StatusNomadicus
Well-known member
tracking, i got 1,161.76 with my Chase Visa...interesting that it's slightly different.
today's MEP rate:
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Banking Credit Card real-world rate "MEP" transaction repo (Dec2023)
- Thread starter StatusNomadicus
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- credit card mastercard mep visa
today's MEP rate:
StatusNomadicus
Well-known member
earlyretirement
Moderator
I had lunch today and 25,004 peso charged to my USA Visa card was $21.52 US dollars for an exchange rate of 1,161.89.
StatusNomadicus
Well-known member
i still haven't found out why my Visa is getting 1162.666666666 today, and yours is getting 1161.89, but maybe someday i'll unlock this mystery and share with the crew here
already posted, and the rate is fixed for the weekend, but thanks! moving to Belgrano this week...i'll update everyone on my findings from Chinatown when i get settled
James Bond
Well-known member
Just a tiny difference it looks like. I doubt anyone will care about the few pennies difference.i still haven't found out why my Visa is getting 1162.666666666 today, and yours is getting 1161.89, but maybe someday i'll unlock this mystery and share with the crew here
already posted, and the rate is fixed for the weekend, but thanks! moving to Belgrano this week...i'll update everyone on my findings from Chinatown when i get settled
Avocado
Well-known member
Only if you very poor guy. Every cent matters to you.
StatusNomadicus
Well-known member
right, but there's something happening that changes the cost, and since i've put many hours into learning the system and posting how it works for you guys, not knowing the precise equation is something i'd like to finish. of course no one would be affected, but if you paid for gas every week and it kept charging you 2 cents more per gallon than the posted rate, it's not like you'd just shrug it off and not be curious, right?
"look at me, i'm a victim! everyone, look at me, i'm special! i'm permanently poor! part of the proletariat WORKING CLASS, ever-destitute no matter what i do! oh and did i mention, pay attention to me, i'm a victim?"
tracking! i was in a hurry to post this week's stuff since i was busy moving to Belgrano, so apologies for not including it and posting earlier. also: why McDonald's? : P - serious question, actually curious why people go there (my ex-ex-ex went to Switzerland for 2 weeks an refused to eat anything other than McDonald's because everything was 'too expensive' and she was picky, so i'm always fascinated by the appeal of Burger King, KFC, and McDonald's out of the USA. i understand the StarBucks thing because they're fast and efficient and clean and have a consistent product).
summary: credit card spends lost a decent amount of value (is inflation already dropping?? the 2x1 pints at my new local beer place suggest so, at 2,500 Pesos for the happy-hour special ($1.25 USD per beer? something like that). check the x.com/ArgentinaMEP for all the days i posted, but for anyone spending CC the rest of this weekend, you will get 3% more with MasterCard until tomorrow/Monday morning!
lost 60 Pesos per dollar with Visa this weekend, from 1161 to 1101 - pretty crazy drop! but it's been higher and higher for a long time.
StatusNomadicus
Well-known member
Sun 28th of Jan:
anyone expecting prices to start dropping? the MEP sure has. i'm going to do a test Western Union cash pickup to see if lugging-around all these bills will be advantageous (if the rate is higher, combined with strategically picking businesses that give at least a 10% discount with efectivo)
anyone expecting prices to start dropping? the MEP sure has. i'm going to do a test Western Union cash pickup to see if lugging-around all these bills will be advantageous (if the rate is higher, combined with strategically picking businesses that give at least a 10% discount with efectivo)
StatusNomadicus
Well-known member
today's MEP research:
use those MasterCards still, instead of Visa! and i've been seeing Bife Ancho at 5500 Pesos pretty stable for about 3 weeks now...with the drop in the MEP rate, from a high of 1163 and now it's 1101 with Visa (real-world), so are we going to see decreased prices for the first time in years?
use those MasterCards still, instead of Visa! and i've been seeing Bife Ancho at 5500 Pesos pretty stable for about 3 weeks now...with the drop in the MEP rate, from a high of 1163 and now it's 1101 with Visa (real-world), so are we going to see decreased prices for the first time in years?
StatusNomadicus
Well-known member
1159 MEP for Mastercard, 2 less for Visa, fairly negligible this weekend. i've been trying to get a Student Visa and failing, thus the lack of regular updates on this and my Twitter!
Thanks for taking the time to post this. I usually just go to the website below and subtract about 7%.
www.dolarito.ar
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StatusNomadicus
Well-known member
Sunday 04Feb2024:
if you aren't getting your news on Twitter, especially following @BowTiedMara, you're missing out! and 6% is my estimate, which is close to your 7% if you look at another post:
use Twitter/X and you'll see the actual numbers for every day : ) holler if you prefer more/different data or format. i'm mostly just doing this for future Expats to research; don't think i have that many people actually using it or caring. there's also this good X account for Blue Dollar info multiple times a day:
if you aren't getting your news on Twitter, especially following @BowTiedMara, you're missing out! and 6% is my estimate, which is close to your 7% if you look at another post:
but not bad if you're "churning" credit cards and doing a minimum spend for points/miles. otherwise, if you like cash, and seek-out 10-20% efectivo discounts at businesses, Western Union might be the best bet once we get some 5k, 10k, 20k, and 50k notes!
Vero
Well-known member
Yes I just use cash and almost all places I can get a 10% to 15% effective discount. That is where savings add up for me vs. credit card.
Spend Thrift
Well-known member
This. I just look at MEP rate and subtract 7% and it is not far from that amount. I don't need to chase pennies.Thanks for taking the time to post this. I usually just go to the website below and subtract about 7%.
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Dazed & Confused
Active member
Wow! That discount must add up but unless I am reading it wrong it sounds like a hassle to transport so much money as the biggest commonly used bill there is only worth $1 dollar? We probably will just use credit cards and not worth the hassles of going to get money at Western Union. Is there any other disadvantage of credit cards other than cash getting 10% to 15% discount? Is credit card fraud there common?
StatusNomadicus
Well-known member
my businesses seem like like half have cash/efectivo discounts, but for sure when you find a place you like, you can keep going back. i've seen 10-20% but usually 10% cash discount. i don't understand why businesses want cash, unless they're skimming the tax books. and carrying aroun a fat stack of 1000 Peso bills is so silly, it's almost not worth a 10% discount ahahhaa.
but i'm still discovering new places, so hard to go back to the Cash discounts. like last night, i found Borneo brewery on Libertador in Belgrano by China Town! amazing big burgers, okay fries, but beer Happy Hour 18:00-20:00 for 2500 Pesos 2x1, so my 4 pints of beer cost 5,000 Pesos or $4.32 USD. you can't even get a pint of beer in the USA most places for under $7 USD now. both burgers were great, lots of sauce which is rare for BsAs. will be back!
why even look, then? just swipe your card. no point in looking it up if you're going to take the same action, regardless of the info.
for me, if real-world MEP changed up or down, it would affect how i purchase things. if the spread was 25%, i would use WU and cash. it it became more advantageous, like it was about to be a couple weeks ago, i'd only use card. if you don't need my twitter posts, that's cool, but no one else is tracking the historical MEP Dollar/Peso value, so i started to. it's not intended to chase pennies; it's intended to let you choose between Visa and MasterCard (i always travel with both cards, just in case), since sometimes you can get a lot more by using one or the other, like here:
Banking - Credit Card real-world rate "MEP" transaction repo (Dec2023)
I just had a nice lunch with a close friend and my architect in Buenos Aires. Prices definitely seem like they have gone up in peso prices since I was here 2 months ago. Back when I was here in November I got 1,000 pesos to $1 USD at the cuevas. It's about the same now. I got 1,060 pesos to...
www.expatsba.com
yeah! can be really great. 20% ain't no joke, especially if you add the 6% lost on using a card, anyway. so more like 26%. but most places are 10% cash discount, and not as many as the earlier post makes it seem like. business owners still have to pay an armed guard/truck to store their wheelbarrows of cash, so not sure at what point it becomes cheaper to just prefer credit cards and not have to deal with huge piles of 1000 bills.
true. i can only take out 35,000 Pesos at Banelco ATMs, so about $37.50 USD or something like that (if you get the $7 USD fee refunded with a Charles Schwab Visa Debit/ATM card). it's a huge stack to have 35 bills in my wallet. i usually carry two $20 USD bills in the USA, and rarely use them. but having $100 USD is almost an inch thick! it's crazy. hopefully later this year there are 50,000 Peso bills, but then you'll have to deal with the risk of counterfeits like what i read a few years back.
sometimes you can use WU for a 0% fee, get a higher rate like 1200, and strategically bring cash to each time you leave your apartment, and get an effective 16-26% discount on stuff. but it does take some planning and annoyance, but if you're an Expat and want to live smart and travel longer, it will pay-off for sure. just make sure your apartment is secure enough to have all that cash stored; WU and ATMs only give Pesos, so flying in with physical $100 USD bills is the only way to have Dollars, and that's a big risk, too. if you have a cleaner, or someone with a key, remember you might have 6 months of their salary in a drawer...
they use the mobile card machines, serviced by a couple companies like Mercado Pago, and i haven't had any fraudulent activity on the 5 cards i've used here for 2 months now. but sure, always a risk anywhere in the world. perhaps @earlyretirement or @Betsy Ross can chime-in here since i'm newer,
Betsy Ross
Well-known member
This is a good summary. No, I have never had credit card fraud here in all the years I have lived in BA. They always just bring the scanner to the table. I have never had my number skimmed in Argentina. The same can't be said for other countries in South America I have visited. In Brazil immediately after check in to my hotel some electronics were purchased at some store in Sao Paulo. So it was definitely used. That problem has not happened in Argentina. I don't know anyone that has had credit card issues either.my businesses seem like like half have cash/efectivo discounts, but for sure when you find a place you like, you can keep going back. i've seen 10-20% but usually 10% cash discount. i don't understand why businesses want cash, unless they're skimming the tax books. and carrying aroun a fat stack of 1000 Peso bills is so silly, it's almost not worth a 10% discount ahahhaa.
but i'm still discovering new places, so hard to go back to the Cash discounts. like last night, i found Borneo brewery on Libertador in Belgrano by China Town! amazing big burgers, okay fries, but beer Happy Hour 18:00-20:00 for 2500 Pesos 2x1, so my 4 pints of beer cost 5,000 Pesos or $4.32 USD. you can't even get a pint of beer in the USA most places for under $7 USD now. both burgers were great, lots of sauce which is rare for BsAs. will be back!
why even look, then? just swipe your card. no point in looking it up if you're going to take the same action, regardless of the info.
for me, if real-world MEP changed up or down, it would affect how i purchase things. if the spread was 25%, i would use WU and cash. it it became more advantageous, like it was about to be a couple weeks ago, i'd only use card. if you don't need my twitter posts, that's cool, but no one else is tracking the historical MEP Dollar/Peso value, so i started to. it's not intended to chase pennies; it's intended to let you choose between Visa and MasterCard (i always travel with both cards, just in case), since sometimes you can get a lot more by using one or the other, like here:
Banking - Credit Card real-world rate "MEP" transaction repo (Dec2023)
I just had a nice lunch with a close friend and my architect in Buenos Aires. Prices definitely seem like they have gone up in peso prices since I was here 2 months ago. Back when I was here in November I got 1,000 pesos to $1 USD at the cuevas. It's about the same now. I got 1,060 pesos to...
yeah! can be really great. 20% ain't no joke, especially if you add the 6% lost on using a card, anyway. so more like 26%. but most places are 10% cash discount, and not as many as the earlier post makes it seem like. business owners still have to pay an armed guard/truck to store their wheelbarrows of cash, so not sure at what point it becomes cheaper to just prefer credit cards and not have to deal with huge piles of 1000 bills.
true. i can only take out 35,000 Pesos at Banelco ATMs, so about $37.50 USD or something like that (if you get the $7 USD fee refunded with a Charles Schwab Visa Debit/ATM card). it's a huge stack to have 35 bills in my wallet. i usually carry two $20 USD bills in the USA, and rarely use them. but having $100 USD is almost an inch thick! it's crazy. hopefully later this year there are 50,000 Peso bills, but then you'll have to deal with the risk of counterfeits like what i read a few years back.
sometimes you can use WU for a 0% fee, get a higher rate like 1200, and strategically bring cash to each time you leave your apartment, and get an effective 16-26% discount on stuff. but it does take some planning and annoyance, but if you're an Expat and want to live smart and travel longer, it will pay-off for sure. just make sure your apartment is secure enough to have all that cash stored; WU and ATMs only give Pesos, so flying in with physical $100 USD bills is the only way to have Dollars, and that's a big risk, too. if you have a cleaner, or someone with a key, remember you might have 6 months of their salary in a drawer...
they use the mobile card machines, serviced by a couple companies like Mercado Pago, and i haven't had any fraudulent activity on the 5 cards i've used here for 2 months now. but sure, always a risk anywhere in the world. perhaps @earlyretirement or @Betsy Ross can chime-in here since i'm newer,
StatusNomadicus
Well-known member
it's happened to me in the USA at least once a year! and sometimes with cards that have been sitting in my safe at home for months! crazy. BsAs is safe with credit cards and ATM/debit card use, it seems. of course it's always better to use Credit because of the "Dispute Transaction" ability, but about 25% of card places will only take Debit cards in BsAs (like the German/Bavarian restaurant in Belgrano). and some businesses will tell you that your USA debit card runs as a credit card, showing "cuotas" which many will refuse to use. so just ask each time
today's MEP real-world means MasterCard is 2 Pesos higher than Visa!
Flamingo
Well-known member
I am convinced that there is hacking going on at the bank level that banks systems are not secure and they are getting hacked into. I have had situations where I do NOT use my card anywhere, never make online purchases and the card has been used and it is sitting in my safe at home. The only way I see this happening is if the bank's system is getting hacked into. The bank told me once when I asked them that their system isn't hacked but hackers just try random digits but I have seen on message boards before certain banks/cards all getting hacked into so I don't think this is the case and some how someone get access to their system.it's happened to me in the USA at least once a year! and sometimes with cards that have been sitting in my safe at home for months! crazy. BsAs is safe with credit cards and ATM/debit card use, it seems. of course it's always better to use Credit because of the "Dispute Transaction" ability, but about 25% of card places will only take Debit cards in BsAs (like the German/Bavarian restaurant in Belgrano). and some businesses will tell you that your USA debit card runs as a credit card, showing "cuotas" which many will refuse to use. so just ask each time
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