HIDDY

Good to be living in a 'normal place' again. ^

I'm waiting to see if my Xmas gift from the UK gets delivered or impounded. I'm still waiting for last years to arrive.....it was likely snaffled and enjoyed by one of the Kirchner minions.

malagajohn

You are being very optimistic. The same rules and the same people are still in place. I have told my nearest and dearest not even to send a card as we did not receive a single one of the 7 that had been sent.

Schultzois

I've been pretty successful at receiving Christmas cards over the last 4-5+ years from the only friend of mine intrigued enough to experiment with it.

Any package, and certainly anything that appears to have any value, I would not expect to make it through just yet. Things don't change that quickly, and I'm reminded of the fiasco I had now 13 years ago (November 2002) when on my first visit to Argentina I had the bright idea to FedEx some clothing and cycling gear from New York to my hotel in Bariloche. It was held in customs at Ezeiza without either notice or explanation, and could only be released with a personal visit to the freight terminal where they were holding it. After some inspection, it was pretty clear that it was all used clothing that I was going to use on my trip, and no duty was assessed, but I still had to pay a storage fee before they'd let it out. Had I not been stopping over in Buenos Aires first on my way to Chile (before then going to Bariloche later), it would have been literally impossible to get my own things delivered to my hotel in time to use them. I have doubts as to how likely I even would have been to be able to recover them at any point. Since then I have never attempted to have anything shipped to me in Argentina, and have discouraged anyone who asks me about it doing so as well.

For what it's worth, FedEx, though not very helpful at first, eventually (after a letter to an executive somewhere at a pretty high level) refunded me the storage fees extracted from me at Ezeiza, the original shipping cost, and possibly also the cost to return ship some of my things from Chile that I had sent there separately. The parallel package to Chile also had a brief hang-up in SCL (on its way to explora lodge in Torres del Paine), but I think FedEx actually may have alerted me of it, and it was released from customs without issue after I sent a fax confirming that the box only had my own used trekking gear that I was using on my vacation to Patagonia.

So despite my very first experience as a tourist to Argentina being cluelessly wheeling all my luggage around Ezeiza whilst looking for the cargo terminal, so I could pay money to get my things back that I had FedEx-ed to my hotel just so that my journey would be unencumbered, I still kept coming back, and have spent considerably less time in Chile, where the same snafu was resolved with a single fax and a phone call the day before I started my trip. Obviously there are reasons other than logic and convenience as to why I like this country!!

Schultzois

I hope my little story wasn't too off-topic for the thread. I was just drawn to comment after the back and forth about shipping things into the country, and in the end my "story" was about a tourist experience here, albeit an old one.

Back to the topic at hand... I've got a couple more data points. One or two credit card authorizations (and possibly a posted transaction) have gone through at rates as high as 13.90, which is higher than what I see as the official rate on sites like oanda.com or finance.google.com, but admittedly in the range that the official rate travelled through on Thursday itself...

The one that has alrady posted was on my partner's credit card (he was either more adventurous or more impatient than I was, and made a transaction Thursday night/Friday morning). I am not positive about the exact number of pesos, but it certainly went through at a "new" rate as opposed to the "old" official rate, even though it was less than 24 hours since official rate was permitted to float. So ^ to that.

Next I will try an ATM. I don't even know what the maximum peso withdrawal is, and what fees the operating network impose. As a Premier client, HSBC in the US used to reverse the network-imposed fees for me at HSBC owned/branded ATMs, but it was always through a manual process whereby I sent them a list of the transactions and they gave a once per month credit. For now I'll try one transaction and see what happens!

Marambio

Ran into two Britons at Disco yersterday morning. They were paying their groceries with a UK credit card. It's good to be a normal country again.

HIDDY

For years my wife used to receive packages as she was able to take profit in having them sent to her Spanish Consulate address. However as K tightened her grip it got to the stage where even they got impounded and she used to have to call someone in authority to have the parcels released. As it was some mail order clothing from the UK rather than anything official it started becoming awkward so she stopped.

I was once sent 50 pipe cleaners to our home address by my sister and even they had been opened up and inspected. She also sent me 50g of Condor pipe tobacco as an experiment. Needless to say that never arrived.

I don't mind them inspecting parcels what I do object to is having to go on a two hour road journey to BA just to collect them.
It's these type of things which make living here rather annoying especially when they aren't available to purchase here anyway.

Well not really as they're kind of related. Visitors do sometimes get parcels sent to them so it's good for them to know the pitfalls.

Gaucho100K

Yes, indeed... same for my wine sales. Its so much easier to just take plastic and not have to create synthetic exchange rates and go through hoops of wiring funds, etc.... ^

brooding

Am watching this thread with interest as I have just booked a trip to EZE for 9 days over the Easter weekend. Am thinking of staying at the Hilton (or Curio) as the Hyatt rates are simply ridiculous.

Regaring hotels pricing at USD. A devaluation of a currency should be a help to exporters. Hotels are basically exporters if they sell their rooms to visitors and price at USD. Their inputs (wages, local suppliers) must all have their contracts in local currency. Nett, there is a windfall gain for these exporters as the local currency devalues.

If there is sufficient competition in the local hotel industry, there should be a decrease and leveling out of USD denominated hotel rates over time, right?

Dieuwer

Supply and demand.
If there is plenty demand for the Park Hyatt at $500/night, why should Hyatt lower their rates?

HIDDY

Yes and the Hyatt isn't a good example to gauge hotel rates especially during a holiday period.

steveo

Hi all, I'm actually visiting Argentina for the first time in about 6 days. The original plan was to bring a bunch of dollars and get the taxi or hotel to help me exchange them on the blue market. I take it I do not need to do this anymore? Will it be ok for me to just get money from the ATM and use credit cards when possible (I have a no exchange fee one). I'll be crossing over Santiago to Mendoza by Bus... Thanks!

Gaucho100K

There is still a spread (small one) vs. the blue rate, but IMO its not worth the hassle. I would just use plastic.... have a great trip !!!

SoFlyOn

Be aware that some restaurants may have "debit/credit card transactions momentarily suspended" - although sometimes that remains in place for years ... so you may need cash.

I won't be back in Argentina for another few days, but travelers have reported that some ATM machine are only giving up to ~2000 pesos/transaction, with a 79 pesos ATM fee (so ~US$154/US$6 - a 4% fee in addition to what your bank may charge, and what Visa/MC charges in conversion).

I don't know what the current limitation on the number of consecutive transactions you can do in a day, but historically I've never been able to approach the limit on my US cards ...

It's highly likely that some ATMs will run out of cash during weekends, although this may not be apparent from the error message you may receive (and the error messages will be in Spanish). If the machine runs out of bills of a certain denomination it might prompt you with a lower amount.

It's worthwhile to still carry some USD ($100 bills in good shape) as a backup plan.

Gaucho100K

The entire cash & ATM situation will get back to normal in about 90 days. The Macri Administration is in the process of introducing AR$200, AR$500 and AR$1000 bills so this will bring a very good (and welcome) amount of common sense to cash management.

Eastbay1K

Today's report, from the trenches of Mendoza

I went to get some cash. Not knowing how high the limits might be on my account or the machines, I attempted $2000, then $1200, then $1000. First two were over-maximum, the final one was "incorrect amount" (or similar message). I tried 3 banks. No go, with an odd message from bank 3. Knowing Argentina, I was not sure if my bank had put a fraud block due to so many attempts within 15 minutes, or if it was just a local issue (i.e., such as machines out of cash without actually letting you know). Fee was $70-something (which I get rebated) but it still has me wanting to withdraw more than less at a time. I contacted my bank via online chat and there was no block nor even any attempts showing (phew).

Needing my cash on hand to last a bit more judiciously for a few days, I used my credit card for lunch. Transaction posted at US$1 = $12,97. XE is showing $13,01.