Western Union money transfer

[Wade K.]

Apparently in Colombia there is no blue rate? or gap between official and parallel rate..?

There may be but I've never seen it discussed on Colombian forums or Facebook groups. What's going on in Argentina appears to be unique and a result of the financial crisis.

 

[Wade K.]

Apparently in Colombia there is no blue rate? or gap between official and parallel rate..?

Just checked and on XE Colombia gives 3767 to 1 USD but Western Union is only giving 3673.

 

[jlynch]

Yes, you have to pay a higher fee. $55 now I'm seeing. After paying the fee today you'd get $193,300 Pesos. So? Do you have access to dollars to take down to a cueva? The official rate, which I'm getting off of XE, is 99.23. Western Union is much higher and almost doubles the amount of Pesos over withdrawing from an ATM. How is that a bad deal? They raised their rates. Everything here in the States is going up. Will be there in January and be glad to have the Western Union rate as there's no other country where one can almost double his income with a simple transfer from his stateside bank account.

Please read the section "How Does It Work?" in the following article

Dual and Multiple Exchange Rates 101

Why would a country choose to implement dual or multiple exchange rates? It’s risky, but it can work.

www.investopedia.com

 

[jblaze5779]

The cheapest option with wu right now is to make a CC transfer of $1200 or more. The fee is 3%. All other options (other than paying in store) are 6%. Cc starts at 15% and lowers to 3 once you hit 1201

 

[Wade K.]

Please read the section "How Does It Work?" in the following article

Dual and Multiple Exchange Rates 101

Why would a country choose to implement dual or multiple exchange rates? It’s risky, but it can work.

www.investopedia.com

That may be the case but for individuals who have an outside income in Dollars, Pounds, or Euros they are doing much better than locals or anyone else paid in pesos or who draw from ATM's. Argentina has some great attributes but if the Western Union deal wasn't there I'd most likely live in Guatemala or Colombia. Quick, affordable access to Florida where most of my family lives. The Western Union rate in Argentina will let me live on little while paying off some bills and getting some savings together.

 

[sneakrnet]

I understand that you're upset that Western Union raised its fee. But let's say you're in Colombia. You're getting the official exchange rate there minus fees. So $1000 USD gets you $1000 USD worth of Colombian Pesos minus the fee. In Argentina you're getting over $1940 USD worth of pesos minus the fee. How is that possibly a bad deal even if they charge a higher fee?

1. You don't live in Argentina. Talking about the official rate is silly. Nobody exchanges dollars at that rate (unless they are forced to).
2. There are various ways to exchange dollars for pesos, legally, and illegally (dollar blue).
3. The whole point is to find the best rate that YOU can get among the various alternatives.
4. During the past six months, there has been an anomalous situation where Western Union has had the best easy-to-get rate.
5. For those of us with a bank account here, that rate was just reduced by 6%. The fee was zero, now it is 6%.
6. If you just got a 6% pay cut, would you be unhappy?

I don't care what happens in Colombia. I live in Argentina. Today I can get 6% less pesos than yesterday. I use those pesos to live. To pay for everything from condo fees to electricity to gas to food, to, well ------- EVERYTHING. Everything instantly costs 6% more! You keep trying to explain to me how that's a good deal. I struggle mightily to understand that.

Based on your previous replies, I know that you won't understand any of this, but I thought I'd try to explain it one more time.

 

[Wade K.]

1. You don't live in Argentina. Talking about the official rate is silly. Nobody exchanges dollars at that rate (unless they are forced to).
2. There are various ways to exchange dollars for pesos, legally, and illegally (dollar blue).
3. The whole point is to find the best rate that YOU can get among the various alternatives.
4. During the past six months, there has been an anomalous situation where Western Union has had the best easy-to-get rate.
5. For those of us with a bank account here, that rate was just reduced by 6%. The fee was zero, now it is 6%.
6. If you just got a 6% pay cut, would you be unhappy?

I don't care what happens in Colombia. I live in Argentina. Today I can get 6% less pesos than yesterday. I use those pesos to live. To pay for everything from condo fees to electricity to gas to food, to, well ------- EVERYTHING. Everything instantly costs 6% more! You keep trying to explain to me how that's a good deal. I struggle mightily to understand that.

Based on your previous replies, I know that you won't understand any of this, but I thought I'd try to explain it one more time.

And you're not understanding my point. If a tourist comes to Argentina he'll most likely get Pesos through an ATM, not exchange dollars at a cueva unless he's a pretty savvy traveler. So he'll get the official exchange rate. Locals will get paid X amount of Pesos based on their job and everyone says expats should try to get a job with a foreign company that'll pay them in dollars, euros, etc rather than in local currency due to the much better rate you'll get from Western Union or similar. You have a unique situation in Argentina as opposed to other countries. No one likes to take a pay cut but to say it's time to look at other situations because Western Union is no longer a good deal says to me you aren't aware of just how good you have it. Argentina's cost of living according to Numbeo is at about 50% of the U.S. That's based on the cost of things with the official exchange rate. So if Western Union currently gives you almost double the amount in pesos that makes your cost of living compared to the U.S. one of the lowest in the world and I would certainly take Argentina over living conditions in India or various African nations. By the way Western Union gives less than the official rate in Colombia but charges much less in transaction fees. They know how good you're getting it in Argentina or possibly the Argentina government does so fees are going up accordingly.

 

[jblaze5779]

1. You don't live in Argentina. Talking about the official rate is silly. Nobody exchanges dollars at that rate (unless they are forced to).
2. There are various ways to exchange dollars for pesos, legally, and illegally (dollar blue).
3. The whole point is to find the best rate that YOU can get among the various alternatives.
4. During the past six months, there has been an anomalous situation where Western Union has had the best easy-to-get rate.
5. For those of us with a bank account here, that rate was just reduced by 6%. The fee was zero, now it is 6%.
6. If you just got a 6% pay cut, would you be unhappy?

I don't care what happens in Colombia. I live in Argentina. Today I can get 6% less pesos than yesterday. I use those pesos to live. To pay for everything from condo fees to electricity to gas to food, to, well ------- EVERYTHING. Everything instantly costs 6% more! You keep trying to explain to me how that's a good deal. I struggle mightily to understand that.

Based on your previous replies, I know that you won't understand any of this, but I thought I'd try to explain it one more time.

With a credit card payment today including the fee the wu rate was 189.01.still higher than the blue. Do you have any alternative resources for us to check out that have better rates?

 

[sneakrnet]

And you're not understanding my point. If a tourist comes to Argentina he'll most likely get Pesos through an ATM, not exchange dollars at a cueva unless he's a pretty savvy traveler. So he'll get the official exchange rate. Locals will get paid X amount of Pesos based on their job and everyone says expats should try to get a job with a foreign company that'll pay them in dollars, euros, etc rather than in local currency due to the much better rate you'll get from Western Union or similar. You have a unique situation in Argentina as opposed to other countries. No one likes to take a pay cut but to say it's time to look at other situations because Western Union is no longer a good deal says to me you aren't aware of just how good you have it. Argentina's cost of living according to Numbeo is at about 50% of the U.S. That's based on the cost of things with the official exchange rate. So if Western Union currently gives you almost double the amount in pesos that makes your cost of living compared to the U.S. one of the lowest in the world and I would certainly take Argentina over living conditions in India or various African nations. By the way Western Union gives less than the official rate in Colombia but charges much less in transaction fees. They know how good you're getting it in Argentina or possibly the Argentina government does so fees are going up accordingly.

I understand your point completely. I've been here since 2004. I'm not looking elsewhere. You have said nothing that I (and other long-timers here) haven't heard a thousand times before. It is just totally irrelevant.

 

[sneakrnet]

With a credit card payment today including the fee the wu rate was 189.01.still higher than the blue. Do you have any alternative resources for us to check out that have better rates?

I wish I did. Did you actually try it?

Now I need my credit card again. Life in Argentina.