Reply To: New Argentina rate using UK based credit cards

[Biki]

Reeferman wrote:

Am heading down to Argentina in a couple of weeks – staying in Palermo for a few nights (before going on a cruise up to Brazil).

The hotel is booked – to be paid on arrival – at a cost of about US$1,200. Does anyone have any update on the latest rate that may be charged to my CC? Is a subsequent refund close to the Blue rate still a thing?

Haven’t made any restaurant reservations as yet – but plan to pay using a CC

Will take some US$ with me – is it worth changing-up any to Pesos (taxi fares etc) or is everyone currently more-than–happy to take US$?

Appreciate any latest advice please
TIA

current USD$ to Peso is 831, and on Chase it looks around 1,350/£. so US$1,200 would be about £739. But it might be a bit different depending if the above includes tax, which i think will be removed first (or was iwhen we went).

We used Chase in most places and seemed an ok rate (around 1,165/£ at the time), it doesn’t refund the difference, it just charges the tourist rate straight away, whereas amex does the refund to adjust afterwards.

We were getting about 1,220/£ by sending ourselves pesos through Western Union. I found that once i downloaded the app and played around with it a few times, but not actually completed a transaction that it offered to waive the fees on the first transaction. so perhaps do this and send yourself a few hundred quid’s worth to use for taxi’s, tips and things that cost less, then put more expensive things on Card.

We also changed some USD to pesos and it was about 93,000 for US$100. Note that we could only seem to do this in BsAs at a decent rate. in Bariloche and Mendoza, Western Union places wouldn’t exchange US$ cash and the limited places that would were really bad exchanges rates. That’s why we transfered pesos to ourselves instead.

ATM’s have limited withdrawal amounts and the transaction fees are quite high, so weren’t worthwile.

Final tip… If you like ice cream and or chocolate, there is a great shop in Bariloche and also in BsAs called Rapanui.