Preferred Method Of Receiving Salary

[ElCordobés]

El CordobÉs,

Brou has given you ATM card or debit card ( I opened my BROU account in 2007 and I still have ATM card, with a updated one in 2010).

what do you mean "two debit cards"? two for one account?

Thanks

Sorry...should clarify. ATM-only. My wife is on the account. So we have one for each of us. No names on them...just numbers.

 

[wintermild]

Paypal can send you a check to Argentina (tried it once and it worked), which you can cash for official exchange rate at banks...not an optimal solution, but something to keep in mind...

Otherwise you can also try Skrill instead of Paypal. Skrill has much lower fees and is more customer-friendly.
You still have the problem of getting out your money, but at least you can transfer it to any bank account with low fees and they do have some other options, which I didn't try, but they might be worth checking out...

 

[Alzinho]

3) Find a cueva and wire money to the banks accounts outside of Argentina that they point you to. You are probably looking at 4-6% payment to the cueva for moving your money. The advantage is you can have dollars, or pesos at a good blue rate based on the amount you sent down.

Money can come from your bank account or direct from your employer.

4) Find someone here who wants to get money out of the country. Could be expats who sold a house or something, people of whatever nationality who have businesses that generate a lot of cash, etc. The good thing about this is that it generally doesn't cost you anything except transaction fees. wire the money to their account outside of the country and they give you the cash here, at whatever rate you may have agreed to (I use Ambito nowadays and average the buy/sell price). These are not easy to find, and what i call the "good" way.

During my 8 years of transferring my monthly (USD) salary in Argentina I mainly used method 3, until they increased their fees from 1% to 4%. Then I got lucky and found an American with a business Argentina who needs to transfer regular dollar amounts to the US and switched to method 4. He charged me 2.5%, which bugged me at first, but it's all business to him and I'd rather give it to an American than to a local money broker! Both methods resulted in me having the USD in my hands and after so many years I already had contacts for the best Blue rates available.

 

[ElQueso]

During my 8 years of transferring my monthly (USD) salary in Argentina I mainly used method 3, until they increased their fees from 1% to 4%. Then I got lucky and found an American with a business Argentina who needs to transfer regular dollar amounts to the US and switched to method 4. He charged me 2.5%, which bugged me at first, but it's all business to him and I'd rather give it to an American than to a local money broker! Both methods resulted in me having the USD in my hands and after so many years I already had contacts for the best Blue rates available.

Yeah, same for me. I still have contact with a good, small, cueva where I used to get my money before he started charging 3% (at the time I thought that was horribly exorbitant! Heh.). But even though I maintain contact from time to time, I won't use him except for emergencies. Before the official rate split and had so many unofficial rates, I had a debit card that had very reasonable transaction fees and I just used the ATMs to get pesos.

With number 4, one should understand that it is both sides that benefit. You need money here, he needs money out of here. In reality the two of you should share the transfer fees and leave it at that. But you have to do what you have to do - the 2.5% is much better than you'd get at a cueva these days and the guy who has the money here knows that it's probably a little more urgent for you to get money here than it is for him to get money out of the country, so unless you can find someone who understands win-win you have to play his game. and it is not easy to find guys like this, I know..

I have been very fortunate myself - the guy I exchange with recognizes it as a win-win situation for us both and we share the transaction fees with no other costs involved. I'm even luckier than most (don't know your guy's situation) in that he changes pesos to dollars on a weekly basis so his money holds some value (although no longer as necessary right now as it was last year since the blue rate has been frozen) and I can get dollars just like I was going to a cueva - without the service charge of 4-6%!

Truth is, it's shame the government screws things up so bad here, all in the name of "igualdad para todos y todas", while providing nothing of the sort. I get people thinking that taxes are "necessary" for the "common good" and all (even though I don't agree) and that we should all be paying all of our due taxes and not trying to end-run the government and all with their currency controls, that we are horrible "rich" people that shouldn't complain as guests (even as people like me have permanent residency and kids in school here, et al), but to hell with that.

I sure miss the days when I could pay "reasonable" ATM fees to get pesos directly out of the ATM and didn't have to worry about all the clandestine moves the government has forced me into.

 

[Cecil Fox Palmer]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'll see what I can work out.

 

[Sleuth]

How about paypal2cash.com? The rate is not great, but it's an option

 

[oventi]

If anyone needs US dollars and has a bank account, I can help.
You will send me a transfer to my US bank account from your US bank account and I will give you dollars in cash (100 dollar bills, so you get the best exchange rate).

 

[agape4argentina]

I'm actually available as a #4 person to all the baexpats. I'm about to sell my vehicle for $170.000 and need the money in dollars. I am willing to drive to Capital Federal and do the following:

1. On the day of travel, we will check the xoom.com rate of exchange.
2. I will provide you, in ARS, $170.000 in cash.
3. You will wire the dollar equivalent to my bank in the U.S.
4. When the transaction can be verified over the phone, I will hand over the cash.

The pros to this are I get my money in dollars much more quickly. You get your money minus any xoom transaction fees. The catch is that you have to have that kind of money in dollars available. Even if you don't I'd be willing to transfer as much money in dollars that you have available at the time. I've been around on this site, so someone could vouch for me. Please contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions. I'm getting ready to move back to the U.S. in a couple of weeks and need this money to be able to re-purchase a vehicle up there. Getting it at the xoom rate is better for me than the street rate.

Thanks all,
joe

There are very few "good" ways as far as I know. If you are not doing all the legal requirements to report your income earned out of the country and go through the hoops required to actually receive wire transfers into your bank account here (which, of course is not good either because you will receive pesos at the official rate, after conversions and fees and such) you have a few options and only one of them I consider "good", although they all involve going through some hoops and costs to get the money.

To get the money down here:

1) Send your money through Xoom or Azimo. You still have to declare the source of your money (and the fact that it's going to you, keep in mind) to them to bring down any kind of consistent quantity (a lot of threads have talked about the limits and the requirements) and although you get better than the official rate, you still get below the blue rate.

You can have your employer send directly to your account outside the country and you send the money to yourself, or you can have the employer send to you directly through the service.

2) Go to Uruguay and pull your money out in dollars at ATMs. Obvious costs are time, tickets on the ferry, ATM fees.

Your employer would need to send to your bank account.

3) Find a cueva and wire money to the banks accounts outside of Argentina that they point you to. You are probably looking at 4-6% payment to the cueva for moving your money. The advantage is you can have dollars, or pesos at a good blue rate based on the amount you sent down.

Money can come from your bank account or direct from your employer.

4) Find someone here who wants to get money out of the country. Could be expats who sold a house or something, people of whatever nationality who have businesses that generate a lot of cash, etc. The good thing about this is that it generally doesn't cost you anything except transaction fees. wire the money to their account outside of the country and they give you the cash here, at whatever rate you may have agreed to (I use Ambito nowadays and average the buy/sell price). These are not easy to find, and what i call the "good" way.

Again, money can come from your bank account or direct from your employer.

All of these involve some sort of cost. Wire transaction fees, ATM fees, etc. I don't know anyway to get around that at some point in the transaction.

I think someone mentioned previously some kind of a "co-op" like organization that organizes send and receive needs between parties to give a solution like #4, but I don't remember where I remembered seeing that, or when.

I won't mention BitCoins...

Oh - and never take money out of the ATM or pay with an international credit card unless you have no other choice whatsoever.

 

[oventi]

I also need to move money from Argentina to the US.
You send me a transfer to my bank account in the US, I will give you dollars in cash, which you can later exchange.