Is your money for old age on a spree and you don’t know where?
Ah, the sweet innocence of starting to work. You think your biggest worry will be traffic or bitter office coffee, but no, my dear friend. Your real adventure begins when you try to figure out where the hell your Afore is. Yes, that money that they religiously deduct from you every fortnight and that, for the average citizen, has more mystery than the end of a soap opera. Luckily, the always efficient (and let’s hope it’s not ironic to say it) National Savings System Commission (Consar), in a burst of generosity, offers us not one, not two, but three options! for this treasure hunt. Because in the age of artificial intelligence, the most advanced thing is to have three ways to find something that is yours.
Imagine the scene: it’s Sunday night, you have an existential crisis about your future and you decide, finally, to be a responsible adult. You ask yourself: how do I see if I have an Afore? The answer is a journey full of digital bureaucracy and options that will make you question if you really want to reach old age.
The location triumvirate: phone, website and app
The first option is so retro that it is almost nostalgic: the Sartel telephone line. Yes, dial 55 13 28 50 00 and wait for an automated voice, with the emotion of an instruction reader to assemble a piece of Swedish furniture, to reveal the whereabouts of your savings. How many options will you have to press before talking to a human? That’s the real lottery. The second option, a little more from the 21st century, is the “AforeWeb” portal. Sounds modern, right? You type with faith aforeweb.com.mx/localiza-tu-afore and you find a form that wants your Social Security Number (NSS) or your Unique Population Registration Code (CURP). Because, clearly, in the magical system of the afores, your soul is not enough identification. And as a consolation prize, they’ll send the information to an email that, hopefully, isn’t the one you created in Hotmail in 2005. The cutest detail: you can only make one query per day. In case you get excited and want to search for your Afore twenty times in a row, like checking the refrigerator door waiting for new food to appear.
But not everything can be so simple. For millennials and centennials, there is the option to download the “AforeMóvil” application. It sounds good, until you read the steps: download, register with your CURP, email and cell phone, generate a password (which you will probably forget in 3… 2… 1…), and then… wait 48 hours for them to verify your data! In a world where you can order sushi at midnight and have it arrive in 20 minutes, having to wait two days to access your own retirement money is a brutal lesson in humility. Finally, you log in, navigate a maze-like menu, and arrive at the hallowed “My Savings” section. The reward? A number that will make you ask: “And with this I’m going to buy a golf cart for the asylum?”
The big moment: when you don’t have an Afore and you have to choose one
But let’s talk about the most tragic scenario: that you do all this research and discover that your Afore is like the yeti, everyone talks about it but no one has seen it. In other words, you are not registered. Then begins the initiation ritual to enter the club of adults who think about their future. The first step is to choose an Afore. Consar, with a moving faith in our decision-making capacity, urges us to make an informed selection. Because choosing between 10 options with names that sound more or less the same is as easy as choosing the perfect movie on a streaming platform with 10,000 titles. Then, you must contact the Afore. This means that some friendly promoting agents (whose enthusiasm for your retirement probably exceeds your own) visit you, or that you go to one of their branches, where you will surely be greeted with a smile and a stack of brochures with photographs of smiling seniors playing golf.
The summit moment has arrived: process your registration. To do this, the Afore will create your Electronic Identification File, a name so pompous that it seems like the title of a spy movie. What do you need? Your CURP, RFC, NSS, official identification, proof of address, a digital photograph (smile, even if inside you want to cry), a biometric signature (your fingerprints, because your word is not enough) and a digital handwritten signature. Basically, everything except a DNA sample and a letter of recommendation from your first love. After this process, which makes you feel more scanned than a product in the supermarket, you just have to confirm your personal data and accept the request. Sign on the dotted line and congratulations! You are now officially part of the system that will manage your money for the next 40 years. What could go wrong?
And in case you were wondering, in this great country there are exactly 10 Afore financial institutions, all monitored by the omnipresent Consar. The list sounds like the cast of a league of financial superheroes: Banco Azteca, Banamex, Coppel, Inbursa, Invercap, PENSIONISSSTE, Principal, PROFUTURO, SURA and XXI Banorte. Choosing one is like choosing a soccer team, but instead of jerseys, they give you bank statements and a promise not to die in absolute poverty.
So now you know, brave contributor. Your Afore is out there, somewhere in cyberspace or in the hands of one of those ten entities. Finding it is an epic, registering is a ceremony, and trusting that everything will work in 2065 is an act of faith worthy of the greatest mystics. The pension system in Mexico, always surprising us with its bureaucratic charm.
Have you already located your Afore or is it still missing?Share this guide, I mean, this drama, with your friends on social networks and help them too in their search. And if you want more snarky tips for navigating the wonders of adulthood, explore more related content on our site. Laughter, at least, has no commission.
