Receive money in USD without a local bank account

[lemontea200516]

If you are not here permanently / for a year or more with a legitimate visa don't bother complicating your life trying to get into the system.
Just use Western Union / Xoom to get the Pesos you need to spend while you are here. You will get a rate similar enough to the blue. As far as I am aware tourists do no have any access to the banking system here (especially term deposits which for some strange reasons a few tourists get excited about thinking it translates to 30% on your USD, lol, that's what the capital controls are for.) Getting residency will buy you a hefty global tax burden - and HSBC will obviously share everything from all of your global accounts with AFIP. Income tax is perhaps fair enough, but "wealth tax"... you should be careful about.

Much appreciated and that ’s helpful for consideration. I actually quited my job last year and have been travelling for a year by chance I spend longer time here than I thought. There is lots of things I love about Argentina - food, culture and people here and I am thinking about whether I should spend longer time here. I am open to live or work anywhere in the world and thinking about next country to stay after COVID. Job wise, it‘s for sure that jobs back home would pay much much better (no to mention the low tax). For start up or investment, it does not seem to be very friendly to foreign investor either, just looking at the capital and FX control... And yes for the time being, to send money for living expense, WU is the best option. For investment, not simple at all.

 

[EL_TIGRE_de_Tigre]

This is a tough, no make that near impossible country to invest in ... business wise. (Unless you are a boiler room operation of proprietors.) Labor laws are against you, currency issues are against you, banking system is against you, the ability to receive healthy profit margins from the consumer is a 99% no and on and on and on ...

Argentina is a great country to hide out in. And what I mean by that is this: You come here with the intention of doing nothing to very little. Your intention is to live a life of leisure, because you can. Meaning, you are well funded or can work remotely, getting compensated in an exterior currency.

Argentina (I have said this many times before ... ) economy and politics aside is a great country. Culture, cuisine, climate, geography, lifestyle, people among other things is very agreeable. In my opinion, at least that is how I view it all.

 

[lemontea200516]

This is a tough, no make that near impossible country to invest in ... business wise. (Unless you are a boiler room operation of proprietors.) Labor laws are against you, currency issues are against you, banking system is against you, the ability to receive healthy profit margins from the consumer is a 99% no and on and on and on ...

Argentina is a great country to hide out in. And what I mean by that is this: You come here with the intention of doing nothing to very little. Your intention is to live a life of leisure, because you can. Meaning, you are well funded or can work remotely, getting compensated in an exterior currency.

Argentina (I have said this many times before ... ) economy and politics aside is a great country. Culture, cuisine, climate, geography, lifestyle, people among other things is very agreeable. In my opinion, at least that is how I view it all.

It’s a pity and I couldn’t agree more on those points

 

[on the brink]

True, it is a difficult place to invest, plus right now we are looking at some rough years in the near future.

On the other hand, it is a country with plenty of new opportunities - there is much to be done here, in order to catch up with the rest of the world.

An good example is MercadoLibre, started by Argentine Marcos Galperin in 1999, while attending Stanford University. He thought an online marketplace like eBay could work here, and now ML operates in fifteen Latin American countries, plus Spain.

During 2019's 4th. quarter, MercadoLibre reported net revenues of US$674.3 million, up 84.4% from the same period a year before. That's a phenomenal growth rate....!

Having said that, I must admit that, after the return of the Kirchneristas to power, Galperin moved with his family to Uruguay. He's still CEO, but right now Argentina accounts for only 20% of ML's operations - the rest is all over Latin America.

 

[jblaze5779]

there are so many possible opportunities to make money here. Argentina is 50 years behind everyone else. Just find something that made money in another country and apply it here. Whether or not the politics and unions will let you is another story.

I work oil and gas and I know so many better ways of doing tasks I see done here every day but you cannot get the equipment here to make the improvements and you cannot motivate the people to adapt changes in their work habits. They like doing things the way their fathers did for some reason. Innovation dies here.

 

[antipodean]

Agree that there are ways to make money here by filling gaps in the market. Not easy ways, but ways.

I think however the key here for any successful venture (as a foreigner) is having trustworthy local partners who have stood the test of time. Relationships count for everything, and it matters where one went to school and who your daddy is. In any serious business, you are going to need political and union contacts as much as a solid local business network.
Outsiders, while they will be received politely, will find it very very difficult to make real progress without someone to open doors for them and “vouch” for them.

Argentina is not like other countries where one can just walk in with a good idea and set up shop. Well, maybe a small shop or by having a loooooooot of time and patience and luck to make the right connections and build meaningful relationships. These things don’t happen overnight.

 

[Redpossum]

Things may have changed since I was persuaded by HSBC in the UK to upgrade my account to Premier because it would unlock banking services all around the world. Even Argentina? I asked. Even Argentina, they said.

And my experience?

No it didn´t.
I have since closed my HSBC accounts

No offense intended at all, hombre, but this made me laugh out loud, It is soooooo quintessentially Argentina.

 

[Ceviche]

Hsbc is one of the worst banks on the planet. They have worst kyc and worst service.

-/

You can bring in usd in cash here paying 2.5% to 3% comission to agents.

 

[Alpinista]

Could I seek advice if I could receive USD from oversea bank accont in Hong Kong if i don’t have a local argentinian bank account AND I dont want it to be automatically converted to Peso?

I have HSBC Premier account which allows me transfer money (via Global Transfer) to my HSBC accounts globally for free. I have HSBC accounts in US, UK, Australia,etc, BUT not an HSBC Argentinian one. I do not have DNI or utility local address, and hence I guess I cannot open a local account(?) to receive money. Even I do, would the money be convertred to peso at the offical rate upon transfer?

Another thought was using Western Union - but I went to a WU branch in Palermo last week but they said they can ONLY give out peso if I arrange transfer to myself. Interestingly last year when my ATM card was lost in Chile, I called HSBC Hong Kong and they were able to arrange with Mastercard international in NY for emergency cash pickup within 2 hour in a WU branch in Santiago. The cash pickup could be done in USD or in chilen peso - and the WU staff told me to pick up in USD because their rate was so bad compared to the other =P. I wonder if the WU in Argentina is just different...

Actually it is possible to get USD. I have two contacts where i can send them usd to a bank in the us and after a few days i pick it up here in cash (usd, or pesos at blue rate). Obviously it is something you can only do when you know the other guy well and have a high level of trust.
I did it for bigger transactions when we were renovating the house and two weeks ago when we bought a car.
For buying a property here right now: whenever possible i would try to find a seller Who has an interest to have the money abroad, that should actually help your negotiating position. Obviously that does not work always, but in our case it was really helpful as the seller was interested to have the money on a european account

 

[on the brink]

Two points about US dollar bills:
1 - Bills in any way marked - spots, stains, writing, patched with Scotch tape, whatever - are not accepted by most cuevas, and heavily discounted by those who do.
2 - As of the beginning of this year, older bills without the blue stripe are no longer accepted by cuevas. They are only accepted by banks, at the official rate.

I haven't been able to get an explanation for this strange policy. It's a far cry from the US, where you can walk into any bank with only three corners of a dollar bill, and exchange it for a fresh new one.