Foreign credit cards purchases at MEP rate

[earlyretirement]

Yes and that's blowing out to 10+% with exchange rates currently going ballistic and the lag it takes for Visa, etc to update their rates. They don't update the rate in real time. From my observation, Visa only seems to update the rate once per day.

To be clear, foreign credit/debit cards never got the actual MEP rate. They get a rate close to, but slightly lower than the MEP, as noted here on this Visa Argentina link: https://www.visa.com.ar/support/consumer/travel-support/tipo-de-cambio-english.html. I think the media got this wrong when the news first broke. So yes, the title of this thread is a little misleading in that regard.

As a tourist, how can I benefit from it?
Every time a foreign tourist pays for something in Argentina with a credit, debit or prepaid Visa card issued abroad, a preferential rate will be applied, which is slightly lower than the rate resulting from the “Dollar MEP” (aka “Mercado Electrónico de Pagos" or "Dólar Bolsa")

Yep. Exactly. That's been my experience as well.

The exchange rate conversion has been fairly accurate with this page - https://usa.visa.com/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html

As of this morning about 412 pesos to $1 US which is a far cry from the blue rate of 485 to $1 US that I see listed on https://www.ambito.com/contenidos/dolar.html but it sure is super convenient to just use your credit cards. It will be interesting to see what happens to this MEP rate with the market in such fast moving swings.

 

[Lex]

Yep. Exactly. That's been my experience as well.

The exchange rate conversion has been fairly accurate with this page - https://usa.visa.com/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html

As of this morning about 412 pesos to $1 US which is a far cry from the blue rate of 485 to $1 US that I see listed on https://www.ambito.com/contenidos/dolar.html but it sure is super convenient to just use your credit cards.

Yes or 420 if you have a card that doesn't charge a bank fee! Not that far off WU which is at 444.5 right now (even closer if you have to pay WU fee). Incidentally, WU has a similar time lag to update to the equally rapidly moving CCL.

 

[Maikito]

222? Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Jteee]

222? Am I doing something wrong?

View attachment 8791View attachment 8791

Yes, the exchange only works ARS -> USD. The other direction was exploited and thus reverted.

other direction shows

1000 ARS = 2.427208 USD​

1 ARS = 0.002427 USD

1 USD = 411.996073 ARS

Currencies fluctuate every day. The rate shown is effective for transactions submitted to Visa on 04/25/2023, with a bank foreign transaction fee of 2.0.

 

[Maikito]

Yes, the exchange only works ARS -> USD. The other direction was exploited and thus reverted.

other direction shows

1000 ARS = 2.427208 USD​

1 ARS = 0.002427 USD

1 USD = 411.996073 ARS

Currencies fluctuate every day. The rate shown is effective for transactions submitted to Visa on 04/25/2023, with a bank foreign transaction fee of 2.0.

Thank you for the clarification, because I was so confused.

 

[argentinaorbust]

As of this morning about 412 pesos to $1 US which is a far cry from the blue rate of 485 to $1 US that I see listed on https://www.ambito.com/contenidos/dolar.html but it sure is super convenient to just use your credit cards. It will be interesting to see what happens to this MEP rate with the market in such fast moving swings.

Ambito is the "central cueva" rate. You can find people who pay that rate in cash, but it's probably shady people & you'll eventually have to worry about fake bills, robberies, etc. If they're giving you that rate then they're making their money in other ways, not by foreign exchange.

A real, trustworthy, reliable & community vetted cueva (that isn't going to rob you, that stamps their bills, has police protection, etc) is going to be ambito/cronista - 2-3%.

 

[SanTelmoForever]

Ambito is the "central cueva" rate. You can find people who pay that rate in cash, but it's probably shady people & you'll eventually have to worry about fake bills, robberies, etc. If they're giving you that rate then they're making their money in other ways, not by foreign exchange.

A real, trustworthy, reliable & community vetted cueva (that isn't going to rob you, that stamps their bills, has police protection, etc) is going to be ambito/cronista - 2-3%.

This is simply untrue. There are plenty of reliable cuevas that almost always pay the rate that you find in Ambito. (When things are crazy like this past week, the prices are sometimes a little worse, but I sold dollars three different days in the past week and got 1 or 2 pesos less than what was published in Ambito at the moment, using two different cuevas.)

You do have to be careful, however, because there are also those "shady people" doing this. The trick is to find a reliable cueva (or preferably two or three), and stick with them. I've been dealing with the arbolitos since the dollar blue started and have almost never had a problem, and I've almost always gotten the rates published in Ambito.

 

[lunar]

... There are plenty of reliable cuevas that almost always pay the rate that you find in Ambito...

You are confusing the cause and effect. The Ambito conducts daily phone surveys of prices in cuevas. That's why the dollar blue rate it reports is fairly close to the actual rate.

 

[Quilombo]

My general rule is this, check https://dolarhoy.com/ as I'm going in to the cave, see their offer, it's if it's the same (or better, I often get better with my cave for some reason) I take, if not, I negotiate, show them the latest, and they usually say fine. Tourists don't know what the rate should really be and will be happy to get more than the MEP or former official rate, and when you show you know how it works they're less likely to screw around with you.

 

[SanTelmoForever]

You are confusing the cause and effect. The Ambito conducts daily phone surveys of prices in cuevas. That's why the dollar blue rate it reports is fairly close to the actual rate.

I guess you don't have much experience with cuevas. I do. (And I know how Ambito supposedly gets its information, the survey of cuevas. Do you have any idea how many cuevas there are? How many cuevas do you think Ambito surveys? And how do you think that all the newspapers have the same prices within minutes of each other, even when the prices are changing rapidly? These past few days the blue price was changing sometimes five times or more in an hour. Think about it.)

The other day I went to the cueva I use most. He was offering 4 pesos less than Ambito was showing. His price 422, Ambito 426. So I said I'd return, and I walked around Florida and asked prices. I was offered prices of 415, 410, 412 and 416. They all insisted it was their best price, even when I showed them Ambito's price. "No, no, señor. Imposible." I went back to my cueva and got 423.