Streetwalker Reports

[VitoDerEine]

Tried this on a Banorte ATM. Wanted to exchange at 21 and change and I declined. Still spit out money but at 23.80. So far, I've only found Banorte to give an option if to accept exchange rate or not.

Yes. This is definitely the case. The first time I accepted even though the exchange rate was really bad because I needed the money and thought I wouldn't get it if I didn't accept. Then I heard about this scam and so declined the next time I saw it. Sure enough out pops my money anyway at the favorable rate like I have always had in the past. Don't remember which banks it was at though, but I don't used independent ATMs only bank ATMs.

The exchange rate on ATM withdrawals (when no affected by this scam) have always been better than any rate posted at any casa de cambio. Usually quite close to the interbank rate quoted on the financial services.

[Hargow20]

A friend that lives in Tijuana told me that the police are cracking down on people that are out & the curfew as well. If any happens visit the Zona please post. ?

[Dickus Maximus]

Why bother with the ATM macines in Tijuana. Just take what money you need and go the exhange places. A lot of the ATM's in the Zone will try and scam you. There is a few reliable ATM's by HSBC and across the street. The problem you will pay a surcharge.

I have never had a problem using an ATM in Mexico. Its faster and cheaper than the money exchanges services. I usually go to Zona Rio and any of the major banks there. But I have used ATMs all over Mexico with no problem (save this exchange rate scam). I would not use one of the private ATMs in the clubs though. I always stick with the banks.

[Hargow20]

My guess is that things were so slow that street girls decided to quit early. You are probably better off going before the curfew starts at 6 pm. Driving in Tijuana now makes one target for the police.

Swung by today in the morning around 4 am to see if I could get lucky. No girls were out. Not even the "tall" girls! Saw a cop pulling over cars, and figured I should leave.

[Hargow20]

Why bother with the ATM macines in Tijuana. Just take what money you need and go the exhange places. A lot of the ATM's in the Zone will try and scam you. There is a few reliable ATM's by HSBC and across the street. The problem you will pay a surcharge.

Yes. This is definitely the case. The first time I accepted even though the exchange rate was really bad because I needed the money and thought I wouldn't get it if I didn't accept. Then I heard about this scam and so declined the next time I saw it. Sure enough out pops my money anyway at the favorable rate like I have always had in the past. Don't remember which banks it was at though, but I don't used independent ATMs only bank ATMs.

The exchange rate on ATM withdrawals (when no affected by this scam) have always been better than any rate posted at any casa de cambio. Usually quite close to the interbank rate quoted on the financial services.

[VitoDerEine]

Swung by today in the morning around 4 am to see if I could get lucky. No girls were out. Not even the "tall" girls! Saw a cop pulling over cars, and figured I should leave.

[Hargow20]

I am wondering if there is more SG's / SW's out before 6 pm. I might go down on Saturday to try and find Kayla. My biggest concern is the police could use stay at home order as a excuse to shake people down. If anyone has any more info please post.

Dude! You just blew my mind with this one. So you're saying at the ATM you can choose whether you want to get screwed or not? How come I've never heard of this? Has anyone else seen this at the Mexican ATM's? I want to run out to the ATM right now to test this out, but it's late at night and I don't wan to get pulled over for being out during the lockdown. I'll be checking into this tomorrow for sure. If this turns out to be true I'll be nominating ClamSlammer for the Monger of the Week award, maybe Monger of the Year! Thanks in advance bro!

On another note, I cruised through the zona around 9:30 pm and there were a few chicas out there. Very very few but they were there. The big fancy lights outside HK and AB were still shining bright with the door guys still at the entrances. I saw almost NO cops! I guess those dirty bastards don't bother to patrol since there are no partygoers to shake down. I think I saw one single cop car and I cruised around the whole area, when usually the place is crawling with cops everywhere you look. The alley was blocked off to vehicle traffic.

[LuvMexicanas]

This is for the married and serious girlfriend guys out there. All this ATM talk is fine and dandy (although I prefer talking about the other ATM), but creating an electronic paper trail may not be wise depending on how your accounts and access are set up.

[Dickus Maximus]

Dude! You just blew my mind with this one. So you're saying at the ATM you can choose whether you want to get screwed or not? How come I've never heard of this? Has anyone else seen this at the Mexican ATM's? I want to run out to the ATM right now to test this out, but it's late at night and I don't wan to get pulled over for being out during the lockdown. I'll be checking into this tomorrow for sure. If this turns out to be true I'll be nominating ClamSlammer for the Monger of the Week award, maybe Monger of the Year! Thanks in advance bro!

Yes. This is definitely the case. The first time I accepted even though the exchange rate was really bad because I needed the money and thought I wouldn't get it if I didn't accept. Then I heard about this scam and so declined the next time I saw it. Sure enough out pops my money anyway at the favorable rate like I have always had in the past. Don't remember which banks it was at though, but I don't used independent ATMs only bank ATMs.

The exchange rate on ATM withdrawals (when no affected by this scam) have always been better than any rate posted at any casa de cambio. Usually quite close to the interbank rate quoted on the financial services.

[Duncan216]

Dude! You just blew my mind with this one. So you're saying at the ATM you can choose whether you want to get screwed or not? How come I've never heard of this? Has anyone else seen this at the Mexican ATM's?

On some ATMs when trying to withdraw, I saw a "the conversion rate is 18" when the visa conversion rate was around 20 at the time. When I no I don't want to accept, I figured the transaction would be canceled but the machine still spit out money. I looked on my bank app and I got the visa transaction rate. You can check the rate on the visa "Currency Exchange Calculator" on the visa website. I just put in 0% bank fee because I got the ATM card with 0 fees. I think it was the visa rate from the day before to be more accurate.

I just assumed you knew something I didn't about the exchange places. Mostly because you had a much better experience than me in Venezuela, although it might be because you went in 2017 and I went in 2018 or because my Spanish is bad or I didn't use SA. Also using Eth for exchange cuts down on your transaction costs and the time you have to wait for things to be confirmed. When I went, btc took hours and transfers were like 5-10 bucks, eth was a few minutes and took less than a dollar (sometimes pennies).

[Zman429]

Dude! You just blew my mind with this one. So you're saying at the ATM you can choose whether you want to get screwed or not? How come I've never heard of this? Has anyone else seen this at the Mexican ATM's? I want to run out to the ATM right now to test this out, but it's late at night and I don't wan to get pulled over for being out during the lockdown. I'll be checking into this tomorrow for sure. If this turns out to be true I'll be nominating ClamSlammer for the Monger of the Week award, maybe Monger of the Year! Thanks in advance bro!

On another note, I cruised through the zona around 9:30 pm and there were a few chicas out there. Very very few but they were there. The big fancy lights outside HK and AB were still shining bright with the door guys still at the entrances. I saw almost NO cops! I guess those dirty bastards don't bother to patrol since there are no partygoers to shake down. I think I saw one single cop car and I cruised around the whole area, when usually the place is crawling with cops everywhere you look. The alley was blocked off to vehicle traffic.

This is new they had it in Thailand last time I was there. And if you picked the banks options you were guaranteed to lose $15-$20 haven't tried in Mexico but guessing it's the same deal.

[ClamSlammer]

Dude! You just blew my mind with this one. So you're saying at the ATM you can choose whether you want to get screwed or not?

Yes, they've been doing this for a few years now. Once you choose the amount to withdraw, they'll offer a really, really crappy conversion rate. You can choose to accept or decline their conversion. Once you press "decline" your withdrawal will automatically be converted at a rate determined by your card issuer which should be Visa's rate which is close to interbank.

One way you can make money right now is through Western Union and Moneygram. Wire money to someone you trust in Mexico. It will be converted at around 25:1. So wire $1000 dls. Recipient will receive $25,000 mx. Take that $25,000 mx to a casa de cambio and sell those pesos at 22:1, so you'll receive $1136.36. The wire fee will be $8 dls so you'll profit $128 dls. That's a 12.8% daily rate of return. That's a yearly rate of return of 4672% using non-compounded interest. And this is all risk-free. Compare that to the average annual stock market return of 10% which involves significant risk. Don't wire more than $1000 because most Western Union / Moneygram locations in Mexico will refuse to pay out larger sums.

[SenorTJ]

So you're saying at the ATM you can choose whether you want to get screwed or not? How come I've never heard of this? Has anyone else seen this at the Mexican ATM's?

All Mexican ATMs do this, same in Canada, same in Europe, even at supermarket registers. You have to bypass their conversion.

[Jinxx]

I've been exchanging pesos / dollars professionally for years, taking advantage of the arbitrage opportunities available. And I can say with 100% certainty that you will receive a better rate 100% of the time through Mexican ATM's vs. Casas de cambio on the USA Side.

Most Mexican ATM's offer to convert your dollars at a very unfavorable rate. This started with HSBC and now most banks offer this option. Banorte, Banamex, Santander all offer this. I'm not sure about BBVA but the last time I withdrew at their ATM they did not offer this option. Anyway, just decline the ATM owner's conversion rate. Once you do this, your dollars will be converted by your American bank, at close to interbank rates. So you'll receive a much better rate, significantly better than the casas de cambios on the American side. The only thing you have to worry about are additional frictions such as foreign ATM fees and foreign currency conversion fees. But if you have Schwab or a low fee bank like Compass you'll easily come out ahead, enough so that you can sell your pesos at American casas de cambio and turn a profit.

Dude! You just blew my mind with this one. So you're saying at the ATM you can choose whether you want to get screwed or not? How come I've never heard of this? Has anyone else seen this at the Mexican ATM's? I want to run out to the ATM right now to test this out, but it's late at night and I don't wan to get pulled over for being out during the lockdown. I'll be checking into this tomorrow for sure. If this turns out to be true I'll be nominating ClamSlammer for the Monger of the Week award, maybe Monger of the Year! Thanks in advance bro!

On another note, I cruised through the zona around 9:30 pm and there were a few chicas out there. Very very few but they were there. The big fancy lights outside HK and AB were still shining bright with the door guys still at the entrances. I saw almost NO cops! I guess those dirty bastards don't bother to patrol since there are no partygoers to shake down. I think I saw one single cop car and I cruised around the whole area, when usually the place is crawling with cops everywhere you look. The alley was blocked off to vehicle traffic.

[ClamSlammer]

Mexican ATMs give a shitty rate of exchange. Exchanging on the US side is always your best option.

I've been exchanging pesos / dollars professionally for years, taking advantage of the arbitrage opportunities available. And I can say with 100% certainty that you will receive a better rate 100% of the time through Mexican ATM's vs. Casas de cambio on the USA Side.

Most Mexican ATM's offer to convert your dollars at a very unfavorable rate. This started with HSBC and now most banks offer this option. Banorte, Banamex, Santander all offer this. I'm not sure about BBVA but the last time I withdrew at their ATM they did not offer this option. Anyway, just decline the ATM owner's conversion rate. Once you do this, your dollars will be converted by your American bank, at close to interbank rates. So you'll receive a much better rate, significantly better than the casas de cambios on the American side. The only thing you have to worry about are additional frictions such as foreign ATM fees and foreign currency conversion fees. But if you have Schwab or a low fee bank like Compass you'll easily come out ahead, enough so that you can sell your pesos at American casas de cambio and turn a profit.