how to pay online with pesos / Mercado Pago if no DNI

[gomisha]

I've been in BA for a month (on a tourist visa) and have been paying for everything in cash (after wiring pesos to myself with Western Union). I want to book flights online within the country but I would be forced to use my Canadian credit card and paying double (since I'd be forced to use the official exchange rate). I tried to sign up for Mercado Pago but they require a DNI which I don't have.

Is there a way to pay online with pesos for non-residents?

 

[antipodean]

I've been in BA for a month (on a tourist visa) and have been paying for everything in cash (after wiring pesos to myself with Western Union). I want to book flights online within the country but I would be forced to use my Canadian credit card and paying double (since I'd be forced to use the official exchange rate). I tried to sign up for Mercado Pago but they require a DNI which I don't have.

Is there a way to pay online with pesos for non-residents?

With FlyBondi you can pay cash in pesos at a PagoFacil office - select this option at the time of booking and you’ll have 24 or 48 or something like that to go and pay.

 

[SecretShopper]

If flying within the country you can go to a local branch and pat in cash. We'll assuming you're flying aero Argentina. If not, use the above method.

 

[Quilombo]

I've been in BA for a month (on a tourist visa) and have been paying for everything in cash (after wiring pesos to myself with Western Union). I want to book flights online within the country but I would be forced to use my Canadian credit card and paying double (since I'd be forced to use the official exchange rate). I tried to sign up for Mercado Pago but they require a DNI which I don't have.

Is there a way to pay online with pesos for non-residents?

For flights see if you can pay in a branch here in the city, as for other purchases, i.e. physical goods, some companies accept payment via PagoFacil/RapiPago/ProvinciaNET, in which case you go to any location and pay in cash with the payment number.

Others want transferencia, which I've only ever done from my/my husband's account online, so I'm not sure if this is possible still, but at one time you could do a payment at the recipient's bank's ATMs where you enter their account number and deposit the cash to their account via the ATM, though given KYC regulations I doubt this is possible still.

As for DNI, previously when I didn't have one I just put my passport number with leading 0s.

 

[gomisha]

As for DNI, previously when I didn't have one I just put my passport number with leading 0s.

Thank you for the helpful info! When you used your passport number with leading 0s for Mercado Pago, how did you link it to a funding source? Did you have a local bank account? Or is there a way I can directly add cash to my Mercado Pago account?

 

[gomisha]

With FlyBondi you can pay cash in pesos at a PagoFacil office - select this option at the time of booking and you’ll have 24 or 48 or something like that to go and pay.

Thank you for the helpful info. So it looks like PagoFacil is a convenient way to pay for online purchases for non-residents. This is assuming the merchant offers this method, of course.

 

[Kula]

Thank you for the helpful info! When you used your passport number with leading 0s for Mercado Pago, how did you link it to a funding source? Did you have a local bank account? Or is there a way I can directly add cash to my Mercado Pago account?

Forget Mercadowhatever you can't register without DNI

 

[Quilombo]

Thank you for the helpful info! When you used your passport number with leading 0s for Mercado Pago, how did you link it to a funding source? Did you have a local bank account? Or is there a way I can directly add cash to my Mercado Pago account?

This doesn't apply to Mercadolibre/pago, only websites such as Aerolineas Argentinas or LAN (this was in the early 2010s) that asked for a DNI I didn't yet have. If my passport was AB123456 I entered 00123456 or 12345600.