No Bank Account for You

Okay then, we have moved to Mexico, rented a house, bought a new phone service and got cable hook up for internet and TV. Well, that was easy. So now I have monthly bills to pay. How am I going to do that?

For the 1st month's rent I take a copy of the lease and cash to HSBC where the landlord has an account though in Puebla.We have the necessary account number information which we received when we signed the lease. The deposit is quickly completed. The intent is to have a local account so that we can setup an automatic monthly transfer.

Our Canadian bank cards cannot be used for store purchases so instead we use a credit card and have to provide identification and enter our PIN. Our bank cards do function in bank ATM's which provides us with cash. A local bank account would make grocery shopping and purchases at Home Depot and Sears so much simpler.

Since we deal with ScotiaBank in Canada a local account here in Oaxaca at ScotiaBank seemed to be the logical choice. Our Canadian bank contact provided an introduction to a senior manager here in our neighbourhood ScotiaBank. We make an appointment and off we go to setup a new bank account.

We are prepared, we have copies of:
 • passport and tourist visas;
 • house rental lease which indicates a fixed address;
 • telephone bill indicating that a federally controlled business accepts that the house exists and;
 • minimum deposit of Mx$500 to put into the account.

Yes, everything is fine except the telephone bill which is addressed to a person who is not listed as one of the owners on the lease. Sorry, bank policy will not allow them to open an account in our names.

So off we go to the local TelMex office to get a name change on the telephone account. (We didn't even want to have a house phone because we would use our cell phones anyway. But the landlord, for some reason, wants to maintain a land line and we are responsible to pay the C$18 monthly fee.) Sure they say, simple. Take this form and have the person listed on the telephone bill fill it out requesting the name change. Great! Like that's going to happen. We don't even know who that person is.

Oh well. Let's deal with this another day.