Need suggestions - Credit Card in Argentina for citizen

[Stevied]

Hi Everyone,

Not exactly an expat question, but hopefully someone can help anyway. We live in the US (my wife is Argentine). Our niece lives in Buenos Aires; is a university student (over 21); and has a job that is en negro. She has a bank account at Galicia, and we supplement her income with cash to her account via western union. It would be very convenient for her to have a credit card - but we can’t figure out how she can get one under these circumstances. In the US there would be multiple ways (my daughter had one as a university student with no job). We would happily co-sign, but (a) we don’t live in Argentina; and (b) we are both retired. Does anyone have any ideas?

S

 

[carride]

Hi Everyone,

Not exactly an expat question, but hopefully someone can help anyway. We live in the US (my wife is Argentine). Our niece lives in Buenos Aires; is a university student (over 21); and has a job that is en negro. She has a bank account at Galicia, and we supplement her income with cash to her account via western union. It would be very convenient for her to have a credit card - but we can’t figure out how she can get one under these circumstances. In the US there would be multiple ways (my daughter had one as a university student with no job). We would happily co-sign, but (a) we don’t live in Argentina; and (b) we are both retired. Does anyone have any ideas?

S

Brubank and Ualá are both good options for prepaid cards. Like a debit card. I was able to quickly receive these a few years ago. An advantage of these two banks is the ability to build history to eventually request one of their credit cards.

You can send money with western union the same way you have been doing to your nieces Galicia CBU checking or savings account. It is worth having a backup, and MoneyGram is one which also sends to CVU. WU has only recently added the option to send to CVU instead of CBU. Argentina has two type of account networks for handling transfers. CVU and the classic CBU. Brubank is CBU, and Ualá default is CVU, though since their merge of Wilobank they also have CBU accounts. https://www.santanderpost.com.ar/articulo/cbu-vs-cvu-cuales-son-sus-principales-diferencias/

The two cards I mention are not the only ones, though were some of the first FinTechs that filled the hole to provide banking for large percentage of people in Argentina who were outside the banking system. You should be able to investigate others. I believe, MercadoPago also has a physical prepaid card as a CVU account option.

Finally you should keep track of the limits that ARCA has set for transfers and spending. Not blocks, but flags that might be raised if monthly are reached. https://baexpats.org/threads/arca-i...resholds-for-virtual-wallets-and-banks.48450/

 

[FrankPintor]

Hi Everyone,

Not exactly an expat question, but hopefully someone can help anyway. We live in the US (my wife is Argentine). Our niece lives in Buenos Aires; is a university student (over 21); and has a job that is en negro. She has a bank account at Galicia, and we supplement her income with cash to her account via western union. It would be very convenient for her to have a credit card - but we can’t figure out how she can get one under these circumstances. In the US there would be multiple ways (my daughter had one as a university student with no job). We would happily co-sign, but (a) we don’t live in Argentina; and (b) we are both retired. Does anyone have any ideas?

S

And this is not exactly a response to your questions, but I am a bit surprised, I opened a Galicia account a few months ago, and apart from the standard debit card I was immediately offered not one, but two credit cards. All without having deposited anything in my account.

Working "en negro" is very common here, I don't think it should be a problem, as long as there is regular income in your niece's account.

Maybe it's as simple as applying for the CC in the Galicia app? Or going into her branch and requesting a CC?

 

[Rich One]

You niece can obtain a CC from Naranja X or Carrefour/Jumbo.