Buying Uruguayan Pesos

[andrew.lyubarsky]

Hello everyone:

I have a quick question. I am a temporary resident (student with DNI) here, who is also working en blanco in a part-time job (low salary, about 4.000 pesos a month), and my girlfriend is a monotributista who vouchers about 7.000-8.000 pesos a month.

We are considering taking a vacation in July, and would like to go to the eastern Uruguayan beaches for a week. It would be a much better option if we could access the official exchange rate for Uruguayan pesos.

I don't know what the procedure is for doing this - what would we need to bring, to whom, and what are our chances of being approved?

Thanks,

Andrew

 

[HenryNisental]

You have to go to an AFIP office in Plaza de Mayo and get the real story there.

 

[nikad]

I would not count on it. You can still try to get AFIP permission, but chances are slim. Also, you really don´t need uruguayan pesos for anything, just take your debit or credit cards, if you need some cash, just ask whenever you go out for a meal, etc if they can give you some change in cash with your credit cards - that would be at the official rate.

 

[andrew.lyubarsky]

Yes, but isn't there a 20 (or was it 25%?) surcharge on all credit card purchases abroad? While that would certainly be better than the rate you would get buying Uruguayan pesos at a casa de cambio, it is still significantly more expensive than being able to access the official rate. If this was the case then we might just consider taking our trip within Argentina.

Has anyone successfully accessed relatively small amounts of foreign currency for the purpose of travel?

 

[Thuraya]

Hi Andrew, you or your girlfriend needs to have gotten a clave fiscal by going in person with your paperwork to your neighborhood AFIP office (a 15 minute tramite). Then you use your clave fiscal to enter your account on the AFIP website, where you can request the purchase of foreign currency. You'll put in the details of your salary, employer, and travel, request the amount of foreign currency you want to buy, and then submit it. The system will automatically approve or reject you, a screen will pop up to let you know.

Unfortunately, most people get rejected, because "your salary isn't high enough to meet the requirements" or something. But even people with high salaries get rejected. It's pretty random. I've heard you might have more luck if you do it in the morning, right at 9:30 when the system opens. It's definitely worth a try, but chances are they won't let you. Good luck!