Prohibition on drawing from accounts in pesos from outside Argentina from April 3rd

[sivan]

maybe we should all start hanging around EZE waiting for the tourists to arrive and offer to trade currencies with them?

 

[nikad]

The big problem is if I want to buy more dollars than what AFIP will allow me to purchase.

Say I have $10,000 pesos in my account and want to buy dollars and transfer them to my U$S account. If AFIP only authorizes U$S 500, for example, I'm still screwed. I can't touch the rest of my money from abroad.

contado con liqui if you can ...

 

[ndcj]

The big problem is if I want to buy more dollars than what AFIP will allow me to purchase.

Say I have $10,000 pesos in my account and want to buy dollars and transfer them to my U$S account. If AFIP only authorizes U$S 500, for example, I'm still screwed. I can't touch the rest of my money from abroad.

But is that an abstract objection to the controls with a hypothetical example, or is that your situation?

From what I understand, you should be able to change to dollars just about everything declared above somewhere around $2300 (Salario Mínimo Vital y Móvil) plus whatever you pay in private school fees, prepagas, etc, that are tracked by AFIP, each month. You should also be able to get permission for a one off purchase of a larger amount where you haven't been purchasing any dollars in previous months.

If you're using savings from abroad to supplement your income, then you'd do better using up your pesos first, or going to AFIP with documentation in hand that proves the provenance of the savings (being prepared to start paying bienes personales if you have more than $305,000 pesos abroad).

Obviously people who are "perma-tourists", working en negro or otherwise not square with AFIP are basically stuck in the black market, which simply matches their employment situation.

 

[citygirl]

Be careful with predictions like that.

The same prediction was made with the original restrictions, and those didn't come true either. Currently, the difference between the best available "en blanco" rate and best available "en negro" rate is only 8%.

Actually about 9% and that adds up quickly when changing large amounts of money. I saved a couple thousand dollars on my car (which I purchased in pesos) by changing my dollars at the unofficial rate vs official.

 

[joemama]

So basically Argentines are no longer capable of international travel. Sad.

 

[surfing]

So basically Argentines are no longer capable of international travel. Sad.

Well, purchases with credit cards are still technically permitted but who doesn't think that will be the next step? But for those without credit cards, yes they are now (practically speaking) unable to travel outside the country unless able and willing to carry all the cash (dollars/euros) they will/might need.

 

[YanquiGallego]

This will also make it so that instead of the safety and convenience of carrying a debit card, Argentines will have to literally empty their accounts and travel with large amounts of cash being as they will not be able to use their debit cards for ATM/POS transactions abroad. Not everyone uses/wants a credit card for travelling. I personally use my debit card for just about everything.

That is so stupid, isn´t the idea that the want to keep the money IN the country?

I can literally see that Porteño family making a trip to their local Citi Bank the day before going to Disney World or Miami and asking the teller to withdraw for them the peso equivalent of US $10,000 in cash.

 

[joemama]

unless willing and able to carry all the cash (dollars/euros) they need.

But they are basically unable to get dollars/euros right now, right? So basically anyone with the ganas to travel is screwed.

 

[Crema Americana]

And what's the point of this? Because I'm not sure Venezuela or Cuba are examples to follow. Making it more difficult for your citizens to spend abroad is quite authoritarian... dictatorial even!

I realize capital flight is a problem... but they are trying to fix the symptom and not the cause. Cristina is trying to plug a hole in the dike with her finger... a very temporary solution, and I don't see the long-term thinking.

People will find ways around the measure... either by using credits cards or by acquiring black market dollars. This is truly an annoyance and a pain for the average citzen, but the people that truly launder money out of the country will continue on business as usual. Actually all the more reason to open up a foreign account.

 

[starlucia]

Well, purchases with credit cards are still technically permitted but who doesn't think that will be the next step? But for those without credit cards, yes they are now (practically speaking) unable to travel outside the country unless able and willing to carry all the cash (dollars/euros) they will/might need.

Even those WITH credit cards won't be able to use them absolutely everywhere (yes, in the US plastic is more accepted than cash these days, but we're the extreme.). Many apartments and hostels in Europe accept cash only, for example, and stores often have a minimum purchase amount for credit cards. Some places still don't accept them at all. And then what if it gets stolen? It would be really dangerous to travel abroad relying solely on a single credit card, without being able to access immediate cash in case of emergency.

A friend of mine was recently preparing to travel to NYC for 3 months for a medical internship, and despite being a gainfully-employed doctor from a wealthy family, was not able to get the dollars she needed from AFIP. Her saving grace was the fact that as soon as she landed at JFK, she could withdraw dollars using her Argentine debit card. I honestly don't know what the average traveler is going to do now.