Foreign credit cards purchases at MEP rate

[Jtee125]

From a UK perspective, showed 430ish yesterday and today shows 220

 

[SanTelmoForever]

Why does this sudden problem not surprise me somehow?

 

[Johnny]

Why does this sudden problem not surprise me somehow?

Plenty of possible guilty parties. Yes, not surprising.

Are all of the posts from today referencing Visa cards. Any problems with Mastercard?

 

[an_da]

This is happening because there was a big Visa AR$ rate scam in Europe last week - people were buying things online from Apple shops, Amazon etc. simply by changing their currency to AR$, so the conversion rate was favourable and they saved 40% on each transaction. Visa decided to seal this loophole, but this was only to apply to transactions that take place outside Argentina. Maybe they are still adjusting systems and temporarily there is an official rate for all.

40-Prozent-Rabatt mit Visa-Kreditkarten: Finanzkonzern deutet Ende an | FinanceFWD

Ein Shopping-Trick kursiert im Internet: Wer mit seiner Visa-Kreditkarte bezahlt, kann bis zu 40 Prozent bei den Online-Einkäufen sparen – er muss dafür nur Argentinischen Peso verwenden. Der Kreditkarten-Konzern hält sich zu den Hintergründen bedeckt. Doch ein Dokument gibt nun Aufschluss, wie...

financefwd.com

 

[earlyretirement]

Can confirm, my visa is charging the official rate now. Yesterday afternoon it was charging the good rate.

Yes, that's why I posted about it. I wanted to warn all the expats to probably not make big purchases. I made a big 500,000 peso purchase and just charged it to my card. I'm willing to lose a little for convenience but I ended up going back to the store and cancelling the credit card and paying in cash.

I don't know what's going on with Mastercard but I probably wouldn't chance it until there is more clarity.

 

[earlyretirement]

This is happening because there was a big Visa AR$ rate scam in Europe last week - people were buying things online from Apple shops, Amazon etc. simply by changing their currency to AR$, so the conversion rate was favourable and they saved 40% on each transaction. Visa decided to seal this loophole, but this was only to apply to transactions that take place outside Argentina. Maybe they are still adjusting systems and temporarily there is an official rate for all.

40-Prozent-Rabatt mit Visa-Kreditkarten: Finanzkonzern deutet Ende an | FinanceFWD

Ein Shopping-Trick kursiert im Internet: Wer mit seiner Visa-Kreditkarte bezahlt, kann bis zu 40 Prozent bei den Online-Einkäufen sparen – er muss dafür nur Argentinischen Peso verwenden. Der Kreditkarten-Konzern hält sich zu den Hintergründen bedeckt. Doch ein Dokument gibt nun Aufschluss, wie...

financefwd.com

I always wondered about the possibility to do this! Yes, that sounds like the reason Visa just shut down the entire MEP rate on their platform. Hopefully they bring it back soon. It was super convenient just paying with credit card for everything.

 

[sts7049]

i wish i could say i was surprised that morons and low life losers would find a way to screw up a good thing, but i'm not.

 

[Jtee125]

Does anyone know if this also affects Mastercard? Kicking myself now for not having got a Mastercard credit card in the last couple months

 

[Sudovest]

Does this affect Visa and AMEX? I can't believe this. I should have bought my flights a few days ago instead of waiting.

 

[Johnny]

Does anyone know if this also affects Mastercard? Kicking myself now for not having got a Mastercard credit card in the last couple months

Same here. The danger of this whole thing collapsing seems all too real.