live by the card, die by the card

Technology is one of those double-edged swords. Especially, when finances are involved.

At some point in the 1990s, my life became almost cashless in Oregon. First, it was checks. Then everything switched to credit cards. Dining out. Clothing. Gasoline. Even groceries.

All of that changed when I moved to Mexico in 2009. Our little villages by the sea were in a different financial time zone. Credit cards were the rule in Guadalajara and Mexico City just as they were in the other two-thirds of North America. But, here, notes and coins were the medium of exchange.

Because my current income is denominated in American currency, I had to have some way to turn those digital dollars in The States into hard pesos in my pocket in Mexico. Initially, that was easy. Based on some sage blog advice from Felipe in Pátzcuaro, I sat up at account with Banamex in Los Angeles. At the tap of "enter" on my computer, I could transfer up to $9,999 (US) into my account in San Patricio.

Then came the Obama administration with its ill-conceived FATCA. In an attempt to corner offshore billionaires and cash-laden drug lords, The States set up an enforcement regime that resulted almost solely in collateral damage to every-day expatriates.

Banamex decided not to play the let-me-control-you game. It got so ridiculous that the local Banamex cashiers were required to ask foreigners the purpose of the money being withdrawn. My stock answer was always the same. "For guns and drugs." Sergio would smile and write nothing down. It was just a silly game.

That left me looking for alternatives. Felipe went cold turkey -- closing down all of his northern accounts and electronically depositing his checks in his new Mexican accounts.That option was not available to me (for reasons we do not need to discuss). Instead, I decided to rely solely on my northern debit cards as "open sesame" tools for our ATMS.

That left me at the mercy of our local banking system. We have a limited number of ATMs here. Banamex has two in San Patricio and one in Barra de Navidad. There is also one at the army base and another at Intercam. However, when we have system-wide failures (and they do happen far too frequently), the lot shuts down.

I thought I had solved that particular problem by opening an Intercam account earlier this year. In a tip of the hat to The Old Ways, I can write a check on my northern account and deposit it in a peso account with Intercam. If its ATM is not working, I can go to the counter and withdraw as much as my account will afford.

That was the theory. I discovered this week that no plan is foolproof.

On Monday, I drove Omar to Manzanillo to purchase a replacement telephone. His Samsung had died in a freak accident. Because I intended to pay cash, I stopped at Banamex. Neither machine was working. The  army ATM was not working. The Intercam ATM was not working. That was a rather good sign that the system was down. And it was too early in the morning to get cash from the tellers at Banamex or Intercam.

So, we drove to Manzanillo. I tried the ATM in La Comer. It rejected both of my northern debit cards.

I was not worried. I had my credit card. I used it at Sam's Club and then at Telcel (for a purchase ten times as much as the Sam's Club tab) -- with no problem.
Then the problems set in. I received an email from my northern bank that my debit cards were frozen because I had withdrawn amounts that exceeded my daily limit.

I talked to the fraud desk. Even though he admitted I had withdrawn nothing from my accounts, the code said I had. He said he would take it up with his supervisor and get back with me.

Then I tried to order a protector for Omar's new telephone on Amazon.Mx. My bank rejected payment. I tried again. Rejected.

Back to the telephone I went. Yesterday a very nice woman told me that was call was sufficient to reactivate my card. But she was wrong. Last night I tried ordering the same protector from Amazon.com -- thinking there was some connection to using the card in Mexico. Rejected.

So, I put on my calm Mexico-inherited voice and called again. Henry, on the fraud desk, put my patience to the test when he started off by saying all this was for my protection, not theirs. That, of course was a lie -- as it turned out.

My card was frozen because the cost of the protector (about $9 (US)) was far too low compared with the average of my purchases from Amazon in the past. In other words, my behavior was aberrant -- for me.

I started discussing the concept of irony with him, but my heart was not in it. I simply thanked him.

Are my debit cards and credit cards working now? I have no idea. I guess I could purchase a Ferrarri from Amazon and see if my "aberrant behavior" trips any alarms.

We are living in an era where we may need to re-learn the virtues of a cash society. The news tells of intentional electricity blackouts in northern California. Without electricity, digital financial transactions are the proverbial tree falling in an unpopulated forest.

Coffee cans of cash in the back yard may be the answer. If only I had a back yard.