So, safe areas??

[theoantichi]

I've lived both in Belgrano and Congreso, which might as well be called "copland" because of all the precincts. Still, I did get mugged in Congreso and Belgrano is UMC as marksoc posted, so you there is some likelyhood to get mugged there too. The worst place for me is Saavedra, which is right next to Vicente Lopez, San Isidro and La Lucila, which are heavily guarded. A friend got mugged there twice; under the Saavedra bridge unpleasant things happen.

 

[SaraSara]

Good to know that about the Banco Frances.

There's no danger of my account being emptied by robbers, even if they held me at gunpoint. I can only withdraw a thousand dollars every twenty-four hours. I doubt robbers would be willing to to set up camp by the ATM and hog the machine for several days, while they emptied my account.

Doing multiple transactions without reswiping the card is actually clever, as it cuts down on time spent at the ATM machine. The longer I stand by the ATM, the better chance robbers have to target me.

In Uruguay I have to swipe the card anew for each hundred-dollar transaction, and I need at least half an hour to withdraw a thousand dollars. In Argentina, I can do that in four minutes flat - I've timed it.

I have found that Banco Frances lets you take out up to AR$1,000 per transaction now.

However; doing multiple transaction without having to reswipe your card and reenter you code is simply idiotic. I know of no other country where this is possible. It is easy for a criminal to muscle someone away from the ATM after they have entered the code and they are then free to empty the account since they can do repeated transaction.

Neil