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So what's the situation "on the ground" with the currency crisis?

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So what's the situation "on the ground" with the currency crisis?

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Old Aug 31, 2018, 7:01 am
  #91  
 
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Originally Posted by Gaucho100K
Almost all hotels will quote you in US Dollars, so there is limited room for currency arbitrage in that aspect.
FYI, Accor hotels book into ARS. But to get the 21% IVA exemption, you need to book a flexible rate and pay at checkout. Still, locking in a rate in ARS could be of benefit considering any potential further devaluation/inflation.

Most other hotels (boutique or chain) quote USD prices.
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Old Aug 31, 2018, 10:29 am
  #92  
 
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Arrived yesterday. Peso 34 to 44 at different places during the day. Locals taking it in stride. TIA ( this is Argentina ). I read thru this thread and lots of folks want exact quotes and answers when coming down here. This is hard to do. I have been coming down here for 20 years and the prices have always been reasonable but not cheap. There are always protests and sometimes riots. Just use common sense and remember you are in a cultured but 3rd world country. Argentina is a perfect lesson on how to run a cultured , educated , and natural resource rich country into the ground. You will have fun and will shake your head in amazement at some of the things that go on.
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Old Aug 31, 2018, 9:38 pm
  #93  
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Originally Posted by anc305
Arrived yesterday. Peso 34 to 44 at different places during the day. Locals taking it in stride. TIA ( this is Argentina ). I read thru this thread and lots of folks want exact quotes and answers when coming down here. This is hard to do. I have been coming down here for 20 years and the prices have always been reasonable but not cheap. There are always protests and sometimes riots. Just use common sense and remember you are in a cultured but 3rd world country. Argentina is a perfect lesson on how to run a cultured , educated , and natural resource rich country into the ground. You will have fun and will shake your head in amazement at some of the things that go on.
Spot on. ^

Sadly I can't see much changing no matter who's in charge.
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Old Sep 1, 2018, 5:29 pm
  #94  
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I like your approach.... Im sure this attitude allows you to have a good time when you travel. Kudos to you Sir.

Originally Posted by anc305
Arrived yesterday. Peso 34 to 44 at different places during the day. Locals taking it in stride. TIA ( this is Argentina ). I read thru this thread and lots of folks want exact quotes and answers when coming down here. This is hard to do. I have been coming down here for 20 years and the prices have always been reasonable but not cheap. There are always protests and sometimes riots. Just use common sense and remember you are in a cultured but 3rd world country. Argentina is a perfect lesson on how to run a cultured , educated , and natural resource rich country into the ground. You will have fun and will shake your head in amazement at some of the things that go on.
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Old Sep 2, 2018, 4:05 pm
  #95  
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Originally Posted by anc305
Arrived yesterday. Peso 34 to 44 at different places during the day. Locals taking it in stride. TIA ( this is Argentina ). I read thru this thread and lots of folks want exact quotes and answers when coming down here. This is hard to do. I have been coming down here for 20 years and the prices have always been reasonable but not cheap. There are always protests and sometimes riots. Just use common sense and remember you are in a cultured but 3rd world country. Argentina is a perfect lesson on how to run a cultured , educated , and natural resource rich country into the ground. You will have fun and will shake your head in amazement at some of the things that go on.
You arrived on August 31st and aren't participating in COW DO?????
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Old Sep 2, 2018, 10:54 pm
  #96  
 
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Timing is everything, innit? On Wednesday 29th I checked out of my Buenos Aires hotel and charged the 18,411.50 pesos on my US based MasterCard. I expected to get a bill for about $610 dollars. However I just checked the statement and instead the charge is $457.25, which means they are using an exchange rate slightly over 40 pesos per dollar. No complaint.
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Old Sep 3, 2018, 4:50 am
  #97  
 
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
You can find bottles of Argentinian wine in grocery and convenience stores starting at under US$3, but not of course the wine that Alex would suggest. I've had extremely nice wines in restaurants in the US$20-30 range.
This.
When I first visited BA in 2010, supermarket wines were excatly under $3.
I enjoyed this fantastic situation till around 2015, when things went bad us (visitors). :-(

My last visit in November 2017:
peso at Florida 17.20 per USD,
a bottle of wine 80-100 pesos - so $5- $6.

Roumors spread then, even on this forum, that peso was OVERVALUED.
Indeed, what hangs will fall down, sooner or later.

Now back to good old days (that harmed nobody) - wine again $3 :-)
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Old Sep 3, 2018, 3:15 pm
  #98  
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Originally Posted by Panam Clipper
Timing is everything, innit? On Wednesday 29th I checked out of my Buenos Aires hotel and charged the 18,411.50 pesos on my US based MasterCard. I expected to get a bill for about $610 dollars. However I just checked the statement and instead the charge is $457.25, which means they are using an exchange rate slightly over 40 pesos per dollar. No complaint.
Amazing. I thought that only happened in Venezuela.

Originally Posted by abeyro
This.
When I first visited BA in 2010, supermarket wines were excatly under $3.
I enjoyed this fantastic situation till around 2015, when things went bad us (visitors). :-(

My last visit in November 2017:
peso at Florida 17.20 per USD,
a bottle of wine 80-100 pesos - so $5- $6.

Roumors spread then, even on this forum, that peso was OVERVALUED.
Indeed, what hangs will fall down, sooner or later.

Now back to good old days (that harmed nobody) - wine again $3 :-)
Interesting. My last visit to Argentina was also last November. The country felt overvalued. I guess that has now corrected. Let's hope things stabilize though -- what's happening now can't be a good thing long-term.
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Old Sep 3, 2018, 7:31 pm
  #99  
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Originally Posted by iahphx
The country felt overvalued. I guess that has now corrected. Let's hope things stabilize though -- what's happening now can't be a good thing long-term.
Still overvalued in my opinion.
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 5:56 am
  #100  
 
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Prices are still behing the dollar devaluation . In two months time it will be back to being overvalued...

Unless the dollar goes to 50 , of course.
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 9:08 am
  #101  
 
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Advise?

We will be going to Argentina in October.

What is your advice on money: take a lot of dollars in cash, try to book and pay accommodation etc. in advance?
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Old Sep 6, 2018, 10:39 pm
  #102  
 
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My advice: don’t be overly concerned. Pick a good hotel and bring your credit card so you avoid the 21% vat. Impossible to predict what the exchange rate will be on a particular day. You may luck out, see my post of 2 Sep. above. You picked a good time to be in BA, weather should be great.
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Old Sep 6, 2018, 10:46 pm
  #103  
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Originally Posted by Cool123
We will be going to Argentina in October.

What is your advice on money: take a lot of dollars in cash, try to book and pay accommodation etc. in advance?
Advice on money is use credit cards if you don't pay an int'l conversion fee and the place you are frequenting doesn't give a cash discount.
Further advice on money is use the ATM for withdrawals if your bank rebates foreign ATM usage.
You will find that US bills other than pristine US$100 bills aren't in fashion and may fetch less dough from all but the most official (i.e., Banco Nacion) sources.
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Old Sep 7, 2018, 8:20 am
  #104  
 
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Interesting but:
1) what if the cc charges int'l conversion fee? (Schwab comes to mind, any other card has 0% fee on conversion?)
)
2) what if my bank (Citi) doe not rebate high ( was 5%, i.e. ARS 120 per withdrawal of ARS 2500) high Argentinian fee?
There was no fee when I withdrew at Citi ATMs, but Citi closed its operations in Argentina and Brasil last year. They had hmm...premonition :-)
So what is today's limit on ATMs withdrawals? Still ARS 2500?

3) Cash. Really the guys at Florida are less keen to advertise their willingness to buy dollars? The blue marked held its breath?
Ambito.com shows as of now: Official 35,94-37.94 ,Blue 36.60-38.60 (buy-sell)
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Old Sep 7, 2018, 10:17 am
  #105  
 
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Originally Posted by abeyro
So what is today's limit on ATMs withdrawals? Still ARS 2500?
Yesterday, the limit on the Banelco network was $4000/transaction. I got (with fee rebated) $38.48/U$D
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