Anyone used Curve in Argentina?

[Tracy]

Just a data point on 2 online transactions. Refund to chase for cancelled flights on 1st August £1-1533ARS. New flight purchase on MBNA 7th August £1-1580ARS

[Nico]

Was in Argentina last week and my hsbc premier mastercard had a GBPARS rate of ~1550, no rebate, that’s the rate that was on the transaction immediately.
As for hotels, one had a usd rate that they converted in ARS at official rate, but would expect you to pay USD amount in general!
Also I had $20 notes, $100 much better to change as ~1300 vs 1250. Some dont accept 20s.
Also some places offer up to 1500 per USD when paying in USD cash.

[Tracy]

Update, I had 2 hotel reservations in Argentina. Both booked in USD. Both hotels used the Dolar Banco Nacion to calculate the ARS charge and both excluded the 21% VAT. I was very pleased. Ended up paying £65pn for the Melia Recoleta Plaza in BA and £220pn for Gran Melia Iguazú. I used MBNA horizon.

[Zark]

We are currently in Buenos Aires (2/2/25).
1. Curve is still blocked by them, despite the currency being re-instated as ‘floating’ in September. Curve confirmed this.
2. Hotels will not charge 21% VAT on the room portion of the bill if you pay with a foreign credit card, so in the absense of Curve, used a Halifax forex-free and worked fine.
3. The official exchange rate is 1,031 ARS/$ & 1,283 ARS/£ and this was used by Halifax.
4. There is still an unofficial exchange market and https://cuex.com/en/usd-ars_pa will tell you rates, which today are 1,220 ARS/$ and 1,519 ARS/£. If you go to an exchange bureau (plenty around Ave. Florida – was advised not to use the on the street guys…) with cash, preferably large denomination $/£/€ you will get close to this. I received 1,200 ARS/$ for 100$ bills. Hence paid around 2.5% fee (20 ARS/$) but received 16.5% more (1,200/1,030). Hence paying for everything with cash, except hotel room bill as cash payment of that would add 21% VAT.
Hope this is clear.
By the way, avoid the Sheraton in town , at least until renovations complete – rooms are a dump. Park Tower and Marriott are fine for Marriott members etc.

[Zark]

CORRECTION : We are currently in Buenos Aires (2/1/25). JANUARY 2ND 2025

[Scott]

Why using cash rather than your Clarity? They still use the tourist MEP rate for foreign cards, don’t they?

[Zark]

Scott, I just logged in to Halifax Clarity and the rate used by them for a hotel bill was at 1,368 ARS/£ conmpared to 1,283 ARS/£ official, so around 6.5% better today – a nice surprise as I assumed they were using the official , not ‘tourist’ rate. The cash rate I got , as I explained, is 16.5% better than official, so still 10% better off paying with cash.

[davefl]

Thanks for the update @Zark. I was looking at the Marriott and had discounted the Sheraton so that’s good info. There’s the new Recoleta Grand Tribute opening in March but no dates yet so I’m waiting to see if that is bookable by the time I need it.

Any data points on the rough price for a steak and wine in a parrilla? It’s a few years since I was there and have no idea how 1200 ARS relates to the cost of a meal.

I’m going to get my USD notes whilst in Ecuador or Panama and need to work out how much to bring to Argentina.

[Biki]

davefl wrote:

Thanks for the update @Zark. I was looking at the Marriott and had discounted the Sheraton so that’s good info. There’s the new Recoleta Grand Tribute opening in March but no dates yet so I’m waiting to see if that is bookable by the time I need it.

Any data points on the rough price for a steak and wine in a parrilla? It’s a few years since I was there and have no idea how 1200 ARS relates to the cost of a meal.

I’m going to get my USD notes whilst in Ecuador or Panama and need to work out how much to bring to Argentina.

We stayed at the Sofitel (rooms a little dated, but fine) as well as Home Hotel in Palermo, which is is a smaller boutique style place.

In terms of Parilla, we went to one called Santos Manjares, which was a short walk from the Sofitel. 2 steaks + side, 2 glasses of wine and 2 waters was about £25 with a tip. That was when official rate was 800/$ and MEP was about 1,200.. so may be a bit more expensive now there doesn’t seem to be as much difference in the 2 rates.

also, if you a gelato person then Rapanui was great.

For getting cash out we found that Western Union was actually the best, send youself the ARS and tehn go and pick up from one of the many WU places. This was a year ago, so might be different now. One thing I would say, is that while you might get a better deal in cash, carrying around enough to pay for more than a few drinks or a meal means you end up with a wad of notes and therefore we just used Chase card most of the time. They will give you an up to date currency conversion in the app if you wanted to check.

[Scott]

Zark wrote:

Scott, I just logged in to Halifax Clarity and the rate used by them for a hotel bill was at 1,368 ARS/£ conmpared to 1,283 ARS/£ official, so around 6.5% better today – a nice surprise as I assumed they were using the official , not ‘tourist’ rate. The cash rate I got , as I explained, is 16.5% better than official, so still 10% better off paying with cash.

Ok, doesn’t sound like the breach between official and MEP is so big now, I’ve not been monitoring rates since early ’24.

As sometime else posted above, for cash, Western Union is the alternative to dealing with unofficial money exchanges. They usually compared very favourably with the blue rate.

[davefl]

@Biki, thanks for the info. I stayed at the Sofitel last time (2017) and the only thing I remember was the afternoon tea in the cafe in the lobby. Looking at the Marriott because I have suite nigh upgrades to burn. I’ll pencil in the Santos Manjares as it’s even closer to the Mariott.

As for Western Union, might be a good option as I just ran the numbers and it’s 2% between the blue rate and their rate. Not worth worrying about 2% for a few hundred bucks worth of walking around money.