How do you get dollars in BA?

[elalancito]

I would find a new landlord. Some landlords are using the official rate and others are willing to split the difference between the official rate and the parallel market rate. 4800 pesos for $US 800 is an extortion. I would just find another apartment and deal with someone who is more reasonable.

 

[el_expatriado]

I would find a new landlord. Some landlords are using the official rate and others are willing to split the difference between the official rate and the parallel market rate. 4800 pesos for $US 800 is an extortion. I would just find another apartment and deal with someone who is more reasonable.

It is not extortion, that is the real rate to buy $800 USD on the open market. If the poster can get a better rate (doubtful) then he/she should pay in dollars instead of pesos.

 

[elalancito]

It is not an extortion? You are paying at the highest-possible black market rate. There are other landlords who are more reasonable than that. My landlord accepts PayPal for example. She gets her payment in US dollars and I am not paying any more than my agreed upon rental fee. Other landlords have come up with ways to work with tenants. Charging the max black market rate is not an extortion? C'mon.

 

[YanquiGallego]

Expatriado, I can appreciate what you are saying and obviously knew this. However, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that most perma tourists come here and lease with nothing but their passport. I think it's important to point out to them that any supposed "contract" is null and void under these conditions and that while obviously if they don't pay they can expect to have their stuff on the street, there is nothing that the contract holds them accountable for--- certainly not accommodating the land lady with black market rates!

 

[Shwidelson]

Stop whining people. The 4.5 rate is not a real rate. No one can get it. If you signed a contract in dollars, either pay the dollars or pay the pesos at the 6:1 rate, which is the market rate.

To answer the poster's question... $800 USD and $4800 pesos is THE SAME. You are not being cheated one way or the other. It will cost you exactly the same to either pay in pesos or dollars. Sign the contract either in pesos or in dollars and then pay what you need to pay each month. If you ask me, I would rather sign in pesos. I'm sure that long term the peso is going to keep losing value.

It's absolutely not the same if you don't already have physical dollars in country and have to access cash via ATMs. Not sure how it works if your money is in something other than dollars, but when extracting cash from a US bank account in dollars out of an ATM it gives you pesos at the rate of 4.5 (actually less because the bank takes their cut too, and ATM fees of course) and so in this very important sense it is indeed a real rate, and you do lose the difference if you have to then pay additional pesos to match the black market rate. This is obvious so maybe I didn't read right and I'm missing something. But whatever.

 

[el_expatriado]

It is not an extortion? You are paying at the highest-possible black market rate. There are other landlords who are more reasonable than that. My landlord accepts PayPal for example. She gets her payment in US dollars and I am not paying any more than my agreed upon rental fee. Other landlords have come up with ways to work with tenants. Charging the max black market rate is not an extortion? C'mon.

You just proved yourself wrong! Don't you see? You are paying in DOLLARS via PayPal, NOT PESOS. So your landlord is no more reasonable than the next. Let's see if you try to give your landlord pesos next month what she will say.

And the 4.5 rate is not the real rate. 6.0 is the real rate and it is a legal rate. You can get dollars legally at 6.0. The black market rate is 5.9 or so.

 

[Shwidelson]

I guess the options of paying through Paypal or wiring directly from your account into their's avoids having your dollars converted? This must be what I was missing.

 

[YanquiGallego]

I think it's smart for the OP to tell his/her land lady the practice she insists on is totally unacceptable, not to mention unethical, and walk away. There are tons of rentals in BA---especially now. Let's wake up and smell the coffee folks. Change will not happen unless we make it happen. I can't fathom rental prices in BA. In Mexico City which IMO is a much hotter and more stable market today than BA, I can get a 2 bedroom in the highly highly exclusive polanco district (blows recoleta out of the water) in mex pesos at an equivalent now of about 1200 usd.

 

[el_expatriado]

It's absolutely not the same if you don't already have physical dollars in country and have to access cash via ATMs. Not sure how it works if your money is in something other than dollars, but when extracting cash from a US bank account in dollars out of an ATM it gives you pesos at the rate of 4.5 (actually less because the bank takes their cut too, and ATM fees of course) and so in this very important sense it is indeed a real rate, and you do lose the difference if you have to then pay additional pesos to match the black market rate. This is obvious so maybe I didn't read right and I'm missing something. But whatever.

Yes, this is correct. That's why the payment should be done via wire transfer. You can wire the dollars directly the landlord's bank account. The landlord should specify the account where they want the dollars wired to.

 

[el_expatriado]

I think it's smart for the OP to tell his/her land lady the practice she insists on is totally unacceptable, not to mention unethical, and walk away. There are tons of rentals in BA---especially now. Let's wake up and smell the coffee folks. Change will not happen unless we make it happen. I can't fathom rental prices in BA. In Mexico City which IMO is a much hotter and more stable market today than BA, I can get a 2 bedroom in the highly highly exclusive polanco district (blows recoleta out of the water) in mex pesos at an equivalent now of about 1200 usd.

Exactly. This is a free market. If the OP doesn't accept the price he/she can walk and go rent something else. There are plenty of places to rent here in BA. But I don't agree that it is unethical.

I accept pesos at 6.0 to 1 when someone who owes me dollars wants to pay me in pesos. This is the price at which I can legally convert pesos to dollars using a bond swap method. The 4.5 rate is not a real rate because even if you are 100% in white and pay all your taxes, they will not let you buy dollars at this rate. Last week they weren't authorizing people to buy not even a single dollar at 4.5. So expats need to adjust to the reality on the ground and not expect Argentines to take their pesos for 4.5. Argentines are not stupid.