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Banking and Credit Card Fees

By on in Planning

I’m not planning on opening bank accounts in Argentina and I’m going to bring my U.S. issued credit cards with me, so there were a few things I really needed to consider:

  • Access to cash
  • ATM and credit card fees
  • Depositing checks in the U.S.

Access to Cash
While researching how to best get cash and pay bills when there, I found a lot of discussion on ATMs in Argentina starting to restrict access to cash. After some research, it seems that the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires sent this as part of a newsletter to expats living there:

9. Update on ATM Withdrawal Limits

Last July [2007], Visa debit- and credit-card holders got a surprise when ATM machines restricted withdrawal limits to about USD $100. MasterCard cardholders got the same surprise in late March. ACS has contacted card companies, banks and Argentine government officials to determine the cause of the restriction. So far, no clear reason for the change has emerged and no party is willing to take credit for this inconvenience to clients.

The good news, however, is that in response to receiving hundreds of complaints both Visa and MasterCard have doubled their withdrawal limits to USD $200. Both companies also explain that cardholders are free to make multiple successive withdrawals at the same machine up to their bank’s daily withdrawal limit. ACS continues to research the issue to determine the exact cause for the restriction on international ATM withdrawals and learn how much international cardholders pay in ATM fees as the teller machines do not normally provide this information.

So the good news is that you should still be able to access the cash you need even if you have to make multiple withdrawals. The bad news is that your fees could be increased for making multiple withdrawals.

ATM and Credit Card Fees
SchawbI decided that the best thing for me would be to reduce the fees I would pay by as much as possible.  Luckily, the Flyerguide Wiki has a complete guide to foreign credit card and ATM fees. After reviewing the list, I decided to open the Schwab High Yield Investor Checking account. Signing up was easy, and they provide online banking, mail-in deposit envelopes and free checks.  The account currently pays a 2.01% APY and also provides unlimited ATM fee rebates. According to the Flyerguide Wiki:

[Schwab] reimburses unlimited ATM-owner fees and many users report 0% forex fees applied by Schwab and customer service reports the same. Will not refund additional fees, on top of the transaction fees, applied by bank or atm you are withdrawing from. Confirmed on phone July 2008.

I also opened up an online savings account at Countrywide Bank because they were paying the highest interest rate (3.55%) and simply linked that to Schwab. The nice thing about Countrywide is that you can link up to five accounts which means you can use them as a middle-man to transfer money between your accounts if you have more than one.  I’m using this to transfer money between my personal and business accounts when needed (business account -> Countrywide -> Schwab account). Transfers are free but take one business day to complete. After this, you can close any other accounts that you do not need.

Depositing Checks in the U.S.
I was also waiting on some checks that didn’t quite make it before I left. Since I’m using Earth Class Mail (ECM), I know the checks will be forwarded to my online mail box, but since ECM does not yet have electronic check deposit (coming this year) I’ll have to have ECM forward those checks to my mom to mail in for me. I found out that checks do not need a signature to be deposited, just the words “FOR DEPOSIT ONLY” and the account number on the back, so while this is a bit inconvenient, it should work.

That pretty much sums it up.

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Moving Day

By on in Planning

The last few days have been pretty crazy. I left Vermont on Sunday after finalizing all the packing up and preparing the house for the ski season. The last couple of days in NYC have been filled with running around – returning my leased car, sending some final pieces of mail and FedEx, returning license plates, canceling insurance, Craigslist’ing some last items, getting things notarized, returning cable boxes, re-packing, etc. As much as I prepared, it still seems like it’s coming down to the wire. But, there’s no turning back now.

I’m leaving for the airport in a few hours and giving myself lots of extra time to get all of the luggage checked in. I’ve always wondered when I was at the airport who those people with all the bags were. Well, today that is going to be me, because no matter how much I tried, I still ended up with twelve bags! Yep, five duffel bags, three suitcases, a pet carrier, backpack and two large carry-on bags. I’ve been re-packing and weighing all the bags to make sure they’re under the 50 pound limit (of course, my scale is probably not going to match Delta’s and I’ll have to spend time at the airport moving things between bags). So, let’s do some quick math: 2 bags each = free, 4 extra bags at $150 each = $600, 1 Delilah (dog) = $100, TOTAL: $700 extra.  Hopefully, I do not get hit with any overweight or oversize charges!

Off to do some more re-packing and running around now!

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Internet Domain Names

By on in Planning, Tech

While I realize that this is not going to be a part of most people’s planning process, being the Internet guru, I started looking for BsAs domain names as soon as I decided to make the move. I figured, who knows what I’ll be doing or what’s going to interest me, but it might make sense to have some localized domain names. Now of course, having limited Spanish (at this time), I decided to only focus on English domain names. Also, since every possible decent combination of names in the .com space is most likely gone, I looked for expiring domain names. SnapNames is a great place to do this. They keep a list of expiring domain names and try to secure them for you once they expire and are released. They set up an auction for the domains and the highest bidder gets the name. If you do not get into a bidding war (which I did on one of them – more on that later), then you can end up with a good domain at a decent price.

I was able to register these domains so far:

buenosairesapt.com
buenosairesart.com (bidding war on this one – yow!)
buenosairesguide.co.uk
buenosairesmagazine.com
buenosairestrade.com
buenosaireszoo.com
discoverbuenosaires.com
experiencebuenosaires.com
vipbuenosaires.com

They all point to this site for now, but who knows what they may become in the future. Keep your eyes on them!

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Delilah (AKA – Bringing Pets to Buenos Aires)

By on in Planning

Yesterday, I took care of the most important thing I’m bringing – Delilah, the 8 year old, 7.5 pound, mini-pinscher.  She has already dictated whether we were going to move or not (could we take her with us), where we lived (she has to have some outdoor space), an increased security deposit ($900 more just because of her!) and what airline we flew (Delta because they’re the only one that allow pets in the cabin on international flights). Delta was definitely not the cheapest airline, but there was no way I was going to be the one to put Delilah in the cargo hold for 17+ hours. The extra $100 to bring her on with us seemed like a bargain.

From reading some other blogs (Moving to Argentina and Tangotours), it seems like it should be a relatively easy process. The Argentine Consulate has the following rules:

Bringing pet animals into Argentina
The Consulate does not issue permits to enter pet animals into Argentina. Owners must make shipping arrangements with airlines directly. To avoid quarantine upon arrival in Argentina, the following documents are required to enter DOGS or CATS:

  1. Anti-rabies vaccination certificate.
  2. Good health certificate, no older than 10 days from the date of the animal’s arrival to Argentina.

Both certificates must be issued by a licensed veterinarian and certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Division, Veterinary Services. To locate an accredited veterinarian and the VS Area Office for your state, visit http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/area_offices.htm. The Consulate does not need to authenticate these documents, which must be submitted directly to the airline.

Sounds simple enough, so this week I took Delilah to the vet for her checkup and to get a good health certificate and copy of her rabies vaccination. Got that, so now, I’ll just go to the nearest USDA office… What? None in Manhattan? Ok, this is something you should check out in advance as they seem to have a limited number of offices. I found an office out near the JFK airport, so I headed out there. They are located in a large office complex and when I went in, I found only one person ahead of us.  The whole process took about 5 minutes and cost us $24.

I’ll let you know what our experience at the airport and customs is next week.

UPDATE: All went smoothly and I pretty much sailed through immigration, even though my Spanish is horrible. All the paperwork was in order and I paid the fee and zoomed right through.

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