Western Union money transfer

[Wade K.]

WU $1025 at the momemt

And XE is now showing the official rate as 800. Yesterday it was 366.something. At least for now the Dollar is a lot less valuable.

 

[retiredbanker]

WU $1025 at the momemt

Thanks, Steve. I was offline for a bit but when I logged in and saw your post, sent money.

 

[pixer12]

And XE is now showing the official rate as 800. Yesterday it was 366.something. At least for now the Dollar is a lot less valuable.

doesn't that mean it is more valuable now? the peso has been devauled, not the dollar.

 

[Wade K.]

doesn't that mean it is more valuable now? the peso has been devauled, not the dollar.

You were getting almost three times the Pesos through Western Union until today. Now it's about 1.25 times more pesos. I know someone is going to say no one uses the official rate but Argentineans get the official rate from the ATM as well as you would if you used a credit card. The other day you got 366 pesos to the Dollar officially but 988 through Western Union. Now something that costs a Dollars worth of Pesos cost you 800 Pesos but you're only getting 1025 from Western Union.

 

[pixer12]

You were getting almost three times the Pesos through Western Union until today. Now it's about 1.25 times more pesos. I know someone is going to say no one uses the official rate but Argentineans get the official rate from the ATM as well as you would if you used a credit card. The other day you got 366 pesos to the Dollar officially but 988 through Western Union. Now something that costs a Dollars worth of Pesos cost you 800 Pesos but you're only getting 1025 from Western Union.

I understand that the difference between the official and blue/WU rates has now decreased, but I don’t understand using that perspective here for the idea of value of the dollar.

If you’re using the official exchange rate to sell dollars to someone, that person will pay you approx. 450 more pesos per dollar than they did yesterday. So, nominally (that is, without taking into account any price increases that occurred today) the dollar has appreciated and the peso has devalued. If something costs 900 pesos, yesterday, at the official rate, it would have cost you USD$2.45 whereas today it would cost you $1.13.

Also (in my experience since March) foreigners/foreign bank card holders get the preferential tourist rate from an ATM when using a debit card, not the official rate. Credit cards end up the same, but with a slightly different process because (again, in my experience) you would get the official rate first and then a partial refund a week or so later to bring the final charge down to using the preferential tourist rate.

 

[Wade K.]

I understand that the difference between the official and blue/WU rates has now decreased, but I don’t understand using that perspective here for the idea of value of the dollar.

If you’re using the official exchange rate to sell dollars to someone, that person will pay you approx. 450 more pesos per dollar than they did yesterday. So, nominally (that is, without taking into account any price increases that occurred today) the dollar has appreciated and the peso has devalued. If something costs 900 pesos, yesterday, at the official rate, it would have cost you USD$2.45 whereas today it would cost you $1.13.

Also (in my experience since March) foreigners/foreign bank card holders get the preferential tourist rate from an ATM when using a debit card, not the official rate. Credit cards end up the same, but with a slightly different process because (again, in my experience) you would get the official rate first and then a partial refund a week or so later to bring the final charge down to using the preferential tourist rate.

First I've heard of a preferential tourist rate. I've seen countless times to not use the ATM's or credit cards but bring crisp new bills or use Western Union.

For Argentineans it costs them more Pesos now to buy a Dollar. But what about those using Western Union? Their Dollars are converted to Pesos and it now takes more Pesos to buy everything but you're only getting a little bit more than the other day when your Pesos went a lot further.

Doing the math, a day ago when the official rate was 366, sending yourself $1000 USD through WU got you 988,000 Pesos. Divided by 366 that got you $2699 USD worth of Pesos at the official rate. Today you get 1,025,000 Pesos. Divided by the official rate of 800 you get $1281 USD worth of Pesos. Your purchasing power just got walloped. If you do the math the numbers are slightly rounded to the nearest Peso.

 

[pixer12]

First I've heard of a preferential tourist rate. I've seen countless times to not use the ATM's or credit cards but bring crisp new bills or use Western Union.

For Argentineans it costs them more Pesos now to buy a Dollar. But what about those using Western Union? Their Dollars are converted to Pesos and it now takes more Pesos to buy everything but you're only getting a little bit more than the other day when your Pesos went a lot further.

Doing the math, a day ago when the official rate was 366, sending yourself $1000 USD through WU got you 988,000 Pesos. Divided by 366 that got you $2699 USD worth of Pesos at the official rate. Today you get 1,025,000 Pesos. Divided by the official rate of 800 you get $1281 USD worth of Pesos. Your purchasing power just got walloped. If you do the math the numbers are slightly rounded to the nearest Peso.

The preferential rate for tourists/holders of foreign bank cards has been active since November 2022: https://buenosairesherald.com/argen...know-about-the-new-preferential-exchange-rate

Your comment above says "At least for now the Dollar is a lot less valuable" but you're showing that pesos buy fewer dollars, so it seems you meant to say that the peso is now less valuable? Just trying to understand if I'm completely missing something here.

 

[Wade K.]

The preferential rate for tourists/holders of foreign bank cards has been active since November 2022: https://buenosairesherald.com/argen...know-about-the-new-preferential-exchange-rate

Your comment above says "At least for now the Dollar is a lot less valuable" but you're showing that pesos buy fewer dollars, so it seems you meant to say that the peso is now less valuable? Just trying to understand if I'm completely missing something here.

It's kind of convoluted so I'll try again. You may be right, I may be totally off base. But consider that everything now costs more in Pesos. Something valued at one Dollar cost 366 Pesos 2 days ago. Now it costs 800. 2 days ago you got 988 Pesos for your Dollar. Now you're getting 1025. It sounds like you're doing better but your Dollars are converted to Pesos and now everything costs a lot more Pesos than 2 days ago. So your purchasing power went down. Now I'm definitely wrong if everything now costs the same as it did two days ago, it just costs more to buy a Dollar. If so you're doing really well. But if everything costs a lot more Pesos now then you're doing better than the locals but nowhere near as well as you did just two days ago.

Thanks for the info about foreign credit cards. I was there mid '22 for three months and didn't get that info. But I used WU so still good.

 

[Rich One]

It's kind of convoluted so I'll try again. You may be right, I may be totally off base. But consider that everything now costs more in Pesos. Something valued at one Dollar cost 366 Pesos 2 days ago. Now it costs 800. 2 days ago you got 988 Pesos for your Dollar. Now you're getting 1025. It sounds like you're doing better but your Dollars are converted to Pesos and now everything costs a lot more Pesos than 2 days ago. So your purchasing power went down. Now I'm definitely wrong if everything now costs the same as it did two days ago, it just costs more to buy a Dollar. If so you're doing really well. But if everything costs a lot more Pesos now then you're doing better than the locals but nowhere near as well as you did just two days ago.

Thanks for the info about foreign credit cards. I was there mid '22 for three months and didn't get that info. But I used WU so still good.

Your reasoning was perhaps valid only for goods or services that could then be purchased at the Official Rate 0f $366...? some imports ?, or the $200 dollars you could buy at the official rate plus taxes...? Today is at $1300 dollar tarjeta, The Official dollar was a non entity..!
Seems the Peso lost value..?

 

[Wade K.]

Your reasoning was perhaps valid only for goods or services that could then be purchased at the Official Rate 0f $366...? some imports ?, or the $200 dollars you could buy at the official rate plus taxes...? Today is at $1300 dollar tarjeta, The Official dollar was a non entity..!
Seems the Peso lost value..?

I'm not there so I can't speak to prices. But just from reading news articles quoting Argentina officials looks like prices for everything will go up dramatically in the coming months. One thing is for certain, the new administration is doing things differently from the last. How long the population will tolerate it is the question.