Travel + Money — how we manage our money while living 6 months in Mexico

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The invisible cost: foreign transaction fees

Most Canadian credit and debit cards add a foreign transaction fee of about 2.5% on every purchase in another currency. It doesn’t show up as a separate charge on your statement: it’s baked into the exchange rate applied.

Over a 6-month stay, it adds up fast. On $10,000 of spending in pesos, a 2.5% fee is about $250 — the equivalent of a week of groceries and restaurant meals, gone in invisible fees.

That’s why both of our main cards in Mexico have no foreign transaction fees:

• Luc’s main card: the Scotiabank Gold Amex (Scene+). No conversion fee on purchases in pesos, and Scene+ points are flexible: they apply directly to travel purchases.
• Steve’s main card: the Scotiabank Passport Visa (Scene+). Same logic: no foreign transaction fee, flexible Scene+ points for travel. And when the Amex isn’t accepted — it happens in Mexico — the Visa takes over.

Our method, in short

1. Housing. Our monthly rentals (Airbnb) are paid with the Scene+ Gold Amex. The choice is simple: the flexible points then apply to our next trips, and paying for housing by card keeps the card’s protections where they apply.
2. Day-to-day. Groceries, restaurants, transportation: we pay by card almost everywhere, with the two cards above, precisely because they don’t charge the 2.5% conversion fee.
3. Cash pesos. For the expenses where cash is still king (small shops, tips, markets), we withdraw from Scotiabank ATMs in Mexico with our Tangerine card — Tangerine is part of the Scotiabank group, so withdrawals stay within the same banking family. New this year: the Wealthsimple card also reimburses ATM fees, which gives us a second option when we’re not near a Scotiabank ATM. Our rule, no exceptions: when an ATM or terminal offers to charge us « in our own currency » (Canadian dollars) instead of pesos, we decline — always. That conversion rate, offered by the machine, is almost always worse than our card’s rate: it’s a disguised fee, accepted in one tap by people who don’t know better.
4. Canadian business from a distance. Our everyday bank is Tangerine, an online bank: no monthly fees, free Interac e-Transfers, access to Scotiabank ATMs across Canada. Everything runs in the app — which changes everything when you’re outside the country six months a year.

   Our full Tangerine page

5. Investments. Our RRSPs, TFSAs and self-directed investments are with Wealthsimple — one app to invest, save and spend, with no commissions on stocks and ETFs.

   Our full Wealthsimple page

6. Insurance. Our main travel coverage for long stays is our Beneva group plan (the Quebec public service employees’ plan), maintained as long as we remain covered by the RAMQ (Quebec health insurance). This is a point worth stressing: the travel medical insurance bundled with credit cards is usually limited to a set number of days (25 days in our case) — nowhere near enough for a 6-month stay. Cards cover purchase-related protections; the long stay itself rests on our group plan. (That’s our situation — check yours, plans vary widely.)
7. Phone. Locally, we use a local SIM card with an Amigo plan at 200 pesos for 30 days. Simple, cheap, and a Mexican number comes in handy for deliveries and reservations.
8. Online shopping, travel included. We have a Rakuten account (linked to our rewards) for cash back on online purchases — we’ll admit we forget it too often, but we aim to use it as much as possible, including for bookings when the offer runs through it.

Our tools, and what they pay us

What this page is not

We don’t sell financial products, we don’t manage anyone else’s money, and we don’t tell anyone what to do with theirs. We’re two Canadian retirees describing how we organize our payments while living half the year in Mexico. For your own financial decisions, talk to a certified professional.

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