ATM Limits and Best Banks. LOST

[MacDaddy]

If you want to withdraw a large amount of cash at once and not get stung with fees at your bank at home, go to superveille bank on the corner of Entre Rios y Av Belgrano. I went today and withdrew 7000 pesos in one transaction with a $8 fee in my bank. It was GREAT! Finally I know how it works. Take your passport and Credit Card or Debit Matercard or Visa and they will do it straight away, took me 5 minutes.

Bradlik, can you give more details on how you did this? Did you wait in line and withdraw from a teller, instead of using the machines? I went there the other day and unfortunately arrived just after the lobby had closed, so I wasn't able to ask them. I withdrew from an ATM in the foyer, but it only let me take a maximum of 1,000 pesos (for a 16 peso fee).

 

[lela]

hi, you can xoom yourself up to 2999 usd via your cc! some banks will hand you even dollar out! http://www.xoom.com/

 

[French jurist]

hi, you can xoom yourself up to 2999 usd via your cc! some banks will hand you even dollar out! http://www.xoom.com/

I used to use Xoom and if it's true that some banks will hand USD bills (two years ago it was Banco Frances, maybe still today), in order to cash USD you need a DNI (if you just have a passport, you can only cash pesos).
Maybe have the rules changed since 2 years, this I don't know.

 

[lela]

i just went to american experess office in arenales and changed my AMEX traveller checks to a real great rate . its even cheaper than an average ATM ( 2% +) , i got an exchange rate of 3.91, today rate it would be less than 1% than on an ATM.
all it takes is a couple of papers to sign and a passport.
best is to check exchange course as it fluctuates quite a bit (http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/) and go on a day its high.
this is a very secure way to pay rent and have some cash available , rather than running from one ATM to another. i guess you could get cash out of your AMEXO card as well, its worth to inquire .

 

[elcolo]

I have an irish atm card(bank of ireland) and credit card. This time last year I could take out 3500 pesos a go from citibank atms on both cards(7k total), but only 700 from all others. So I always had to go to citi atms. Now though my limit is 1k pesos across the board and it doesn't matter if I try going to 20 different atms, I can only get 1k pesos a day. Does anyone have a work-around for this? I prefer not to withdraw with my credit card but being able to only get 1k a day on my atm card is a massive pain, especially when paying rent. I just don't get this stupid system.

 

[ndcj]

Does anyone have any recent experience using a Visa debit card over the counter in a bank to withdraw large amounts of money?

Specifically, do you know any particular branches that will do it? I just went to more than a dozen random banks in Belgrano and each one said the same line - no way they can do it.

 

[000ooo]

Does anyone have any recent experience using a Visa debit card over the counter in a bank to withdraw large amounts of money?

Specifically, do you know any particular branches that will do it? I just went to more than a dozen random banks in Belgrano and each one said the same line - no way they can do it.

Yes. Here is what has worked for me each month when I go to get money for rent. I go to the Banco Supervielle at Reconquista 330. I walk in past the front counter to the teller waiting area which is back and to the left, select withdraw $ from the touch screen which prints me a ticket with a number. I sit in the waiting area until my number comes up on the screens and go to the indicated teller window. At the window I ask for $4000 pesos and hand over my visa debit card and USA passport. The teller informs me that they will need to call visa to get the authorization and that it will take a couple of minutes so I should be patient. Once the teller gets the authorization, they ask how many payments I want the $4000 split into, and I tell them one. They run the card and give me the $4000 (remember to get monedas for the cole!).

Now for the disclaimers: I am a USA citizen, I dunno if/how it will work with a non-USA passport. My visa debit card is issued by a credit union in the USA and they do not charge me a fee or percentage to use the card to make atm withdrawls. Call your bank that issued the visa debit card to find out your daily limit and any fees they might assess. I am not charged a $16 peso atm fee by Supervielle when whithdrawing this way. My daily limit in usa dollars is $1000, and so I am able to get $4000 pesos with the current exchange rate. And maybe most importantly, I can speak spanish well enough to interact comfortably with the teller.

I hope this is helpful! I was definitely in bank hell the first 6 weeks I was here and this makes me love my local credit union back in the usa even more.

 

[chop]

On a related note, what is the best payment method for Mercadolibre merchants? I haven't found any that accept paypal. What do you guys use?

 

[glasgowjohn]

On a related note, what is the best payment method for Mercadolibre merchants? I haven't found any that accept paypal. What do you guys use?

My uk based Amex is the one I use for all transactions on mercadopago

 

[nivax]

My experience from a year here is the following.

Banelco/Link let you take out 800/1000 each withdrawal (Think Link was 800) and charge you about 16 pesos for it.

Citibank let you take out 2800 pesos per withdrawal. They didn't use to charge for it, but stared charging 16 pesos like 1½ month ago. They still have a far superior limit. Make sure you get the ATM without Banelco logo (they have both!)

Here's a map of all Citibank ATMs in Buenos Aires:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=216795671661975833967.00048e074a9c0260b3e9a