Arriving on 30 March from London

[anatolie]

I had several bad experiences with Abbey Santander, they offer you good interest rates for a bank account but then when you have to deal with them on the phone, total nightmare! I had an Abbey Zero credit card- the type you would want for abroad and asked for an extension as it was valid until August this year, I confirmed with the girl on the phone that the new one will be zero... they sent me a normal Santander card with 3% foreign exchange charge on it. I called them to activate the card, this guy kept me on the phone for 15 minutes talking about internet fraud and security issues, just to find out at the end he is selling me credit card insurance to £8 per month- and I had to ask if there was a charge for it, then he got defensive.

I had a look at several websites for cost of living 2009-2010, annual 20-30% inflation rate with not much devaluation in peso.. and our weak sterling.. I would suspect peso will go down in value this year to about 4.4 to 1 usd, and there is a possibility sterling may lose even more value for UK to benefit from exports, or may pick up from the current terrible state. Exchange rates can move very fast.

I was told the current prices are about 15-20% more than below, not sure if you'll agree..

http://paddyinba.blogspot.com/2008/11/cost-of-living-in-buenos-aires.html


And the below is quite accurate for London and updated in March 2010:
(comparing London with Buenos Aires)

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-livin...entina&city2=Buenos+Aires&displayCurrency=GBP

 

[elhombresinnombre]

Thanks Howard.

Hi tangobob, I have a HSBC account but not a premier customer, and have a visa debit card with them. I thought it had a 2.75% fee and bad exchange rates, when I used abroad before. You may be a premier customer?

Just to reiterate what Tangobob has said upthread and to repeat what I'd said in another conversation a month or so ago, the accessability and fee-free service for HSBC only applies to the Premier account. Neither my son nor I (two different non-Premier HSBC accounts) could accesss even HSBC's own machines in our nearest bank in Cap Fed although both of those cards would work (for a fee) in other company's machines. My Nationwide FlexAccount card has not been charging me any machine fees (although I can't really tell you whether the 1% has been loaded into the exchange rate) when using Banelco and Banco Ciudad machines.

 

[blackburn]

Ana,well as you have a flex account you should be ok as I have been using mine here for four years and it's fine.You can use their credit card here,not at the atm as it's pricey,and you have the full payment transfered from the flex to pay off any debt.The 1% isn't shown on your statement as it is absorbed by visa in the transaction,atm or shopping.You can use the debit card to pay hotels,credit cards will have 10% surcharge,and shops.I have a photo copy of me passport and tell them to enter the first eight numbers on the passport and there should be no problem(eight numbers because that is the number of the dni for locals)Set up internet banking with Nationwide before you come,I informed them that I was going to use the debit card abroad and to expect more transactions onit.....just to be on the safe side,they say it isnt required any more.....but.I draw $1000pesos at a time sometimes more and sometimes they give less....good luck with your trip...suerte