Money, Money, Money, Money, M-O-N-E-Y

Or so goes the song "For the Love of Money" by the O'Jays.

It is all about the money isn't it when you move to Mexico. You need money to get there and live there. But what "money" do you use. Many Americans may not think about this.

When moving to a popular tourist destination like Playa del Carmen, you really need to think about it. Most of your big living expenses like rent, utilities, groceries, etc will almost certainly need to be paid in pesos. Pesos are the Mexican currency, learn more about pesos here.  They come in paper bill denominations of 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000. Coins come in of 5, 10, 20, and 50 cent (centavo) pieces; and 1, 5, 10, 20 peso pieces.  To see pictures of all Mexican paper bills and coins, click here.

Exchange rates for pesos depend on where you buy your pesos.  The current wholesale exchange rate (the rate that large banks use to exchange money) can be found on websites such as XE.com.  There are also numerous apps for smart phones and tablets such as XE Currency and Free Currency Converter; or just search your favorite app store for "currency converter" or "currency exchange".

So how do you get your hands on some pesos? Before moving you could work with your local bank in the U.S. to order enough pesos to get you through the first few months.

Once in Mexico it is usually more cost effective to get your pesos by using local ATMs. They tend to have a much better exchange rate (close to the wholesale exchange rate) than the money exchange stores and even your local bank in the U.S.  You should check with your local U.S. bank to see if they have a partner bank in Mexico that will waive ATM transaction fees.  We highly encourage you to only use ATMs that are part of a bank. This reduces the chance of falling victim to skimming scams.

The travel and expat forums are rife with information on using ATMs. Here are just a few relevant links:
exchanging dollars (on tripadvisor)
Cash, debit or Pesos? (on playa.info)
Banking (on expatforum.com)

Probably the worst place to get pesos is at the airport money exchange booths. We learned our lesson the hard way on our first trip to Mexico. They had the worst exchange rates of any of the choices.

For general shopping, many stores in the tourist areas will accept U.S. dollars, but that may not be the most
economical choice. They tend to use a 10-to-1 exchange rate, so you really lose out there. Using pesos will get you a much better deal. Here are a couple links that discuss this further:
Best Place for Currency Exchange (on tripadvisor).
How we are handling dollars vs pesos and cash vs plastic (on tripadvisor)

To get an idea of the differences in exchange rates we can look at the rates today. XE.com shows that currently $1 US Dollar (USD) will buy $12.93 Mexican Pesos (MXP).  You would get close to that rate at an ATM in Mexico.  Bank of America currently offers $1 USD to buy $12.20 MXP via their online tool.  A popular airport exchange booth (Travelex) is currently offering $1 USD to buy $11.51 MXP.  These rates change day-to-day and even minute-to-minute; this just shows an example of how exchange rates vary based on how you buy your pesos.

So that's our quick crash course on m-o-n-e-y. Not really that difficult, but it can be very confusing and
overwhelming at first.