Paying for foreign purchases with Arg debit card

[SecretShopper]

I can see why you're surprised and how unbelievable this seems at first. I live in Europe for most of the year, and of course pay for everything with my Argie cards and thus get a 20% instant discount on everything. As others have mentioned, it was 30-35% a year and a half ago (then it was 0-2% for a while and it's been increasing again over the past 6 months). We had a very similar situation around 9 years ago, when there was another cepo.

Your reaction is exactly the same as my European friends', when we split the €50 dinner bill and I just tell them to give me €20 in cash instead of €25. They all ask "...But who's paying for this?!" And I say "The Argentinean government." This might seem unethical to some, but I tell myself this is my reimbursement for all those years I had to pay for private schooling, health, and security because the government failed to provide them.

I just feel like this would somehow come back to bite me in the ass once I applied for citizenship.

 

[bdk1]

I just feel like this would somehow come back to bite me in the ass once I applied for citizenship.

LOL how on Earth would that happen? You're not doing anything illegal.

 

[Fiscal]

What is to stop someone from just buying tens of thousands of dollars in a US dollar stable coin with an Argentinian debit card?

 

[bdk1]

What is to stop someone from just buying tens of thousands of dollars in a US dollar stable coin with an Argentinian debit card?

If you're not an Argie tax resident, your card limits. If you're an Argie tax resident (which is not the same as having a DNI, necessarily), you need to be able to justify your level of expenditure with AFIP.

 

[SecretShopper]

So for Argentine citizens on vacation in other countries, everything is basically at the same discount if using their cards. I was thinking it was the opposite way.

 

[bdk1]

So for Argentine citizens on vacation in other countries, everything is basically at the same discount if using their cards. I was thinking it was the opposite way.

Well there's no discount for them, really, since they earn in ARS. So people just see it as a 65% tax they have to pay on the official rate. It is still cheaper than the blue rate of course, so when peso-earning Argies travel abroad they try to pay as much as they can with their cards and keep the cash.

Basically they just keep two exchange rates in mind: so if you pay for something that's €10 abroad with your card, you think "this is is 2000 pesos," but if you pay in cash you think "this is 2500 pesos."

 

[SecretShopper]

Well there's no discount for them, really, since they earn in ARS. So people just see it as a 65% tax they have to pay on the official rate. It is still cheaper than the blue rate of course, so when peso-earning Argies travel abroad they try to pay as much as they can with their cards and keep the cash.

Basically they just keep two exchange rates in mind: so if you pay for something that's €10 abroad with your card, you think "this is is 2000 pesos," but if you pay in cash you think "this is 2500 pesos.

Even if earning in pesos the reality is that it is still a discount compared to what the rest of the world has to pay.