Any freelancers here billing in USD/EUR? Central Bank wants to force pesification of your income...

[d.gray]

It's terrible. Honestly, I can't believe the ridiculousness. Well, I can. Let's make sure everyone brings their dollars over … but let's make it harder for them to do so at the same time.

Surely, whatever the reasons for all this, they could have left in place the process where money gets deposited automatically. Why get rid of that?

Or why put a nonsense limit of 5 days so anyone like me who receives multiple small payments has to make multiple transfers? Even 10-15 days would make things a lot easier.

So I've currently got two transfers held up with Galicia. I've had to call Comex multiple times, often waiting up to half an hour to be answered. They are completely swamped and I get the impression no one really knows what they are talking about. Their emails are mostly automated or semi-automated. No matter how much info I ask for, I get one sentence replies with nothing useful.

I've finally been told that I need to state on the form that the money I'm transferring is a 'repatriacion de fondos'. Even though it's clearly an 'exportacion de servicios'. Apparently that will get it through, so I'll do it.

And the great thing is that I've just received another payment from another client that I have to transfer before the 5-day deadline, so I might soon have 3 transfers held up.

I'm going to switch as much as I can to PayPal and use Nubi from now on. As far as I'm aware, this is a legit way to do it, and it's cheaper and has no paperwork.

 

[Irelander]

I

It's terrible. Honestly, I can't believe the ridiculousness

I sympathise with your situation. I'm lucky in that I work for a single client, and get one monthly invoice.

I've just got through to BBVA's ComEx department and it's back to the old situation: I have to go to my bank with their 'LS300 - Solicitud de Liquidación' form, a copy of the 'Factura E', and a copy of my regular commercial invoice.

Hopefully it's just back to the old situation for me, i.e. in the bank they'll see me waving the bits of paper in the queue at the service desk and they'll take them off me without having to wait ... and the money is in my account by the afternoon. We'll see...

Surprising that Galicia are asking you to lie about the 'repatriacion de fondos' thing. If it's an 'exportación de servicos' they should be asking for the Factura E, a copy of your invoice, and then there should be no problem.

 

[jcag1974]

How is everybody getting on with this matter? I thought I wasn't going to have a problem because I always pay my €uro payments straight into my account here in pesos. This month, my payment has arrived, but instead of getting a notification that the money is "en proceso de liquidación", I just got a message saying that it's "pendiente" and giving me the number of 'Comercio Exterior' to call (but nobody is answering).

WTF ? I mean it's being liquidated into my peso account, so what's the problem? Is anybody else having this experience?

Very likely everyone is, "Comercio Exterior" departments are literally drowning in outgoing transfer requests and trying to abide by regulations that change practically on a daily basis. If you have any chance to go in person (not to your branch, but ideally to the main office of your bank where Comercio Exterior usually is), I'd suggest you do so you push matters personally. In your case (bringing dollars in) they shouldn't be dragging their feet as they are with the outgoing transfers, but the bottleneck exists nonetheless.

 

[d.gray]

I

I sympathise with your situation. I'm lucky in that I work for a single client, and get one monthly invoice.

I've just got through to BBVA's ComEx department and it's back to the old situation: I have to go to my bank with their 'LS300 - Solicitud de Liquidación' form, a copy of the 'Factura E', and a copy of my regular commercial invoice.

Hopefully it's just back to the old situation for me, i.e. in the bank they'll see me waving the bits of paper in the queue at the service desk and they'll take them off me without having to wait ... and the money is in my account by the afternoon. We'll see...

Surprising that Galicia are asking you to lie about the 'repatriacion de fondos' thing. If it's an 'exportación de servicos' they should be asking for the Factura E, a copy of your invoice, and then there should be no problem.

Yeah, I don't know. They have my Factura E, proof that the money was deposited in the last 5 days, the lot. They still say it has to go through as repatriacion de fondos. I don't really mind, as long as it gets through.

Funny enough, the easiest part for me has been going to the bank. There's never anyone in my local bank when I arrive, I get seen straight away and I'm out in 5 minutes max. Still, annoying that I have to do it at all.

Hopefully it won't be a hassle for you. I think when it's a direct transfer from a client things are clearer, so as long as you have the right paperwork, it should go through fine.

 

[mellamanjorge]

I haven't done any operation yet as I had to open a new account and have just gotten the documentation. I've talked to a couple of banks before doing so and none of them seems to know what to do exactly and whether it is necessary for you to go for each and every invoice. Since this is something every little exporter now has to comply with, they are probably swamped with questions, which is why no one answers the phones any more. I was told at Comafi that it will probably be the first couple of months only, after which you can just send the documentation electronically again and get your money without all the hassle. If they don't change the regulation again to exclude invoices below a certain threshold because it's just too much red tape. Fingers crossed.

@d.gray: Can you confirm that Paypal/Nubi is a valid option? How much do you lose via this route? And: Nubi also cooperates with TransferWise (see: https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2018/06/134729-transferwise-now-offers-service-in-argentina/). Does anyone have information if that would be a valid option as well? Instead of 50-100 USD which the local banks charge for transfers >1000 USD, TransferWise only costs ~20 USD per transaction. And the exchange rate is slightly better, so I'm leaning this way. Plus, since you get a local bank transfer, probably there won't be any hassle with all the forms to fill in. Unfortunately, no one could tell me whether this complies with the new regulations or not, not even Comafi, which is the owner of Nubi... Does anyone know?

 

[d.gray]

I haven't done any operation yet as I had to open a new account and have just gotten the documentation. I've talked to a couple of banks before doing so and none of them seems to know what to do exactly and whether it is necessary for you to go for each and every invoice. Since this is something every little exporter now has to comply with, they are probably swamped with questions, which is why no one answers the phones any more. I was told at Comafi that it will probably be the first couple of months only, after which you can just send the documentation electronically again and get your money without all the hassle. If they don't change the regulation again to exclude invoices below a certain threshold because it's just too much red tape. Fingers crossed.
@d.gray: Can you confirm that Paypal/Nubi is a valid option? How much do you lose via this route? And: Nubi also cooperates with TransferWise (see: https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2018/06/134729-transferwise-now-offers-service-in-argentina/). Does anyone have information if that would be a valid option as well? Instead of 50-100 USD which the local banks charge for transfers >1000 USD, TransferWise only costs ~20 USD per transaction. And the exchange rate is slightly better, so I'm leaning this way. Plus, since you get a local bank transfer, probably there won't be any hassle with all the forms to fill in. Unfortunately, no one could tell me whether this complies with the new regulations or not, not even Comafi, which is the owner of Nubi... Does anyone know?

This is the problem – no one knows! I've got responses from both Nubi and TransferWise that they do comply with the new rules, but they still sound a bit vague like they are not really sure. You never know who's answering your questions, they might not know themselves. I'd definitely recommend sending them an email to see what they say.

I haven't used Nubi but I do have an account there, so I'm going to go with that for now. I love TransferWise, but until I'm sure it's a legit option for exporters with the new obligations brought in, I'm going to wait before using it again.

 

[d.gray]

Forgot to add – I think Nubi charges $10 USD per transfer from PayPal to your bank account (for transfers up to $2,000 USD if I'm right) and it converts the dollars into pesos. Then there's the PayPal fees, I think they're about 5% but I'm not sure.

 

[ben]

This. Country. Is. Amazing.

 

[semigoodlookin]

Forgot to add – I think Nubi charges $10 USD per transfer from PayPal to your bank account (for transfers up to $2,000 USD if I'm right) and it converts the dollars into pesos. Then there's the PayPal fees, I think they're about 5% but I'm not sure.

I use PayPal, Nubi. It's the PayPal fees that bother me more than Nubi's. Nubi charges $10 and $2.10 I.V.A.

 

[d.gray]

I use PayPal, Nubi. It's the PayPal fees that bother me more than Nubi's. Nubi charges $10 and $2.10 I.V.A.

Yep Nubi seems pretty reasonable, especially compared to bank transfers. Looks like that's what I'm going to start using from now on.