Banking and More (deposit, office, rated, best)

[Patrick Murtha]

(1) When I first came to Mexico three years ago to teach in Culiacan, my school set up a Banorte account for me which I have had ever since. I have always found their service to be kind of spotty, but until now I couldn't do anything about it because of the school-bank relationship.

Now that I have moved from Culiacan to Mexico City, I am having worse experiences with Banorte than ever, so as soon as I take care of a few loose ends, I am going to close that account. But whom should I bank with? My new employer will direct deposit my paycheck to any Mexican bank.

In at least one earlier thread, I brought up a "Preferred Customer" program targeted at expats that I had heard existed at BBVA Bancomer. There was some doubt as to whether the program still existed. One of the things it promised was the availability of English language customer service on the phone, which would be most welcome; I've hardly ever encountered anyone at Banorte, either in person or on the phone, who spoke much English. (And yes, to answer your unspoken question, I am sure that contributes to some of my customer service problems with them; which is partly why I am looking for a better fit.)

So what say all of you? Which bank offers the best service to expats? How about the most reasonable rate on international wire transfers? Although frankly, I might just start sending money to my credit union account by Western Union, if that is feasible; it seems much less of a hassle than making a bank-to-bank international wire transfer, which at Banorte at least has never been less than a PAINFUL experience, and I've done it more than 35 times in three years. Every time I went to the branch in Culiacan, the process should have been the same, and I was unquestionably the same person, yet every single time the bank officer reacted as if she had never seen me before or handled such a transaction on my behalf before. She shook her head a lot as if an international wire transfer was the most difficult and unusual thing on earth. It was odd.

(2) Related to the above, but not strictly a Mexican question, although the phenomenon I'm going to describe is certainly encountered here - I've had it happen three times since arriving in Mexico City, twice at different Banorte branches, once at Telcel, and I've known several people at my old school to whom it happened at IMSS. Here's the situation. You ask an official at whatever concern you're dealing with what needs to be done in the given situation. (At Telcel I was doing this all in English.) You are given instructions which require you to do something and come back on a later day. You do so. On the return visit, you either speak to a different official, or sometimes even to the same one, and whatever instructions you were given earlier are completely disclaimed. You did the wrong thing. You must go and do something else. Now you, customer, are frustrated, possibly quite upset, and certainly confused, because how can you be sure that the new instructions are the correct ones? They too might later be disclaimed, and you could be trapped in an endless loop, arggh! Reasoning with the official on the second visit, to the best of your ability, is quite fruitless and yields nada in the way of results, except possibly irking him/her.

How do you handle this? I'm not handling it very well and I want to do better. And yes, I know, improve my Spanish, but what else?

[TotallyTam]

Try IXE Banco. I hear it's better than those you mentioned in the OP. (And they have an IXE Cafe in each branch---coffee, anyone? Haha...true though.) Your description of the run-around service and various answers you get is quite typical of Mexican bureaucrats and service personnel, from my experience. Patience is a virtue, my friend. It seems the rules change daily. I, too, cannot quite figure it out. Good luck--and yes, learn basic Spanish. A little goes a looooong way.

[Patrick Murtha]

Originally Posted by TotallyTam

Try IXE Banco. I hear it's better than those you mentioned in the OP. (And they have an IXE Cafe in each branch---coffee, anyone? Haha...true though.) Your description of the run-around service and various answers you get is quite typical of Mexican bureaucrats and service personnel, from my experience. Patience is a virtue, my friend. It seems the rules change daily. I, too, cannot quite figure it out. Good luck--and yes, learn basic Spanish. A little goes a looooong way.

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into IXE, sounds interesting.

I think I have become more patient since residing in Mexico, but am still a long way from having the level of patience that Mexico sometimes requires. Either I become petulant (unhelpful), or tilt headlong into existential crisis. (Interestingly, technologies that change too rapidly can provoke me in the same way; I practically had a nervous breakdown over Windows 8.)