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About one year ago, after living in Cuernavaca, Morelos, for over three years, I finally opened a Mexican account with BBVA Bancomer, which has a special Preferred Customer account and specially-trained English-speaking personnel to help.  This account is designed especially for ex-pats.  I have linked this Mexican account with my checking account in the U.S.

The very same transfer system that is used by Mexican migrant workers in the U.S. to send money back to their families in México is the one that links my U.S. account to my Bancomer account.  It's called "ExpressSend," and it's the global remittance service for one of the largest banks in the U.S.

To transfer money, I simply call my U.S. bank and make a request for ExpressSend.  I think it's also possible to do it online, but I've never done it that way; I prefer to talk with a living, breathing human being.

Within a few hours, I go to any Bancomer ATM and withdraw my money in pesos.  There's a daily transfer limit from my U.S. bank and a daily withdrawal limit set by Bancomer.  The transfer fee charged by my bank in the U.S. is currently $3.50 USD.  There's no withdrawal fee from Bancomer.

Prior to setting up my Bancomer account, I was simply withdrawing cash from virtually any ATM and paying $5.00 USD each time as a service fee to my U.S. bank.  In one year, I've already seen substantial savings in bank service fees.  Most U.S. banks have a similar product for remittances/transfers to banks in México.

Great answer above with the Bancomer account.     I've got a good impression overall of Bancomer, though I don't care for our local branch in Oaxaca, friends elsewhere prefer them.  Luckily our US bank (USAA) reimburses (some) foreign ATM charges, so we don't need to transfer. We just withdraw pesos using ATM from our US bank with good exchange rates.  If we want money in the local bank we deposit the pesos.

Here on the coast of Oaxaca, our while family uses ScotiaBank, which has a good free "checking" account and a clunky but secure and usable online banking site.   We have found Scotia ATMs generally available. Transferring money between Scotia accounts is easy online and we do that a lot for the kids budgets when they are away at school.   Overall, Scotia suits us and are currently the ones who try harder in our area.

HSBC is an international chain like Scotia, bigger and more presence,  but their Mexican version is not so great in many ways. In our area, at least, they have a bad attitude and are the most often rumoured to cheat or decieve their customers.  On the other hand, they do offer a lot of special services, like cashier's checks in US dollars, if you ever needed that !  I can't recommend them.

Those are the only ones I can really comment on. Oh, and Banamex has a bad rep around here, but I've got no experience personally. 

By the way, I've found that outside of the biggest cities, most Mexicans are unfamiliar with personal checks.  They hardly used banks in that era and society was probably too sketchy for them to work anyway.  People started using banks in numbers after ATMs came out.  Same as phones.  Very few Mexicans have ever had landlines, but almost all have cells now.

Another interesting note is that Mexico actually has a superior (to the US) interbank system for transfers and paying long distance.  It's common and easy here and is usually free.  You can also pay people by personally depositing in the bank's account wherever you instead of sending a check.  It's commonly done.   When you buy on Mercado Libre (Mexican Ebay) the seller gives you his account number and bank.  Either you send it to him from your bank online or you go to whatever their chain is - Bancomer, Banamex etc. and fill out a slip, handover the money and it appears anywhere in the country as now being in their account. It might even work at a different bank chain than theirs or yours, never tried. 

Anyway, Bancomer is probably a good bet in general.  I understand that they have good internet banking.


Cheers

Hola     HSBC is huge and has everything and atms all over. Also ScotiaBank (Canadian) well established    Both excellent and multinational too

We opened an account on-line with HSBC before we moved to Mexico, and have been satisfied. Money is deposited in the US, and easily available here from the many ATM's for a modest fee.

My niece uses and likes BanaMex, and had bad experiences with Banorte.

gubabbaboy wrote:

We opened an account on-line with HSBC before we moved to Mexico, and have been satisfied. Money is deposited in the US, and easily available here from the many ATM's for a modest fee.

How much does HSBC in your home country charge to withdraw from an HSBC ATM in Mexico?  And locally?  Just wondering if there's any advantage.

As far as I can tell, for withdrawels using ATMs, it doesn't have to be an international chain that's also in your home country, as the banking systems are completely seperated by country and the ATM systems are worldwide across banks, depending on which systems your ATM uses.

I figure, just choose an account in your home country that has a good policy for foreign ATM withdrawals and uses an ATM system that is availible in your part of Mexico.  Then pick the local ATM that is most secure and has the best local fee. 


That reminds me to caution any readers;  please watch out for the new ATM scams.  They attach reading devices onto the card slot to get your card info and then a hidden camera to get your PIN.   



Banks are aware of this and are taking steps.  Keep an eye on the type of card reader the machine you use has and notice how it's designed.  Some are more secure than others.   Also, I always cover my hand so any hidden camera won't see the keypad when inputting my PIN.

cheers

Thanks for your response. I think HSBC's fee for withdrawing money is less than $2.50. I haven't yet checked about fees for local accounts - I just know that right now, getting a local HSBC account sounds like a lot more trouble than it's worth, since I don't have me FM3 yet.

We just make one or two withdrawals a month.

And thanks for the reminder about being careful at ATM's.

Yep, if you're only paying $5-8 a month in ATM fees, you won't save any money opening a Mexican bank account. It's more trouble and expense - (exception noted in first Bancomer post of this thread) - to move money from the US to Mexican banks.

We really only use our Mexico ScotiaBank account for a few odd tasks and most folks will be fine with just a US bank account and withdrawing via ATM.

Another warning; plan for the day you lose your ATM card or the machine eats it.  It's happened to me a few times and I've seen friends, tourist scramble for days with their banks and DHL because their only card expired or was eaten.   I have two different US bank accounts that can transfer to each other, so if one card is out of commision, I switch to the other card and just transfer money online to back the card.  This also helps when I've need more than the daily ATM limit per account for big expenditures.

Unfortunately Scotia is hardly mentioned in Mercado Libre. So if you sell here you need a bank that is in common use.
I noticed Scotia Mx does not add charge on teller machine if the $$-source is Scotia in CA.