ADO bus ticket in advance?

[ggunn]

Granted, you may know from your own experience that in Cozumel (as opposed to somewhere else in the world), withdrawing $200 in pesos at a bank-owned ATM with a US ATM card is always a better deal than exchanging $200 at a casa de cambio. And I'll take your advice. But I don't think it's possible to generalize from that.

Here is what I feel confident of:

The exchange rate will be better at a bank owned ATM than at a Cambio.
The larger your withdrawal at an ATM, the lower the percentage of your withdrawal the ATM fees will be.
There is a breakpoint in withdrawal size above which the ATM is a better deal and below which the Cambio is a better deal.
I have no idea what that breakpoint is.

 

[cvchief]

Holy cow. Xoom is showing 1 USD = 15.0250 MXN today. That's sweet. might need to buy some pesos.....

 

[Lorenzoid]

Here is what I feel confident of:

The exchange rate will be better at a bank owned ATM than at a Cambio. . . .

Is the ATM in the Cancun airport bank-owned?

 

[DandyDon]

Holy cow. Xoom is showing 1 USD = 15.0250 MXN today. That's sweet. might need to buy some pesos.....

Google is showing 15.5 to 1, but Google still doesn't know about the time change. I guess they'll catch up tomorrow when much of the US springs forward with the insanity.

 

[ggunn]

Is the ATM in the Cancun airport bank-owned?

Good question. I have no idea. I have only been through the Cancun airport a couple of times and I know nothing about the ATMs there.

The reason I advise not to use non bank owned ATMs is not so much because of the exchange rate (I don't know that it would be different - I never use them) but because of the possibility of fraud. IMO no one should use non bank owned ATMs in Mexico, or anywhere, for that matter. Cozumel has plenty of bank owned ATMs.

As to how to "best" way to pay for the bus from Cancun to Playa, I submit that it really doesn't make that much difference since it's not a lot of money. Use pesos from an ATM, use pesos from a Cambio if one has US$ to exchange, pay in US$... it's not that big a deal.

---------- Post added March 7th, 2015 at 12:04 PM ----------

Holy cow. Xoom is showing 1 USD = 15.0250 MXN today. That's sweet. might need to buy some pesos.....

Buy low, sell lower, eh?

 

[mediumone]

Is the ATM in the Cancun airport bank-owned?

Yes. I know of three of them, and they all are.

---------- Post added March 7th, 2015 at 02:20 PM ----------

The reason I advise not to use non bank owned ATMs is not so much because of the exchange rate (I don't know that it would be different - I never use them) but because of the possibility of fraud. IMO no one should use non bank owned ATMs in Mexico, or anywhere, for that matter. Cozumel has plenty of bank owned ATMs.----- Post added March 7th, 2015 at 12:04 PM ----------

And, that's good advice.

 

[Lorenzoid]

. . .
The reason I advise not to use non bank owned ATMs is not so much because of the exchange rate (I don't know that it would be different - I never use them) but because of the possibility of fraud. IMO no one should use non bank owned ATMs in Mexico, or anywhere, for that matter. Cozumel has plenty of bank owned ATMs.

I totally agree with the concern over fraud, though it wasn't clear to me whether you were also saying that bank-owned ATMs give a better deal. I've certainly seen generic ATM machines in convenience stores, bars, etc., that want to charge you a hefty fee. But moreover, those are the kind of ATMs that are more likely to skim your card.

I suspect that any ATM in a major airport is likely to be safe enough from fraud.

Yes. I know of three of them, and they all are.

Good. I hope it didn't seem like a stupid question. It's usually easy to identify a bank-owned ATM, but not always.

 

[cvchief]

Buy low, [-]sell lower, eh[/-]?

Buy low, buy margarita!

 

[gmountai]

My wife and I made it to Coz from Cancun airport with no hitches or glitches. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this post!! Your info and advice was outstanding!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lorenzoid]

Original poster here with the follow up.

On a Monday morning arriving at CUN there were plenty of seats available on the next bus to PdC. So no problema. (And yes, you can drink beer on the bus.) However, at the end of our journey, which included not just Coz but later Tulum as well, we were glad we had bought a ticket in advance in Tulum for the trip back to CUN, as the bus was indeed full. If we had missed that one, we would have missed our flight home.