How do you get dollars in BA?

[solerboy]

A good deal of posts in this website are made by expats who want to get the best price for their dollars and go to great extremes to do so.

A good deal of other posts are regarding Argentine landlords who are deemed evil and greedy for wanting to acheive the same result.

Strange that.

 

[YanquiGallego]

Right, but neither are the ex pats, who, unless they have already arrived in the country with loads of pesos on them (highly unlikely) will most likely be funding said rent payment by going to the ATM-- often times in numerous occasions since the daily limit
In Argentina is absurd--- and the ATM is charging them the "official" rate.

Quien tiene mas razon? Usually IMO it's the client (tenant) who is being naively disadvantaged most and should be the one accommodated .

 

[el_expatriado]

A good deal of posts in this website are made by expats who want to get the best price for their dollars and go to great extremes to do so.

A good deal of other posts are regarding Argentine landlords who are deemed evil and greedy for wanting to acheive the same result.

Strange that.

Thank you for pointing this out. I'll be the first to admit that many Argentines would jump at the chance to cheat an expat out of his/her cash, but demanding that expats pay $6 pesos per dollar for a rental contract signed in dollars is not being greedy. That's the actual rate the Argentine has to pay if he wants to convert those pesos into dollars, either in the black market or on the free market using any number of legal methods that are still available.

Now, if the landlord asks for 7:1 or 8:1, then yes, he's a hijo de puta and he's trying to rip you off. But 6:1 is the actual exchange rate.

ATTENTION EXPATS: 4.5 PESOS WILL NOT BUY YOU A DOLLAR. IT WILL ONLY BUY YOU 75 CENTS.

 

[el_expatriado]

Right, but neither are the ex pats, who, unless they have already arrived in the country with loads of pesos on them (highly unlikely) will most likely be funding said rent payment by going to the ATM-- often times in numerous occasions since the daily limit
In Argentina is absurd--- and the ATM is charging them the "official" rate.

Quien tiene mas razon? Usually IMO it's the client (tenant) who is being naively disadvantaged most and should be the one accommodated .

It is not your landlord's fault that you don't know how to get dollars. If you want to rent an apartment and live in Argentina, you need to start to get creative and wise up (and quickly).

Otherwise you are going to be paying stupid tax. If you want things easily, you shouldn't be living here. Argentina isn't an easy place.

 

[YanquiGallego]

I was literally itching in my seat waiting for a " if you don't like us leave us" remark which tends to be the chorus to many things involving genuine constructive criticism here (here meaning in this board as well as in BA in general)
Fortunately for me, I have been in BA long enough and have lived as a porteño long enough to know the ropes. Perhaps unfortunately for you if any friend advised me on a rental IN DOLLARS at 6:1, I'd prefer to have them move
In with me till they found something else, rather than letting them get ripped
Off like that. You were talking about ME in your
Comment, but again, I reiterate the AVERAGE tenant (obviously based on
The question even asked by the OP) DOESN'T know how to get dollars.

 

[el_expatriado]

I was literally itching in my seat waiting for a " if you don't like us leave us" remark which tends to be the chorus to many things involving genuine constructive criticism here (here meaning in this board as well as in BA in general)
Fortunately for me, I have been in BA long enough and have lived as a porteño long enough to know the ropes. Perhaps unfortunately for you if any friend advised me on a rental IN DOLLARS at 6:1, I'd prefer to have them move
In with me till they found something else, rather than letting them get ripped
Off like that. You were talking about ME in your
Comment, but again, I reiterate the AVERAGE tenant (obviously based on
The question even asked by the OP) DOESN'T know how to get dollars.

You still don't get it. 6:1 is not a rip-off. It is the free market rate. 4.5:1 is a fantasy rate. It doesn't exist in the real world.

Back in 2000 when the Euro first came out 1 dollar was worth 1.2 EUROS. Now it is reversed and the dollar is worth 1.2 to 1 Euro. If you owe me $1000 euros, you are going to have to pay me $1200 USD to cancel that debt if you want to pay in dollars. I won't let you give me $800 USD. I don't care that back in the past that the dollar was worth more. Today it is worth less, so you have to pay me at today's exchange rate.

This is the same thing with the peso. Back in october of 2011, anybody could get dollars for 4.5 pesos. Today no one gets dollars at the rate. If you owe me dollars, I am going too charge you 6 pesos, because that is the rate at which I can get dollars. It is also the rate that other Argentines will accept my pesos for dollars. I am not ripping you off. If you think I am ripping you off, then you obviously think the peso is worth more than what the market thinks it is worth, so stop whining and just pay me in dollars and keep your pesos if you think they are so valuable.

 

[tomdesigns]

One of my friends here just rented an apartment with inflation calculted into the rent agreement. So every 6 months his rent goes up X% in the contract.

Currency incarceration with inflation in the contract Nation. Some place in South America,

 

[Shwidelson]

Everything said, aside from paying for my rent through paypal or regular wire transfer, does anyone have any advice for sorry people like me who have to access all of their cash via ATMs where we get less than 4.5 pesos per?

 

[surfing]

4.50 isn't the real rate? Please inform my US credit card of that.


The "real" rate is the legal interbank exchange rate. There is NO law that says otherwise.


To expect tenants (especially short-term foreigners) to go to an illegal establishment to illegally purchase dollars for your convenience as a landlord is unreasonable. If a tenant wants to do it out of understanding for the position of the landlord that is all good and well but to force them to is not. If the tenant has made a good faith effort to obtain dollars to pay and can not reasonably and lawfully do it that is a problem for the locals to take up with their elected officials.

 

[el_expatriado]

4.50 isn't the real rate? Please inform my US credit card of that. The "real" rate is the legal interbank exchange rate. There is NO law that says otherwise. To expect tenants (especially short-term foreigners) to go to an illegal establishment to illegally purchase dollars for your convenience as a landlord is unreasonable.

The interbank rate is the rate that the Arg gov't sets. That isn't a real free market rate. They set that rate. And if you are using your US credit card here in Argentina, you are gifting money away to the Argie government.

If I was a landlord who charges rent in dollars, it just isn't my business where the tenant gets his dollars from. Maybe he gets it at 4.5 by going to AFIP. Maybe he gets it illegally in the black market. Maybe he gets it legally on the bond market. Maybe his brother brings it to him in a suitcase. I don't know and I don't care. I just want my dollars each month.

I have a suggestion for expats who don't know how to get dollars in Argentina: DON'T RENT AN APARTMENT IN DOLLARS. RENT AN APARTMENT USING PESOS. PROBLEM SOLVED!