Changing pesos makes no cents

I think pretty soon I’ll have written about enough annoyances to put together a list of the 10-most irritating things about Mexico.

Here’s another: Nobody has change in this country. I was in line at a bank yesterday and THREE people in a row asked for change. The teller refused to give any of them change. In a bank! Luckily, I didn’t need change. One time I took 2,000 pesos (about $200) and switched them for 20-peso bills (about $2) at a bank. The teller turned white and quickly glanced around to make sure her boss wasn’t watching, but for those two weeks I didn’t have to bother with vendors telling me, in their nasally chilango accent,

“Pos no tengo cambio joveeen” (I don’t have change, young man [but in a nasally, exaggerated, sing-songy accent]).

I frequently diss them in my posts, and some times they deserve it (but I have a story about a good one which I will post shortly) but taxistas are among the worst offenders. Unlike vendors, who finally give in and grudgingly give you cambio, even if it´s their last bit, taxistas will downright take advantage.

“No tienes cambio brother?”

“No, neta no lo tengo (No, I really don’t have any)”

“….Utz pues, solo te puedo dar cinco pesooos (ootz, well, I can only give you five pesooos),”

You hand your money over reluctantly and you get out of the taxi four pesos poorer than you should be.

Carry change. Lots.

In that same vein, even stores rip you off. Many prices in supermarkets are listed in one-hundredths of a cent, while the lowest coin in Mexico is a ten-cent dime (.007 dollars). So if you buy a kilo of apples for 22.46 pesos, you’ll get charged 22.5 pesos. Those .04 pesos, which are worthless, add up, and multiplied by the number of things sold, well…

That’s like if U.S. vendors started listing their products at $3.238, for example. While the shopper would think it would cost $3.23, the register would ring it up as $3.24.