Currency exchanging?

Question

I'm taking a vacation to cancun, mexico next year and I was wondering if it's required to exchange currency or if I can use american money there.

Answer 1

hi... having traveled extensively through Mexico, I can tell you with 100% certainty that in the tourist areas, Cancun, Cozumel... you can get by with dollars nearly everywhere. In more urban area like Monterrey, or Chihuahua and others you can use dollars, as they (most retailers) would value your dollars over pesos, at least they used to befor ethe dollar has plumetted in value.

The rub is in the exchange rate, if you were to exchange you money before you go, so you avoid need to change in your hotel or in the airport for instance... you will save a bit on the change rate that will be offerd to you. It is really not a great deal of money, but then again, it could be. The rate that it has been , and has been fairly stable is 10:1 ten pesos for every 1 dollar. so 10$--is--100Pesos. There will always be a rate that has some srvc fee built in , just in convenience locations, such as airports or hotels, or others... this percent of the amount changed, representing the service fee... will be a little higher. The benefit of changing as you need is that you don't come to the end of your trip and get back home with pesos left over. When you sell as opposed to buy currency, you will always get a lower change rate.... as in the 100 pesos you paid 10 bucks for , when you change back the same 100 pesos, you may only get 8 or 9 dollars.

Do a search for xchange rates on any travel site and you will gett he buy and sell rates... they change from hour to hour but as I said, they WERE fairly stable.... maybe not so much anymore.. differing only slightly from 1 day to the next.

There is a site to look... called Travelx or some similar spelling, again, a simple search will tell you in no time.

Buenos Suerte Bonita...

Good Luck Beautiful.

Steve

Answer 2

The best advice I can give is, bring about $100 in small bills ($5's and $10's), then when you arrive, you will have some cash in your pocket which can be used right away. Then use your ATM card at the bank ATM machines. They are everywhere. You will get pesos, at the best exchange rate you can get anywhere. You just need an ATM card and PIN number. Try to use ones in the banks, during business hours, because even in the US or Canada, sometimes something goes wrong and you need to be able to retreive your card right away. The best machines are the ones where you swipe your card, rather than stick it in a slot.

Some banks charge a fee if you use your caed outside their network. Don't worry, it is a small fee, but don't get $20 at a time. Get like $3,000 Pesos (About $300 diollars) and you are set for a few days with ONE fee.