Using your Argentina credit card while traveling outside Argentina

[pmacay]

I just spent about an hour trying to figure this out. I looked at our April statement and they withdrew $2,692.86 pesos from my account to pay for a USA charge on my account of $1.86

2692.86/1090 (blue peso rate then) = USA $2.47 for a $1.86 charge

The difference is because of the large tax the government imposes on international charges. I think that is why the Santander representative told me to deposit USA $$ into my account and pay the USA charge on my Visa card with USA $$ directly.

 

[Quilombo]

It's can be confusing, especially with debit vs credit too:

Debit transactions are processed at the time they occur, around $1,474.40 per dollar. You'll likely see the transaction itself in dollars, the bank's mid-market markup rate, then applicable taxes. Depending on the purchase it may result in up to 4 separate charges, with the outcome being $1,474.40 +/- 10%.

With credit card transactions, you'll pay the exchange rate of the day your balance closes, NOT the day it's charged. You'll also get a summary of all the taxes at the end of your bill, and there's no clear way to differentiate to which charges they correspond to.

Remember to always reject Dynamic Currency Conversion, i.e. "Would you like to pay X ARS? instead of X USD/EUR/etc." as you'll still have to pay in dollars anyways, and the cheapest way to pay for purchases abroad remains either using your dollars you already have, or buying MEP dollars with pesos and paying your credit card's dollar transactions with them.

Once the cepo goes away, some of this will change, but we'll get a better idea then.

 

[pmacay]

Yes, the Santander rep mentioned about buying dollars with MEP, I had no idea what he was talking about as I've never bought dollars here. Is MEP just the bank way of selling USA $$?

 

[brandon]

Any more recent experiences booking on Aerolineas with a US credit card?
Earlier posts mention they somehow charge you in USD at the official rate, note the MEP rate.
Is this still the case?

 

[AdrianB]

Is this new? I bought aerolineas tickets online in january and was charged in pesos on my european card.

@brandon

 

[Che1990]

Any more recent experiences booking on Aerolineas with a US credit card?
Earlier posts mention they somehow charge you in USD at the official rate, note the MEP rate.
Is this still the case?

I tried to book an Aerolíneas flight back in February with my foreign card and it didn’t accept it. This was an international flight priced in USD from the US page of Aerolineas, ended up having to book on Expeda.

 

[pmacay]

Santander has a real crazy way of displaying charges and payments. After my monthly cycle closed, then the 60% taxes appeared on the converted USA charge (which I originally made in Arg pesos, the government converts all charges made outside Argentina into a USA dollar charge). On a USA $476.74 converted charge that I made in ARG pesos, the amount owed was USA $480.86. Then two 30% tax charges appeared:

Db.impuesto Pais 30%( 434 ) $ pesos 130.293,04
Db.rg 5463 30% ( 438063,46 ) $ pesos 131.419,03

Previously when I asked them to up my limit on credit purchases, they converted me to a full automatic payment every month to pay off the card in full every month. This is ok with me as I don't use the credit card often.

Then to recover the 60% tax, this is what the employee at Santander told me to do, he said I have to cancel the automatic payment, but I can do this ONLY during the closing cycle, in this case Jun 27 thru July 5. Then I made two payments, one for the USA charge from my USA dollar account, and then another payment for my ARG peso charges. Supposedly in 2-3 weeks I'm supposed to receive the 60% taxes in a refund, since I paid the USA charges with USA dollars. He said it will be automatic and I don't need to go to Santander in person to make this happen.

 

[Silvie]

I am subscribed to Sir Chandler's blog (he's on all social networks) and he writes posts about the use of credit cards from Argentina every now and then and how to deal with them every time there is a change in Central Bank rules.

 

[Ruta Otto]

I tried to book an Aerolíneas flight back in February with my foreign card and it didn’t accept it. This was an international flight priced in USD from the US page of Aerolineas, ended up having to book on Expeda.

Try booking AA on WhatsApp. They suggest doing that when booking with a foreign credit card so the fees/taxes will be waived.

 

[brandon]

Used US vida card
Rate was 1,350 which is about the MEP