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Good to know about Chuck, I have an account and there's a Compass about three blocks from my house.

Excellent I never had a Navy Federal account but will have to check into it.

216 days to go, and trying to get this banking thing squared away. . .

My state credit union now has a "Global" card that allows you to use any VISA ATM around the world with only a 1% fee (charged by VISA). Sound good on the surface, though I wonder if the local bank then might lop on a fee of is own. BofA, for example doesn't charge you a ATM free of $5 if you use a ScotiaBank ATM, though they still charge you a 3% exchange fee. 

ON ANOTHER NOTE, some people mentioned the possibility of having my Social Security check directly deposited into my Mexican bank, once I am all set up and such. Sounded like a good future possibility, but then I heard elsewhere (maybe on Facebook?) that SS folks charge you for that convenience, and so in the end you lose almost 20% of your monthly amount. Has anyone heard or experience such a thing (or, hopefully, that such a thing is not at all the case)?

SS does not charge for this service. On the 3rd of every month your benefit will be deposited in your Mexican bank at the best exchange rate for that day. If it falls on a weekend or holiday, it will be deposited earlier.

Hi Nikolas,

I recently tried to change my address for my Social Security and Medicare account and it would only allow US addresses to be entered. I went ahead and put in LaConexion's address through Laredo,Tx.
My check is directly deposited into my US Federal Credit Union account, they do accept Mexican addresses. I can use my debit card at the ATM, but they charge a foreign transaction fee, so we use our ATM card for our Mexican bank account with CIBanco to withdraw pesos for no fee. We do wire transfers from our US account into it when we need cash. That only costs us $15 for each wire transfer up to $9999.00 US.  Hope this helps.
Arlene

Contact the Benefits Office at the US embassy in CDMX. They will change your address and and help you with your SS deposits to a Mexican bank.

Thanks, Joaquinx and Arlene. I wonder where the person got that info from. Probably a misunderstanding of something I suppose.

In terms of Social Security direct deposits (or I suppose banking of any sort - wire transfers, such Arlene mentioned) are any Mexican banks better or worse than others? Seems that Banorte and BBVA can be found even in the smallest of places, though I've heard that BBVA branches are big and crowded (ditto with CitiBanamex).  I also heard, maybe in this thread, that ScotiaBank can be very inflexible and a pain. Don't know much about CiBanco, but I've seen it mentioned and I remember its signs. Anyway,  figured I'd ask.

By the way, Arlene, what wire transfer service do you use?

Hi Nikolas,

We were referred to CI Banco by our cousins who have had a house in SMA for the last 15 years. We have no complaints, so far, they have been very easy to deal with, I have heard other blogs complain about Scotiabank. We had our banker actually come to our house in the suburbs of SMA last week at a about 8pm, unannounced because he had noticed a mistake he had made on a document we had signed. I have never had a banker do that in my entire experience with bankers! Usually, we do the trekking to the bank for any corrections!

That's good to know, thanks Joaquin:)

I just some other person on some other site offering great praise to BBVA Bancomer. He said he has his SS and private pension directly deposited there. Banorte seems to have high marks for ease of opening an account, but some oddness in other areas. The only thing I can remember about CiBanco prior to your mention was that they allowed you to open an account while on a tourist visa, which really is not important to me. The bank I remember most on my previous visits was Santander, but only in terms of ATM use. It seems to get mixed reviews bankwise. Hmm.  Anyway, I guess I'll look into those three: CiBanco, BBVA Bancomer, and Banorte. See what comes up it or what others mention in the meanwhile.

I've been with HSBC for 10 years. While not perfect, they have protected my money. There were two instances of false charges to my account. A single protest and a free call to the Mexico City office cleared it up in two or three days. I had no problems in keeping my balance correct down to the centavo.

Well, that certainly important! Do you have SS deposited to your HSBC account?Are they reasonable with charges for transfers or wires from US accounts? I seem to recall they were a bit pricier for ATM fees for non HSBC cards, but that is about all I remember.

Use either xoom or transferwise to send money bank to bank. Rates equal to credit/debit cards.

So seems I'll just keep my BofA here, open a Mexican bank account based on what I hear between now and then, move money from BofA to the Mexican bank via one of the wire services you mention, and then once I am more settled, I'll have my SS benefits directly deposited into the Mexico account. The state pension, I'll wait a bit longer. No rush on that anyway. I think I am slowly getting things squared away.

Thank you!

I wanted to mention that an investment account with Charles Schwab , also has the option of checking account and debit account , with NO FEE's    Not sure if this is general knowledge or not..  but FYI

A lot of people mention those, but I hey seem fussy about having a US address, and the best I'll be able to do is a mail service address

Hi to all, I am not an expert but my experience.
First, I am Canadian and decided to move to Mexico as a permanent resident.
This implied that I became a non-resident of Canada thus:
1- the Canadian IRS knows that I have a mexican address physical and mailing address  (PO BOX).
2- my Canadian bank (TD) like all other banks has changed my address to the Mexican mailing one for debit/credit card they use the physical one and send them by DHL/UPS.
3- my income providers  (pensions, interest) all have my PO BOX address to send the tax forms for tax return purposes.
4- no more provincial tax return equivalent to State taxes.
5- fiscal agreement between Mexico and Canada exist to avoid double taxation.
6- based on the fiscal treaties-conventions between Mexico and Canada, the taxe rate is 15% on each revenue dollar (no tax return to do) but because 90% of our total revenues are from pensions then we can do a manual return and reduce the rate to 10%.
7- becoming a non-resident has down side, no more Quebec medicare, so got IMSS to replace cost of 7650$ pesos per year

To become a non-resident of Canada means that you don't have proprety, stocks, no interest in Canadian company, etc.

On the other hand, to avoid questions from the Mexican IRS called RFC, we called the RFC OMBUDSMAN, they asked us if we would by proprety in Mexico, start businesses or working, open mexican bank account, your revenues are from Canada only. Our awnsers were all NO except YES for the last one, so they told us no need to register with the RFC.

Based on some research, these rules are quite standard in most countries like USA, France, Germany, Mexico.

Research on your part has to be done with your government authorities and then see what can/should be done.

Adiosy buena suerte, GyC.