Buying Dollars

[Girino]

Just for the record, the above is not entirely correct. You CAN have Argie bank accounts in USDs and they are a standard feature with employment-related bank accounts (I believe its a requirement for employers to pay for a bank account for their employees where salaries are deposited). Mine is with Santander Rio and I use to deposit pocket change dollars (when I cannot get a full 100-dollar bill) whenever I buy at the official rate.

That's really odd, it is the first time I read about it. Well, congrats for having an account in USD in Argentina. All of the locals I talked about this subject (not many, in all honestly, being a sensitive subject) told me they use a Safe Box at their bank to keep the USD.

 

[nicoenarg]

Just for the record, the above is not entirely correct. You CAN have Argie bank accounts in USDs and they are a standard feature with employment-related bank accounts (I believe its a requirement for employers to pay for a bank account for their employees where salaries are deposited). Mine is with Santander Rio and I use to deposit pocket change dollars (when I cannot get a full 100-dollar bill) whenever I buy at the official rate.

True. I know plenty of Argentines with bank accounts denominated in USD. A lot of people don't trust bank accounts in USD here though because they fear the banks or the government will steal it.

 

[mikic007]

True. I know plenty of Argentines with bank accounts denominated in USD. A lot of people don't trust bank accounts in USD here though because they fear the banks or the government will steal it.

Of course there are USD accounts, is the only way to buy dolars online here. Now the process is simple, you just transfer pesos to dolar account and then you can withdraw them from ATM or bank.

I don't know about sending money out of the country though (I asked in other topic, but looks like no one has an answer). According to lanacion it's possible, but of course there are fees. You can also use "ayuda familiar" at your bank or banco piano, rules as far as i know didn't change yet, so you can send around 50% of your salary to some family member at official rate plus fees (banco piano last time charged me 273 pesos for 1450 usd).

Of course you don't want to have too much USD on your account, but for now some is not a problem. Sadly, this can change any day, even with Macri, like it did in the past.

 

[Ceviche]

That's really odd, it is the first time I read about it.

The dude has a proper full time local job. He knows his sh&t regarding all this.

 

[Northener]

True. I know plenty of Argentines with bank accounts denominated in USD. A lot of people don't trust bank accounts in USD here though because they fear the banks or the government will steal it.

I can't remember the exact conversion rate but in 2001 we had 7000 dollars in a local Santander Rio dollar account. The government changed it to 7000 pesos at 1 to 1 then devalued leaving us with enough pesos to buy 2330 dollars.
A friend who was due to pay around 60,000 dollars for a house he was buying had his debt converted to pesos. He borrowed 20,000 dollars from family, converted it to pesos and paid off his debt.

 

[ElQueso]

Northener, you're talking about the famous "Corralito" under Rua and is a big reason why Argentines don't like to keep their dollars in a bank in their account. And what you describe is pretty much the same haircut they gave to the people who held Argentine bonds at the time, which has to do with the whole default issue and the "vultures".

I don't see this happening under Macri, but you never know who may come after and what may happen in the future. And of course, since Macri is "buddies" with Cavallo, who was Rua's finance minister at the time and actually enacted the corralito, Bajo might tell you there's a good chance it will happen anyway.

 

[Noesdeayer]

I have had Citibank account in U$D since 2006 plus one in pesos
Bajo can say whatever he wants but I reason that if I didn't have any problem with the U$D acc't. under the Ks,I'm not going to have one in the future.
I had some dollars "pesofide" in the "corralito" and in the '80s kept them in a safety deposit box,
I am willing to bet anybody that the above 2 events will never happen again. Argentina must operate as they always did before on OPM (Other Peoples' Money).
They have learned their lesson.They desesperately need ongoing access to international credit markets

 

[Girino]

The dude has a proper full time local job. He knows his sh&t regarding all this.

Can you please address me with the proper register? This is not a frat-boy forum and I am not your fella.

 

[ElQueso]

Can you please address me with the proper register? This is not a frat-boy forum and I am not your fella.

I believe he was supporting Wongjoh's comment about being able to have a USD-denominated bank account, therefore the dude referred to would be Wongjoh

 

[Girino]

I understood what it mean, but the general tone was of scolding and inappropriate. Dude and [background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]sh&t are not exactly two words that I'd use when talking with somebody I am not close with.[/background]