I have experience living temporarily last year in Santiago, Chile and visiting Buenos Aires. You can get quite close to the dólar blue price to purchase Argentina pesos with your Chilean pesos in the casas de cambio in Providencia or the Santiago Centro. They are all over Providencia, but I found that the ones in the centro give a slightly better exchange rate since Providencia is a little more “cuico.” I had a Charles Schwab account with dollars, which allowed me to withdrawal Chilean pesos at the official US-Chilean exchange rate with no fee, of course. I don’t think there is anything legal about the casas de cambio; they are outside the jurisdication of the Banco Central de Argentina.
Then, October 2012, those pesos were exchanged at a time when the Banco Central de Chile reported 1USD=491CLP and 99CLP = 1 ARS. Or in basic ratios, the official exchange was 491/99 = $4.95 ARS/USD. However, I paid 73 CLP/ARS, receiving $6.73 ARS/USD at the casas de cambio. This was at a time when the dólar blue was a little over 7, last October. Though published rates were lower, I was getting my estimates from US friends who sold their dollars privately to acquaintances.
Today or any day, you can check out the official figures at the
Banco Central de Chile for the observed dollar, around 471 today and then choose the link for the “Otros tipos de cambio nominal” by clicking
Ver lista. You can find el peso argentino, officially today at 90 CLP/ARG. While the Chilean peso has strengthened against the dollar, naturally, the Argentine peso has weakened against the CLP. Officially in Chile, you will buy Argentine pesos through transnational banks at 471/90 = $5.23 ARG/USD. That is, taking out dollars from your US bank account in Chilean pesos at the official rate and then converting them to Argentine pesos at a bank.
Compare that to the CASA DE CAMBIO RATE today, which you can check any time to get an estimate at
http://www.brollano.cl/precios.html or
http://www.cambiosantiago.cl/, $55 CLP/ARG, or 471/55 = $8.56 ARG/USD. Again, I found the slightly better rates were always in Santiago Centro. If you are making a trip anyway, it’s worth it. If not, you have to keep in mind that entering Chile by plane, you get hit with the reciprocity fee among your other travel costs. Though, I can’t imagine how I would feel if I was drawing down on a US account at the official rate. Fortunately, I’m too poor to have that problem!
Also, I have never heard of but just found
other people on baexpats recommending Xoom for slow international wire transfers. I just checked their site and the rate is 8.7389 ARS/USD, though if there is a 3% transfer fee would make it more like 8.48 ARS/USD.
