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Dollars to Argentine Pesos through Xoom

We arrived to Buenos Aires somewhat clueless of the rapid inflation and high prices. I had always thought people were exaggerating about how quickly the prices of everyday products increase, but now, the reality of 20-30% inflation is real to us too.

I’m no expert on parallel currency markets, but because of the economic situation here in Argentina, there are two dollar-to-peso exchange markets: official and blue/informal. The difference between the official and blue rates is significant. At the time of this writing, the official rate is US $1.00 to AR $4.88 and the blue rate is US $1.00 to AR $6.53. Check out today’s rate here.

Thankfully, we found out about Xoom.com, an online money transfer services that allows you send money from your U.S. bank account to yourself (or someone else) in Buenos Aires for cash pick-up or bank deposit.

The advantage of Xoom to cash withdrawals from an ATM is that Xoom offers close to the informal exchange rate, while banks operate with the official rate.

So far the process has been fairly smooth. We follow some basic guidelines we’ve learned from others’ experiences posted at BAexpats.org. Namely:

Send money from a checking account NOT credit card, as credit cards will most likely categorize the expense as a cash advance.
Make sure to use recipient’s full legal name on ID, no nicknames, etc. (If you are sending to someone else, verify this information.)
Don’t send more than $2999.99 (we never reach that!) for a transaction or it could really slow down the process.
Send money at least one day in advance so there’s time for it to process through XOOM and MMT.
Take your Passport (no DNI needed) and just the transaction number (no need to print the full email).

Last time I went in to pick-up cash, the local business here in Buenos Aires that handles the transaction, called MORE Money Transfers (MMT), handed out some information that I found very helpful. So, I’m posting that here:

NOTICE

Dear Customer:

Under present Argentine Authority’s regulations — A.F.I.P., Anit-Money-Laundering Law Nr. 25.246 and Financial Information Unit (UIF) Resolution 66/2012 — in accordance with F.A.T.F (Financial Action Task Force) rules, MORE MONEY TRANSFERS SERVICE is compelled to request from all its clients (those ordering or receiving money remittances) the following data:

Full name

Passport or MERCOSUR ID

Marital Status

Address in Argentina

Telephone number (in Argentina)

E-mail

What links you to the sender?

Activity or purpose of your stay in Argentina

Purpose or destination of the money of this transaction

CUIT, CUIL or CDI (if applicable)

Source of funds involved in this transaction

If remittances amount is larger than AR $5,000, a sender’s identification number must be provided. Passport, ID Cards, Driver’s License and SSN are equally valid.

If remittance amount accumulates with previous transfers (on annual basis) a sum larger than AR $40,000, you must provide information about the origin of monies involved, such as: a sender’s bank statement, senders source of income (salary receipt, employment contract).

As much as I hate waiting in line to pick-up the cash now that Xoom has become more widely used, it’s always worth it. So whether you’re about to travel to BA, have family here, or are living in BA, checkout Xoom and save some cash.

Xoom stories on BAexpats.org:

*Oh, I am in no way affiliated with Xoom or MMT, nor did I get paid to write this. Just trying to spread the word.

Tags: Argentina, budget, Buenos Aires

Comments 4 Comments
Categories Budget, Life in Buenos Aires
Author Stephen

One Year Later: 10 Things about Buenos Aires that Now Seem Normal

12 Oct

On May 13, 2011, we announced our plans to pack up from Los Angeles to head to the Midwest via a not-so-direct detour. Our detour through Buenos Aires, Argentina, is now officially at the one year mark with no clear end in sight. We’ve settled in, set up a daily routine, and gotten used to the way things work. We miss our friends, family and dog terribly, but for now, this is where we need to be.

To celebrate the end of first year in Buenos Aires, we’ve compiled a list about our daily life here.

10 Things about BA that Now Seem Normal

Walking carefully. Everyone in this city walks with one eye looking to the ground scanning for “landmines” left by the numerous canines on the city’s sidewalks.
Ordering a la carte. Side dishes are not very common here. Unless it’s a carrot salad, mashed pumpkins, or french fries, forget about it.
Shopping a la carte. Instead of walking down the next aisle at Target, we shop at numerous boutique stores for our various daily needs. We’ve got our pasta shop, our veggie stand, our chicken and eggs supply, our general household goods store, our Mexican food delivery, and our work/office supplies store.
Being uninsured. In the U.S., that’s asking for trouble, but here, with nationalized health care we can get any medical need for free. (We still opt for visiting the private clinics/hospitals, which are still comparatively affordable because they compete with no-cost care.)
Taking public transportation. Buses, commuter trains, the subway, and taxis keep us connected and moving.
Walking 2 miles. Although done carefully, foregoing public transportation is an often welcome change. “You want to walk?” is met with, “Of course.”
Staring blankly. After having an awkward exchange in “Spanish,” sometimes that’s all that can be done. (People stare blankly at us too.)
Cooking from scratch. There’s not as much prepared or semi-prepared food here that we like, so we’ve been forced to expand our cooking repertoire to prevent the next item in this list from becoming much too normal. One example of this is that all black beans come dry. No cans.
Eating meat, pasta, and white bread. While normal to most of you back home, we didn’t eat much of these in the U.S. Here, you’ll starve if you don’t.
Sipping coffee. Drinking children’s sized coffee in a restaurant and enjoying it for hours while not being bothered by the wait staff is something that is sorely missing from U.S. culture.

Thanks for following our adventure!

If you’re an expat in Buenos Aires, what’s on your list of things once felt foreign, but now seem normal?

Tags: Argentina, Buenos Aires, travel

Comments 9 Comments
Categories Food, Life in Buenos Aires, Reflections
Author Stephen

Found: An English (and Spanish) Church in Buenos Aires

30 Sep

It took nearly ten frustrating months of bouncing around Sunday to Sunday before we finally found a church community here in Buenos Aires that offers us a chance to be involved, make friends with people our age, speak English and Spanish, and travel less than 20 minutes to attend.

We are now regulars at San Andrés Presbyterian Church (Iglesia Presbiteriana San Andrés) in the Belgrano neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

When we walked into the church for the first time on a Sunday morning, we both knew immediately this would be our church home. The warmth and friendliness was palpable. People were joking, laughing and one couple was drinking mate in the pews. There were young and old and they seemed to be interested in one another. When the singing started, we looked at each with huge smiles. The musicians were playing in an almost Dixieland jazz style, complete with clarinet! Turns out this is a weekly occurrence.

Needless to say, we are very happy to have found San Andrés. We look forward to going on Sunday and we’re surrounded by others who seem just as happy to be there.

What makes the church even better for us is their semi-independent, English-speaking group called The Well. (Chronologically, we really found The Well first.) The Well meets every other Sunday night for a time of song, prayer and study, and since we’re still not fully understanding everything that happens on Sunday mornings, we welcome the easy comprehension.

Finding a church home was one of the last major pieces to us getting settled here in Buenos Aires. Our lives feel more complete now. Now, if we can just get those visas worked out.

**If you’re traveling to or through BA and looking to attend church, you are more than invited to meet up with us. Send us a message. No need to be shy about it.

Tags: Argentina, Buenos Aires, church

Comments 6 Comments
Categories Life in Buenos Aires
Author Stephen

“The one not jumping is a Brit!” – Argentine Soccer Chant

16 Jun

Soccer teams in Argentina don’t rely on cheerleaders to keep fans up out of their seats during a game. A voluntary “cheer mafia” made up of hard-core fans in various states of soberly disorder eagerly does this on their own from the stands. At least, so we’ve heard from our friend Galen who braved the madness and went to a Boca Juniors soccer game and experienced the “cheer mafia” firsthand.

At one point in the game, one of the men leading the cheering and singing went to their row and punched a dude who wasn’t cheering. The dude was a tourist. Then, this cheer-man grabbed one of Galen’s friends by the shirt, essentially commanding them to cheer or else face the same fate.

What Galen discovered later was that the cheering at a soccer game in Argentina is a bit of a superstition. The louder, rowdier, and more pervasive the cheering is the better the team will play. A moment of silence or a silent onlooker may be the root cause of a player’s mishap. So, it’s not that the cheer mafia are simply jerks, they’re superstitious. At least this cheer man was, Galen believed.

While cheering in the U.S. for hours on end sounds incredibly tedious — how long can you go yelling a “Yay!” here, a “Go team!” there, and an occasional collective “De-Fense!” without a break? — cheering in Buenos Aires is more like singing choruses over and over again. The crowd is one large choir, and each team has its own songbook. It’s a lot easier to sing for hours than to yell.

The game we went to wasn’t enforced by a cheer mafia, thankfully. But they still had a songbook to sing as they watched Lionel Messi destroy Ecuador.

My favorite song from the night went like this (not my video, but taken at our game):

“Y ya lo ve, y ya lo ve, el que no salta, es un inglés.”

Which basically means, “And now you see it, and now you see it, the one not jumping is a Brit!”

Notice in the video everyone is jumping! Hilarious that they sing it at a game against Ecuador!

In the end, we were super excited to see an awesome game where (1) Argentina won, (2) Messi scored a goal, (3) the cheer mafia men were not on the lookout, and (4) we were able to sing the songbook of Argentina soccer. Good times.