Moneda Melodramas

You can get 20 monedas at par at the train stations (once-retiro) at the Banco de La Nacion office, I think the windows close at 7pm, and I've heard of 40 minute waits. Also banks will give monedas, the nicer you are to the teller, and the more they know you, the more you get (I've gotten up to 10 monedas) I'm giving 10 Monedas (at par) with any paid ride by the way! I get a lot of monedas from the toll booths. By the way, the Monedero cards are excellent, and save a lot of hassle.
Fred
www.silverstarcar.com
 
Enough about this and that...as an expat living off and on in BA, I have experienced all of your frustrations. Learn how to pay with certain denominations of bills/or monedas that will make things easier...enjoy the city but be practical. ATMs are not difficult and the previous advice posted was right on..withdraw amounts in odd numbers that give you the opportunity to get bill in various denominations.

Be polite, be respectful...as you should in your home country or any other.

Having small change (monedas) in BA is extremely important when you are riding the bus (monedas mandatory) , making brief calls at locutorios, buying smokes, etc...whatever. It is easy to complain...but,
if you have made the decision to live in BA then you will have to adapt and deal with the financial situation of the country that you choose to live in. As expats we have a responsibility to our native countries and our adopted countries to present ourselves as well educated, polite, and flexible to the neverending barrage of challenges of life, politics, economics, love, and yes...small change.

Just take it one day at a time and learn to be flexible :)

Suerte,
E
 
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SilverStar said:
You can get 20 monedas at par at the train stations (once-retiro) at the Banco de La Nacion office, I think the windows close at 7pm, and I've heard of 40 minute waits. Also banks will give monedas, the nicer you are to the teller, and the more they know you, the more you get (I've gotten up to 10 monedas) I'm giving 10 Monedas (at par) with any paid ride by the way! I get a lot of monedas from the toll booths. By the way, the Monedero cards are excellent, and save a lot of hassle.
Fred
www.silverstarcar.com
Click to expand...

I would just buy 5 different tickets with 2 peso bills at different counters

And preferable after 10
 
Elizabeth said:
Enough about this and that...as an expat living off and on in BA, I have experienced all of your frustrations. Learn how to pay with certain denominations of bills/or monedas that will make things easier...enjoy the city but be practical. ATMs are not difficult and the previous advice posted was right on..withdraw amounts in odd numbers that give you the opportunity to get bill in various denominations.

Be polite, be respectful...as you should in your home country or any other.

Having small change (monedas) in BA is extremely important when you are riding the bus (monedas mandatory) , making brief calls at locutorios, buying smokes, etc...whatever. It is easy to complain...but,
if you have made the decision to live in BA then you will have to adapt and deal with the financial situation of the country that you choose to live in. As expats we have a responsibility to our native countries and our adopted countries to present ourselves as well educated, polite, and flexible to the neverending barrage of challenges of life, politics, economics, love, and yes...small change.

Just take it one day at a time and learn to be flexible :)

Suerte,
E
Click to expand...

E,

Yes, you have to be flexible around here. You have to flexible anywhere, it is just different directions that you're flexing!

And I think that this is a perfect topic for this site. Coming here, I had no idea of the little dances that I had to make at ATMs or for monedas. None of it is terribly hard, but it does require a bit of "thinking ahead" that new expats might not know. As an example, the 'withdraw at odd amounts' advice was something Joe didn't know about/think of, but once you know of it, it makes life much easier.

I'm also not much of a barter-er. I prefer to be told a price and then pay it, but with the monedas and such, you start to get in to that process as well, as indicated.

I've also had to fib more than I'm used to when they ask "Do you have 25 centavos?" at checkout. Yo? No!
 
I got 20 monedas at the Banco de la Nacion on Wednesday at Santa Fe 4162. You do not need to take a number, just go to Caja 1. I was there for another cause but saw the sign for monedas and happily took 20.
 
I was offered AR$20 in monedas today at the bank, but I said that AR$10 would suffice (they were AR$0.50 pieces instead of whole pesos).

Here's the thing... I've got a Citibank credit card. For some reason it's "GOLD". (I don't know why and the card isn't even gold, but is says "GOLD LEVEL".

This allows me TWO things at Citibank banks:

1) I wait in a special Gold & Preferred customer line
2) I get offered up to AR$20 in monedas if they have the spare change


I know that not everyone is Citibank, but if you happen to have one of their credit cards (and many Americans do), this information could make today your lucky day.
 
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