Banking in Mexico

There are aspects of banking in Mexico that remind me of banking in the U.S., 20 years ago. For example, the rubber stamp is very popular; there are mountains of paperwork which are embellished with big flourishing signatures, and long lines on Fridays and paydays.

In other aspects, it is nearly the same as the U.S., with online access to account balances and transaction history.

My biggest challenge was getting a checking account. The ranchito doesn’t have a physical mailing address and the banks wouldn’t accept my post office box in town.

Then Scotia Bank came to town. New to San Miguel, they were hungry for customers and because I have an account with their investment arm (Scotia Casa de Bolsa) in Mexico City, they rolled out the red carpet. I got my checking account, a debit/ATM card, and just for kicks, a credit card. To overcome the address challenge, they had me draw a map to my house on the back of my account agreement.

The Casa de Bolsa to Bank relationship has been great. Every 28 days they deposit the interest to my bank account and reinvest the principle.

What surprised me was the credit card. I thought it was free (i.e., no annual membership fee). Not wanting to read the fine print (in Spanish) that constituted my account agreement, I was surprised to find out today that the membership fee is only waived for the first year.

I never used the card and the statement I received depicted an annual membership fee for next year, of 345 pesos. I further reviewed the statement to learn that the minimum payment is 50% and the annual interest rate is 33.80%. No airline miles, no rebates, nada.

I canceled that bad boy in a heartbeat.

(“Read the fine print” takes on a whole new meaning when it’s in another language.)