Newbie 3 Xoom Questions

[artur]

yeah im sending the max 2999USD..so the convenience of Xoom is ideal 1x/month.

@[background=rgb(230, 230, 230)]johnniewalker i created a xoom account but i stated that my country of residency = USA ( even though i permanently live here ) - u think that will be an issue?[/background]

 

[D.B. Cooper]

I don´t think that should be a problem. You have to have a US address to open an account.

 

[Nitale]

The maximum withdrawal in Buenos Aires is $2000 pesos per transaction, but you can do that multiple times per day at the official rate of $12.96. And, Charles Schwab bank refunds all my ATM fees, so I do not have to worry about that.

Still, even if you have to pay the $70 peso withdrawal fee, you would be getting a rate at the ATM of $12.52. Xoom's rates vary - U$S 500 is $12.72, U$S 1000 is $12.74, U$S 2000 is $12.93.

For that small difference, I'd rather have the convenience of going to a local ATM and withdrawing my money as I need it than dealing with Xoom, picking up money, etc.

Really? Lucky you! May I know which bank? I haven't been able to withdraw pesos with my US bank debit card from any Banelco in town, and I have tried many. My account is in perfect standing and they know absolutely nothing about problems in Argentina.. Still I get the message "you are not allowed to used your card at this machine!.Local bank officials claim to know nothing. Any help will be greatly appreciate - and yes, I have tried Citibank machine as well and can only get very small amount of pesos.

 

[jantango]

You have to have a US address to open an account.

Not true. XOOM transfers only from USA bank accounts. They do not require you live in the USA or have a USA address. My bank account has my Buenos Aires address, and I've had no problem with transfers to myself.

 

[Sleuth]

Really? Lucky you! May I know which bank? I haven't been able to withdraw pesos with my US bank debit card from any Banelco in town, and I have tried many. My account is in perfect standing and they know absolutely nothing about problems in Argentina.. Still I get the message "you are not allowed to used your card at this machine!.Local bank officials claim to know nothing. Any help will be greatly appreciate - and yes, I have tried Citibank machine as well and can only get very small amount of pesos.

Charles Schwab Bank is the best one to use here. They have no foreign currency fees and refund the ATM fees other banks charge. Still, US bank debit cards should work fine here. I know of people using Chase, Citibank and Bank of America with no problems (other than high fees). I put together a guide on using the ATMs in Argentina.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Not true. XOOM transfers only from USA bank accounts. They do not require you live in the USA or have a USA address. My bank account has my Buenos Aires address, and I've had no problem with transfers to myself.

When I was trying to open my xoom account I called their office for some help. I was told by them that I needed to have a US address.
I told them that I no longer lived there. The xoom op. told me I could use the address of my bank. And so I did. That's how I was able to open an account.
Maybe the xoom op. was misinformed. (?)

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Really? Lucky you! May I know which bank? I haven't been able to withdraw pesos with my US bank debit card from any Banelco in town, and I have tried many. My account is in perfect standing and they know absolutely nothing about problems in Argentina.. Still I get the message "you are not allowed to used your card at this machine!.Local bank officials claim to know nothing. Any help will be greatly appreciate - and yes, I have tried Citibank machine as well and can only get very small amount of pesos.

If its a debit card you might try a regular CC instead. Also I've heard that cards with chips in them will not work in some machines. (?)

 

[jantango]

http://www.discoverbuenosaires.com/using-atm-argentina

 

[Somewhereinba]

I managed 2500 pesos in 1 transaction. I went down in increments of 500 pesos starting at 5000 until it gave me the go ahead.

 

[bostoniano]

My personal experience with Xoom has been shaky lately, but I still manage to get my money in the end.

In Argentina there is a limit of something like 40K pesos per year before they start asking you for paperwork. After you hit the limit they will ask for proof of income such as bank statements. However if you are living off of your savings and don't currently have an income, you could probably fake these statements.

Although Xoom will send you a message saying your money is ready for pickup, More Money Transfers (Xoom's Argentine partner) may put you on hold until you provide the correct documentation. At times More Money Transfers has put my transaction on hold but not informed Xoom. So when I went to pickup my money it wasn't available.

If you are outside of Buenos Aires don't expect all locations to process your transaction right away. I once took a trip to Salta on a Friday in order to pickup money but when I got there they said they didn't have enough money on hand to pay me (even though I had called More Money Transfers in BA beforehand to verify everything was OK). I spent the weekend in Salta and returned on Monday only to find out their system was down. I ended up leaving Salta without my money and had to cancel the transaction.

On another occasion I went to pickup my money in Tucuman and was told the woman who took care of transfers was on vacation and would not be back for a couple of weeks. That cash pickup point however has since been closed.

Once again many of these issues I have had were at pickup points outside of Buenos Aires and Cordoba. In BA and Cordoba things go much smoother.

Whenever somebody I know is in Uruguay I send money to them in dollars and have them bring it to me. The only issue I have had with this was Xoom requesting that the recipient have a Uruguayan phone number and not an Argentine one. Leaving the number of the hotel where the recipient is staying usually works but once they wanted a mobile number since the recipiente wasn't at the hotel when they called.

I have also done this by sending money to an Argentine friend who lives on the Argentine/Bolivian border. However More Money Transfers would only allow somebody with a Bolivian ID to pickup the money (Although there is nothing on the Xoom website that mentions this). Thankfully my friend has an aunt that lives in Bolivia and I was able to transfer the money to her.

If you do pickup dollars make sure you check for fakes. There is supposedly some very good fake dollars floating around that will pass the pen/marker test and have a metallic strip in them. I have yet to see them and in all my transactions with More Money Transfers have never received any fake dollars or pesos, but double check the bills anyways.

One last thing about getting dollars from More Money Transfers: In Bolivia they gave my friend a few 100 dollar bills with stamps or other markings on them. In Argentina this isn't as much of an issue as it is in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, but many banks/exchange houses will only accept dollars if they are in perfect condition. So when a friend who was in route to Ecuador asked me to sell him some dollars he rejected the two or three bills that had markings on them since he knew they would give him problems.