Introduction: Money Argentina
While in most country you can withdraw quite easily cash, it is not the same story in Argentina. We had with us some Euros cash and without thinking about anything, started exchanging it for Argentinian pesos. But at a certain point, we were short in Euros, and decided to withdraw. Then we realized that this is not gonna work here.
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ATMs
While most of the ATM will accept your card, they will charge you lots of fees. After checking many ATM, they all were charging us 620 pesos to get some cash out. That could have been acceptable if we could have withdrawn at once 20 000 pesos or more but no, we were limited at 3500 or 4000 pesos per withdrawal. On top of what, our bank would also charge us some fees.
Withdrawing in Argentina was then out of the question for us.
Euro to Pesos
That was our first option. It works well and it is easy to do. In every city, big or small there is a place where you can change some cash. Our rate in January 2019 was 1€ for 70 pesos. And in February 1€ for 80 pesos.
But that can change day by day as Argentina is in an Economic crysis.
We had to look for solution and found out Azimo, a money transfer APP/Website that allows you to pay with CB and get cash. We downloaded it, register and make a first trial.
We first create our recipient (us), added our CB, and make a first transfer. At this time got a rate of 1€ for 82 pesos, the best rate we encounter so far. We then make a first transfer, paid with the CB and just had to retrieve the cash.
As we were in Mendoza, there was only place working with Azimo, Arpenger. A store located in the city transfer open from 9am to 7pm.
We went there, said AZIMO, gave my passport, and we got our cash.
The day after, we many right away another transfer as we realized that AZIMO was only working in big cities and that there was no option for it in Patagonia. (this time the rate was 1€ for 80 pesos)
Plus, the 2 first transfer were free of charge. Later it’s 2€ per transfer (still better than the ATMs)
The next option we will be trying is TransferWise. Another online banking where you get a CB that apparently doesn’t charge you any fees abroad.
Saving and not bothering
From there, we also started to only book accommodation that would accept CB and most practically use AirBnb as you pay right away. No surprise as the price is in Euro. Sometimes it would be cheaper to pay directly in Pesos but then is the problem of having the pesos.
“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.” – Henry David Thoreau
