HIDDY

For the best rates you an change them on the street but there are risks attached. Failing that you can change them through a local person where you can check you're not being given duff notes.....I would gladly take your dollars off you at a favourable rate but I live too far out.
You can always use Xoom.

Gaucho100K

As posted above, Xoom is an option. Suggest you read up here and on other Forums like Trip Advisor. Do you have the exact dates of travel confirmed...?

jimmac

I recommend you find cuevas and exchange US$ there. Make sure you have good quality US bills. Here is a report I wrote on my experience back in February:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/argen...ge-cuevas.html

bigguyinpasadena

Back to the original topic of this thread...
I want to buy some nice silver. Any advice on a high end silver store that will give a discount for cash?

TravelinSperry

Is http://www.dolarblue.net/ now suggesting I'd get 12.8 pesos for each USD in the Cuevas? Trying to understand how to read this website with my rudimentary Spanish ability.

spainflyer

Yes -- Compra and Venta are the bid and asked prices. If you are selling dollars, the arbolito / cueva bids the lower figure to buy them. For Argentines looking to buy dollars, it is at the asked price. The spread is the dealer's profit.

dolarblue.net is very complete, with all sorts of rates for different methods of exchange (i.e. getting dollars into Argentina). Also, exchange rates for sterling and euros (which, if you read this string, are not the best currencies to trade in Argentina -- bring crisp Ben Franklins).

But you need worry only about the top line listed under "Blue."

Slightly clearer, IMO, is www.lanacion.com.ar. Click on "Dólar hoy" at the top right.

Happy travels!! ^

Schultzois

Actually, at the time you wrote this, 12.8 was the number of pesos someone would need to buy each dollar (now showing 13). dolarblue.net was showing a rate where they'd sell you pesos at only 11.9 per dollar (which is a wider spread than normal - unsure why). In general I usually end up receiving a rate when I sell my dollars and buy pesos that is somewhere in the middle of the range dolarblue.net publishes, as their rate is really a theoretically calculated one.

Also, the more volatile the market, the bigger a hit I usually end up taking in terms of how many pesos I actually get per dollar. This is probably in large part that I'm usually changing with someone who brings the pesos to me, and he is building in some protection that the rate might have dropped by the time he gets to city center and changes the dollars I've already given him.

adambadam

Anyone care to share a recent experience with XOOM and how it compared with just exchanging locally?

adambadam

Okay. Here is my recent experience with Xoom (generally very positive):

I visited Argentina over Xmas 2014. I used Xoom 3 times, twice to myself and once to my brother. All three transactions cleared in about 30 minutes despite it sometimes saying it would take multiple days. I lucked out and was staying in Recoleta about .5mi from the nearest More office where you go to pick up the cash (think a cross between a bank and a Western Union). This is the one on Libertad just past Santa Fe, it is a very easy/seemingly safe walk from the area hotels including the FS and the PH. According to Xoom it is open M-F 9-6, and that seemed true in all the times I tried. I wish either More or Xoom actually had a useable map of the locations as just being sure I could locate one of the shops was the hardest thing about this process.

There is a limit of 5K pesos/day or 40K pesos/year per recipient before you have to fill out some other forms. I decided I didn't want to learn about those forms so I kept it under this limit. When I would set up the new recipient to send the money to, I would use my hotel address as my local address and my First Name Middle Name in the first name back so that it would match my passport exactly.

Each time I went I was helped right away. For what is is worth, my Spanish is more or less non existent and this still worked fine. I would state I have a Xoom transaction and I would slide over my phone with the transaction number showing and my passport. The people working behind the glass were very familiar with Xoom. They would look up the transaction in their computer. Make a copy of the passport (at least the first time) and then go count the cash in a machine, then make you sign a receipt, then count the cash manually in front of you and slide everything back. The process probably takes about 3 minutes max.

I was getting a rate of about 11.2 pesos per dollar in Dec 2014. Once you factor in the Xoom transaction fee it is a little closer to about 10.8 or about a 28% off the official rate, still a good deal. Some shops in town would take US dollars as high as 13:1.

Feel free to ask or PM me with questions. There are also some Xoom referral fees out there if you are a new customer you might want to look into that as well.

BostonGuy

This week Unik, a fine dining restaurant in Palermo, accepted a dollar as 12 pesos.

Two wine stores I visited (not the big Winery chain, which could only take the official rate) offered ranges from 12 to 13.2 pesos. You should always ask.

I also used Xoom and found a location which was extremely uncrowded and convenient for money pickup. I withdrew 15,500 pesos with no problem (now, I was a previous customer whom had done business with them in previous years, so that might have helped.) This week the rate was 11.05.

Gaucho100K

Good point above... it is important to ask, and also it is relevant to remind everyone that no store (chain or otherwise) is obligated to take Dollars at anything but the official rate. Many merchants will be happy to offer a more advantageous rate, but its at each establishments discretion at what exchange rate they accept Dollars or any other foreign currency.

Outside of the Benjamin Franklin, the most "popular" other currencies here in EZE are Euros, Brazilian Real, Chilean Peso and to a (much) lesser degree; Pound Sterling and Swiss Francs. Remember that the condition of the bills must always be very good and larger denominations always get better acceptance. If you come with 20 Euro notes you will have the same headaches you get when you try to trade US Dollar twenties... ATM Twenties that are so mainstream in the US are some of the LEAST favorite notes for local currency traders, so avoid them like the pest.

Other currencies can be traded, but you will have to find a larger & more sophisticated currency broker and the exchange rate will be a lot less interesting. Already for the Euro the bid/ask spread is a lot larger than for the Greenback, so if you come with something "exotic" like Canadian Dollars or Hong Kong Dollars, expect to suffer relevant hits to your effective exchange rate.

TravelinSperry

Question - Which is better:

1- pull cash from a neighboring countries ATM (let's say Chile) and then transfer those Chilean Pesos into USD? I lose some amount to the exchange places at the airport or downtown (likely 5-6% + 1.7% to the ATM fee surcharge - for a net loss of 7-8%) but then I'll pick it back up on the Argentinian cuevas blue market side. Or
2- Use Xoom at ~11 per.

Using my limited math skills, I'd still be better off doing the ATM thing... by around 20%, correct?

Dieuwer

...and convert directly to Arg pesos.

http://www.cambiocostero.cl

625/49 = 12.76 Arg pesos per dollar.

TravelinSperry

You're saying change the Chilean Pesos into Argentinian Pesos in Santiago Airport? The USD rate is 13.4 on the blue market inside Argentina... but I might pick up 1-2% by converting direct (since the CHP/USD conversion will cost me 5-6%) but that's assuming one can even get Argentinian pesos outside of Argentina.

Dieuwer

I think so. I'll find out in April