Wednesday, January 12, 2011

A Money Funny and a Warning

One day, when the girls and I were out and about, we went to the bank so they could get some money for shopping. YD does her thing and says, "What the heck?" She had planned on taking out 100 dollars and had keyed in 100. I'm not sure if she simply forgot, or if had I failed to tell her, that the machine was in pesos, not dollars. So she ended up with 100 pesos instead. Can't do much shopping on that when you're a 20-something...lol. We all had a good giggle over that.

That story leads me to this one...

When we were still in Cancún, I had told the girls they could get Méxican money from the ATMs. 'Cause I thought they could. We were all out shopping and the girls decided to get some money from one of those free-standing ATMs that was outside of a restaurant. HA! The darned thing spit out American money. Not a problem for shopping in Cancún, but it wasn't our first choice of currency for Progreso.

It wasn't until they were almost ready to fly home that they said they had been charged what they thought was an exorbitant service fee on that withdrawal. BF had taken out $200 and YD $100. They said they had been charged $40 and $30 respectively. Now, I didn't see their receipts to verify it and they didn't double check it with their bank statements at home. It's quite possible that the fee was in pesos and they read it as dollars. Still, it's good to know that the Cancún machines give out American dollars (although I recall reading somewhere that the American dollar isn't as readily accepted there, so that might change) and one would be wise to check the fees.

2 comments:

  1. Very strange unless they didn't read the machine correctly when they were punching buttons lol.
    Here the machines give you an option of national currency which I naturally get or American dollars which I suppose if I was heading to the USA for a trip would be good.
    I would think the fee was in pesos but in Cancun quien sabe?
    Have a fun trip. Try not to freeze solid before then.

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  2. It's hard to say, Brenda. I didn't see either the machine or the receipts. I just thought I'd put that all out there for folks to be aware.

    eek...talk about freezing solid. The temp right now is -25C with windchill of -34C. I'm sitting here with a sweater on and a vest over top of that. Even with heating, the house is cold. Might have to bake some cookies tomorrow to help warm things up...lol.

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