Most common payment methods in Mexico

Cheryl,

Thank you for the topic, am still back and forth from Cleveland to Cuernavaca, but when I am in Mexico, I have always found my debit card to be safe, since it uses a PIN code.  Since then, I have moved my money from KeyBank to Schwab, since Schwab does not care if I live in Mexico permanently, and we do not plan to keep a USA address once our condo sells.  My Schwab debit card rebates all foreign transaction and ATM fees, looking forward to my permanent residency appointment in DEC this year.  When paying contractors, cash is king, so pesos are what we use for them and small store owners.  My experience with artisans selling hand made objects is a lot of them use ETSY, which is prone to fraud, so those folks also get cash from now on.  Hope this helps, and look forward to hearing from other's experiences.

Saludos,

Jeff

@Cheryl

Hola, below is my personnal experience on retiring in Mexico.

As you know cash is king in many areas of Mexico. I found the best way to transfer $ from Canada is with Remitly.com You open your account on line, transfer from your Cdn bank with interac at no fees and chose where you want to pickup cash (there is a list on Remitly web site). NO need for a Mexican bank account, the best i found is Banco Azteca open 7 days a week you only need the confirmation number they will send you and your passeport. Fees is minimal at $2.99 per transaction. Another advantage is you know when you do the transaction the exact rate of exchange. Alternative is Western Union and RIA and moneygram.  Many of them have special introduction rate for first transfer.

Also find a credit card with no fx fee (most charge 2.5%) Wealthsimple Visa, Home trust and EQ bank

some prefer using ATM, but low withdrawal limit and fees charge by the Mx and Cdn bank are only find after the transaction same for fx rate.

Wise card change the limit of free withdrawal last may and become too expensive (check wise website). But using Wise visa prepaid credit card is a good alternative in restaurants and grocery.

Some small vendor will tackel a fee if you pay with credit card.

For taxi and InDrive use cash to avoid nasty surprise.

Check monito.com to verify fx rate between many app or websites.