Use an American Express Card when dining if possible: If you have an American Express that allows for foreign transactions you should use that when dining out. This is because when you use American Express the restaurant will be forced to make you pay in the local currency. They do not have the option to charge you in dollars. When they charge you in dollars they give you a bad exchange rate*, and you end up paying more. When you use Mastercard or Visa they have the option to have you pay in dollars. Waiters are told to make you pay in dollars and oftentimes will not even ask you whether you want to pay in the local currency or USD. We had this happen in a restaurant where the waiter brought the bill, had us write the tip, then put everything in USD and did not tell us. From then on we knew to use only American Express when dining to avoid the bad exchange rate. Three things to note: if you have an American Express that charges foreign transaction fees use another card. Not everywhere accepts American Express. If you need to use Mastercard or Visa, make sure you very clearly specify before they take your card that you want to pay in the local currency.
*Bad exchange rate explained: If the current exchange rate is 1 USD=10 MX, but you choose to pay the bill in USD your 10 USD meal should cost 100 MX pesos, but the restaurant, for doing their own conversion could make you pay 130 MX pesos. This is because they have “provided the service” of exchanging the currency for you, and thus are entitled to keep the extra 30 MX pesos.
