Atm card compromised in cozumel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cvchief]

. Even ATM machines in hotel lobbies are compromised.

Pearlman

Even in hotel lobbies? I would think hotel lobbies would be on of the first compromised, not the last. There are skimmers everywhere. Vacation destination just get more as people are using ATMs more.

Sadly, Mexico does allow ATMs not associated with banks, and those are risky

You can buy your own ATM here can't you? The small locally owned convenience stores tend to have those with outrageous rates.

Oh and:

 

[Skittl1321]

Even in hotel lobbies? I would think hotel lobbies would be on of the first compromised, not the last. There are skimmers everywhere. Vacation destination just get more as people are using ATMs more.



You can buy your own ATM here can't you? The small locally owned convenience stores tend to have those with outrageous rates.

Yeah, I think there can be unaffiliated ATMs in the United States too.

And skimmers have shown up in bank lobbies. You should watch your debit card ANYWHERE. It's not like the US is some magical place where fraud never happens.

 

[DandyDon]

You can buy your own ATM here can't you? The small locally owned convenience stores tend to have those with outrageous rates.

Maybe so? Not her in Mayberry.

 

[mstevens]

View attachment 216442

Maybe the thread was due an annual update?

So... I have an account at a Mexican bank, Banamex. I suppose in theory I could stand in line to get cash from a teller, but I do what pretty much every Mexican does and get cash out of the ATM at the bank. And I check for skimmers, cover my hand while entering my PIN, etc.

US cards are at a severe disadvantage if they still use magnetic strips, one of the least-secure things out there. A chip-and-PIN card is more resistant to cloning, though they still could be susceptible to pre-play attacks (predicting the "unpredictable number" used as part of the security scheme) or a man-in-the-middle attack, but those take much more sophistication and organization and rely on things such as bad "random" number generators over which an end user has no control. I will much more happily use a terminal that reads the chip rather than the mag strip.

Maybe so? Not her in Mayberry.

Maybe not in big cities like Mayberry. Here, where there's no gas station for me and my roughly 1,600 fellow residents, the little general store that's the oldest continually-operating store in New Hampshire has one of those little independent ATM's.

 

[ronski101]

We never use ATM cards period just to avoid all the scams associated with them but a few yrs back at LAX on our way to the Philippines we were stopped at check in because our credit card which we used to set up the trip 6 mo's earlier (which we had to change out due to a gas station scan fraud) was not the same as our new one. fortunately we were able to get the old credit card info from our son who was home.

 

[loudives]

I got a Debit card from Bank of America. They somehow are related to Stantadler which is in Cozumel. Great thing is no Fee's of any kind (foreign exchange or ATM fee) and you are still protected as in the states. I make sure I only have what I will need in the account before I leave for any destination. I only use the ATM at the bank on 5 south and the one at Cedralie and never had a problem. Been using them for over ten years now.

 

[mstevens]

I got a Debit card from Bank of America. They somehow are related to Stantadler which is in Cozumel. Great thing is no Fee's of any kind (foreign exchange or ATM fee) and you are still protected as in the states. I make sure I only have what I will need in the account before I leave for any destination. I only use the ATM at the bank on 5 south and the one at Cedralie and never had a problem. Been using them for over ten years now.

Huh. I really don't think there is any association at all between BOA and Santander nor has there been for a couple of years since Santander opened banks in the US and became competition. I also don't think it's true that they don't charge fees at Santander ATM's, based on 1) their telling us that they were going to start charging and 2) their starting to charge us. That relationship was the only reason we had a BOA account at all.

 

[cvchief]

I got a Debit card from Bank of America. They somehow are related to Stantadler which is in Cozumel. Great thing is no Fee's of any kind (foreign exchange or ATM fee) and you are still protected as in the states. I make sure I only have what I will need in the account before I leave for any destination. I only use the ATM at the bank on 5 south and the one at Cedralie and never had a problem. Been using them for over ten years now.

That changed. I have a BOA for use at Santander that used to be free, but now I think that is gone for everyone now:

https://locators.bankofamerica.com/international.html

Bank of America will assess an international transaction fee of 3% of the converted US dollar amount.Footnote 2 Foreign ATM operators may offer to do your currency conversion for you, but they may charge a higher fee for conversion. To insure that your currency conversion does not incur a fee higher than 3%, you may refuse the ATM operator's offer to convert the amount of the transaction.

I am all about Xoom now. I can fire up my iphone in the parking lot, send myself money and walk in with my passport and pick it up. Cost 4.99, so I tend to get a bunch and use it for more than one trip.

I STILL haven't got a MX bank account. I would like to get one and a small MX credit card so I can buy Mayair tickets as cheap as I can in person.

 

[gopbroek]

Charles Schwab has a zero fee zero minimum checking account that charges zero foreign fee and they refund any ATM fees (including Mexico). If you are withdrawing local currency the ATM is only dispensing that currency and charging the transaction fee, the rate of exchange between the denomination of your bank account and the local currency dispensed (in this case MXN) Is set by your bank. This is another area your home bank can insert a hidden fee by giving you an unfavorable exchange rate, I have found Charles Schwab does not do this and uses a rate very close to the Oanda currency traders rates.
I pre load my CS account with limited funds for travel use so that any fraud will be limited to the balance and if I need additional funds I can transfer it in from my primary bank account. As for credit card use I basically avoid it and use my CS Visa debit card instead. US credit cards are very forgiving when your card is hacked which, I am guessing, is required by regulation as opposed to the goodness of their hearts. I do not think this is true with banks in other countries (a friend from Brazil told me horror story of dealing with a hacked Brazilian account, he was liable for everything) so IMO it makes the local people very cautious about security and fraud. I watch which machines are being used by the local citizens, if there are 3 machines at Mega and there is a line to use the Bamex ATM and the other ATM's are idle, I join the Bamex line. I have never seen a line of local people queued up to a Cashola machine near a cruise ship pier, maybe they are not dumb.

 

[Zman96]

That changed. I have a BOA for use at Santander that used to be free, but now I think that is gone for everyone now: https://locators.bankofamerica.com/international.html Bank of America will assess an international transaction fee of 3% of the converted US dollar amount.Footnote 2 Foreign ATM operators may offer to do your currency conversion for you, but they may charge a higher fee for conversion. To insure that your currency conversion does not incur a fee higher than 3%, you may refuse the ATM operator's offer to convert the amount of the transaction. I am all about Xoom now. I can fire up my iphone in the parking lot, send myself money and walk in with my passport and pick it up. Cost 4.99, so I tend to get a bunch and use it for more than one trip. I STILL haven't got a MX bank account. I would like to get one and a small MX credit card so I can buy Mayair tickets as cheap as I can in person.

Chief I looked at xoom. Pretty good selection of pick up spots on Cozumel. What is the process for picking it up at those locations?