the resort are not obliged and seldom do give you the Forex rate but usually much less like 10 pesos to the USD.

Have a great trip

We go to Cancun 3-4 times a year and I would only use pesos. The only time we used US dollars in Mexico was in 2007 and we went to Cabo. They did not want my pesos only $$. I have NEVER had that experience in Cancun.

ilene13 said:

We go to Cancun 3-4 times a year and I would only use pesos. The only time we used US dollars in Mexico was in 2007 and we went to Cabo. They did not want my pesos only $$. I have NEVER had that experience in Cancun.

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Too funny! They didn't want their own currency because that meant they couldn't have overcharged you as easily. :hysterical:

We get some pesos, but charge 99% of all purchases. Our cc company doesn't charge for international transactions. We've checked their exchange rates and they've always been good.

Be careful when buying at the airport. A family distracted us by their cute little toddler girl dancing and they were able to get into our backpack and take the money. Obviously they had watched us and knew exactly where to look for it. We now get pesos at the resort.

In Mazatlan I usually hit the ATM in the airport, or across the street from my timeshare. In PV I start with the leftover pesos from my Mazatlan trip, and hit the ATM at the Santander downtown. Most of the places I go don't take credit cards.

I would caution anyone from using credit cards with frequency in this region. CC fraud and piracy is widespread, and this area is not exempt. Our friends cc was pirated in Mexico. Unlike when this happens at home, you best have a back up plan, CASH, when your credit card is frozen, and you're a very long way from home.

We use our CC only at our home resort, and only if very low on pesos, at well established businesses, like Chedraui or Mega. You've been warned.

This spring, we opened a Capital One 360 online checking account to use just for vacations. They do not charge foreign transaction fees. We did get charged about $2 by the local bank when we made withdrawals, but that was only about once a week. We used bank ATM's either at a bank or at Mega. This worked quite well for us when we were in Mazatlán in June. We did have our regular ATM cards with us for back-up, but having the vacation only cards with a specific amount in that account worked well. We have started transferring funds to it for our November vacation to PV.

We try not to use our credit cards when out of the country. It seems like they only work for timeshare upgrades. (It is best to keep them in the safe!)

Definitely use pesos. We also avoid using our credit card and get money from a bank ATM.

I find it amazing how many Americans insist on using US $$. IN PV and Cancun there are Cashola (real name :hysterical ATMs which actually dispenses US $$. I can only imagine the fees - converting back and forth - involved in those transactions. But obviously there is a market for it, or the machines would not exist.

Phydeaux said:

I would caution anyone from using credit cards with frequency in this region. CC fraud and piracy is widespread, and this area is not exempt. Our friends cc was pirated in Mexico. Unlike when this happens at home, you best have a back up plan, CASH, when your credit card is frozen, and you're a very long way from home.

We use our CC only at our home resort, and only if very low on pesos, at well established businesses, like Chedraui or Mega. You've been warned.

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If you have a Chip+Signature card it is much more secure. From what I have read, there is currently no way to pirate the chip, rather the magnetic strip. I use the Citi HHonors Reserve Visa Card or my Delta Skymiles Amex in Mexico. Neither have any foreign transaction charges and both carry chips and both Visa and Amex are widely accepted. When we ate at a restaurant, the chip forced the server to bring the swipe terminal to me, so my card never left my presence. You just have to be smart and use common sense. I don't leave a card out of my sight in the US, Mexico is no different.

Ditto on the Pesos, I carry enough to get around, but charge everything else.

Thanks!

My bank (Chase) doesn't have an affiliated bank in Mexico so we don't want to put all our money in the account and have problems getting peso from an ATM. So I think the best thing for us is to take cash and go to the bank and convert to peso.

Thanks for all the tips/suggestions!

Sthack said:

My bank (Chase) doesn't have an affiliated bank in Mexico so we don't want to put all our money in the account and have problems getting peso from an ATM. So I think the best thing for us is to take cash and go to the bank and convert to peso.

Thanks for all the tips/suggestions!

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Just make sure that you do not take $100 bills and be sure to take your passport with you to the bank.

pittle said:

Just make sure that you do not take $100 bills and be sure to take your passport with you to the bank.

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Thanks for the heads up! Why not $100 bills? how about $50?

Sthack said:

Thanks for the heads up! Why not $100 bills? how about $50?

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A Mexican bank will not exchange U.S. currency for pesos unless you have a business account at that bank. This change was instituted to combat drug money being laundered. Currency usually can be exchanged at your resort- up to a limit- ($150-$200/day) by showing a passport.

Use a debit card at an ATM attached to a bank, during business hours.

Jim

Passepartout said:

A Mexican bank will not exchange U.S. currency for pesos unless you have a business account at that bank. This change was instituted to combat drug money being laundered. Currency usually can be exchanged at your resort- up to a limit- ($150-$200/day) by showing a passport.

Use a debit card at an ATM attached to a bank, during business hours.

Jim

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So Mexican banks will not exchange USD to pesos for any amount or is it a set amount? We will leave more on the debit card now but I don't want to have issues using it once we get there. I've already notified my bank with the traveling dates that we will be traveling out the country.

Passepartout said:

A Mexican bank will not exchange U.S. currency for pesos unless you have a business account at that bank. This change was instituted to combat drug money being laundered. Currency usually can be exchanged at your resort- up to a limit- ($150-$200/day) by showing a passport.

Use a debit card at an ATM attached to a bank, during business hours.

Jim

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So Mexican banks will not exchange USD to pesos for any amount or is it a set amount? We will leave more on the debit card now but I don't want to have issues using it once we get there. I've already notified my bank with the travel dates that we will be traveling out the country.

Sthack said:

So Mexican banks will not exchange USD to pesos for any amount or is it a set amount?

I've already notified my bank with the travel dates that we will be traveling out the country.

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No bank exchanges of currency unless you have a business account. Obviously your resort has an account, so they will do some exchanges, but expect a bit less than the Forex rate. Expect a couple of dollar charge for each debit/ATM transaction, so get enough to last a couple days (we usually get 3,000 pesos at a time), plus a 1% foreign transaction fee.

Always a good idea about notifying the bank/card issuer about travel plans. It's really inconvenient if they flag your card/account for fraud while you are traveling.

It has been a while since we tried to exchange USD at a bank. We never took $100 bills, but a friend did and they were refused at the bank and at Walmart. We tend to use just Pesos now and get about 5000 Pesos at a time from the ATM and keep most in the safe in our bedroom at the resort. We do take Pesos from the ATM inside the bank and get a bunch of 50 Peso bills to have for tips.

You can get Pesos from the resort front desk. Many resorts make a copy of your passport and keep it on hand for you to have on file to exchange money.

cubigbird said:

If you have a Chip+Signature card it is much more secure. From what I have read, there is currently no way to pirate the chip, rather the magnetic strip. I use the Citi HHonors Reserve Visa Card or my Delta Skymiles Amex in Mexico. Neither have any foreign transaction charges and both carry chips and both Visa and Amex are widely accepted. When we ate at a restaurant, the chip forced the server to bring the swipe terminal to me, so my card never left my presence. You just have to be smart and use common sense. I don't leave a card out of my sight in the US, Mexico is no different.

Ditto on the Pesos, I carry enough to get around, but charge everything else.

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Chip-and-signature credit cards don’t provide any practical benefit relative to magnetic stripe credit cards for users that I can see.

If you lose your card, or it is stolen, it is the cards with a PIN that can stop users from racking up charges. If you don't have a card with PIN, the liability for fraudulent use stays with your banks till the end of 2015, then some liability shifts to merchants who aren't equipped to accept chipped cards. As a card user, you have limited control over security if you don't have a PIN, so, why worry.

If a merchant has the ability to accept a signature they will most likely have the ability to accept an old mag swipe card too.

CarolF said:

Chip-and-signature credit cards don’t provide any practical benefit relative to magnetic stripe credit cards for users that I can see.

If you lose your card, or it is stolen, it is the cards with a PIN that can stop users from racking up charges. If you don't have a card with PIN, the liability for fraudulent use stays with your banks till the end of 2015, then some liability shifts to merchants who aren't equipped to accept chipped cards. As a card user, you have limited control over security if you don't have a PIN, so, why worry.

If a merchant has the ability to accept a signature they will most likely have the ability to accept an old mag swipe card too.

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Correct.

Chip and pin is two factor authentication. Something you have (the card) and something you know (the pin)
Chip and signature just moves the data on the something you have off to a different reader mechanism.

Remember America does the right thing when it has exhausted all other options.

SMHarman said:

Remember America does the right thing when it has exhausted all other options.

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Agreed. I requested a chip/pin card from one of my issuers. Along comes a chip/signature, and it has a mag-strip as well. Talk about the worst of all features, at least from a security standpoint!

Yet another option to exhaust.

pittle said:

We try not to use our credit cards when out of the country. It seems like they only work for timeshare upgrades. (It is best to keep them in the safe!)

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Last time in RM, my visa got denied at WALMART... Note that I used it like 10 or 15 times in cancun before this, including resort charges, something at the airport, etc.. I was pretty dang hostile to the visa place when i called them. Then in my anger, I whipped out my Amex and swiped, and it was my corp Amex and I got all sorts of lectures about that when I got home. But by god that Visa worked fine for MP checkout..