MC/Visa Lower than official rate USD

[Nortesur]

MC/Visa Purchases today were significantly below the offical and the MEP rate. I was getting 1,080 on purchases with a USD card with the BNA at 1100 and the MEP at 1143. When did cards stop using MEP rate? The Visa and MC websites are still up saying they use the MEP or close to it. Any insights? Other experiences?

 

[carride]

The fact is that many days since Dec 2022, the credit card rate has been well below the MEP. The MEP is the rate that is used as a reference for Visa/MC which has always been approximately 2.5%-8% less than the MEP. Never exactly the MEP, and never more either. As reported here in these forums many times. I would search to find those cases reported in forums, but it was quicker to pick a random day in MEP history for me to find an example.

2024-Dec-04 the MEP was 1076.34 which was the day the Visa credit card used to set the rate the next Day
So on 2024-Dec-05 the Visa calculator shows 1 USD = 1008.179968 ARS
Math proves that on that day the credit card was 6.33% less than MEP. There are many other days you can search and find to confirm. There were many worse days, and many better days than that percentage

The only reason you notice it more now, is because the MEP and Offical rate are very close to each other. The Brecha is almost nothing! So you are unfortunately getting a credit card rate less than the official. Today the Visa rate is 7.35% less than yesterday close of MEP

Cotización Dólar MEP Histórico | Ámbito

Cotización minuto a minuto del dólar MEP. Conoce todo sobre el precio histórico del dólar MEP.

www.ambito.com

 

[AdrianB]

Whenever I checked between November 2023 and June 2024 it was almost always 7% bellow MEP, so nothing new.