I just found out that in Mexico there are legal ways to withdraw money without being charged a fee by the bank. It turns out that if your card is from BanBajío, BanCoppel, or one of those, you can use ATMs from other banks within the Multired network without paying anything. There are about 11,800 ATMs across HSBC, Scotiabank, Inbursa, and others.

What surprised me is that there are also many bilateral agreements. For example, Banco Azteca has agreements with Multiva and BanBajío, Scotiabank connects with Afirme and Intercam. If you travel, Scotiabank even allows you to withdraw without a fee at international banks like Bank of America or Barclays.

But here’s the important part: always check with your bank to see which alliances are current, because they can change. And at the ATM, before confirming any transaction, carefully review the screen to see if you will be charged. If you disagree, you can cancel without any problem. I didn’t know that Condusef requires banks to display the fee before you confirm. Basically, if there is no agreed network, withdrawing from an outside ATM costs between 20 and 40 pesos per transaction.