What To Do With My Money?

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semigoodlookin

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I want to say I am not an experienced person when it comes to finance. I spend what I earn and have never had credit for anything, not a card, phone contract, nothing, so my only dealings with money are the occasional phone call to my one bank account I have held in the UK since I was 17.

I have seen enough on these boards to know that plenty of people know what they are talking about, especially in terms of the snakepit that is Argentina. So my question is, what would you do in my situation.

I am a writer and I make good money, paid in US dollars and Euros straight into my UK bank account. As it is right now, I use my VISA debit card and just get my cash straight from here at ATM machines. Of course, I take a hit against the Blue rate by doing it this way. Should I be going to Uruguay every month? Should I be using Xoom? If so, I would then need to take my dollars to be changed into Pesos. The only place I know to do this is on Florida where I get the headache enducing "cambio, cambio" thrown at me, is that the best place to do it?

What should I be doing in my situation?

As always, thanks greatly for any help.
 
Going to Colonia is a situation to endure, but getting a better rate should induce you to go for it!

EDIT: but indeed, going to Colonia doesn't give the best rate all things considered (Glasgowjohn below)
 
xoom is for folks with an account in the USA. Have a look at: https://azimo.com/en
 
Using Xoom would be much, much, much, much better than ATMs but I don't think you can use it from the UK, it's Azimo for you guys.

Uruguay would be better than using the ATMs here. I don't see that as a great option for myself because of the cost and time to get there, but if I had no other option I'd do that before I pulled money out of ATMs here.

Your best option after Azimo or similar service is to find a cueva. They will accept transfers to banks outside the country and you can go pick up the cash at their offices (in dollars, usually euros as well, or get the pesos directly at a good exchange rate). They get up to about 5% of your transfer as their fee, which I think makes it better than Azimo still but impacts your actual rate a bit. They are also difficult to get into because it's not exactly loved by the government and so you have to know someone who knows a cueva usually.

The absolute best thing is to find someone who earns in cash here (usually in quantity) and has a bank account outside of the country and wants to convert their pesos into dollars or euros or any other currency than pesos. You send your money to their account and they pay you in pesos here at an agreed-upon exchange rate (like the split between buy/sell on dolarblue.net). This is probably the most difficult situation to find.

Azimo and other services won't give you your money in dollars but rather pesos at a rate fairly well below the blue rate you can get on Florida. Also, you may run the issue of the people here who actually give you the money requiring proof of funds and after awhile they may give you problems about living here vs being a tourist (AFIP will want their cut and you could show up on their radar, though I don't think that's been a problem so far).

Given the expenses of going to Uruguay, and the time involved, I think I'd start out with something like Azimo and try to make some contacts related to a cueva in the long term, with Colonia the mid-term backup if something goes wrong with Azimo.
 
ElQueso said:
Using Xoom would be much, much, much, much better than ATMs but I don't think you can use it from the UK, it's Azimo for you guys.

Uruguay would be better than using the ATMs here. I don't see that as a great option for myself because of the cost and time to get there, but if I had no other option I'd do that before I pulled money out of ATMs here.

Your best option after Azimo or similar service is to find a cueva. They will accept transfers to banks outside the country and you can go pick up the cash at their offices (in dollars, usually euros as well, or get the pesos directly at a good exchange rate). They get up to about 5% of your transfer as their fee, which I think makes it better than Azimo still but impacts your actual rate a bit. They are also difficult to get into because it's not exactly loved by the government and so you have to know someone who knows a cueva usually.

The absolute best thing is to find someone who earns in cash here (usually in quantity) and has a bank account outside of the country and wants to convert their pesos into dollars or euros or any other currency than pesos. This is probably the most difficult situation to find.

Azimo and other services won't give you your money in dollars but rather pesos at a rate fairly well below the blue rate you can get on Florida. Also, you may run the issue of the people here who actually give you the money requiring proof of funds and after awhile they may give you problems about living here vs being a tourist (AFIP will want their cut and you could show up on their radar, though I don't think that's been a problem so far).

Given the expenses of going to Uruguay, and the time involved, I think I'd start out with something like Azimo and try to make some contacts related to a cueva in the long term, with Colonia the mid-term backup if something goes wrong with Azimo.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate,

I am not a tourist.

And I am not interested in holding dollars, I want pesos, but I want the most that I can possibly get of course. If I go to Uruguay I can withdraw dollars and change them at Florida.

If I use Azimo, they will send it to me and I collect it from an office.

Does either of these scenerios have a good chance of me getting shot, stabbed, hanged, raped, or whatever it is they are doing here this week?
 
Is it legit?

Good question , I have used it several times with no problems

Argenper is a legally established company and recently they have renovated some of their offices

You are unlikely to be attacked if you stick the cash safely in your pockets or jacket ...

If you work out what they pay you and the costs of going to Uruyguay for the day , its not a bad deal
 
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