On our way to GTO

[roberb7]

*Banking...what do y'all do? We withdrew money from the ATM's last time we were down there but is there an easier less expensive way to get money?

There's a number of ways to skin this cat. I know of people who have accounts with Charles Schwab or Capital One, both of which rebate ATM fees, and they swear by them, especially Charles Schwab.

Since you're in Texas, you might want to pay a visit to your local BBVA Compass branch, and ask them what they can do for you.

Getting a Mexican bank account is a good idea for several reasons. It's a bit of trouble, but this isn't something you're going to be doing every six months. Once you have one, you can transfer money into it using TransferWise.

Part of the Mexican bank equation is getting a Mexican Visa or MasterCard. This is also a lot of trouble, but also worthwhile; there are certain transactions for which a non-Mexican credit card (or a Mexican debit card) won't work. Interest rates on Mexican-bank credit cards would embarrass "Fat Tony" Salerno or Angelo "Gyp" DeCarlo, but the ones that are less bad come from Scotiabank and HSBC. CIBanco and Caja Popular don't offer credit cards.