Okay, I am convinced that I should have at least a decent amount of pesos on me when we enter the country. I will check the exchange rates and determine how much. Then we will take our the maximum allowed each time we pass an ATM. I am hoping we can use our Capital One charge card at many places.

deb, from what I understand, you will have a difficult time getting pesos in the US. . some people have tried and find out that it is impossible.
You will be fine arriving with cash and using your ATM card.. everyone does it here.. those of us who live here and those who visit.. Every block seems to have at least one bank and where you are staying is good for bank availability ..

Has anyone had any experience going into a bank and drawing cash over the counter on their (Visa) debit card to avoid the multiple service charges at an atm to get more than the 300 or so pesos?

tatersalad, I think you have to have an account to do something like that, but I imagine since you have an ATM card from the States, wherever it is used, it will get charged a fee... whether you do it in a machine or hand it to someone to put in their machine.. no?

How good is your Castellano ?

debwhite A better option than trying to obtain pesos in advance of your trip: Take cash and exchange at Banco de la Nacion or Piano Bank in the international airport. You will get a much better rate than exchanging before you visit.

We had no trouble exchanging (best rate, too) dollars for Pesos at the Banco de la Nacion at EZE; the wait was MAYBE TEN MINUTES - it was easy, convenient and safe. You can take a Remis from the airport and pay in credit, dollars or pesos.

We have used pesos for all needs, except an over-the-telephone credit card payment/with a reservation for a show.
Last year, we used Credit Cards for all airline and Buquebus arrangements.

We leave our extra cash and passports in our apartment - in a safe place.

When we needed more pesos, we took some dollars, our passport and went to Citibank nearby - again, easy, safe and an even better rate due to rate change here. We then went straight back to our apartment to put the $$ in our safe place, and then off to spend it LOL!

Really, it is not a problem if you get the fora suggestions and info, and have a general plan. We would be ready to opt for ease rather than the very best exchange rate - but, honestly, they are one and the same...

However you get your pesos, I hope you enjoy using them in BsAs and the rest of Argentina. What a wonderful place to spend vacation time. Even Avenida Florida!

~MarnieWDC

Here is a link to where all the Citibanks are in BsAs.

http://www.latam.citibank.com/argent...er/cncapfd.htm

Here's a link that originally showed a Citibank location with an interactive map. I've used it to move about the city and find supermercados, farmacias, and all the McDonalds you would never want to eat in.

http://flof.com.ar/bin/map/?show=113...7719045&zoom=1