If you’re planning to live, work, retire or buy a home in Mexico, you’ll probably find that there is a need to transfer money regularly between your home country and Mexico. If your move to Mexico is only semi-permanent or part-time, or if you intend to maintain some links with your home country, this need is likely to be with you in the long-term, so taking the time to choose a good global payments agent makes good financial sense.
You might need to transfer funds to support yourself and your family while living in Mexico; or to transfer funds to pay for a large purchase, like a home or a boat. If you work in Mexico, but your salary or professional fees are paid into an account outside of Mexico, you’ll need to make regular transfers of money to your Mexican bank account. On some occasions you may need to transfer money from Mexico back to your home country; for example, if you sell an asset here or have left-over funds from an over-winter period in the country.
Moving money across borders is time-consuming for individuals, and can also incur significant bank charges. Of late, people with a need to transfer sums of money across borders are ignoring their banks and using well-established international money transfer specialists instead. Although your bank might be the first place you think of for money transfer, in practice you can save a lot of money in fees and charges by using a specialist foreign exchange service.
There are three sets of fees you need to compare when you’re considering international money-transfer specialists. Firstly, the account fees: how much does it cost to open the account and what are the yearly fees, regardless of how much money you transfer? Second, is the fee per transaction: how much does the company charge (either a fixed fee or percentage of the total amount) each time you make a transfer? And third—the least obvious—is the exchange rate being offered. In addition to charging fees, banks and money transfer houses make some money on the ‘spread’, the difference between the buy and sell rate of the two or more currencies you are trading as part of the transfer. Check the rate of exchange being offered and ensure it’s competitive in comparison to current market rates.
For extensive knowledge about managing your money in Mexico, connect to our Mexico Money Guide and our guide to Banks, Banking and Credit in Mexico.
Mexico in your inbox
Our free newsletter about Mexico brings you a monthly round-up of recently published stories and opportunities, as well as gems from our archives.
I have used Ria Money transfer several times. They typically give better rates than Xoom and the charge lower fees. They also transfer to more places than Xoom, but I send to Elektra. I have had good services and really fast payout (minutos).
Well avoid World First if you don’t maintain a UK address as they cannot open an account for you if you only have a Mexican address. Not much use really for a service aimed at expats
We have also been using XOOM and it is very inexpensive. Once your account is set up it only takes a few minutes and the money is available within 30 minutes or less. Some banks let you transfer money only twice a month and others have no restrictions on how often you can transfer; check with the Mexican bank you will be using for their rules. We use two banks in Mexico for our transfers.
I have been using XOOM for several years. Transferring money to Mexico is only $4.99 for up to $999.00. This has always worked smoothly and quickly.
I have been using an international money-transfer specialist for 3 years now and it works great. I own a house in Guanajuato and have done major modifications involving getting the money to Mexico. This has involved many transfers and have never had any problem. You have to wait 5 to 7 days for the money to arrive in your Mexican bank, but the transfer rate is guaranteed at the time the transfer is initiated. My company does not charge any fees, so they make their money in the transfer rate, but the rates are good and the service excellent. Much better than using US banks, who charge fees for everything these days. The company is Canadian and called XE. Best deal in town!