Loss of Purchasing Power in Argentina – Pesos and Dollars Affected

Argentina allowed the peso to devalue by 17% on January 23, 2014, from $6.8 to over $8.0. Immediately, many merchants started raising their prices. The government decried these tactics as unwarranted and pushed to keep prices down. But, aside from the prices of staple foods which were frozen in advance of this, prices on most … Read more

Using Bitcoin in Argentina

We’ve previously written about Bitcoin, the digital currency that has exploded in popularity (especially in Argentina). It has become a way for Argentines to get their savings out of pesos and for expats and foreigners to take advantage of the blue rate. As Bitcoin has grown in popularity, more real world businesses have started to … Read more

Using Bitcoin to Get the Dolar Blue Rate in Argentina

One of our more frequent topics is on the “dolar blue” rate in Argentina. This is the unofficial rate at which the US dollar trades in Argentina. Yesterday it hit a new record high of U$S 1 = ARS $9.40. That’s an 81% difference to the official rate and a great reason never to use … Read more

Dolar Blue Hits Record Highs After New AFIP Rules

The “dolar blue” has hit record highs for the past two days following new rules from AFIP (the Argentine tax agency) that imposed additional fees on the use of Argentine credit cards as well as on travel packages purchased in Argentina for travel outside the country. First, AFIP raised the surcharge that Argentines must pay … Read more

Xoom Now Offering Better than Blue Market Rate

UPDATE (12/17/15): This information is no longer accurate as the government has eliminated the blue rate. I know, I know… We’ve had a lot of posts about using Xoom to transfer money to Argentina (and here), but today they’re offering a rate of ARS $6.0213 to USD $1 which we had to write about. This is … Read more

Money Transfer Argentina: Xoom Follow-Up

A few weeks ago I wrote about using Xoom to transfer money from the United States to Argentina (from the UK, use Azimo) and I thought now would be a good chance to follow up on my experiences and the experiences of a few others. First of all, the rate has skyrocketed to 5.5357 dollars to 1 peso … Read more

Buenos Aires News: Edition 13

Gay marriage is now legal in Buenos Aires after President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner signed the bill into law last week.  Perhaps the best headline I saw about this was, “Argentina approves gay divorce.” 🙂 Here’s what else is making news over the past week: Argentine Peso Gets Lift From Record Soy Harvest as Volatility … Read more