An app to make expat life in Mexico simple

[AZGonzo]

I would use this in a heartbeat. We are only in Playa every 8 weeks or so. Our Property Manager pays the bills for us now, but I would be happy to take that on myself.

I try and pay the Sky and TelMex bill at OXXO or Sams when I can. Never personally paid CFE or Water.

[rob mackay]

Originally Posted by AZGonzo

I would use this in a heartbeat. We are only in Playa every 8 weeks or so. Our Property Manager pays the bills for us now, but I would be happy to take that on myself.

I try and pay the Sky and TelMex bill at OXXO or Sams when I can. Never personally paid CFE or Water.

you can pay the power bill at alot of places, i have paid it at the walmart or banks, but i do remeber paying one at the oxxo,,,usually mine is less than 200 pesos for 2 months, so its not like i need a bag to carry the cash

[DrewJones]

Sounds like I'm the only one who pays all my bills on the Internet Fast, easy, I can do it in Mexico or abroad!

[AZGonzo]

Originally Posted by DrewJones

Sounds like I'm the only one who pays all my bills on the Internet Fast, easy, I can do it in Mexico or abroad!

CFE won't take a credit card from a US Bank. Not sure about the other services. I assume yours is from a Mexican bank. If not please let me know.

[ryberg]

OK well I'm back, reportándome.

Originally Posted by chebyrashka74

I've used it from time to time but I think I would migrate to Switch. The exchange rates Simple Pay offer aren't really good but has helped here and there when I needed to pay and not in country.

Yes, well I went ahead to set things up and see about that, and boy is that ever correct! Or I should say that whether it's the exchange rate they're using, or the additional fee, certainly together it was just too rich for my blood. Their exchange rate (at least they do show it right there, to you, before you go ahead) was about what the cambios were offering, but that is to say that it was about 6% lower than the interbank rate that for example our Sapphire Visa uses for conversions. However they then went ahead and announced that there would also be a 25.99 USD fee for the service. I could see them doing one or the other, but not both. All that was certainly going to more than wipe out whatever we would save using that Visa, and would save in terms of convenience.

(In fairness, I should note that if you were paying from a bank account, the charge was going to be a rather more palatable 8.99 USD. We weren't really interested in that, especially again in combination with the exchange rate being used, but some people might be.)

Originally Posted by AZGonzo

I would use this in a heartbeat. We are only in Playa every 8 weeks or so. Our Property Manager pays the bills for us now, but I would be happy to take that on myself.

I try and pay the Sky and TelMex bill at OXXO or Sams when I can. Never personally paid CFE or Water.

My wife tried to pay a recent CFE bill at La Comer and was told only in cash, which again thwarted our preferred method of payment on that card, for the savings it offers. I checked at Oxxo and they said no problem with a card (which kind of surprised me), but we couldn't pay that particular bill as there was a general limit of 10,000 pesos. (Not sure if that is for anything at Oxxo or something only about CFE or other utility bills.)

Originally Posted by AZGonzo

CFE won't take a credit card from a US Bank. Not sure about the other services. I assume yours is from a Mexican bank. If not please let me know.

Yes, this is why we wanted to see about SimplePay, as they had no issue with payment via a card registered outside the country. But then you see what happened above. When we looked at the CFE FAQ re Switch, it did in fact say that payment via card would require a tarjeta nacional, meaning a card registered in Mexico. But I believe the fee was only 38 pesos or something like that, which is a lot more than Oxxo (they charged 9 pesos, I think, when I paid a water bill or something there a while back), but a whole lot less than Simple Pay.

Ah, one more thing: SimplePay won't help you out if your bill is past due. You can't do anything with their system, in that case.

FWIW!

[DrewJones]

Originally Posted by AZGonzo

CFE won't take a credit card from a US Bank. Not sure about the other services. I assume yours is from a Mexican bank. If not please let me know.

Ahhh... I learned something new. Yes, I use a Mexican debit card.

[SCExpat]

Originally Posted by ryberg

OK well I'm back, reportándome.

Yes, well I went ahead to set things up and see about that, and boy is that ever correct! Or I should say that whether it's the exchange rate they're using, or the additional fee, certainly together it was just too rich for my blood. Their exchange rate (at least they do show it right there, to you, before you go ahead) was about what the cambios were offering, but that is to say that it was about 6% lower than the interbank rate that for example our Sapphire Visa uses for conversions. However they then went ahead and announced that there would also be a 25.99 USD fee for the service. I could see them doing one or the other, but not both. All that was certainly going to more than wipe out whatever we would save using that Visa, and would save in terms of convenience.

(In fairness, I should note that if you were paying from a bank account, the charge was going to be a rather more palatable 8.99 USD. We weren't really interested in that, especially again in combination with the exchange rate being used, but some people might be.)

My wife tried to pay a recent CFE bill at La Comer and was told only in cash, which again thwarted our preferred method of payment on that card, for the savings it offers. I checked at Oxxo and they said no problem with a card (which kind of surprised me), but we couldn't pay that particular bill as there was a general limit of 10,000 pesos. (Not sure if that is for anything at Oxxo or something only about CFE or other utility bills.)

Yes, this is why we wanted to see about SimplePay, as they had no issue with payment via a card registered outside the country. But then you see what happened above. When we looked at the CFE FAQ re Switch, it did in fact say that payment via card would require a tarjeta nacional, meaning a card registered in Mexico. But I believe the fee was only 38 pesos or something like that, which is a lot more than Oxxo (they charged 9 pesos, I think, when I paid a water bill or something there a while back), but a whole lot less than Simple Pay.

Ah, one more thing: SimplePay won't help you out if your bill is past due. You can't do anything with their system, in that case.

FWIW!

I have used Xoom.com for years. It's now owned by Paypal. Works well, last month for my CFE bill they charged a flat fee of US $2.99

[ryberg]

May have to look into that again. The one time somebody tried to use Xoom with us, we never got the money and nobody there could ever help the sender out, it seems, and we had to backtrack and just have them mail us a check, in the end. Wasn't impressive, and in fact sounds exactly like our past experiences with PayPal...

[SCExpat]

Originally Posted by ryberg

May have to look into that again. The one time somebody tried to use Xoom with us, we never got the money and nobody there could ever help the sender out, it seems, and we had to backtrack and just have them mail us a check, in the end. Wasn't impressive, and in fact sounds exactly like our past experiences with PayPal...

Well. I've never had a problem with them. The only thing I find annoying and this isn't a bad thing, is that they ask that you confirm nearly every transaction with a phone call and security questions before they'll initiate the transactions.

[AZGonzo]

Just signed up with Xoom.com through my PayPal account. Paid my TelMex bill and apparently can pay CFE, and Sky as well. So far so good and only $2.99USD per transaction.

Don't need a Mexican Bank account or credit card. Me likely....

[AZGonzo]

Originally Posted by SCExpat

Well. I've never had a problem with them. The only thing I find annoying and this isn't a bad thing, is that they ask that you confirm nearly every transaction with a phone call and security questions before they'll initiate the transactions.

No confirmation or phone call. Very similar to online banking back home. Like I said ^^^ so far so good, but will update as I go.

For Bill Pay they have the normal selections from CFE-TelMex-Sky etc. Just enter your account # and the balance shows up. Pay that or another amount and you are done.

I was already checked out through PayPal so it was pretty seemless...didn't need to set up a separate Xoom account.

[crmoores]

Xoom sounds like a tried and true option for snowbirds paying bills while out of the country, and also to save a drive into town for those of us not living in Playa.
We will be starting to pay these bills soon and have been looking at the different options, and other than the fee Xoom may be the best option for us but will check into it.

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by SCExpat

I have used Xoom.com for years. It's now owned by Paypal. Works well, last month for my CFE bill they charged a flat fee of US $2.99

Originally Posted by crmoores

Xoom sounds like a tried and true option for snowbirds paying bills while out of the country, and also to save a drive into town for those of us not living in Playa.
We will be starting to pay these bills soon and have been looking at the different options, and other than the fee Xoom may be the best option for us but will check into it.

Well I finally sat down to look it up but it's kind of the same thing I described above: they're charging you not only a flat fee of 2.99 USD but also trimming almost 2.5% off on the exchange rate.

For example, right now OandA has the USD at 19.06 pesos, but when I looked on Xoom, they were going to offer us only 18.61 pesos to the USD, and then after that, were charging the 2.99 USD flat fee. The latter is thus the equivalent of (a not unreasonable) 57 pesos for them, but with that exchange rate, they were effectively already charging almost that much (51 pesos) before ever getting to the fee. And this was for a relatively small bill (just over 2,000 pesos); it would be more on a larger bill, of course.

I guess there is the convenience factor, but paying over 100 pesos in fees just for a bill under 2,200 pesos still seems a bit pricey. But to each his/her own, of course. I could see how it could be well worth it if you're at a distance and/or pressed for time...

[roni]

That reminds me, I need to drive over to my Izzi office tomorrow to pay the bill. I like the nice lady at Caja 5.

[ryberg]

Update: Turns out that what I saw for Xoom was only for payment via bank account (or debit card), and that they warn that payment via credit card may result in a cash advance fee being applied, as well, depending on the card issuer. I checked with Chase re the card we wanted to use and they said they had no way of knowing if any such cash advance charge would be applied until the transaction was completed. For the record...

Anyone here who has used a credit card to pay bills via Xoom seen any such cash advance charge?