You will usually -- but not always -- find information about a credit card surcharge on the restaurant menu in Salta. But if the menu is a multi-page affair, it can be on the last page (past the beverages) and you might not notice, In stores, you never really know whether they'll take credit cards until you ask, and my experience so far is that they'll tell you if there is a credit card surcharge. I also had an annoying experience with a booking.com property where the payment terms said the proprietor would simply charge my credit card on file. "Great," I thought, since it would be at MEP and most smaller properties just want to be paid in pesos (at the official exchange rate). But when I got there, he said that he uses a payment processing service that would charge a fee -- which turned out to be 15%. So I paid him with my BA Blue Rate pesos instead.

All this payment hassle certainly is a nuisance, especially since Argentina is no longer a bargain for foreigners.