Moving To Ba Soon - And More Currency Questions From A Noob

[BlueArrow]

Hi everyone. I've been a lurker for a long time, as I've been travelling to BA quarterly for work for the past few years, but I'm finally about to make the leap and move to Buenos Aires with my spouse and toddler, so I thought I should finally register. We'll be moving from Michigan to either Recoleta or Palermo. Quite a change!

My company came to me with a great opportunity that I couldn't pass up, so I'm going to make the move to BA. Unlike some employees of my company that go to BA for short periods of time and simply continue to get paid by their home office in the US to their bank account in the US, I'll be an employee of the Buenos Aires office and will get paid into a local bank account.

My primary question: If I'm getting paid in Argentina, how can I get some of that money transferred back into the US so I can pay the bills I still have there? I still have a mortgage and credit card bills in the US, and I'm assuming I can't simply point those accounts to an ARG account and routing number (or can I?) so I'll be transferring money back to the US periodically for that. I also don't want my money devaluing in the form of pesos over time, so I'll transfer some money back to the US just to insulate against that.

I'm under the impression that a wire transfer from an Argentine bank to a US bank would be prohibitively expensive or maybe even not possible - is that an accurate impression?

I've heard of some people using Schwab accounts to get around ATM fees when withdrawing money from a US account, but could a Schwab account help with getting money back to the US?

Is Xoom an option for moving money from Argentina to the Unites States?

Travelling with pockets full of cash is not something I'm looking to do, I want to be able to exercise legitimate transfer options, assuming that some exist.

I know there are lots of threads on this topic, but different people have different situations, so I thought I'd ask and see if anyone has any advice or experiences they can share. And much of the info available online is from prior to the Macri administration, and I'm not exactly clear what has changed in the last year or so...

 

[another]

There are many Americans who live here and need to do the exact opposite on a regular basis, transferring the money from US here that is. Once you are here either go to the coffee chat to meet people or post here again and ask who'd be interested, It's a win win situation for both parties, you give someone pesos here and they will make a bank to bank online transfer from their US account to yours.

 

[BlueArrow]

There are many Americans who live here and need to do the exact opposite on a regular basis, transferring the money from US here that is. Once you are here either go to the coffee chat to meet people or post here again and ask who'd be interested, It's a win win situation for both parties, you give someone pesos here and they will make a bank to bank online transfer from their US account to yours.

Interesting, thanks. I hadn't considered a situation like that.
Are there still significant obstacles in transferring from an Argentine account to an account in the U.S.?

 

[BlueArrow]

No other insight as to what it takes to transfer money from an Argentine bank account to a US bank account?
Sorry, I know the topic has been done to death, I'm just trying to see if the ability to wire money has improved under Macri...

 

[another]

Nothing has improved under Macri nor does he care to improve anything beyond brainwashing the poor bastards and extending his term in the office. Dealing with local banks on any issue whatsoever is excruciatingly painful on a good day and way more so if you are used to the first world ease and convenience of the online banking which allows you to do pretty much anything you can think of. On top of the stress of negotiating with the less than brilliant and by no means eager to do any work at all bank employees, and spending your precious little free time waiting for them to finish their important private conversation in order to give you that welcome look of 'what the hell are you bothering me for', you will be charged en exorbitant amount of money for any basic transaction and end up holding your fingers crossed for them not to screw up after you explained what it is you would like to do - half a dozen time... Even if your castellano is as good as theirs...

 

[Noesdeayer]

I would say that not too much has changed under Macri because he doesn't have a magic wand ( like Kristina said she had,"No era magica") and needs the cooperation of different sectors of society to bring about change and he is not getting that colaboration.Nobody here wants to give up anything they consider "un derecho ganado" or "una conquista social" and as a result you have a total stalemate where the economy does not grow and everyone stays put.
The banking employees are a good example.They know that technology will eventually put them out of work which terrrifies them because they are fully aware that the Argentine economy hasen't grown ihn decades and that they will soon be out in the cold.So they take it out on the customers.
With the Argie mind set change will take years.Macri is not a dictator.He needs colaboraation from the people who expect evything to be one for them and served up to them..

 

[Ries]

the laws that make it difficult to transfer money abroad have nothing to do with bank employees.
I have gotten excellent service several times when I had problems from my Banco Nacion employees.
Its not their fault the law is the law.

that said, getting cash OUT of Argentina is difficult. not impossible, but harder than it should be.

 

[BlueArrow]

the laws that make it difficult to transfer money abroad have nothing to do with bank employees.
I have gotten excellent service several times when I had problems from my Banco Nacion employees.
Its not their fault the law is the law.

that said, getting cash OUT of Argentina is difficult. not impossible, but harder than it should be.

Ries, sounds like you have an account with Banco Nacion... Have you tried to wire money back to the US since Macri supposedly loosened capital controls? Do you know what the current limits, fees and documentation requirements are?

 

[flagone]

I was planning on opening a new Citibank account here in the states, before moving there, since they have Citibanks there. In 2001, I paid no fees on my then USA Citibank ATM withdrawals in Argentina- has that changed? Is a Schwaub account better for withdrawals?
And Blue Arrow I would be scared to death to get paid in Pesos.
Best of luck

 

[Rich One]

I was planning on opening a new Citibank account here in the states, before moving there, since they have Citibanks there. In 2001, I paid no fees on my then USA Citibank ATM withdrawals in Argentina- has that changed? Is a Schwaub account better for withdrawals?
And Blue Arrow I would be scared to death to get paid in Pesos.
Best of luck

Citibank commercial banking operations in Argentina have been recently purchased by Banco Santander Rio.