Using pesos vs USD (Live from PDC)

[Anne]

Steve from Playa Maya posted live on TA today. Very interesting:

The conventional wisdom often repeated here is that using pesos is almost always (some people still just say always) better because you get such a poor exchange rate from merchants when paying in USD (with rates of just 10 or 12 pesos to the dollar often cited as typical). Last summer I posted some of our experiences (https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g15081…) that ran counter to that old CW, but it now seems even less accurate, and in fact there may be a kind of sea change taking place along these lines, as many merchants we have run into are now offering not only very competitive rates for USD but rates that are even better than those at casas de cambio (or banks). Formerly that situation was basically only found in the big box stores (Wal-Mart, Mega, Soriana, Sam’s), but it has clearly spread to many smaller and/or very different places that provide a variety of services. Here are some we have seen who are beating the current cambio rate of about 16.5:

Barcos Caribe ferries to/from Cozumel is taking the USD at 18 pesos

Bisquets de Obregon restaurant (Plaza las Perlas): 17 pesos

Starbuck’s (at least at 5th & 10th): 16.7 pesos

Oxxo convenience stores (at least the one at 5th & 38th): also 16.7 pesos

So if you don’t want to do the math, this means that you would actually _lose_ a little money (not to mention waste time & effort) by first exchanging USD at a cambio and then paying in pesos at the above establishments. But there are also many others whose rates are so near to the cambios that you’d lose virtually nothing by paying with USD:

100% Natural restaurant: 16.25

Ultramar ferries: 16.32

Barcos Mexico: 16.20

ADO (at least for airport bus): 16.3

So by first exchanging USD and then using pesos to pay at the places in the second list above, you’d save only about a dime on your airport bus ticket, for example, or around 70¢ on a dinner bill of 50 bucks. Not obviously very cost-effective even if exchanging money turns out to be very quick and easy for you.

FWIW! Will post more examples as we run across them.

Steve

[Blueskies]

I just read that as of a few days ago (March 2016) the GPRM is offering 11 pesos per 1 USD as their exchange rate at the front desk.

[Anne]

I think the resort was giving 15 to 1 dollar in December.

[Author]

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