Readers of our blog often ask for copies of the Mexican consumer rights cards that we made last year for our friends and neighbors.
For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, it’s basically a card in English and Spanish that you can present to a business when they try to do something illegal, like add additional charges or a mandatory service fee to your final bill at a restaurant.
The card contains key sections of Mexico’s Federal Protection Law (Ley Federal de Protección al Consumidor) that are commonly violated, as well as the maximum fine. The purpose of the card is to educate the business, and of course, have the illegal charges removed.
Over the years, we have known dozens of people who have successfully used the cards to resolve billing disputes at a restaurants, bars and stores.
Last year, we uploaded the card templates to Vistaprint for those readers who wanted to purchase their own. Unfortunately, something went wrong with that link and it’s no longer available — but don’t worry. We came up with an alternative that should appeal to even our thriftiest readers.
Mexican Consumer Rights Cards in PNG Format
Here are the image files of both sides of the consumer rights card.
We included full color images for those folks who just want to save the images on their phone and black and white images for people who prefer to print their own cards.
PC users: Right click, and click “save image as”
Mobile users: Hold your finger on the image until the option to save it appears
Important: There are four images. Each image will have to be saved separately.
Learn More About Your Consumer Rights
Linda and I have been educating our readers about their rights as consumers in Mexico since this blog started over three years ago. If you’re not up to speed on the topic, and you would like to be, here are some links to relevant articles (click on the pic):
Let’s Wrap This Up
Whether you’re a tourist or a resident here in Mexico, there’s one thing that we all have in common — we’re all consumers. Learn your rights, carry them with you and don’t allow yourself to be cheated, overcharged or otherwise defrauded.
Hi, placing my finger over the colored versions does not work. There is no ability to save it. As soon as I take the finger off, it goes back to its original place in the text.
What kind of device are you using?
iPhone 6S plus. As soon as I take my finger off, it reverts back to text in your email. I cannot keep the image there to do anything with it.
On our phones, we have to hold it there for a few seconds.
It worked! Thank you!!
Glad to hear it. 🙂
Paul, we are in Playa for 3 months every year and know about Profeca but did not know that you could get a card. Can I get one at the U.S. Consulat in Playa? Thanks, Steve and Roz
The consulate doesn’t distribute these cards. We created them to help English-speakers resolve these issues when faced with clear violations of Mexico’s Federal Consumer Protection law.
We got the idea from Profeco. They used to distribute something similar — except it was entirely in Spanish — as part of their public education programs.
I have my card…………………thanks Paul 🙂
Worked perfectly on my Apple tablet. As always many thanks for this and all the other very helpful information.
You’re welcome, Cherry.
Here in the Lake Chapala area folks are plagued at times during the year by shady police officers that make a habit of pulling people over and looking for a brib to avoid a traffic fine. “You can go to court, have your car impounded or . . . Pay the fine right here and now” is the way if often works. A card like this would be handy to present that office with instead.
That’s a pretty common scenario around the country. One way to avoid it is knowing which officers at the state and municipal levels even have the authority to enforce traffic laws — and it’s normally only a small percentage of the agency. The rest are just bluffing anyway.
I wrote an article about this recently for our Patreon members. It also discusses how to handle the problem of police corruption when driving. One day, a version of it may make it over the main blog.
Oh, and we do have a similar card that helps with police corruption in Quintana Roo http://qroo.us/2018/05/16/this-card-might-get-you-out-of-a-traffic-ticket-when-visiting-cancun-or-the-riviera-maya/
Thank You!