Maps Lot Video Lot Prices Buying & Owning Property Cost of Living Price Level Banking Insurance Labor Utilitities Phones & Internet
Driving & Flying Loreto Vs La Paz Construction DIY Construction Home Finding Loreto Property La Paz Property American Efficiency
Perfect Loreto History The Peso Baja Economy Infrastructure Culture Loreto Video Fishing Diving Recreation Dining Whale Watching
Banking in Loreto and La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Banking in Loreto
Mexican Banks. In the Baja, you can get a checking account in either pesos or US dollars. In mainland Mexico, you can only get a pesos bank account. Banking in general in the Baja is a bit strange for an American because Mexican banks observe some different internal control measures that can make maintaining an account a little challenging. For instance, you need to keep the equivalent of about $300 to $600 US in an account to absorb fees or they will close the account. They charge a check fee for each check that clears. If you receive a wire of funds you get charged a fee. If you wire funds out, you get charged a fee. If you want to withdraw cash, you are limited to the equivalent of a withdrawal of $1,000 US cash per branch per day. To open an account, you need to have a local mailing address and prove that location is your residence with recent copies of utility bills with your name on them. Banking can be a little tedious, sometimes.Transaction Consistancy required. If you don’t do a banking transaction within three consecutive months in the account, the bank will freeze your account until you go to the branch and ask them to release the freeze. Also, if you do a banking transaction that is out of the “average” size of past transactions, they will freeze the bank account until you request a release. ]
Mexican Banks have tight internal controls. If you want to get a balance of your bank account by waiting in line and then asking the teller, the teller doesn’t have the authority or the visibility at their computer monitor to access your balance information. You have to wait to see the bank manager and ask that person personally for your balance or for a print out of recent transactions and balances. If you go to a bank branch of your bank that is in a different city than the branch at which you opened the account, you cannot get an account balance or a print out or your account balance at all. You can only get that information in person in a branch within the city in which you opened your account. The more of your banking that you do at your own branch, the better.
Cash economy Vs. checks - use pesos. If you want to make a deposit into someone else’s bank account with a check drawn on your banking account, you can’t if you are not in the city where your account was opened. Many agencies and businesses will not take a bank check in payment, only actual pesos currency, they call cash "efectivo". That is why at the end of a month you may notice long lines at certain businesses as people are waiting in line to make a cash payment before the due date. If you want to buy pesos with US dollars, make sure that you use the newer $100 US bills with the large picture of the president. Mexicans are a little suspicious of the old bills. They rely very heavily on the marker pens to stripe the $100 bill and if it leaves too dark of temporary line, a bank or a local business may not accept the bill.
Elektra confiscates US Dollars. The incident I am about to describe doesn't have to do with banking in La Paz or banking in Baja directly. But, mostly it has to do with using US dollar bills, $50s and $100s, at stores in Mexico. Most of the time when one goes to a store in Baja to pay for goods with US currency, there isn't a problem. However, the merchants will manually stripe larger US bills with a Counterfeit Detector marking pen. If it leaves a very dark line, they will not accept the bill and return it to you. However, ELEKTRA, which is an electronics and home furnishing chain store prominent in La Paz, confiscates bills that leave a slightly darker than normal counterfeit pen mark. Keep in mind that counterfeit marker pens are not a definitive test at all. It is only an indication of a possibility of a counterfeit bill. In fact the marker pen has the following words printed on it, "...Brown/Gray mark - currency is suspect" ...for currencies after 1958. Use in addition to other standard detection tests."
I paid my next door neigbor in La Paz for some work done on a house. I paid them in US $50 dollar bills. One of the bills was an old bill dated 1950. It was a perfectly good bill in good physical shape and appearance. Because of the nature of the paper used to make that bill back in 1950, the marker pen used by merchants to test the validity of the bill, left a slightly darker line on the bill than on the newer bills printed after 1992. Also, the picture of the president was smaller than that on the newer bills. That raised their eyebrows. The ELEKTRA store confiscated the bill right out of the hands of my neighbor and told her it was no good. Well, there is and was nothing wrong with the bill and I have been going back and forth with them for six months. I don't really expect to get my money back, ever. All they have to do is do nothing, which is what they are good at. Be ware of ELEKTRA!
Banking in Baja. Doing business and banking in the Baja can be a challenge if you do not have much experience in how things work there. Baja-Lots has plenty of experience, we know what to expect and we conduct our activities in the most efficient and effective way. You can be frustrated every step of the way in Mexico if you don’t know the administrative ropes.
Loreto Banks - Locals use cash. Because of the administrative internal banking controls described above, the vast majority of local citizens of Loreto and La Paz, and independent small business people will not bother with checking accounts and only transact in cash. That means it’s advisable to keep a enough cash on hand for general purposes in the Baja. TOP