Exchange, Budget, Etc. Questions

[Starts]

Hi there, I'd like to move to BA for about a year and had some of the typical questions. Appreciate any help.

It seems like the easiest way to exchange money is to bring as much cash (USD) as possible to exchange on the black market.

However, most of my assets are currently not that liquid so I'll be relying on credit for startup costs (cash lines of credit, not credit cards). For that reason I'd like to avoid taking on interest charges for say, 5 months of living expenses, and instead take chunks of cash out of my account as necessary.

Xoom is the best option I can find so far. Their fees were be around 3% for taking out 500 USD at a time, which is not ideal. But I'd be avoiding my bank's foreign transaction fee (1%) I think, so not a terrible backup option.

Any better ideas?

Also a couple other questions--

I want to teach English for some spending money and to keep myself occupied--seems pretty easy to pick up private lessons at around 9 USD per hour. I have a degree but no other qualifications. True or false? I'm aiming at like 15 hours/week.

I've seed wildly different estimates for living expenses.. but 1,000-1,200 USD per month including rent in a shared apartment/house seems a reasonable estimate. True or False? As comparison I have no problem living on 1,000 USD per month (not including rent) here in a major U.S. city.

Thanks for your help

 

[PhilipDT]

I've seed wildly different estimates for living expenses.. but 1,000-1,200 USD per month including rent in a shared apartment/house seems a reasonable estimate. True or False?

That will be very tight.

 

[Starts]

That will be very tight.

I've heard this a couple of times. I guess it just comes down to everyday items being more expensive there than the U.S.? I feel like if I'm paying rent at $350/mo or so, $15-$28/day is in line with what I spent in the U.S.

 

[nlaruccia]

Remember Xoom will give you pesos, not dollars. I'm not sure if they give you the official rate or blue rate. Many people have opened a bank account in Uruguay and transfer dollars from their account in the US and physically bring cash from Uruguay. As long as you keep transfers to $3,000 US max per month you won't have any problems. BA is really expensive and it will get increasingly more expensive the following year. $1,000 US per month isn't a lot of money here and teaching English pays next to nothing. Check the forum, there are several topics on the difficulties of teaching English.

 

[PhilipDT]

I've heard this a couple of times. I guess it just comes down to everyday items being more expensive there than the U.S.? I feel like if I'm paying rent at $350/mo or so, $15-$28/day is in line with what I spent in the U.S.

Yes, most every day items are more expensive here. It depends though, if you can live on rice and beans, you can do so quite cheaply, if you want a varied diet with good ingredients you'll pay through the nose.

 

[Starts]

Thanks guys. I know a lot of this stuff has been covered but it's tough to decide, seems like at every turn BA picks my pocket (other areas would be airfare, entry fee, etc.)

 

[Starts]

Remember Xoom will give you pesos, not dollars. I'm not sure if they give you the official rate or blue rate. Many people have opened a bank account in Uruguay and transfer dollars from their account in the US and physically bring cash from Uruguay. As long as you keep transfers to $3,000 US max per month you won't have any problems. BA is really expensive and it will get increasingly more expensive the following year. $1,000 US per month isn't a lot of money here and teaching English pays next to nothing. Check the forum, there are several topics on the difficulties of teaching English.

For reference, they give the blue rate. After facotring in fees, at $1000 US increments I'm getting something like 5.9 pesos exchange rate

 

[la_guachita]

That's AR$ 5,900 per month. If you can live on that in the states, you can live on that here quite easily. That's assuming you don't make it a habit to drink in bars, or have a high-maintenance tastes in terms of beauty treaments, clothes, dining out etc.

 

[citygirl]

That's AR$ 5,900 per month. If you can live on that in the states, you can live on that here quite easily. That's assuming you don't make it a habit to drink in bars, or have a high-maintenance tastes in terms of beauty treaments, clothes, dining out etc.

It's a lot easier to live cheaply in the US (or other countries) than it is here. Lots more inexpensive food options for starters.

To the OP: if money is a concern, I honestly wouldn't recommend Buenos Aires. It's an expensive city and it's getting more so every day. The days of coming here to live reasonably well on $1000 USD are long gone. Look at other destinations.

If you're coming to Buenos Aires because you love it - then do it. But understand that $1000 a month isn't going to allow you to do very much here. You can get by but honestly, travel will be out of the question, going out to nice restaurants will be out of the question, bars will be a 1 drink kind of evening, etc. If that's okay with you, then great but be prepared.

And I wouldn't count on teaching English. It takes time to pick up students and establish a base of clients.

 

[Huxley1234]

$350 a month for rent is way too little. At best you can do around $650, but they have these crazy rules like paying 2 months fee (not a deposit) and signing a 2 year lease. You might find a temp rental with all furniture for around $800 to $1000 and avoid the BS. When looking for apartments look for "Duenos" which means rented by owner.

For getting money out, check out Exchange4free.com -- no fees from bank transfer and really good, high rates (last time I got 6.15 pesos for $1 canadian, gets higher all the time).

Despite what you will hear, it is pretty cheap to live here. But it's not South America cheap. Not an expat haven like Paris of the 1920's. With inflating blue market, it will get cheaper (sort of) next year, but all the prices will go up too.

If you have the ability to come and live here, do it. Life is too short. You just won't have a bunch of extra cash.

And yeah, bring as much hard cash you can before coming. Borrow from friends and family if you need to, I am sure they can give you better interest rates.