Bank Account Recommendations And Fees

Thanks for the response, John. For me personally I've worked out that the exchange rate that I get from ATMs, even factoring in the ridiculous 96 peso fee, is surprisingly still better than with money transfer websites - I don't have a British/European bank account so I'll essentially be charged twice for one transaction.

I'm also wondering whether there are any ATMs here that dispense more than 2400 pesos per transaction (so far I've tried Galicia and Santander)?

Another question regarding mercado libre/pago. Any idea whether I can link a foreign credit card to it?
 
I'm also wondering whether there are any ATMs here that dispense more than 2400 pesos per transaction (so far I've tried Galicia and Santander)?

No, currently that is the maximum allowed per transaction at any ATM.
 
I'll be transferring from my singapore bank account, and even though I have some US$s and £s I can't transfer them directly into AR$ as you need to give them a UK/US/European address and bank details which I don't have. Worldremit seems to be the only/best site that works with a Singapore address/bank account, yet the exchange rate still works out to be crappier than using ATMs. Weird.
 
Right, so an update to my situation to those who are interested:

We got our residencias precarias a few days ago (we weren't originally planning to do this at this stage as we still need to go back to Singapore to sort some things out, but anyways) and at the moment we're looking for housing/banking options. We've had a look at a few flats in Microcentro and we've found a place that we quite like in S. Nicolas for about 10k pesos.

I've been to several banks now in person (Nacion, HSBC, Frances, Santander, Galicia), and the best solution that we've found that meets our needs is the HSBC Premier account. The manager said as long as we keep something like 250k pesos in the account all of the fees are waived. What's more it's free to withdraw money from any ATM from any 'red' in Argentina and abroad. He said normally they do require a DNI but when I told him that I have a residencia precaria plus an overseas HSBC account, he said he could open the account first and then ask me for the DNI after it arrives. Great!

In addition to HSBC, Nacion and Santander both said that they could open a caja de ahorro for me without a DNI or a fuente de ingresos, as long as I deposited 'some' money in the account. They did not say directly how much but implied that it would need to be in the hundreds of thousands of pesos (keep in mind that this is from talking with them in person rather than speaking with someone over the phone). These two banks didn't mention whether they would waive the fees.

The other two banks (Frances and Galicia) said no - you must need a DNI plus a payslip for a caja de ahorro.
 
@An_albumparty - which HSBC branch did you go to? I just went to the one in Colegiales and they rejected me without a payslip proving income *within* argentina. I do have a DNI.

thanks in advance
 
I think they charge about the same really for a basic account. 150$ +/- Rio gives you the option to open the account online and gives you a peso and a usd account by default. Galicia and Frances you have to request it separately. We do intl with Galicia, they have a fairly large foreign commerce dept. Rio acquired Citibank so all their credit cards now allow you to earn American Airlines miles. Frances credit cards allow you lo earn Lampass miles.

Hi nikad,

I have a question about intl transfer with Banco Galicia. I've been trying to do one, which was approved, but two weeks have gone past and the money hasn't even been deducted from my account.

Have you ever had difficulties with intl transfer with Galicia? How long does it take to receive the money? Do you transfer to the US or to Europe?

Thanks a lot for the help, I'm really worried.
 
Hi nikad,

I have a question about intl transfer with Banco Galicia. I've been trying to do one, which was approved, but two weeks have gone past and the money hasn't even been deducted from my account.

Have you ever had difficulties with intl transfer with Galicia? How long does it take to receive the money? Do you transfer to the US or to Europe?

Thanks a lot for the help, I'm really worried.
I just replied in your other post.
 
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