New members of the Uruguay forum, introduce yourselves here - 2026

Hi, Looking into moving to Uruguay. Tackling dog transport and banking issues. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you.

Hello!

I do not know much about transporting dogs, so let us start with banking:

Mastercard does not work for cash withdrawals / advances, which I have used in so many countries, and it was so convenient and easy.

Banks are extremely expensive.  The banking system is safe though, unless you are Russian or married to a Russian.

There are a few hoops to jump through to open an account, but it can happen very quickly.  You have to provide proof of where you have the deposited money from, unless it is a very small amount.  Strictness varies with bank.

Hope this helps.

Armin

@mysky

Sorry, I missed telling you something important:

In most Uruguayan banks you can have USD accounts (in some accounts in EUR or ather denominations, but that would not be in interesting for you as you are American.

In many stores you can buy using USD and you get your change back in USD except for the coins.

The debit and credit cards usually get charged to the corresponding bank account so that you do not have exchange losses / costs because of small transaction amounts.

Something else that is important: that many things are paidthrough payment agencies instead of banks.  They are redpagos, Abitab, and correo uruguayo.