Is there now a black market for hard currency?

[PhilipDT]

i'm guessing that if they went to these peoples hotel then they werent getting top dollar (peso). If you walk down florida you'll hear people yelling, dolares dolares. Just go up and ask them how much. They'll ask if you have big bills or small ones and then give you the rate. I'd recommend checking a few places out without carrying a ton of cash on you for obvious reasons. Go back to the non sketchy looking places.

 

[evitaduarte]

i'm guessing that if they went to these peoples hotel then they werent getting top dollar (peso). If you walk down florida you'll hear people yelling, dolares dolares. Just go up and ask them how much. They'll ask if you have big bills or small ones and then give you the rate. I'd recommend checking a few places out without carrying a ton of cash on you for obvious reasons. Go back to the non sketchy looking places.

I have as much faith in the honesty of Calle Florida money changers/ hawkers - even to provide an honest exchange rate quotation - as I do in the ability of "milanesas para todo" to resolve the problems of hunger in Argentina. And while I sincerely appreciate the immediacy of your reply, guessing is not helpful. What is today's black market rate?

 

[jb5]

You can avoid ATM fees by having an account at an international bank like HSBC or Citi.

The risk of carrying a lot of cash--and it's significant here--is probably not worth the current spread.

 

[PhilipDT]

I have as much faith in the honesty of Calle Florida money changers/ hawkers - even to provide an honest exchange rate quotation - as I do in the ability of "milanesas para todo" to resolve the problems of hunger in Argentina. And while I sincerely appreciate the immediacy of your reply, guessing is not helpful. What is today's black market rate?

I quoted it earlier

http://www.dolarcotizacionhoy.com.ar/dolar-paralelo-argentina/

 

[PhilipDT]

You can avoid ATM fees by having an account at an international bank like HSBC or Citi.

The risk of carrying a lot of cash--and it's significant here--is probably not worth the current spread.

Do you use CITI? Because I use HSBC and let me tell you that it doesn't work as simply as you're portraying it. You can as a premier member create an ARGENTINE account here into which you can transfer monies from your US HSBC account, which you can then withdraw from your new tax applicable argentine bank account.

If citi is more straight forward I may be in the market to switch.

 

[jb5]

No, I use HSBC too. As a premier member you can take $5,000/mo US out of your US account (amazing, they want to limit tourists spending their own money here!) plus $3,000 pesos daily out of their ATMs. And as you say, you can open an Argentine account and transfer anything more you need that way. It's about as good as it gets.

I was going to check out Citi, but I had a long talk with the bank and it's Argentine rules, not HSBC.

 

[evitaduarte]

I quoted it earlier

http://www.dolarcotizacionhoy.com.ar/dolar-paralelo-argentina/

Sorry, I overlooked the quote from dolarhoy.
La diferencia entre dolar oficial y dolar paralelo se amplía. Mientras que
en el mercado minorista formal, el dolar se pactó plano a $ 4,23 para la compra y $ 4,27 vendedor, en el mercado paralelo el dolar llegó a cotizar hasta $ 5,15 ayer, segundo día de la puesta en marcha del “cerco cambiario”, como le dicen algunos analistas.
If I can get 5 pesos at a casa de cambio as opposed to 4.24 from an ATM you can bet I will be coming with dollars.