I can confirm the Mercadopago trick works. We have a Whatsapp group with some friends and always one alerts the others when there’s a Mercadopago discount for topping up Sube – the offers usually last for just a few hours, and the maximum top-up limit is ca. 200 pesos, but yes, they make the discount instantly.

Also some merchants (e.g. McDonald’s and Green Eat, BA’s answer to Pret a Manger) make discounts if you pay through Mercadopago, so it’s convenient to have the app linked to your credit card if you are here for a long-ish period.

There’s a very nice short story/sociological analysis by writer Hernán Casciari about “kioscos” and Argentina. He concludes that in other Latin American countries, when people are broke they emigrate to Europe and the US. In Argentina, when people are broke, they set up a kiosco. :-)