tazman

You make it seem so simple, but like many things in Mexico it isn't. Not with CFE and not with CESPE. We have a small solar installation that normally offsets most of our electricity usage. The month after prepaying a few hundred pesos our bill was double what it normally is. The summer solar credits we had built up were missing and no new credits were added. I was getting ready to hire someone to have the solar panels checked when our credit balance ran out. To my surprise the next bill was back down to the normal amount and the solar credits we had been missing showed up all at once - hundreds of KWHs worth. The only thing we can figure is that CFE's accounting software is unable to handle the combination of bill prepayment and solar credits at the same time. Or maybe the problem was unique to our account, who knows? That was a better experience than CESPE's handling of our water bill. CESPE took the prepayment, pocketed it, and the pesos never showed up in our account. We had the receipt but it wasn't worth the time and effort to try to get them to credit the ~$15 we had prepaid. We learned our lesson. We now pay exactly what we owe every month. With a BBVA account it should be easy going forward.

Glad they worked for you too. Hopefully this thread will help some people avoid the huge waste of time Citibanamex is and just start start with BBVA.

Thanks for the info. Will definitely use that number at some point.

Went into BBVA a couple of weeks ago and they were happy to start the process of opening an account. The account rep who helped us spoke English and was pleasant and helpful. Today they provided an ATM card and took an initial deposit. Thanks for the recommendation.

BBVA was happy to open an account. The process easy with the correct documentation, and the reps were accommodating and pleasant. No problems at all.

Update: I spent 2 hours with a Citibanamex account exec filling out the paperwork and answering questions as they entered the information in to their computer. They then informed me that the account wouldn't be opened for at least 45 days after all the information was sent to Citibanamex's Mexico City office. Yesterday I went back to the bank and was informed the account was cancelled because my signature did not match my signature. Some bean counter in Mexico City decided that the nearly identical signatures on my passport and the application form were not the same although they clearly are. The local account executive looked at both, was visibly embarrassed and said that the Mexico City office did not give them any way to override their decision. If you're thinking about opening a Citibanamex account be aware it may be a massive waste of time.

Frustrating, but at least they told you the truth. I checked Dolarapp out a few months ago but there was some reason it wouldn't work. Will look again.

Citibanamex's is advertising for American business, their executives say that they are happy to open accounts for us and then proceed to spend 2 hours filling out and entering the paperwork. Mexico City bean counters then claim signatures don't match when they clearly do. The dictionary definition of "bogus": Bogus -adjective not genuine or true; fake. "a bogus insurance claim" Another example: Toyhauler 4u made a bogus argument when he contradicted tazman's post about Citibanamex.

Several months ago I spent two hours in a Citibanamex office filling out the copious paperwork for a new account. After all the paperwork was filled out the rep informed me that it took 45 days for the account to actually be opened because the paperwork was sent to Mexico City and processed there. Today I was informed that the account was terminated because my signature did not match my signature. The nearly unnoticeable difference between the signature on my passport and that on the paperwork was the reason given, but it was obviously not the real reason. The bank executive at the local branch looked at both and was visibility embarrassed. Be aware that if you plan to open an account with Citibanamex you should also be actively making other arrangements because after nearly 2 months you may find they've rejected you because of your new hair cut.

I started the process to open an account at Citibanamex on Tuesday. It was quite a process, required an appointment, and took well over an hour, but the rep said the basic account needs no phone app to be used. We're in Mexico most of the time so it won't be a problem in the short term, but to my amazement they said it would take the 45 days to actually open the account. Thanks for the info.

According to their website the service can only be used while actually in Mexico. We have no problem paying our bills at Oxxo or the utility company office when inside the country, but when we're traveling back to the U.S. or elsewhere it's damn near impossible.

CFE in particular doesn't allow entering a generic Mastercard Debit card, it only allows selecting an issuing bank for everything with the exception of American Express. At least at this point I don't see any way of using a Wise card. I believe our other local utilities are the same. Hopefully Citibanamex will be an option for a local account.

This is the "Mexico General" sub. I'm not lakeside.

Great info, muchas gracias. My decision to not open another Mexican bank account was based on what I had been told by HSBC reps, but apparently that was all misinformation. I'm going to check out Citibanamex today.

IDK what happened with my account beyond what I've posted. Maybe my branch does things differently. Glad they've treated you better.

Wise's "cheaper than banks" marketing is nonsense and only true for the companies they cherry picked for their marketing blurb. I pay no fees withdrawing Pesos in Mexico from my U.S. account and get the interbank rate for the conversion. Even the Mexican Bank's ATM use fee is refunded. CFE's website doesn't show the Wise card as an option for payment, so perhaps the card is convenient for retail purchases, but it doesn't solve the online payment problem.

When we opened the HSBC account PC web access was not a problem and then the phone app became a requirement. The app was needed even to log on use the HSBC web portal. Upgrading one's phone meant a trip into the bank and at least an hour long wait, plus a great deal of time to get the app activated on the new phone, not something we wanted to do during the lockdown. We were told the "security features" we were facing were mandated by the Mexican government and all banks followed them. It sounds like that wasn't the truth. Paying bills was also extraordinarily convoluted and difficult to set up. If Citibanamex allows web access through a browser and easy payment of bills, an account with them is worth considering. Thanks for the replys.

That's what we generally do too, but we're sometimes out of Mexico when the bill comes due.

You receive a new card in the mail in Mexico? I've never received anything in the mail, only flyers and bills stuck into our gate or mailbox. HSBC never mailed anything, I had to go to the branch any time I needed something. Admittedly this was a confluence of issues that had a lot to do with COVID, but IMO HSBC deliberately took advantage of the situation when the changed their fee policy when they knew access was a problem. A couple of questions: Does Citibanamex charge fees every month? Can you access your account with a laptop, or do they require a cell phone app?

Looking at that thread and again at our latest bill, it seems that when the prepaid balance ran out they applied all previous credits for the last six month to our total surplus even though there was no surplus shown for the billed period on any of those bills (including this one.) CFE's billing is even weirder than I thought. The flip side is that due to the same billing calculations it does look like we can still actually use that surplus.

Like many people in Mexico we have a small solar array to keep us from hitting the DAC rate. With the problem paying CFE online with American credit cards, we decided to prepay our bill in person so we wouldn't have to worry about it for a few months. We don't use much power most of the year and we paid about 5 month's worth of our small bill in advanced. During the next few months we thought our solar array had failed. We were charged monthly for electric usage when we should have had at least a small surplus. The array seemed to be working properly and the solar controller's meter said we were generating normally but nothing was showing up on our bill. Since we use so little power these charges were were minor, but we entered the winter months (when we use the most power) with a zero KWH's of power credit shown on our CFE bill. Last month the money we had prepaid ran out. Now the bill is showing ALL the power we generated for the last 6 months which is much more of a surplus than we would normally have because we've been paying for power each month despite our solar generation. The bill said the tiny credit they pay for a surplus will show on our next bill so I don't know if we can use it now or have lost it due to CFE's billing issue. IDK if this is a general problem with CFE billing or was specific to our account, but if you prepay your CFE bill be aware that your billing and solar credits may not be accurate until your prepay funds run out.

I'm guessing these may be blocked from online bill pay use just like my US credit cards. After using those cards without a problem for years, attempted payments now always come back saying try a different card. American Express still works online for CFE, but that's about it. I definitely don't want to open another Mexican bank account, so this one has me stumped.

They both look like they may work. Have you been able to use either one of these for utility payments in Mexico?

A bit of a story... I lost online access to my no fee HSBC Mexico account at about the same time online payments with US credit cards stopped being generally accepted. When my ATM card expired a short time later (during the COVID lockdown) I had no way of getting it replaced without waiting an hour+ standing in line outside of the bank at least twice. And there was the risk of close contact with people inside. When I finally made it back into the bank (and with COVID it was months), I found out that HSBC had started charging fees and had essentially stolen all of my funds. They wanted about 1,500 pesos to reactivate the account in addition to the thousands i had already lost to their fees. Never again.

After years with no problems, like many people I have found that utility bills I used to be able to pay online with an American credit card now require payment at a utility company office or a Mexican store. I've purchased an an Oxxo prepaid Visa card but unbelievably, that card doesn't work for paying utilities (or much of anything) either. Has anyone on here found a way to get a useful prepaid Mexican credit card or other easy way to pay Mexican utilities that no longer accept American credit cards online?