Mexican Visa card--good idea?

[louisarogers]

In various situations in Mexico (e.g. bus tickets and rental bikes in big cities), we have tried to use our usual Visa cards & discovered that a non-Mexico Visa will not work. We are considering getting a Mexican Visa card through Bancomer, but we have not talked to them about it. Do any of you have a Mex Visa card and are you glad? Any pluses or minuses?

[DonJuane]

Be sure to state your residency status because I believe that matters if you can register for one or not. If you don't get an answer here I can contact a friend for you. I am not a permanent resident yet because I have a US auto here I don't want to give up just yet and it can't be nationalized. You are spot on with the problems with bus tickets, Tecel online recharges etc.

Also another resource for information relating generally to Mexico is Facebook group "On The Road In Mexico", which contains a whole lot of ads, bickering and photos of people's lunches but you can from time to time extract some good info from there, such as qualifications and procedures for applying for a bank account.

Here's a little bit more about it. https://www.mexperience.com/lifestyle/li...in-mexico/

Incidentally, my friend as a permanent resident here does have a bank account where a small balance is kept specifically for the reasons you identified.

[roberb7]

You'll quickly discover that Mexican banks charge interest rates on credit cards that would embarrass Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno or Angelo "Gyp" DeCarlo. However, Scotiabank and HSBC are better than the rest of them.

[MarionP]

We have a debit card from Santander that also has the MasterCard logo on it. It has an expiry date and the 3 digits on the back. It works for bus tickets etc. when purchasing online.

[jesm]

As noted the interest rates (tasas) are very high, so if you get any card- pay on time!
We have a Santander Master Card, called “Free” and there is no annual fee. BUT, they hit you with a fee each month that you do NOT charge something! It is useful for car rentals ( no deposits) which we use frequently for travels around the country. We charge our groceries at La Comer to avoid the non-use penalty and pay off so no interest.

[colleen]

Glad I read all the responses. I thought you were talking about your visa status. Finally got on the right page and realize you are talking about a credit card. I have an account at Bancomer and have had it since before we lived here. A MX friend opened it for my husband and I but he got off of it years ago and it's in my name now. I don't see a benefit to getting the credit card they keep offering me. But if I need to pay for something and don't want to use cash, I use my debit card. I've never had a problem with it. I never use my US credit card unless I am buying something that I want to pay for with dollars. I have bought things from Mercado Libre and bought car parts from Ford, tiles and other things from a large tile store. No problem. One time I used a US debit card to get cash from an ATM just to see how it would work. WAAAY too expensive. That was the first and last time.

[louisarogers]

Thanks all of you for your helpful thoughts. We've decided it's not worth the stress of having to remember to use it every month!... a decision we couldn't have made w/o your input.