Can't withdraw USDs in Colonia/Uruguay?

[French jurist]

Hi!


I've an online/electronic wallet with a Debit Mastercard linked to it (account in USDs).
I never had a problem to purchase anything, withdraw money at ATMs or whatever.


My card is limited to 2.500 USDs / ATM withdrawal per day
BROU ATMs seem to be limited to 1.000 USDs per ATM withdrawal.

Still, it seems impossible to withdraw USDs from this BROU ATMs.


Is there something I'm missing here?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Thereandbackagain]

What does the machine say? Probably they just ran out of cash? Sometimes I had the case that in UY they limit for no obvious reason the withdrawal to 100, 200 US$...

 

[ndcj]

Did you call your bank to see what they said? It could be that having suddenly popped up in Uruguay making a large withdrawal it triggered some fraud block.

There's a curious thing about the BROU ATMs, they seem to go temporarily out of service after each US dollar withdrawal for about 30 seconds, and then return to service.

 

[domthegreat]

How does one get dollars out in Uruguay? I would love to find a way to get dollars out of my US bank accounts (Chase and Schwab) or using Xoom. Is there anyway I can get dollars out when I go for a visa run to Colonia for the day, and then bring them back to BA with me?

 

[scotttswan]

How does one get dollars out in Uruguay? I would love to find a way to get dollars out of my US bank accounts (Chase and Schwab) or using Xoom. Is there anyway I can get dollars out when I go for a visa run to Colonia for the day, and then bring them back to BA with me?

I just used my card in the machines and withdrew dollars. That was a month ago.

 

[earlyretirement]

It's been last year since I went to Uruguay but I never had any problems at all withdrawing funds unless the actual ATM was out of money.

A few times in Punta del Este the ATM machines would do strange things like once you pulled out a large amount of money, it would return your card but then lock up for a few minutes but if you came back 10/15 minutes later it was working again.

I had several USA bank account ATM cards so could pull out quite a bit of money and bring it back to Argentina.

The trick is to let your USA bank know you will be there so they don't flag it for fraud and also see if you can increase your withdrawal limits. The best ATM machine I had luck with was the shopping mall there in Punta del Este. I used the ATM machines at HSBC in Montevideo all the time too.

 

[French jurist]

Hi!

Thanks to all.

Finally, it was possible to withdraw by 300 USD increments in Colonia (even at BROU).

For 2.400 withdrawn in USD/cash = 94 USD commission on my bank account.


Now the calculation:

If I had withdrawn 2494 USD here in Argentina = 10.646 pesos (precisely as of 05/21/2012).

If I change my 2400 USD here (cueva or individual) at 6:1 = 14.400 pesos (less 94 USD commission).

Roughly 3.300 pesos difference... (price of my rent... fair enough!)


EDIT: I don't know any cueva offering 6:1 but I guess this rate will be available soon.


Situation really sucks though for expats making a living in pesos.

 

[davonz]

Thanks for the info, i will probably be doing a US$ run soon, so good to know its worth it even if you can only withdraw in US$300 lots.

 

[French jurist]

The famous "Colonia run" alive again, for different reasons this time p

 

[Thereandbackagain]

BTW: You can go anytime to the Caja inside of the BROU and request a withdrawal from you CC in any amount (at least this worked about 1 yr ago).