Banking Credit Card real-world rate "MEP" transaction repo (Dec2023)

[Avocado]

i never get the option; some US companies just ship USPS and tell you later. then it gets transferred to Correo :/

This happen many times when my daughter send to me the things to Argentina. Always ends up bad.

i hate the obsession with cheap "común" wall gas heaters

Be careful. Have detector for carbon monoxide poisoning. My friend died 5 years ago from this. Be very careful for this. My friend have monitor but did not work.

and they need to go away for years, because no one wants to reveal their wealth and then have the Kirchner kuka mafia come back and retroactively tax people for then-legal things. i get it! oppression leads to black markets and distrust.

Problem is even if they do down people not want to pay any tax. Difficult to pay lower when you are paying nothing. I can not hide my income because I work for clinic. I don't think black market ever go away in Argentina.

 

[Jenn]

i put a bookmark tab with the item i want, name it the price in Pesos, and check every ~3 days. i've seen that same LG list for 1.2 million Pesos, a week after i got it for 931,710.21 Pesos (at a Santander MEP rate of 1,279.54 that day, or just under $729 USD for the unit to be delivered from CABA to Mendoza. this one, which uses the LG wifi app, and supposedly is the most efficient:

Sounds like my kind of shopper! I do the same thing when I want to buy stuff. I can't pass up a good deal!

"Juan Domingo Trump" was a communist last term, and will continue to be a warmonger protectionist Zionist communist this term. it's good to be in Argentina, sitting on crypto

Trump really has been a disappointment! Most people that I know that voted for him have fizzled out. He is destroying my 401K!

so mute me, dipshit. Lefties are so retarded because they view a different political opinion as violence. get fucked, commie, you vote for thieving mafias that ruin countries with protectionist theft, then come bitch at me for wanting Argentines to be free. you offer zero value here, spam your one-dimensional MILEI EVIL rants, and no one wants you here. Mute me, as i've muted you. and stop posting on my threads if you think i'm so stupid. bye, douche! love that you admitted you lie on your pension taxes, after scolding me for being a criminal or whatever the f*ck you and your retard-partner Avocado came up with. i still think you're useless after a year

Why do you guys fight so much? Seems crazy that two people can't disagree with each other without such hatred. I have seen that on a lot of X posts between people that are pro and anti Milei. Strange.

Seems like all of this end of cepo made things even more expensive. I guess hopefully it trades at 1400 but if so my friend there said inflation will just jump up so it won't really be a savings. Is there no hope of Argentina not getting affordable again??

 

[StatusNomadicus]

Why do you guys fight so much?

he brigades an Expat forum, yells MILEI EVIL ANTICHRIST, and very few people oppose him, so when i see his stupid-ass spamming NPC 'news' here i correct him with facts, which Leftists are allergic to. it's not really fighting; he posts moronic ideas that were debunked, and then plays the victim. typical commie, makes your brain cells shrink

Strange.

not that strange, considering in the USA there is constant battle between people who call each other Fascists and Nazis 24/7. politics puts people in tribes and tribes go to war, just like Orwell showed with the "Proles" in 1984

Seems like all of this end of cepo made things even more expensive.

based on what, a few weirdos posting here? the Twittersphere that is wrong all the time, and most of those people aren't even in Argentina full-time? i'd get your news from @BowTiedMara and @BuySellBA / @earlyretirement - although they are wealthy and seek a luxury lifestyle, and thus don't have a typical experience of 80% of people here

who told you removing Cepo made things more expensive? a toddler could explain how central-planning fails

Is there no hope of Argentina not getting affordable again??

there's a sort of evil aspect of Argentina it seems, just like any other cheap-in-Dollars areas - as locals thrive and tyranny lessens, the Peso gets stronger and normal people can thrive, allowing for a middle class. but this comes at the cost of tourists not having $3 big-ass steaks at a restaurant and nearly-free luxury living. so, perhaps in the future Airbnb apartments will be normal USD prices like 1500 as opposed to the 600 i was paying for a long time, but overall the country is going to have tons more options and less fear of crazy volatility, more foreign investments, huge opportunities for Argies instead of constant populist communism tariff nonsense. but yes, Buenos Aires might not be near-free as we go on, because a limited government can't give favoritism policies to a few related companies, allowing perma-tourists to come and live luxuriously while the poverty rate for locals is 60%. this is what it seems to be, and i'd rather pay higher prices and be able to order on Amazon easily, than have constant corruption and incompetence and no middle class.

also, it's NOT unaffordable. jesus christ how many times are people going to keep making claims about this? you're not even in-country, right? so what exactly are you thinking isn't affordable in Dollars? @Jenn

 

[Betsy Ross]

Argentina is a heck of a lot cheaper than the USA. When I visit my sis in California I feel very poor!

 

[StatusNomadicus]

California

for sure, many parts of CA you need like a 150,000 USD salary just to have normal rent and car and taxes etc. - but i will say, i checked prices after over a year of being in Argentina, while my lady was in the USA, and at least in the big city she was in, there are still affordable options at Wal-Mart for most basics (other than eggs, which were like $8 USD for a dozen or something crazy).

flour, sugar, beans, rice, ground beef, chicken breasts, pork, milk, gas - many of these i expected to be really high, but they aren't very different than a couple years ago. many USA cities are still very affordable if you have a USD income and don't drink at bars or go out to restaurants. i expected she'd show me crazy high prices for basics like cheese and meat, but overall the grocery store was pretty good! that being said, what i consider "good" in the USA is like $4/pound ground beef or chicken or pork, so even the fully-priced 9000 Peso/kg ground beef is still like $3.50 USD/pound equivalent, so Argentina still wins in Dollars for a lot of things like flour/sugar/beans/beef/pork/eggs of course. i try to get my ground beef here in Mendoza on sale for 4500 Pesos/kg, which would be something like $1.75 USD/pound maybe? the rates have changed a lot, so the calculations are harder while the Cepo transition period is happening.

real-world MEP 24Apr2025 updates:

1051 Visa on 22Apr
1064 Mastercard on 24Apr

and today's rates 25Apr2025 for the weekend:
Official 1065 / 1194 (wtf!)
Blue 1190 / 1210 (minus fees)
MEP 1185 (minus 7% fees)
Santander MEP swap 1174 / 1180
Crypto 1203
Western Union 1193 (minus fees)

 

[McDonald]

for sure, many parts of CA you need like a 150,000 USD salary just to have normal rent and car and taxes etc. - but i will say, i checked prices after over a year of being in Argentina, while my lady was in the USA, and at least in the big city she was in, there are still affordable options at Wal-Mart for most basics (other than eggs, which were like $8 USD for a dozen or something crazy).

flour, sugar, beans, rice, ground beef, chicken breasts, pork, milk, gas - many of these i expected to be really high, but they aren't very different than a couple years ago. many USA cities are still very affordable if you have a USD income and don't drink at bars or go out to restaurants. i expected she'd show me crazy high prices for basics like cheese and meat, but overall the grocery store was pretty good! that being said, what i consider "good" in the USA is like $4/pound ground beef or chicken or pork, so even the fully-priced 9000 Peso/kg ground beef is still like $3.50 USD/pound equivalent, so Argentina still wins in Dollars for a lot of things like flour/sugar/beans/beef/pork/eggs of course. i try to get my ground beef here in Mendoza on sale for 4500 Pesos/kg, which would be something like $1.75 USD/pound maybe? the rates have changed a lot, so the calculations are harder while the Cepo transition period is happening.

real-world MEP 24Apr2025 updates:

1051 Visa on 22Apr
1064 Mastercard on 24Apr

and today's rates 25Apr2025 for the weekend:
Official 1065 / 1194 (wtf!)
Blue 1190 / 1210 (minus fees)
MEP 1185 (minus 7% fees)
Santander MEP swap 1174 / 1180
Crypto 1203
Western Union 1193 (minus fees)

California prices are loco. Sister lives there. I don't know how she does it. She fortunately bought her house a long time ago but if not she would be stuck.