Tag Archives: expat in Mexico

April 23, 2025 · 11:50 am

Getting Stuff Done Before the End of the World

I’ve been watching the ups and downs of the US economy, trying to figure out how it will affect me in Mexico. From what I can tell, Mexicans dependent on their jobs at US factories located in Mexico might be in for a bumpy ride. In April, several Mexican production plants closed or paused operations.

However, we have a strong local economy and are not dependent on imported items. So, food and shelter seem stable enough. Clothing not so much—even though I live in a textile-centered area, I’m never very happy with local apparel options. Fortunately, there were end-of-season sales at Surbubia and Coppel in the next town over that I stumbled upon, and I was able to stock up on some long-overdue wardrobe necessities. That ought to keep me for a while.

Amazon purchases are on hold for me. The import increase Amazon implemented in January has diminished my desire for any online shopping. Unfortunately, all of my books are printed in the US, so when I want a copy of my own writing, I’ll have to suck it up and pay more.

I have also been concerned about my job. I teach English to students around the world. With the fear that international students are feeling about forced ICE disappearances, English may not be in such high demand, which will impact my hours and, of course, pay.

Then there are some banking worries. I currently have a Capital One 360 online account that I set up some time ago. When Skype announced they were shutting down, I was a bit panicked. Changes in policies meant that I could not use another VOIP number for verification purposes, like I did when I set up the account. After considerable research, I signed up with OpenPhone, which is still a VOIP, but I could port my existing Skype phone number, which meant I didn’t have to change my phone number on record for my bank account.

I’m sure this is a temporary fix, so I also inquired at my job about switching my paycheck deposits to a Mexican bank (which I could do since they pay via a third-party payment platform).

Only, to open a new Mexican bank account, I need to have a valid US passport since my permanent residency card, CURP, and RFC are not enough. My passport expired in October of last year, and I had been putting off renewing because of the cost and hassle. After some extensive research, I determined I could renew by mail. Hot dog!

I had my son take my picture and ran it through an online passport picture checker to ensure it was okay. Then I went to a local photo place and had them print it out. I paid online and received an email confirmation. Next stop was to print out and sign the application and the payment confirmation email, which I did at a ciber in town. Then I attached my photo and headed to DHL. There, I paid for two waybills, one to send everything to the consulate in Guadalajara and one to receive it at the DHL office.

A few days later, I received a confirmation email that said everything looked good. Then a few days after that, I received an email that said they were printing my passport and would send it out shortly. Of course, Semana Santa messed with the shipping schedule, but I received an email the following week confirming it was on its way. Then I just had to wait for it to arrive at the DHL office before going and picking it up.

My banking worries aren’t over yet. I’m due for a new bank card this month. The card is sent to my friend’s house in the US, who then sends it to me. Last time, it ended up in Guatemala on its round-the-world trek. Hopefully, this time, there will be no issues. If I must, I will set up a Mexican bank account, but you know how much I love banking, and I’ll delay as long as I can.

I’m also a bit anxious about the latest student loan repayment process set to begin next month. When there was a chance for forgiveness or forbearance, I applied. But now that those options have been taken off the table, and wage garnishment is being threatened, well, I’ll need to reconsider pretty much everything.

Overall, though, these are stressful annoyances in comparison to other issues happening in the horror that has become the US. Come what may, I’ll find a way to make it work here in Mexico, come hell or high water.

***

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Filed under Economics, Employment, Politics

Tagged as economic crisis, expat in Mexico, finance, financial decisions, Mexico, money, technology, travel, us crisis

February 22, 2025 · 7:45 am

First Disasterous Billing Cycle from CFE

Now that we had electricity, we went shopping! We bought a fridge, having not had one for the 19 years we’ve lived in La Yacata. We also bought a TV, but since I didn’t want anyone using my internet when I was teaching, we had to get a DVD player, which was fine since we’ve accumulated an expansive movie library over the years. All of which meant we used electricity.

Anyway, the day came to pay the piper. In this case, the flutist tooting their merry little tune was CFE, and they wouldn’t make it easy for us. To be fair, we didn’t have street signs up yet. The signs had been ordered but had not yet arrived. And then, to complicate matters, the numbers used to input the connections into the CFE system were lot numbers, not house numbers (because, again, we had applied for the official numbers, but they had not yet been granted). However, how hard would it have been to ASK someone when the CFE bill delivery crew came to deliver the bills? ANYONE would have sent them along to me, and I could have helped them organize the pile of 43 recibos.

But wait, there weren’t 43 recibos. At best, eight bills were delivered, haphazardly, I might add. They were stuck on the muretes (metered posts) rather than slid under the doors. I went around and collected them so they wouldn’t blow away in the wind, then sent messages to the owners that they could pick up their recibos from me.

So what happened to the rest? I didn’t get a bill. My son didn’t get a bill. My sister-in-law didn’t get a bill. My father-in-law didn’t get a bill. Well, I was going to have to go and find out. So I took pictures of all the meters and the list of names of those included in the program and marched my fanny down to the local CFE office.

The lovely lady at the desk couldn’t tell me what happened to the rest of the recibos. Apparently, this sort of shenanigans wasn’t unheard from the local office (See ¡Les cortan la luz! Denuncian que CFE dejó de entregar recibos sin avisarles). She could provide me with duplicate bills from the names on the list I gave her. Well, that was something. She went through the list, one by one, printing out these duplicados. There were eight that weren’t in the system. I showed her the pictures of the meters. She took pictures of my pictures from my phone and sent them on to the Salvatierra office. One had the wrong name attached to the meter entered into the system, and the name owner had paid the bill for the meter owner, which also needed to be addressed.

She implied the eight missing meters were serious issues, giving me the impression that she believed they were stolen and installed illegally. Well, CFE installed them, so if they were stolen, that would be CFE’s bad, not the colonos of La Yacata, but whatever.

I took the duplicados and filed them away (which turned out to be a blessing later). Instead of having them pick up these duplicates, I sent messages to the 43 colonos explaining that if they had not received a recibo they would need to take a photo of their meter and go to the CFE office to get a copy of their account information AND PAY IT.

The amount on all the recibios was 235 pesos to cover the deposit for the connection. Some people squawked about the price, but for the colossal investment CFE made, stringing the wires from the intersection, five transformers, 20+ new posts, connecting the individual houses, and providing the meters, 235 pesos was NOTHING.

I went to pay ours, my son’s, my sister-in-law’s, and my father-in-law’s. While I was in line at the machines to pay, another colono who was at the CFE office asked me to pay theirs and gave me the cash so he could get back to work. I guess I don’t have any work or anything, but whatever. I paid them all.

But, wouldn’t you know it, four individuals forgot to pay their bill. Not surprisingly, CFE had NO trouble finding La Yacata to cut off their service. Those individuals would have to make arrangements with CFE to reestablish service. There wasn’t anything more I could do for them.

The second billing cycle bills should be arriving this week in La Yacata. We shall see how it goes.

****

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1 Comment

Filed under Electricity issues

Tagged as CFE, electricity issues in Mexico, expat in Mexico, La Yacata Revolution, living in rural Mexico

September 2, 2023 · 11:05 am

August Updates and Freebies

Well, we haven’t done much lately, so there really aren’t any updates. Building materials are sky-high, so nothing new to report on my son’s house. The rainy season has been wonky. Pretty much all the crops in the area look like they won’t amount to a hill of beans (literally). The bananas aren’t ripe yet on our surprise banana tree. Patience is the name of the game these days.

But as an author, I have some exciting news. Cherokee By Nature in Apodaca, Mexico, is now carrying two of my books. Take a look!