Anyone else having problems getting dollars in?

[elhombresinnombre]

That would be ideal, and is in fact what I was doing before the new rules were brought in (not wiring them in, but using services like TransferWise). There was no obligation to exchange foreign earnings in the local market until September 1st. (At least, for the last 3 years or so.) Now, the rules are clear: if you receive a payment for a service in a bank account in another country, you have 5 days to 'liquidar' the money in the local market.

So if you want to do everything right, you have to make a transfer every time you receive a payment (unless you get two payments in at the same time). For someone like me who has a lot of clients all making relatively small payments, it's a disaster. If they extended the time from 5 days to a month, I could transfer them all over as one.

Even worse, the money doesn't just go straight to your account like it did up until a couple of weeks ago. They've got rid of that. Now you have to go to the bank every time you receive a transfer. Two of my transfers are now held up and I can't get my pesos. It's a nightmare.

The crazy thing is, the whole reason behind this is that they want to get more dollars in the market ... so they've gone and made it more difficult to bring dollars here. Brilliant. Loads of people like me are just going to start not declaring their earnings. That's not ideal as I quite like everything to be en blanco.

Have you considered anything such as invoice factoring? You bill all your clients at the end of the month and lodge the invoices with the factoring co. - who might even be your own bank - they pay you the discounted value of the combined invoices in one payment in the middle of the month and they collect the full value direct from your clients at the end of the month. If you are spending so much time filling in forms and standing in line it may pay you to accept discounted receipts just to enable you to go though all the bureacracy, queuing and such only once per month. It might be worth your while doing the cost/benefit analysis on that idea or something similar

 

[d.gray]

Have you considered anything such as invoice factoring? You bill all your clients at the end of the month and lodge the invoices with the factoring co. - who might even be your own bank - they pay you the discounted value of the combined invoices in one payment in the middle of the month and they collect the full value direct from your clients at the end of the month. If you are spending so much time filling in forms and standing in line it may pay you to accept discounted receipts just to enable you to go though all the bureacracy, queuing and such only once per month. It might be worth your while doing the cost/benefit analysis on that idea or something similar

Thanks for that, I've never thought about it to be honest as I've never needed to, but it sounds like it's worth looking into. I'm holding out for them to increase the 5-day limit to something more sensible, which in my case at least will solve a lot of problems.

There have been a lot of stories in the news about all this recently with a focus on freelancers, so maybe one of the brains who came up with the idea will actually notice.

It looks like loads of industries are being badly affected by this – like the maize used for popcorn:

Maíz para pochoclo: se pierden US$2 millones en exportaciones por semana por una norma del Central

Maíz para pochoclo: se pierden US$2 millones en exportaciones por semana por una norma del Central

www.lanacion.com.ar

Some industries have a 15/30-day limit and for the products they export it is literally impossible to comply with the new rules. So they've stopped exporting until things become clearer.

Great success for a country that needs more dollars…

 

[artisans]

This is more stage 2 of 'getting dollars in' and not related to freelancing. I have managed to work with HSBC's new formula for receiving a U$ transfer, complete the first page and print out and sign all 6 pages and hand it off to the HSBC Premier manager at the bank (half a day project), within a couple of days my transfer is deposited to the U$ account and the associated fees (which require a reclamo to recover) are dinged to the Peso account now.
So, the U$ are in the account, and new rule, you can only convert the U$ to peso from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays! Somewhere there is one ATM that dispenses U$ maybe. So need your money? Wait til Monday! Period. SNAFU

 

[gostomper]

A general simple way to get dollars in without the Argentine govt BS.

1. Get a transferwise borderless account and deposit dollars into it from wherever you get your money from outside Argentina.
2. Use transferwise borderless account to send money to yourself on riamoneytransfer.com in dollars. Dollars to Argentine pesos is the default option so remember to switch to dollars to dollars. (unless you can't find a better rate that ria offers).
3. Do the cash pick up option.
4. Pickup the cash at a Ria agent in Argentina.

That's it.

 

[artisans]

A general simple way to get dollars in without the Argentine govt BS.
1. Get a transferwise borderless account and deposit dollars into it from wherever you get your money from outside Argentina.
2. Use transferwise borderless account to send money to yourself on riamoneytransfer.com in dollars. Dollars to Argentine pesos is the default option so remember to switch to dollars to dollars. (unless you can't find a better rate that ria offers).
3. Do the cash pick up option.
4. Pickup the cash at a Ria agent in Argentina.
That's it.

https://www.riamoneytransfer.com/us/en/registration

Accessed website from Buenos Aires
We're sorry, but based on your current location, you can't register for an account here...
Currently, only users in the US, Canada, UK, Spain, and Australia may send money. You can still receive money in 160 countries around the world.

 

[gostomper]

https://www.riamoneytransfer.com/us/en/registration

Accessed website from Buenos Aires
We're sorry, but based on your current location, you can't register for an account here...
Currently, only users in the US, Canada, UK, Spain, and Australia may send money. You can still receive money in 160 countries around the world.

VPN in the US. You should have one anyway because Argentines know how to work packet sniffers and will do desperate stuff with the current economy

 

[artisans]

VPN in the US. You should have one anyway because Argentines know how to work packet sniffers and will do desperate stuff with the current economy

Yes, I figured VPN would be the solution. Worked living in China. There's another thread with services that speak more to my immediate issue, access to exchanging dollars/peso, any day 24/7.
You might want to take a look, I've downloaded the app for Brubank, reviewed in this La Nation article. Very easy set up.

Dólares. Las aplicaciones que te permiten comprar las 24 horas y más barato
Dólares. Las aplicaciones que te permiten comprar las 24 horas y más barato - LA NACION

www.lanacion.com.ar

 

[ben]

I don’t understand why people don’t have Payoneer deposit their money in a foreign account, then pay a small fee to get their money here.
A couple of clients of mine have someone with whom they do this regularly.
You get USD cash here, no problems.

 

[Jerry Nelson]

I don’t understand why people don’t have Payoneer deposit their money in a foreign account, then pay a small fee to get their money here.
A couple of clients of mine have someone with whom they do this regularly.
You get USD cash here, no problems.

Maybe there are some people who don't have a "foreign account".

 

[Jerry Nelson]

I don’t understand why people don’t have Payoneer deposit their money in a foreign account, then pay a small fee to get their money here.
A couple of clients of mine have someone with whom they do this regularly.
You get USD cash here, no problems.

By the way. I do have a Payoneer account and it's been depositing my money, in dollars, to my Argentine (Galacia) bank account. That's NOT the problem though.

The problem is the inefficiency of the Argentine bank system requiring a 6-page document for EACH deposit and the delay to get the money.