Using your Argentina credit card while traveling outside Argentina

[pmacay]

I don't understand what MEP is. Is this just a way of buying USA dollars from the bank?

 

[carride]

I don't understand what MEP is. Is this just a way of buying USA dollars from the bank?

Yes, That is the rate which is used if you want to buy dollars officially from the bank. Though that is not the reason that the rate exists. It is a market based rate. In past years it floated around at approximately half way between the official rate and the blue rate, so the government allowed regular people to buy $200 per month using this rate. It was the government “gift” as a way to build a savings balance of dollars. Now that the MEP is often higher than Blue I doubt people use it to buy dollars today. Maybe when it dips below the Blue, or because it is proof you bought those dollars officially?

Exchange rate | Dollar Foreign Tourists

If you travel to Argentina, make all your purchases with your Visa, you pay safely and with an exclusive dollar rate for foreign tourists. Learn more!

www.visa.com.ar

What is the meaning of Dollar MEP (aka "Mercado Electrónico de Pagos" or "Dólar Bolsa")?​

It is the dollar exchange rate that can be accessed through the buying and selling of certain Argentine bonds that are quoted both in pesos and dollars. You can buy that security in pesos and sell it at its equivalent in dollars, or vice versa. It is a legal transaction, similar to "Contado con Liquidación" or CCL (Blue Chip Swap). This exchange rate is published throughout the country's main media on a daily basis, and is subject to daily variations.​

 

[SinPulgas]

Yes, That is the rate which is used if you want to buy dollars officially from the bank. Though that is not the reason that the rate exists. It is a market based rate. In past years it floated around at approximately half way between the official rate and the blue rate, so the government allowed regular people to buy $200 per month using this rate. It was the government “gift” as a way to build a savings balance of dollars. Now that the MEP is often higher than Blue I doubt people use it to buy dollars today. Maybe when it dips below the Blue, or because it is proof you bought those dollars officially?

Exchange rate | Dollar Foreign Tourists

If you travel to Argentina, make all your purchases with your Visa, you pay safely and with an exclusive dollar rate for foreign tourists. Learn more!

www.visa.com.ar

What is the meaning of Dollar MEP (aka "Mercado Electrónico de Pagos" or "Dólar Bolsa")?​

It is the dollar exchange rate that can be accessed through the buying and selling of certain Argentine bonds that are quoted both in pesos and dollars. You can buy that security in pesos and sell it at its equivalent in dollars, or vice versa. It is a legal transaction, similar to "Contado con Liquidación" or CCL (Blue Chip Swap). This exchange rate is published throughout the country's main media on a daily basis, and is subject to daily variations.​

This isn't true at all. The $200/month limit applied to buying dollars at the official rate. You could and can buy an unlimited number of dollars at the dollar MEP and CCL rates, at least theoretically. I imagine that if you tried to buy too many dollars MEP or CCL, the government may take a close look at your finances, though I've never heard of that happening to anyone.

There are many posts here about how the MEP and CCL work. There are also hundreds in the major newspapers, with detailed instructions on how to buy and sell dollars. It's been discussed repeatedly for many years.

 

[pmacay]

Yes, That is the rate which is used if you want to buy dollars officially from the bank. Though that is not the reason that the rate exists. It is a market based rate. In past years it floated around at approximately half way between the official rate and the blue rate, so the government allowed regular people to buy $200 per month using this rate. It was the government “gift” as a way to build a savings balance of dollars. Now that the MEP is often higher than Blue I doubt people use it to buy dollars today. Maybe when it dips below the Blue, or because it is proof you bought those dollars officially?

Exchange rate | Dollar Foreign Tourists

If you travel to Argentina, make all your purchases with your Visa, you pay safely and with an exclusive dollar rate for foreign tourists. Learn more!

www.visa.com.ar

What is the meaning of Dollar MEP (aka "Mercado Electrónico de Pagos" or "Dólar Bolsa")?​

It is the dollar exchange rate that can be accessed through the buying and selling of certain Argentine bonds that are quoted both in pesos and dollars. You can buy that security in pesos and sell it at its equivalent in dollars, or vice versa. It is a legal transaction, similar to "Contado con Liquidación" or CCL (Blue Chip Swap). This exchange rate is published throughout the country's main media on a daily basis, and is subject to daily variations.​

Thank you Carride!

 

[pmacay]

There are many posts here about how the MEP and CCL work. There are also hundreds in the major newspapers, with detailed instructions on how to buy and sell dollars. It's been discussed repeatedly for many years.

That's why I asked the question, there are "hundreds" of articles and things change in Argentina daily, so it's hard to keep up with "what is what".

 

[SinPulgas]

That's why I asked the question, there are "hundreds" of articles and things change in Argentina daily, so it's hard to keep up with "what is what".

Well, the way the MEP and CCL work has always been the same, with one exception.

To discourage people from doing it, the government has often imposed "parking" requirements of from one to three days. Currently the requirement is one day.

What is means is that to buy dollars using the MEP or CCL, after buying Argentine bonds in pesos, you must hold them for the required number of parking days before selling them for dollars. This creates risk, because the price of the bond can and does change from one day to the next, especially in turbulent financial periods.

Here is a recent newspaper about how to buy the dollar MEP.

El dólar MEP bajó y quedó como el más barato del mercado

El dólar bolsa cedió este miércoles y quedó por debajo del blue. Cómo comprar este tipo de cambio sin límites y sólo con unos clicks

www.iprofesional.com

 

[carride]

Well, the way the MEP and CCL work has always been the same, with one exception.

To discourage people from doing it, the government has often imposed "parking" requirements of from one to three days. Currently the requirement is one day.

What is means is that to buy dollars using the MEP or CCL, after buying Argentine bonds in pesos, you must hold them for the required number of parking days before selling them for dollars. This creates risk, because the price of the bond can and does change from one day to the next, especially in turbulent financial periods.

Here is a recent newspaper about how to buy the dollar MEP.

El dólar MEP bajó y quedó como el más barato del mercado

El dólar bolsa cedió este miércoles y quedó por debajo del blue. Cómo comprar este tipo de cambio sin límites y sólo con unos clicks

www.iprofesional.com

You are confusing the bond market that sets the MEP rate, as well as the trading of stocks which set the CCL rate. Those are the true markets. And you describe correctly, and the link you gave is correct, IF you want to trade bonds to be able to benefit from the spread.

That was not the question. What the question is about is how that MEP applies to a non trader. In that case the MEP rate is used for reference when buying $200 USD per month. Not the official rate. A non trader can go to bank, or use their Ualá or many other virtual banks and buy USD at the MEP rate. As explained, there is not a good reason to do that these days unless they want to take advantage of a spread after the parking period ends; like an active trader

Secondly, and not the question, but another example is that the MEP rate is it also used to set the daily price of the foreign credit card transactions minus the 3-7% visa mastercard takes.

 

[SinPulgas]

You are confusing the bond market that sets the MEP rate, as well as the trading of stocks which set the CCL rate. Those are the true markets. And you describe correctly, and the link you gave is correct, IF you want to trade bonds to be able to benefit from the spread.

That was not the question. What the question is about is how that MEP applies to a non trader. In that case the MEP rate is used for reference when buying $200 USD per month. Not the official rate. A non trader can go to bank, or use their Ualá or many other virtual banks and buy USD at the MEP rate. As explained, there is not a good reason to do that these days unless they want to take advantage of a spread after the parking period ends; like an active trader

Secondly, and not the question, but another example is that the MEP rate is it also used to set the daily price of the foreign credit card transactions minus the 3-7% visa mastercard takes.

I read the question.

The $200 dollars/month is what I said it is.

The MEP works the way it works. Some wallets now let you buy dollars at the MEP rate, but that is not what the MEP is. (The person said: I don't understand what MEP is. Is this just a way of buying USA dollars from the bank?) I don't see anything about trader or non-trader, do you?

• There is no limit to the number of dollars you can buy using the dollar MEP method. It is unlimited and always has been. You are confused, not me. (You might want to read the link that I included with my post.)
• I have bought dollars (more than $200) by buying and selling bonds. My wife has an InvertirOnline account which we use for that purpose.
• We have each bought the $200/month (and other amounts in the time of Cristina) at the official rate (but not in a long time, since the taxes added to it usually made it not worth the bother, and recently, make it the most expensive dollar you can buy) In the time of Cristina, though, we would buy our limit of dollars and do the "pure" every month.
• I have not used the newly available option using a wallet, because Mercado Pago (my wallet) is rolling out their version of buying dollars at the MEP rate in stages, and it's not available to me yet, and I'm not interested in having multiple wallets.

I'm not confused about anything. (Well, I'm confused about a lot of things, but I'm not confused about anything regarding buying dollars in Argentina, nor what the MEP is, nor what the limits and rules are.)

 

[carride]

Ok

I read the question.

The $200 dollars/month is what I said it is.

The MEP works the way it works. Some wallets now let you buy dollars at the MEP rate, but that is not what the MEP is. (The person said: I don't understand what MEP is. Is this just a way of buying USA dollars from the bank?) I don't see anything about trader or non-trader, do you

Ok. Yes I was wrong. The $200 monthly limit was at the official, not the MEP rate. Plus I was the one was confused by thinking too much about the original question. Thanks for explaining more.

 

[SinPulgas]

Ok


Ok. Yes I was wrong. The $200 monthly limit was at the official, not the MEP rate. Plus I was the one was confused by thinking too much about the original question. Thanks for explaining more.

Sorry. I wasn't even going to post in this thread, but some people use this information so it should be correct. I didn't mean to offend you.