Newcomer Is Buenos Aires safe?

[CaiseBruce]

am thinking of taking the CELTA course in Buenos Aires in May. There is one in Recoleta and another in Sede Belgrano. I would probably be at the school the majority of the time during the day, and not go out far at night (if at all) but might try to see a few record stores and maybe Iguazu Falls if there is time on weekends. My friend had his phone stolen out of his hands on the subway. Is crime like this extremely common there?

I was considering it as a place to live and teach, but it sounds like the pay is extremely low and the economy is constantly in flux. At least this way I could get the course in and see it a little bit. Also hope to pet a capybara if I find one running around. Any thoughts and should I consider a different location?

 

[Melody13]

I am here now - everyone (locals and foreigners) in palermo is walking around, glued to their phones like its a major city in the united states. you can go out at night. you can see capybaras at the park. i can only imagine the pay for a teaching position is abysmal here due to the economy, but it could be a good place to get certified for cheaper than other countries.

 

[CaiseBruce]

Thank you so much 🥰 You have given me so much hope! I was really worried about traveling there and walking to class each day with my laptop and phone.

 

[Melody13]

keep your phone and laptop in your bag when traveling (walking, bus, train). i suggest not being glued to your phone 24/7, but if you check for some directions or shoot a quick text, you'll probably be ok.

i take uber at night unless i'm walking with friends. they stay up late here, so it's not uncommon for people to be on the streets and walking late at night. theft has been up recently, but its usually non-violent theft (pickpocketing, snatch and grab). practice common sense you would practice in big cities.

recoleta, belgrano, and palermo are all areas where the foreigners tend to stay. downtown and to the south, i'd keep off your electronics publicly and try to know where you're headed instead of being phone dependent.

 

[CaiseBruce]

Thank you, this is great advice! It's a pretty intense course from what I've read so I might not have much time to sightsee or wander. But I do hope to somewhat get a feel for the town. Have you ridden the trains or buses? Do they feel safe to you?

 

[CaiseBruce]

Also is Apple Pay common there, cash or credit card?

 

[CarolineTrip]

You can use your cards, but cash is king. you will have to western union yourself $$ or bring usd (100s only) from home to exchange. i would research the $$ situation here extensively before coming, if you plan to stay a couple of months.

 

[CaiseBruce]

I don't like to walk around with 100's even in the US. Do they have ATMs everywhere so you can withdraw pesos?

 

[Melody13]

the atms here are a rip off (ie, you pay a huge atm fee and can only get out the equivalent of $20 usd max). you bring USD and exchange it with either a cambio house or at Western Union.

if walking around with large wads of money is not your thing, argentina isn't for you. their highest bank note is 1000 and that is equivalent to roughly $1 depending on the day, so when you exchange larger sums of usd, you will have a brick of pesos.

usually paying with cash here gets you a better price (some retail stores will give you a 15-20% discount for using cash) and a lot of landlords here want people to pay their rent in usd.

 

[ArtmikeGG]

Use common sense, don't flash valuables on the street, be aware of your surroundings and you most likely won't have any issues in Buenos Aires.

 

[Betsy Ross]

You can use your cards, but cash is king. you will have to western union yourself $$ or bring usd (100s only) from home to exchange. i would research the $$ situation here extensively before coming, if you plan to stay a couple of months.

I would disagree with this statement that "cash is king" here now. This was formally true but you can easily use your credit card in most places. Almost all restaurants accept credit cards. All grocery stores and markets accept credit card except some mom and pop type stores. But there has been a big push in the last 2 years towards accepting credit cards and debit cards. In fact, I believe the government has some law that stores need to accept debit cards from Argentina.

It is true you will always need some cash as you can't tip at restaurants with cash. But the difference isn't too great between the blue market rate and the credit card rate that you will get. If you will come an extended time you can bring some cash but keep in mind safety aspects as well and you can always use Western Union but cash isn't really king here as some blogs are still posting. Credit cards get the MEP rate which is very close to blue rate.

I would assume you already booked an Airbnb which you would have used your credit card. Ubers can be paid with your credit card or account back home. The only thing I use cash for is really tips at restaurants.

 

[StatusNomadicus]

the atms here are a rip off (ie, you pay a huge atm fee and can only get out the equivalent of $20 usd max

your info is a bit off - you can take out 35,000 Pesos, or 35 of the 1000-Peso bills, or $35 USD right now, with a $9 USD fee that is refunded when you use a Charles Schwab ATM card. Western Union charges its own fees, as do Cuevas - depends who you want to pay the 'cut' to, but every method requires some work or money.

@CaiseBruce i was in CABA 3 months - check this out for better ATM info: https://www.expatsba.com/threads/atm-highest-withdraw-limit.874/post-12327

I would disagree with this statement that "cash is king" here now. This was formally true but you can easily use your credit card in most places. Almost all restaurants accept credit cards. All grocery stores and markets accept credit card except some mom and pop type stores. But there has been a big push in the last 2 years towards accepting credit cards and debit cards. In fact, I believe the government has some law that stores need to accept debit cards from Argentina.

yep, @Betsy Ross has all the info. i use Apple Pay all the time; any contactless machine (white or blue usually) can accept "Tap to Pay" with card or ApplePay. Visa and MasterCard work great. and when i'm not being a turd @CaiseBruce, i update the Peso/Dollar rate here: www.x.com/ArgentinaMEP

i'd say 75% of places take credit card, and 60% of those don't impose a fee. but paying cash sometimes can get you a 5-20% discount (they're passing-on the fee to you for using a credit card, and sometimes increasing it to their benefit). a place here in Cordoba charged me 9500 Pesos ($10 USD) for a big sandwich and a beer, and said there would be a 20% credit card fee. in the end, i paid 9500 Pesos on card, so i think she meant that i would have gotten a 20% discount with using cash. sometimes it pays to take out Pesos, but it gets really old. if there were 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100-Peso notes, it would be less annoying thank the Peronists for this feature/bug of the economy.

card for Ubers like Betsy said, Airbnbs, restaurants (ask beforehand), and i tip with cash or find screaming deals.

CELTA course in Buenos Aires in May.

i was going to do the PALAS program at University of Belgrano - ever looked-into it? (if you're not set on CELTA)

INCOMING STUDENTS - Semester Programs - Academic Offer | Universidad de Belgrano

ub.edu.ar

 

[CaiseBruce]

Thank you everyone for the helpful info. Thank you @StatusNomadicus for confirming about Apple Pay as I use that almost exclusively in the USA to pay. Almost everywhere takes it for payment and I prefer that then getting out a credit card. It is very surprising to hear about the low ATM withdrawal limits and high surcharges!

20% discount to pay with cash sounds huge! Why do they offer such big discounts? Are there large surcharges for merchants to pay? Here in the USA it is usually only 3% for merchants. It might be worth paying in cash if I can get a 20% discount.

 

[Betsy Ross]

Thank you everyone for the helpful info. Thank you @StatusNomadicus for confirming about Apple Pay as I use that almost exclusively in the USA to pay. Almost everywhere takes it for payment and I prefer that then getting out a credit card. It is very surprising to hear about the low ATM withdrawal limits and high surcharges!

20% discount to pay with cash sounds huge! Why do they offer such big discounts? Are there large surcharges for merchants to pay? Here in the USA it is usually only 3% for merchants. It might be worth paying in cash if I can get a 20% discount.

ATM machines are generally not worth using unless your bank will reimburse you for the surcharge. Charles Schwab is a good account to have but just take note I have a friend who moved here last year and she uses her account too much and Charles Schwab just canceled her account. Apparently, they were reimbursing her too much each month so even if you have an account you might want to limit withdrawals as that is a great bank card to lose if you travel around.

20% is very generous discount. Normally it is more like 10%. The stores offer discounts. typically not only to save on swipe fees but the big reason is the merchant typically doesn't have to declare that income and tax rates here in Argentina are very very high for businesses so it is a good way for many to have tax free income.

 

[earlyretirement]

ATM machines are generally not worth using unless your bank will reimburse you for the surcharge. Charles Schwab is a good account to have but just take note I have a friend who moved here last year and she uses her account too much and Charles Schwab just canceled her account. Apparently, they were reimbursing her too much each month so even if you have an account you might want to limit withdrawals as that is a great bank card to lose if you travel around.

20% is very generous discount. Normally it is more like 10%. The stores offer discounts. typically not only to save on swipe fees but the big reason is the merchant typically doesn't have to declare that income and tax rates here in Argentina are very very high for businesses so it is a good way for many to have tax free income.

I totally agree about being careful with too many Schwab withdrawals. I have had an account for years and have traveled around about 100+ days a year for each of the past many years. I have utilized my Charles Schwab account all over the world and gotten reimbursed at the end of each month. But I avoid ATM machines in Argentina as the withdrawal limit is so low and fees are high. I know 2 former clients that live in BA part of the year and they were using it many times each day and their accounts were shut down. Probably using it once in a while down there will be ok but I'd say if you're using it several times a day or even daily they might shut down your account.

@Betsy Ross is spot on target as usual. Most discounts are around 10% for paying cash. Sometimes a little more but I generally just pay with credit card when I can. Cash takes up a lot of bulk in your pockets as they mostly only give you the 1,000 peso note worth about $1 USD. I also get frequent flyer points so the net/net is the risk/reward is just easier using credit card vs. carrying around a ton of $1 bills. Maybe this will change when they roll out bigger bills.

I find Buenos Aires to be very safe for a city of it's size. I still can walk around all hours of the day or night in the neighborhoods that I want to be in (Recoleta, Palermo, Belgrano). I never have any fear walking around even very late at night in those neighborhoods. I wouldn't recommend carrying around a laptop too much in public cafes but cellphones are no problem at all and just be careful with them on the metro and while at bars pay attention to them. Even my local friends that have lived there all their lives have gotten them stolen on the subway and also recently a friend got his iPhone stolen at a bar. He had it on the table and turned around for a few seconds and it was gone. The thieves there are very good.

 

[BradP]

I am locked and loaded and signed up for a Charles Schwab account. I am planning on living in Buenos Aires the next few months as a Digital Nomad. I read that you can sign up for an actual visa but my friends there told me that is overkill and I can just extend once I am there so I will do that. I will stay in Palermo for the first month and then Recoleta 2 months and I am excited.

 

[StatusNomadicus]

Charles Schwab is a good account to have but just take note I have a friend who moved here last year and she uses her account too much and Charles Schwab just canceled her account. Apparently, they were reimbursing her too much each month so even if you have an account you might want to limit withdrawals as that is a great bank card to lose if you travel around.

any links on this? first time i've heard of this in many years of having Schwab and reading forums

I know 2 former clients that live in BA part of the year and they were using it many times each day and their accounts were shut down. Probably using it once in a while down there will be ok but I'd say if you're using it several times a day or even daily they might shut down your account.

anyone posting on their Twitter/X about this?

 

[import export]

any links on this? first time i've heard of this in many years of having Schwab and reading forums

anyone posting on their Twitter/X about this?

I don't have any links but I also know of a friend living in Buenos Aires and they had their Charles Schwab account shut down but they were doing multiple withdrawals every day and that is foolish. Any bank probably has a limit that doesn't make sense having one as a client. I use a Schwab account but I don't use it too much while in BA for the stated reasons of very little withdrawal limit. It is too valuable for me to lose this card as I travel quite a bit.

 

[earlyretirement]

any links on this? first time i've heard of this in many years of having Schwab and reading forums

anyone posting on their Twitter/X about this?

I haven't read about it on any forums but I don't think it's a widespread problem. The few I know that had their Charles Schwab account shut down is because they foolishly were using it many times on a daily basis in Buenos Aires. At $9 USD per withdrawal doing that multiple times a day is not a good idea. My friend is an executive at Charles Schwab and he did confirm to me that if they deem a customer not worth it, they will close an account.

I don't think the occasional withdrawal is a problem. I travel extensively around the world and I never had issues with it but I also don't use it in Argentina at all. The only ones that I know that had shut down issues sounded like they were doing over 25-30 withdrawals a month in Argentina.

 

[Betsy Ross]

I haven't read about it on any forums but I don't think it's a widespread problem. The few I know that had their Charles Schwab account shut down is because they foolishly were using it many times on a daily basis in Buenos Aires. At $9 USD per withdrawal doing that multiple times a day is not a good idea. My friend is an executive at Charles Schwab and he did confirm to me that if they deem a customer not worth it, they will close an account.

I don't think the occasional withdrawal is a problem. I travel extensively around the world and I never had issues with it but I also don't use it in Argentina at all. The only ones that I know that had shut down issues sounded like they were doing over 25-30 withdrawals a month in Argentina.

This is the same type of situation as the person that I know. They were using it a few times each day and they didn't have large balances with the bank. I use mine once in a while in case of an emergency but simply try not to do more than a few times a month. I just pay Western Union once in a while to send funds in. I don't know how many is too many withdrawals but the person that I know told me they were using theirs daily to withdraw but I don't know how many withdrawals/reimbursements per month they were doing to get their account closed down.