Getting dollars to Argentina.

@glhartzler22

i suggest you investigate the app Wize you can hold the money in whatever currency you choose

also try PayPal

@Aus2Arg

Thank you for this info

Some sellers already have or are open to receiving payment in dollars in a US based account.

Can one open a US dollar account in a bank in Argentina? If the answer is yes, do the banks allow clients to withdraw funds in dollars to get better exchange rates with private money changers? Thanks.

Option #1: Aus2Arg suggested Wize, but it's spelled Wise and it's a fairly good option. Wise charges a percentage of the transactions. There are quite a few software companies in Argentina that are paying contractors or employees at least a portion of their salary in dollars under the table to US bank accounts. Most of the workers are using Wise to move their dollars through the cuevas (explained later) back into Argentina.

Option #2: Another option is to find people in Argentina with dollars in Argentina that want to move them to the US and make private arrangements for the exchange, like you write them checks in the US and they hand you dollars in Argentina.

Option #3: Another option is the "private exchange houses" (cuevas) which are the business for the black market. Many of them are set up to receive dollars through Wise and hand you the dollars in Argentina, though they may charge you around 3-5% for this service. Some can also handle wire transfers to an offshore location. I would highly recommend getting a personal recommendation from a friend or family member to find one that is reliable.

The best option in my opinion is, or at least the most economically efficient is option #2. It's a win-win situation and neither party has a reason to charge a commission on the other. There are quite a few business people in Argentina that have dollars accumulated here and want to invest those dollars in things like property in the US. There are also cases of expats here that own property, etc., that want to sell everything and carry their capital back to the US. It's just a matter of finding them.

Regarding declaring over the limit, I've made a LOT of trips in the last 16 years that I've lived in Argentina where my wife and I both carry just under the limit so that we don't have to declare it. I have NO idea what happens when you declare more. I suspect it's a LOT tougher when you are carrying dollars the other direction, from Argentina to the US, but I really have no experience in that. IF you decide to do that, I highly recommend that you don't step outside any International transfer areas of airports in other countries. We have, for example, stayed in Cancun on our way back from the US and the Mexican aduana (customs) really hassled me a lot over the cash even though it was under the limit and were insisting that I should have declared it anyway. If you can avoid that hassle, it's better.

One more thing that you should probably be aware of.... pretty important. IF you go to buy property or vehicles (any item with a title) in Argentina, you will have to show proof of legal origin of the funds. That's a pretty big deal. We bought a new truck a year or two ago for about 25,000 dollars and had to show not only my salary in the US, but also how I got the funds into Argentina legally. Something pretty important to think about.

I'm really hoping that someone can answer your question with experience of declaring about the 9,999 dollar limit. I'd certainly be interested in hearing experience with that also. I recall reading an article several years ago about a guy that was trying to cross the border to leave Argentina with about 50,000 undeclared dollars and they arrested him and he went to prison.

@samwdavis a problem for Canadians is if you are using the money you have in Canada, all these cards, Wise included have a clause they dont allow people who are in their definition " non residents"

Wise cut me off before I even started sending money to Colombia. I think it was because another card cut me off , because I sent a lot of money to Colombia over 3 years, and maybe they thought I was laundering or something, or maybe jus a Canadian non resident  so then 3 different money transfer companies black listed me, so obviously I was on some type of ridiculous black list.

Wise is the worst of the worst. I have heard of many people getting cut off out of the blue for no reason.

But maybe those transfer houses work good, and have a good long term relation with Wise. And maybe Argentina is a different case than Colombia..because there is less of a money laundering issue.

Are these transfer houses that use Wise active in all Argentinian cities..i.e. Mendoza, whiich I am most interested in?

I have heard Western Union is a good option in Argentina.You wire to yourself and pick it up.

What about XE.com or Remitly. I presently use Remitly to wire money to my bank accounts in Colombia. My friend uses XE.com to send money to his bank account in México.

I checked on both Remitly and XE.com and they send dollars to Argentina for " pick up" as pesos at a significantly higher rate ( plus 70%) than the XE.com midpoint, which is close to the official rate. Dont know if you can send it as a wire to your bank account in Argentina like I do in Colombia.

I used Option 2..personal contact whhen I was in Venezuela in 2009.

Argentina seems like Venezuela 15 years ago. Hopefully it doesnt go down the same path.

@nico peligro

I hope not also, but they certainly seemed determined to do so.

@nico peligro

Ni Nico. Great to hear from you.

"Wise cut me off before I even started sending money to Colombia...."

Interesting. I've never heard of that happening before, but my sphere of contacts using the service is relatively limited and it's not something that people are anxious to openly discuss.

"But maybe those transfer houses work good, and have a good long term relation with Wise. And maybe Argentina is a different case than Colombia..because there is less of a money laundering issue."

Those "transfer houses"/caves are black-market and illegal though they rarely have any problems with the law and the Argentine government, if they do anything at all, it's always against the caves and not the users of the caves.

"Are these transfer houses that use Wise active in all Argentinian cities..i.e. Mendoza, which I am most interested in?"

I'm pretty certain, you can find caves (cuevas) in Mendoza that operate in this mode. I have no personal experience with Mendoza, but I have reason to believe this which I don't want to go into publicly here.

"I have heard Western Union is a good option in Argentina.You wire to yourself and pick it up."

Check the commission of WU, and I think you'll change your view pretty quickly on it being a good option.

"What about XE.com or Remitly. I presently use Remitly to wire money to my bank accounts in Colombia. My friend uses XE.com to send money to his bank account in México."

I don't know. I have no experience with them.

"I checked on both Remitly and XE.com and they send dollars to Argentina for " pick up" as pesos at a significantly higher rate ( plus 70%) than the XE.com midpoint, which is close to the official rate. Don't know if you can send it as a wire to your bank account in Argentina like I do in Colombia."

All I can tell you is check the official rate and then check the dólar blue rate which is what your dollars will be worth in the caves at https://www.infodolar.com/cotizacion-dolar-blue.aspx and figure out if that makes sense for you or not. The other thing you may want to consider about wire transfers is the recent interest in the IRS in International wire transfers over relatively small amounts. I'm not doing anything illegal, but at the same time, I'm not interested in triggering IRS audits or being suspected of money laundering or wire transfer which are felonies. Again, best to avoid the hassle when you're innocent of wrong doing.

I hope this helps and best of luck to you!

@samwdavis Thanks Sam

I am a Canadian, and not subject to IRS rules, but there are other "rules" for Canadians transferring money abroad, which are very broadly and conservatively (in their extremely low risk tolerance favour) interpretted by the Fintrac money transfer agencies and prepaid cards. That is why I was cut off witout justification or explanation by KOHO and caused me to be put on a "black List" by XE, Wise, Brim ...

I have a question on international giros into Argentenian bank accounts from Remitly or other transfer services I posted on another tread. I didnt check the rate against the rate on the site you posted, but they give 1.5 to 1.6 times above the mid-poit rate, so I assume that is close to the "Blue " rate, and above Wise or Western Union Rates for sure.

I have copied my post on the other thread below. Thanks for any input.

COPIED FROM OTHER THREAD-

Nobody answered my Question on Remitly

Its like Western Union,only better rates.

According to the remitly site ,you can convert to Pesos at a Blue rate (approx. 1.6 times the official "mid point" rate) for "pick Up" at designated sites. Iti is done through an intermediatery bank in Mexico. XE.com and other money transfer sites have the same service with transfers to Argentina.

You can then supposedly pick up the pesos at pick up points in Argentina.

You can do this too (pick up without bank account) in Colombia, but it is a hassle, as the limits at non-bank locations is extremely low, and there are restrictions and limits at banks, which have higher limits, like $1000 a transfer or $3,000 a month for pickups

Opening a bank account and transferring money directly to banks is another option, that works well (at least for now) in Colombia, but the Colombian Tax Agency DIAN, suposedly keep watch on this, but this seems to be over blown paranoia by expats on expat forums-at least at this point

So the question remains- can you do international transfers converted to Argentinian Pesos by Remitly or XE,com into Argentinian bank accounts? Can you open a bank account in Argentina with just a passport? Or do you need a visa /cedula?

Has anyone in Argentina used Remitly or other giros internacionales, either for pick up or bank deposit, or just Western Union for pick up?

My understanding is the conversion is made by the intermediary bank in Mexico, and the bank recieves payments in Pesos , or local currency, not $USD or $CAD, or $EUROS or whatever currency you are converting from in your home bank accoun

@nico peligro Nico, sorry that I can't answer your question directly. I hope someone else can, but if you want to compare the rates you're seeing to the dólar blue rate, you can see the blue rates here....

https://www.infodolar.com/cotizacion-dolar-blue.aspx

Right now, it's about 88% higher than the official exchange rate.

Hi Sam , Thanks for the info.

From your link, "buy" is currently around 380

Is this the price they will give you at the "Cuevas" without any fee?

I checked Remitly and the rate today they will give you is about 369, still pretty good, but they charge you $3, that would be 0.3% on a $1000 transfer.

XE midpoint rate, which I assume is close to the "official" rate  (which in Colombia is called the "TRM-Tasa Representativa del Mercado" and set by the Banco de la Republica-the central bank)  is 202, using 380 from your site indicates the "blue" rate is 88% higher than the official rate, as you said.

I also checked a "Quote" from Western Union and it is an amazing 394!! I dont know what fee they charge on this , and what the real rate would be if you made an actual transfer (I dont have a WU account, maybe I should get one in addition to Remitly). I also checked there are many WU pickup points in Mendoza. Maybe this is why I heard this is a popular way of getting "blue" Pesos in Argentina.

Seems WU has bettered their exchange rates and fees to compete with Remitly, Wise, XE, and the other transfer houses.

Anyway, I wont know the real situation until I am "on the ground" there, and dpo some "experimenting" . I am used o this, having spent half my life as an expat, and the last 11 years in Colombia.

In the meantime, I will keep checking on this site and others regaurding this and other questions I have on Visas, Healthcare and other issues,

Thanks

Sorry, getting to the ops question

If the buyers want dollars they should have bank accounts in Miami

Thats how it worked for dollar transactions when I was working in Venezuela years ago, and Argentina seems to be going down the same path.

Also,I would highly recommend against buying property in Argentina, even though your wife is from there, or any Latin American country, but espescially Argentina, Peru  Colombia (and I need not mention Venezuela) at this time or in the foreseable future.. Espescially in the last couple decades of your life. The life cycle economics dont pan out and the risks are too great.

Cruise some of the other Forum sites, you will see some horror stories

But then, maybe you are one of those "loaded" guys with tons of money to lose, and dont really care. I know a few guys like that.

@nico peligro "From your link, "buy" is currently around 380. Is this the price they will give you at the "Cuevas" without any fee?"

Yes, I believe so. The "buy" is the rate at which they BUY dollars. The "sell" is the rate at which the SELL dollars. They may charge some fee to accept a transfer rather than cash, but I believe it will be a rather low fee compared to other options. Regarding to WU, I don't know. My experience with WU is many years old, and I'm sure you know from your expat experience, things can drastically change rather quickly. My aged experience with WU is that they charged HUGE fees that made their service unacceptable to me.

No, the Buy is for Pesos on WU , XE , Remitly. I have used these sites very frequently (well Remitly anyway and my friend has used XE a lot) and that is how they function.

i.e. 1 dollar gets you 369 Pesos with Remitly  (as was the rate at the time of writing), plus a $3 fee, although if you wire enough money to a particular location they  will drop the fee,

I understand, just from postings on other forums, like I said, that WU has  become way more competitive recently  in order to keep up with competition from World Remit, Remitly XE.com and Wise.

Also found that in other countries , XE and Remitly give better rates, less hassle and less "surprises "than Wise.

Anyway, we will see how this goes. Hopefully I will be in Mendoza in August for some "experimentation". And we will see how Las Leñas compares to Bariloche for skiing. La Catedral was scary with the old antiquated chair lifts , and I understand Las Leñas is the same.

Also snow wasnt that great, but it was late in the season..Not eally fair to  compare to the interior of BC , that has the best powder and terrain in the world.

@nico peligro The BUY is the rate at which THEY buy dollars, not the rate at which YOU buy dollars. The BUY is the rate at which YOU buy pesos. At least that's how it works in every exchange house or site that I've seen.

@glhartzler22 good morning. I lived there back in 2001 and we banked in Uruguay and dealt only in dollars. I paid my contractors in cash so we had money transferred to Uruguay went there by ferry ⛴️ and brought back cash.

I have a question for you.

I'm planning to move to Argentina in a few months and was curious how things have changed since I lived there back in 2001. I'm retired and live on a fixed income of something north of $3000 a month. Any information on this subject would be appreciated. I know the exchange 💱 rate as of this writing is 205 to 1. What problems am I forgetting

Thank you for everything.

Louis.

@lbatt1953 Hi Louis, I moved to Argentina in 2006. I'll mention three things that have changed since I moved here.

1) Crime was bad and there were a lot of muggings, etc., but very few criminals were armed. The picked on women and the elderly and beat them up. Now, the majority of them will shoot you to steal a cell phone or to steal your tennis shoes.

2) The value of the dollar. The exchange rate has not kept up with inflation. There are still some economic advantages compared to the US, such as housekeeping services, lawn care, general repair, medical costs, etc. But, there are many things such as real estate, groceries, eating out, etc., that are much more expensive relative to the dollar than they were was a couple of decades ago. Especially if you were here in 2001, you will see a HUGE, HUGE difference in real estate. It's difficult to find even a very small lot in a closed neighborhood for under 100,000 dollars.

3) The gap between the official exchange rate and the dollar blue. I don't remember exactly what it was before, but the gap was much smaller a couple of decades ago than it is now. Today, the official exchange rate is 210.75. The buy rate on the dollar blue is 388 (84% difference). It really pays off to have dollars in hand or find another way to take advantage of the dollar blue. One more note... for some weird reason, the cuevas for the dollar blue don't want the bills with the small head of Benjamin Franklin. You have to have one of the two latest versions of the bill that has a larger head. They also ONLY accept $100 dollar bills, nothing smaller.

I hope this helps. Best of luck to you.

Hi.

I´m Spanish. Or at least I was born and lived in northwest  Spain nearly all my life. 

The regular stream of people from Argetina is now a torrent. They come to apply for European citizenship: ancestors who once migrated there give the right to it.

Their main reason alleged is soaring crime and its methods: burglars enter your home regardless of alarms or barred windows. Indeed they are on the wait for doors opening, they show up and raid the place with the family as a hostage.

  Yet, if you follow the local media there´s waves of heat, storms, drought in the whole country and the huge metropolitan Buenos Aires as a place subject to blackouts due to companies not willing to invest in a solid infrastructure and just patch their share of the supply grid or water mains.

So, inflaton, all-pervading violence, neglected supply of  basic public utilities...are linked to the sour  fight over the power succession as elections approach.

   For expats living in safe BuenosAires hubs the only big issue still seems to be currency and banking regulations. The cuevas may have reacted and be more touchy.

@danmarquesp Not only do they hold the family hostage, but it's common that they will torture the family to get them to tell the thieves where they are hiding money in the house. That's even to the point of doing things like beating them up and pulling out fingernails with pliers.

@danmarquesp thank you so much for your reply. I'm hoping to just find a place to rent and live out my life with a beautiful young lady. As far as rent and food goes what's the average rent and food cost. I'm thinking 2-3000 peso a month. Is that close for rent? Would it be possible to call you?

Did you really mean to ask 2-3000 pesos per month? Translating that with the dólar blue which is what everyone in Argentina relies upon, that's like 8 dollars a month. Ummmm. NOOOO. That's fairy tale land. Not even in the same universe as reality. Regarding contacting me personally... I'm very open and would love to help you, but this forum doesn't make it very convenient to make personal contact. If you're really interested.... I'm samwdavis on nearly every platform, including the most popular EMAIL platform in the world that's very "hot". Get what I mean?

There's page ( Idon´t know if it can be quoted here) with cost of living calculator, updated and, as far my direct info on places goes, reliable enough. You can compare many cities, break out into many items: rent per sqfoot, furnished, in differents neighborhood... Also the food, clothing, etc. is itemized.

Housig in Buenos Aires: 85 sqm (900sqft) Furnished accomodation

• rent in a expensive area- ARS 191,891 /month (USD 899)
• in a normal area - ARS 124,770 /month (USD 584)
• Utilities for 2 (gas,electr, water) ARS 11,900 (USD 56)

Sept. 2022 Minimum official 'vital' salary in Argentina/month: ARS 51,200 (USD300)

48h/week  ARS 256/h (USD 0.9)

Schoolteacher - 12,000 (USD400)

A BA teacher just arrived in my city: 'we lived in Palermo . . Graduated and lived on my Euro 500/m (private school) over the pandemic, until 'Once they really tried to break in... So we left'

Well, you need to figure out true-born 'porteños'

But that insight is most usefulright now.

Some other wages:

Home aid: 167   Builder: USD 270-780 Reception: 285 Hotel staff: 265-400  Shop, sales: 400

cook-kitchen staff; 280-333   'Delivery': 500 Architect 500

'junior staff journalist' : 333 Nurse: 300 Surgeon, pediatrician: 500

Enginneering: 300 (agric)  430 (comput)  500 (civil) 1,220 (elect) 1,150 (systems) 1,400 (oil)

Senior government employees: 630-870 Senators & deputies: 1,200

Yet, nobody there can make ends  meet...inflation is a swamp.

@danmarquesp thank you so much for your reply. I'm hoping to just find a place to rent and live out my life with a beautiful young lady. As far as rent and food goes what's the average rent and food cost. I'm thinking 2-3000 peso a month. Is that close for rent? Would it be possible to call you?
-@lbatt1953

    For any calculation use USD, Euro...

Inflation acts like a bog: nobody can tell how far or  how long it will stretch.

  Unlike migrants, expats are given the chance to try find a place we can eventually  call home, or at lest get some inner rest while still keeping one foot in a country  which only provides us with enough income.

For many of us becoming an expat it´s not about money. Make no mistake: some are looking for a temporary shelter, while others need a new place to call home. We have a chance our ancestors lacked. So, let´s be honest and call a spade a spade.

  As for me: I'be been by myself for long. BA is not a good place to go and expect a warm welcome. Not right now. Not in your 50s and trying to overcome mobility issues. Still it´s the western country I know best and you can live on an European income.

@glhartzler22 good morning. I lived there back in 2001 and we banked in Uruguay and dealt only in dollars. I paid my contractors in cash so we had money transferred to Uruguay went there by ferry ⛴️ and brought back cash.
I have a question for you.
I'm planning to move to Argentina in a few months and was curious how things have changed since I lived there back in 2001. I'm retired and live on a fixed income of something north of $3000 a month. Any information on this subject would be appreciated. I know the exchange 💱 rate as of this writing is 205 to 1. What problems am I forgetting
Thank you for everything.
Louis.
-@lbatt1953

Hi

If you lived there in 2001, then you must have witnessed the worst scenario. The Corralito triggered the looting of small shops in big urban areas. People in Argentina are resilient, yet you can´t expect them to starve without putting up a fight. It´s a country forged by immigrants fleeing from the endless wars in old Europe. Politicians and military dictatorships gave them harsh times, yet, unlike othe counties, took the hit and lifted the boot back.  So, if you move there with your own means, the wise thing is not to remain isolated as wealthy foreign refugees. Rather make it clear that you came there as a migrant, like their ancestors, and want to live in peace mixing in with your neighbor. That sense of solidarity holds on mainly in the vast countryside, like the rural communities in the North American prairies. Read some of the country´s recent history: in the 1990s over 45,000 km of railroads were reduced to 9,000 km  The sudden privatization meant investment only in the most profitable infrastructures. More than 20 towns were deserted. Neighbors had kept the old traditions, from joining resources to dig for their common water supply to repair the dirt roads . In 1989 Menem´s 'decálogo' had as a harsh first commandment: 'Nada de lo que deba ser estatal permanecerá en manos del Estado'  Meaning: no public service will be run by the government, but privatized to improve efficiency at top profit level.    Remember the 2001 and you will have a safe reference as social resiliente regards. Now also keep an eye on the current climate issues: water supply and energy within the huge BA are in the hands of companies that won´t go beyond patching up  old infrastructures.  Good luck to you both. Feel free to email me.