Why Is Xoom So Far Behind The Blue Dollar?

[jamila]

Well, the blue dolar is not legal, so Xoom can't function as a legal business using it on a daily basis. I believe they are bringing (and taking out) money using the stock market which is legal (CCL and Reverse CCL). The rate today is around ~9,50. Now, Xoom is offering 8,35.. but you need to take into account that if they are indeed using this method, they need to pay for commisions for the purchase/selling of stocks in the US broker and the Arg Broker. That has a cost.. also, the prices are varying everyday, so they may be putting a few cents here to avoid a variation that will make them lose money. Perhaps they are also paying people to handle this which may be impacting in the cost you are going to get in the end.

At least I believe this is the reason.

that makes a lot of sense... I wondered how xoom was able to fund their operations

 

[Julian62]

Well, the XOOM rate got a little closer today, with the Dolar Blue closing the day at 9.98 and XOOM having risen from the 8.35 it had been for about a week to a more reasonable rate of 8.74.

 

[Julian62]

I hope everyone took advantage of yesterday's good rate, because the Dolar Blue stayed at 9.98 today and XOOM took had a big drop down to 8.25. Perhaps this is to take advantage of all the Mother's Day gifts to be sent to Argentina this weekend. Why not take advantage of dear old Mom by giving her a lousy exchange rate?

 

[jantango]

I've been withdrawing pesos at the OFFICIAL rate until today. I know about XOOM thanks to this site and those who post. I decided to learn more and finally signed up on Friday. The transaction was done online in 30 minutes. I even received a phone call this morning at 10am advising me the transfer was ready. There is a place six blocks from my apartment, but their system wasn't working. I went to another place on Corrientes and completed the transaction in about 15 minutes. I was nervous about being on the street with a large amount of cash, but I arrived home safely with it. I've been getting 5+ pesos, and today I received 7.75 through XOOM. It's not a high as the blue rate, but I got more than usual at the ATM. I'm a satisfied XOOM customer and will be using it regularly.

 

[pablosailor]

This afternoon I had to change some dollars. Tried three different places(One in Palermo and two on Florida). The exchange rate they offered varied from 7.70 to 7.85 pesos per dollar. I can't understand it because on Ambito.com it says the informal rate is 8.52/8.57. The exchange places all said the dollar rate is down. One exchange place told me they were giving 8.10 pesos per dollar on Saturday. There seemed to be a lot of agents on Florida, but I didn't want to walk over and inspect their badges so I don't know what kind of agents they were. Anyway a XOOM rate of 7.75 sounds pretty good!

 

[nikad]

If you want to bring dollars using a reliable cueva, that pays the actual blue rate or gives you the dollar bills, message me. Only for 5k usd plus.

 

[MikeB12]

from what i was told today the blue was around 7.9-8. there has been lots of pressure on the cuevas the last couple days. i assume the ambito rate hasn't been updated because the cuevas haven't been operating and they weren't able to price an accurate average of the xe rate.

 

[Lulu-Kyoko]

This afternoon I had to change some dollars. Tried three different places(One in Palermo and two on Florida). The exchange rate they offered varied from 7.70 to 7.85 pesos per dollar. I can't understand it because on Ambito.com it says the informal rate is 8.52/8.57. The exchange places all said the dollar rate is down. One exchange place told me they were giving 8.10 pesos per dollar on Saturday. There seemed to be a lot of agents on Florida, but I didn't want to walk over and inspect their badges so I don't know what kind of agents they were. Anyway a XOOM rate of 7.75 sounds pretty good!

I went to Florida last week and received 8. Today, I got 7.9. But then again, I've been exchanging relatively small amounts of money...

 

[jeff1234]

Xoom is a profit oriented business. Their goal is to offer pesos at a price that is low enough to draw lots of customers but high enough to cover their costs and return a profit to their owners.
Every business has lower cost competitors (in this case cuevas).
Xoom's service is safer and has an online component so its more expensive.