Send Money to Banco Azteca and Elektra from the USA
Banco Azteca is Grupo Elektra’s bank, with branches inside Elektra stores and on their own, and it pays out remittances at more than 2,000 Elektra and Banco Azteca branches, by its own count. Here is which US services can reach it, what a deposit and a cash pickup cost side by side, the limits the bank sets, and what your family needs to collect.
The Short Answer
There are two ways to send money from the US to Banco Azteca: cash your family collects at an Elektra or Banco Azteca counter, or a deposit straight into their Banco Azteca account. 10 of the 13 services we checked name Elektra or Banco Azteca as a payout. One well-known name can’t get money there at all: Wise says it can’t send to Banco Azteca accounts. If your recipient already banks with Azteca, the deposit takes more per day and spares them the trip.
Cash at the Counter or Money in the Account
It’s easy to think of Banco Azteca as one more cash pickup point. It is really two routes under one name. Elektra and Banco Azteca counters pay cash to anyone with a valid transfer code and ID, account or not. And because Banco Azteca is a bank, money can also skip the counter and land in your recipient’s account. The bank sets different rules for each.
Limits, timings and requirements from Banco Azteca’s own pages, checked November 1, 2026. The sending service can set lower limits of its own.
Cash makes sense when your recipient has no Banco Azteca account or needs the money in hand today. Otherwise the account comes out ahead on the rules: a higher daily ceiling, double the monthly one, no cap on how many transfers arrive, and no 30-day clock running out on an uncollected code.
Which US Services Reach Banco Azteca
Banco Azteca pays out for the transfer companies it partners with, so the service you pick decides whether the money can reach it. Our check on November 1, 2026 covered 13 services. The table keeps those whose US pages list Elektra or Banco Azteca, along with what each wants from you for a deposit.
Each row reflects what the service published for US senders on November 1, 2026. A “Not stated” marks something the pages didn’t mention; the service may still offer it. Services label the payer differently, so look for Elektra, Banco Azteca or both in the app’s list.
Banco Azteca publishes its own list of US partners, 25 names long, from Western Union and MoneyGram to names such as Orlandi Valuta and La Nacional, and it ends with “and many more.” Taptap Send and Xe aren’t on it, though both name Elektra on their own pages.
Two services we checked left us without a clear answer. Sendwave names neither Elektra nor Banco Azteca; the only Mexico pickup partners it names are OXXO and Banorte. Paysend named Elektra and Banco Azteca in a May 2025 blog post, but its help-centre list of Mexico pickup partners, updated September 21, 2026, leaves both out. If you use either, look for Elektra or Banco Azteca in the app before you count on it.
The Wise Exception, and How to Spot an Azteca CLABE
Wise pays most Mexican bank accounts by CLABE, but Banco Azteca is not one of them. Its US Mexico page puts it plainly: “You can’t send money to BanCoppel or Banco Azteca accounts because they are not able to process our transfers.” The same page lists a local bank account as the only way to receive, so Wise has no route to Banco Azteca at all.
You can tell from the account details alone. A CLABE is the 18-digit standard account number Mexican banks use, and Wise’s own Mexico page explains that its first three digits are the bank code. It lists Banco Azteca accounts as the ones whose CLABE starts with 127. If the CLABE your family sends you starts that way, pick a service from the table above instead.
Wise can also pay to a Mexican debit card, but only for issuing banks on its list, and its help centre doesn’t say whether Banco Azteca cards are on it.
Deposit or Cash: What Each Costs
Pricing a transfer to Banco Azteca runs into the same snag as any named payer in Mexico: some services charge a different fee for each one. BOSS Money, MoneyGram and Taptap Send state this on their sites, and Taptap Send lists one fee for Elektra and a different one for Banco Azteca. A general Mexico quote from those services doesn’t tell you their Banco Azteca price, so we don’t print one.
Pangea, Remitly and Ria are different. Their pages name the amount, the way you pay and the delivery method or speed as what drives the price, and the payer isn’t on that list. Each also deposits into Banco Azteca accounts and pays out at Elektra. For these three, the deposit and cash prices in our data are the Banco Azteca prices. Here is $1,000 sent from a US bank account, both ways.
Each row is $1,000 turned into pesos and paid for from a US bank account, in quotes collected October 28–30, 2026. All-in cost adds the fee to what the rate markup costs on this amount, judged against the mid-market rate. A promotional price is marked and never ranked.
Ria Money Transfer cost least both ways: $9.28 all-in for the deposit and $7.10 for cash. Compared with the deposit, cash cost $2.18 less at Ria Money Transfer, $1.97 more at Pangea and $1.97 more at Remitly.
Western Union, Xoom and WorldRemit don’t say whether the payer changes their price, so we leave them out of this table rather than guess. Their apps, like every service’s, show the Banco Azteca price and the pesos your recipient gets on the last screen before you pay.
How Much Banco Azteca Will Pay Out
Two sets of limits apply to every transfer: Banco Azteca’s, which hold whoever sent the money, and the sending service’s, which can be lower. Here they are side by side, as each one prints them.
Bank figures come from Banco Azteca’s limits table and service figures from each service’s site, all as of November 1, 2026. Banco Azteca says its daily amounts move with the exchange rate Banxico publishes, and an older page of its own gives the yearly counter cap as 1,100,000 pesos rather than 1,000,000.
The counter’s monthly cap of 100,000 pesos comes to about $5,319 at today’s mid-market rate. For most families the amount isn’t what bites first. The count is: the bank pays a person cash at the counter no more than 3 times a day and 8 times a month, so a household living on several small transfers from different relatives can run into it with money to spare. Deposits into an account carry no such count.
Use the account. It takes USD 4,999 a day against USD 4,000 at the counter, and twice the monthly amount. If your recipient doesn’t have one, Banco Azteca’s Guardadito Amigo Sin Fronteras, an account built for money from abroad, opens at a branch from 1 peso with an INE or passport and proof of address no older than three months.
Picking Up at Elektra or Banco Azteca
Whichever service sends the money, Banco Azteca pays it out, so its rules on the code, the ID and the hours apply to every pickup. Some services add rules of their own, covered below. Here is the trip, step by step.
- 01You send. Choose cash pickup and pick the payer: Remitly and Ria list it as Elektra / Banco Azteca, WorldRemit as Banco Azteca branches. Type your recipient’s name exactly as their ID shows it.
- 02You pass on the code. Banco Azteca calls it the clave de envío (MTCN) and says it runs 8 to 16 letters and numbers. Remitly can send a QR code instead for Elektra and Banco Azteca pickups. WorldRemit asks the recipient to say “BTS” and give its 11-digit reference.
- 03Your recipient goes to a branch. Banco Azteca gives its hours as 9 am to 9 pm, Monday to Sunday, 365 days a year, and says a transfer is ready to collect 15 to 60 minutes after it’s sent. It also pays out at more than 1,200 Italika, Azulemex and Tiendas Neto locations.
- 04They show the code and an ID. The bank names an INE voter card or a passport. Some services list more, such as a consular ID or a professional license, but those two are the ones Banco Azteca names itself, so they’re the safest to bring.
- 05They collect pesos, free. Banco Azteca charges nothing to receive, and cash taken at the counter is covered by free theft insurance up to 8,500 pesos for 4 hours afterward.
Xoom says that in Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, the city and state in your recipient’s address must match the Elektra branch where they collect, for any amount. Anywhere in Mexico, the same rule applies to a single Xoom pickup at Elektra over 15,000 pesos, and at today’s rate $1,000 is already about 18,800 pesos. Put your recipient’s real address on the transfer, whichever service you use.
Names are the other thing to get right. Pangea, WorldRemit and MoneyGram each require the recipient’s name on the transfer to be the one printed on their ID. For most Mexicans that means a paternal and a maternal surname, and both belong on the transfer. If collecting in the Banco Azteca app fails, the bank’s advice is to check the code or update the recipient’s personal details at a branch.
Receiving Into a Banco Azteca Account
For a deposit, Banco Azteca’s own instructions are short: share the card number with your relative in the US, and the money lands in the account, ready to use. The services don’t all ask for the same thing, though. Western Union wants the card number, BOSS Money the account or card number, WorldRemit the CLABE, and Pangea either the CLABE or a 16-digit debit card number. Ask your family for both the card number and the 18-digit CLABE before you start, and you’re covered whichever service you use.
Check the account level first
Not every Banco Azteca account takes unlimited deposits. Guardadito Digital is a Level 2 account, and the bank caps its deposits at the peso value of 3,000 UDIS a month. The bank itself puts that at about 25,000 pesos, roughly $1,330 at today’s mid-market rate. Regular support from the US can pass that in a month. Banco Azteca says a Guardadito Digital can be moved up to a level with unlimited deposits, and the Guardadito opened at a branch is a Level 4 account whose brochure names no monthly deposit cap.
Collecting into the account with a code
A cash transfer doesn’t have to be taken as cash. A recipient with a Banco Azteca account can move it into that account three ways: in the Banco Azteca app, under “Enviar y Recibir,” then “Recibir de Estados Unidos u otro país,” by entering the transfer code; through the bank’s WhatsApp line at 55 9963 1515, again with the code; or at a Banco Azteca ATM, by choosing “Recibir dinero de Estados Unidos.” Elektra’s terms say a WhatsApp payout can take up to 48 hours.
Every Service to Mexico, Side by Side
Banco Azteca is one payer among many in Mexico. If your family banks somewhere else, or can collect at another chain, the table below sets every service we track side by side on a bank deposit to Mexico, with each one’s markup measured from the live mid-market rate.
Compare Money Transfer Services
Sending 1,000.00 USD → MXN · Estimated typical cost · bank deposit, bank-funded
Showing 13 of 17 services we can price for USD → MXN
Estimates only, not live quotes. "Recipient Gets" is for a bank deposit funded from a bank account, on today's mid-market rate: for a "provider quote", minus the rate markup and fee from that provider's own recent quote; for an estimate, minus the provider's typical markup and fee. Rows are ranked by total cost, the fee plus the rate markup, so a fee charged on top of the amount sent counts against a provider even when its recipient gets more. Real cost varies by corridor, amount, delivery and payment method, and promotions (e.g. new-customer offers can be cheaper). Tap a provider to get its live rate before sending. The dot by each provider shows confidence, and the label says how the figure was grounded: "corridor estimate" is a rate we measured for this exact pair; a currency-code estimate (e.g. "USD estimate") is measured for that source currency but not this destination; "typical estimate" is the provider's general figure across all its corridors; "provider quote" is that provider's own recent quote for this pair, its markup and fee applied to today's mid-market rate exactly as its calculator shows them, and a provider whose quote depends on a payment or delivery choice is left out here and priced on its own calculator. Margins are verified against live provider quotes and the World Bank Remittance Prices database; the date above is the most recent collection. Some “Send money now” buttons are partner links: we may earn a commission if you sign up, at no cost to you, and rows are ranked by cost whatever the link. See how we collect these prices and our advertising disclosure.
For every other way to get pesos to Mexico, and where the dollar stands against the peso today, see our Mexico money transfer guide. The OXXO guide explains collecting at a convenience store, which pays out much smaller sums.
Banco Azteca Questions
Can a US service deposit straight into a Banco Azteca account?
Yes. When we went through the US services on November 1, 2026, BOSS Money, Pangea, Remitly, Ria, Western Union, WorldRemit and Xoom said they deposit into Banco Azteca accounts. What they ask for differs: Western Union asks for the receiver's card number, WorldRemit for the CLABE, BOSS Money for the account or card number. Banco Azteca itself says the card number is all you need. The one well-known holdout is Wise, whose Mexico page rules out Banco Azteca accounts.
What does my family need to pick up money at Elektra or Banco Azteca?
The transfer code and an official ID. The code runs 8 to 16 letters and numbers, according to Banco Azteca, and the bank accepts an INE voter card or a passport. When you set up the transfer, spell their name the way the ID does, with both surnames.
Does Banco Azteca charge to receive money from the US?
No. Banco Azteca says it charges no commission to receive money from the US or anywhere abroad, in any of its channels. Cash collected at the counter also carries free theft insurance of up to 8,500 pesos for 4 hours. What you pay is the sending service's fee and the margin in its exchange rate.
Can I use Wise to send money to Banco Azteca?
No. Wise's US Mexico page says it can't send to Banco Azteca or BanCoppel accounts because those banks can't process its transfers, and its help centre lists Banco Azteca CLABEs, which start with 127, among the accounts it can't pay. By that same page, Wise pays out in Mexico only to bank accounts, so an Elektra pickup isn't an option with it either.
How much money can Banco Azteca pay out in a day?
Banco Azteca's own limits are USD 4,000 a day for cash at the counter and USD 4,999 a day into an account or through its digital channels, with monthly caps of 100,000 and 200,000 pesos. Your sending service may cap a transfer below those figures.
What are Elektra and Banco Azteca hours for picking up money?
Banco Azteca lists branch hours of 9 am to 9 pm, Monday to Sunday. Its branches open 365 days a year, the bank says, weekends and holidays included.
How long does my family have to collect a transfer?
30 days. Banco Azteca says the code expires after that. The wait at the start is short: Banco Azteca says the money can be collected 15 to 60 minutes after it's sent.
Can the money be collected without going to a branch?
Yes, if your recipient has a Banco Azteca account. With the transfer code, the cash can go into that account from the Banco Azteca app, the bank's WhatsApp line (55 9963 1515) or a Banco Azteca ATM. A transfer sent straight to the account by card number needs no visit at all.
Price your transfer to Mexico
Put in your amount to see the pesos each service delivers after its fee and rate markup, then choose Banco Azteca as the payer in that service's app.
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Sources & References
- Banco Azteca: Receive money from the US and abroad (limits, hours, channels)
- Banco Azteca: Transfers FAQ (transfer code, ID, opening days)
- Banco Azteca: Sending money from the US (account deposits, US partners)
- Banco Azteca: Guardadito Digital account
- Banco Azteca: Guardadito Amigo Sin Fronteras account
- Elektra: Terms for international transfers
- Grupo Elektra: 3Q 2026 results
- Wise: Send money to Mexico
- Wise: Guide to MXN transfers
- Western Union: Elektra and Banco Azteca
- Remitly: Send money to Banco Azteca
- Remitly: Send money to Elektra
- BOSS Money: Elektra and Banco Azteca in Mexico
- Ria: Send money to Mexico
- Pangea: Help centre (Mexico limits and IDs)
- WorldRemit: Cash pickup in Mexico
- WorldRemit: Bank transfer to Mexico
- Xoom: Send money to Mexico
- Xoom: Cash pickup requirements in Mexico
- MoneyGram: Send money to Mexico
- Taptap Send: Sending money to Mexico
- Xe: Send money to Mexico
- Sendwave: Send money to Mexico
- Paysend: Cash pickup in Latin America
Provider pricing and exchange rates are set by the companies named and can change. Figures in this guide are checked against these official sources. Always confirm the live rate before you transact.