JonRankin

If you are planning on using foreign credit or debit cards in Argentina, keep checking Visa and Mastercard Web sites. I wanted to buy some airline tickets for my holiday in February. On Saturday, Visa were quoting 460 Pesos to one British £, whereas Mastercard were quoting nearly 1000. By Sunday Mastercard had improved to 1140 pesos to 1 UK£. I made all my flight, hotel and car hire reservations with Mastercard on Sunday and Monday, getting over 1100 pesos for £1 in each day. Today Visa are at 960 and Mastercard are at 974. Its still way better than paying in US$ at the inflated prices often shown their using the official exchange rates. 8 flights from BA all around the country in premium economy paid by Mastercard have cost me less than £500, which is way cheaper than Aerolineas Argentinas were quoting in US$ or GB£. Mastercard gets my vote.

mlgb

Good to know, on the other side of the pond , my default card for forex purchases is a Mastercard (Quicksilver, no forex fee). For my BA bookings I use booking.com and "pay at hotel" to avoid the VAT.

crellston

There are (literally) thousands of posts about using the "blue dollar" (unofficial rate) in Argentina. Both MasterCard and Visa now use the unofficial rate as amateur of course. What differs is the way they and individual card providers, use to apply that rate to purchases. Some do it immediately , some transact at the official rate and then make an adjustment a few days later. Important for anyone using a card in Argentina to doubt check statements to make sure the correct rate is applied.

Worth noting that cash is still king in Argentina so will be worth taking cash and exchanging with the cambistas when there. US$ in large denomination new bills is the most popular but perfectly possible with € and £ albeit at slightly less favourable rates. Also possible to set up a Western Union account in advance and withdraw pesos from their offices when there.

Javier Milei, who was elected as Argentina's new president last month has said that he will dollarise the Argentine economy in much the same way as Ecuador where the USD is the currency. Great for tourists but will surely cause great pain for the Argentine people!

JonRankin

Thanks for the response - the most recent post about this on here was only August, and things have moved on a lot since then. In fact my post was not too inform about the blue dollar, but to highlight that Visa and Mastercard can have widely differing exchange rates, and that it is definitely worth checking their rates before deciding which card to use and when to use it. For example, this weekend just ended, if you did a transaction on both card networks, the official rate which they charge to your bank for exchanging pesos to your currency is 10% cheaper on Visa than it is on Mastercard, which was a complete swing from last weekend, where Mastercard was significantly cheaper. The flights I booked last weekend using Mastercard would be 18% more expensive this weekend on Mastercard but about 20% cheaper with Visa, week on week. Its the potential (huge) savings that can be had if you can choose which card network to use which I am highlighting, and the need to check it daily because it changes daily between Visa and Mastercard.

mlgb

I noticed that whatever the new President did caused a bit of panic and the blue dollar is now around 900-1000 AR per USD for the "MEP" exchange rate.
Since I pay at hotel I hope that ensures I can get the merchants to charge my MasterCard in ARS.

crellston

There has been a lot of traffic on the subject of paying at hotels on the TA forum in recent months. I would make sure they are quoting in ARS rather than just converting the $ price back to $ at whatever rate they choose. Mastercard and Visa do the bulk of fx for most card providers but I think each card provider may have some input into how transactions are processed and particularly so in the case of ARS transactions. Time taken by card providers in processing transactions, given the volatility of the peso will probably use significant variations even in a short period. I would check with your card provider for specifics on how they process the peso.

I vaguely recall from TA posts that challenger banks like Monza and Revolut may operate differently. May be worth looking at those cards too.

Any new president of a country in financial dire straits is going to cause fx fluctuations especially one who is on record as saying he is going to switch to the US$ (presumably the US Treasury Dept will have something to say on that subject. Milei has some pretty out there ideas about shaking up Argentine politics and government. Trump thinks he is a great guy! Remains to be seen whether he will be good or bad for the people of Argentina.

mlgb

Thanks crellston. I noticed that the private transfer companies just quote in USD and only want cash payment. WhatsApp'd Tienda Leon and they will charge in ARS so my credit card should be half that or less. Not sure if I want to deal with Taxis Ezeiza. My last experience in Peru turned me off the "official" airport Taxis. I think Capital One should be legit on their conversions.

Did you have a taxi driver that you used for rides across town or back to the airport IIRC someone had mentioned a lady driver.

I am locked into my Recoleta area hotel for the two arrival nights. I will have to pay with a credit card and need 24 hour desk. Not sure if they will insist on charging in USD but I can see the ARS rate on booking.com.

Who knows, with Buenos Aires on fire sale, I may actually like it this time. It seems that every hotel is nearly booked to capacity. This should be fun.

crellston

"Who knows, with Buenos Aires on fire sale, I may actually like it this time." I confess, knowing your opinions on Buenos Aires , I did find it ironic that you are on you way to a trip of a lifetime via BA . I didn't appreciate BA had become so popular!

Sorry, I cant help with airport transfers. The last couple of times we have been we used Oasis to book apartments and they offer, amongst a raft of "extras" a limo to and from the airport. You are right to be cautious re taxis in the city . more often than not we have been ripped off one way or another. Rigged meters, circuitous routes etc. Maybe Uber /Cabify or similar would be a better bet?

mlgb

Thanks will try Uber around town if cellphone works. Yeah of two cabs we took last time one did run up the meter. And then there's the we only take cash thing. Read that Ubers may cancel card payers!!

​​​​​Weather looks to be delightfully muggy 🥵

​​​​​​JOY.
​

crellston

Our first time there was over xmas and New Year. It was hot, very hot! Buen Viaje!

mlgb

Thanks, not just muggy but thunderstorms! The timing keeps changing so maybe my hoped for trip to the Delta will go. I hope my "good weather fairy" hasn't abandoned me. And that T-storms don't knock out the power to the A/C!!

Thursday's forecast is especially "interesting" ..
Watch for strong afternoon thunderstorms; otherwise, humid with low clouds, then perhaps some sun. 82 pct chance of precip.... I guess I should throw the cheap folding umbrella in the pack.

Will report back with impressions.

crellston

Unlucky! We were there for the whole of December and didn't see a cloud! Climate change?? I expect you will here much more about that on your trip to Antarctica.

mlgb

Well the credit card exchange rate worked out nicely at my cheapo pretour hotel using a Chase Visa. Conversion went through right away. Booking.com quoted $80 each night with pay at hotel. Turned into $67USD both nights when charged in ARS at hotel standard rates. May have been ripped by Amex or the remise company with DCC , charge pending. Will continue to use Visa for now.

Light rain tour going an hour later.

News last night featured hyperinflation.