Exchanging Pesos in the US

[legilber]

Hi Everyone!

We were just discussing changing Pesos to Dollars in the States. Has anyone done this? If so, what kind of rate did they give you?

Or would it just be easier to change the money to travelers checks to cash in the states? Could this help solve the issue of getting USD out of the country?

We're currently selling our car because I never drive and my fiancee uses his work car, and we would like to send some money out of the country when my parents come for a visit.

Thanks!!

 

[ghost]

Hi Everyone!

We were just discussing changing Pesos to Dollars in the States. Has anyone done this? If so, what kind of rate did they give you?

Or would it just be easier to change the money to travelers checks to cash in the states? Could this help solve the issue of getting USD out of the country?

We're currently selling our car because I never drive and my fiancee uses his work car, and we would like to send some money out of the country when my parents come for a visit.

Thanks!!

Sell the car for dollars not pesos. The US exchange house will change pesos to dollars. But the rates are not great becuse no one wants pesos. However Chase Bank seems to offer OK exchange.
Beware of phony Peso notes, they are everywhere.
Good luck

 

[legilber]

If we can sell the call for Dollars, we definitely will. It just seems impossible for people to get dollars, especially after reading that 90% of requests are denied..

Thanks for the advice on Chase if it come to that!

 

[davonz]

I think you will have problems selling the pesos outside of argentina. I have just come back from colombia, where people who had left arg with pesos left over couldnt change them to US$/Euros etc at EZE even with ATM reciept, so they tried to change in colombia, most places wouldnt exchange, and the places that did gave a bad rate - US$1 = AR$5.5 or less..

 

[jimdepalermo]

Passing through JFK last month, I noticed that the exchange booth offered A$R. Curious, I asked the rate - they were selling pesos at 3.6 x USD and they wouldn't buy pesos at all. I would definitely call Chase or whatever bank you plan to use and check the exchange rate before planning such a transaction.

 

[YanquiGallego]

In theory if you converted the pesos with a bank that you hold an account with in the States, they´d have to offer you whatever the ¨official¨ rate is (as official as it gets in Argentina, right? LOL)

Usually the ¨official¨ rate is quoted on XE

This is the site I check out when I use my credit/debit to pay for things, and it does fluctuate quite often on a day to day basis. But I would die if I got a 3,6 exchange rate.

I plan to fly to the States soon to put away some pesos into my Chase account. I will let you guys know si es un KILOMBO.

 

[John.St]

I wonder why Argentinos (and everybody else ?) only think of US$.

I myself keep a small cache of Chilean pesos, which have a growing value towards both the dollar and the AR peso (in december 1,000 CH$ was 1.92 US$ or AR$ 8.20, now it's 2.06 and 9.00 resp).

 

[legilber]

Thanks Yanqui! I'm an American and have bank accounts back home so I'll have to check with my bank to see what going on. Oddly enough there is a Argentine that works at my local branch!

And John St: I think most Americans think in USD.... As we'll eventually be moving back, it'd be nice to put a down payment on a house in an acceptable currency

 

[John.St]

...
And John St: I think most Americans think in USD.... As we'll eventually be moving back, it'd be nice to put a down payment on a house in an acceptable currency

Of course you do, that's quite natural, but my guestimate is that about one third of the members are Argentinos or from elsewhere in the world - and everybody seems to think only in U$S, while there are alternative currencies, which can be used to preserve the value of your money or pay rent, etc.

As a matter of fact I have gained almost 10% (value in AR$) in just 3 months on my CH$.

 

[elhombresinnombre]

I think you will have problems selling the pesos outside of argentina. I have just come back from colombia, where people who had left arg with pesos left over couldnt change them to US$/Euros etc at EZE even with ATM reciept, so they tried to change in colombia, most places wouldnt exchange, and the places that did gave a bad rate - US$1 = AR$5.5 or less..

With respect, if you were in Columbia exchanging real ARS for real USD what you were really doing was changing ARS to COP (I'll take some commission in this trade, thank you kindly) then COP to USD (and I'll take some more commission here too). It's not really fair to compare straight one-to-one exchanges with this.

You've got two other factors militating against the USD you receive. Where you have two non-sexy currencies like the ARS and the COP then there's nothing to weight one against the other more than distance from the border. In other words, ARS are more attractive (for a given value of 'attractive') at the borders shared with Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay where there's a real demand than thousands of kilometers away where there isn't. The other factor is the sexy/non-sexy one. In-demand currencies are sexy and in this neck of the woods, for whatever reasons, nothing is more sexy than the USD. So the person holding the USDs is going to demand a lot of COPs or ARSs to compensate them for handing USDs over.