Exchanging Currency

[El Queso]

I had a discussion with the owner at one of the cuevas I go to (not the one a Florida, a more serious one, or maybe the correct term is not an arbolito?) about this. I had brought him a stack of 20s and 100s to buy some pesos, knowing the 20s might be a problem. He told me that since I was a long-time client he'd try to deal with them, but the problem is that many people in South America are fixated by a desire for perfect bills, and in denominations of 100. Most people he does business with will not accept 20s although they will accept some older bills. Often when they do accept them, as Silver Star mentioned, they offer a poorer rate on whatever currency is being bought. He told me that if he could move them without problem he'd let it stand, but if I came back next month and he hadn't been able to move them, I'd have to cough up some $100s to replace them or take a hit on my next conversion rate.

I wouldn't say there's no problem with 20s, but somewhere someone will take them, just maybe not at the price you'd like.

[Aqualung]

Yes, they have no issue with that. In general there is not an issue changing 20s in Argentina.

Things have change very much here. A year or so ago changing smaller bills was no issue, today it is.

[Silver Star]

Yes, they have no issue with that. In general there is not an issue changing 20s in Argentina.

Some places will not accept 20s, and / or will offer a lower exchange.

[Dickhead]

Hi Amigos,

Arrived into town on Monday. Already have had two experiences, more to follow. Does the place at Scalabrini Ortiz and Cervino accept $20s? I hear alot of money changers prefer to deal only with $100s.

Best,

Cheerfull

Yes, they have no issue with that. In general there is not an issue changing 20s in Argentina.

[Silver Star]

Anyone know an exchangerate for euros at a cuevo?

Probably about 8. 24 or so.

[Esten]

Does the place at Scalabrini Ortiz and Cervino accept $20s?

Yes they do

[Cowboy2]

US tourist shot in Florida street.

A US tourist was shot as he was robbed by two men in Florida street in downtown Buenos Aires, according to police sources.

The incident took place in a shopping mall located at Florida 500, where the tourist, along with another person, was purchasing dollars to an informal street vendor and two men tried to rob him.

The US citizen began fighting with the thieves and was shot in in his gluteus. He was immediately taken to the Argerich hospital in La Boca, while police officers detaineds the robbers on Maipú street.

Florida is a pedestrian walkway and one of the most popular touristic spots in downtown Buenos Aires.

[Kurty]

FYI: just exchanged yesterday 1000$ on florida. First they wanted 6. 1 and after 4 guys got it at 6. 3 rate.

Chose a guy on florida and Cordoba ave.

[Gauntlet77]

Hi Amigos,

Arrived into town on Monday. Already have had two experiences, more to follow. Does the place at Scalabrini Ortiz and Cervino accept $20s? I hear alot of money changers prefer to deal only with $100s.

Best,

Cheerfull

$20's are no problem. But if there is another "huelga general" (general strike) like this week, it will be closed. So check the news in the morning before you go.

[Cheerfull]

Thanks to whoever originally shared the info for the place at Scalabrini Ortiz and Cervino. Just to the left of Freddo's at the corner. This place is a gem.

Rate today was 6. 15. Very smooth, I just walked in (no other customers) and went to the window and was done in 5 minutes.

Hi Amigos,

Arrived into town on Monday. Already have had two experiences, more to follow. Does the place at Scalabrini Ortiz and Cervino accept $20s? I hear alot of money changers prefer to deal only with $100s.

Best,

Cheerfull

[Esten]

Thanks to whoever originally shared the info for the place at Scalabrini Ortiz and Cervino. Just to the left of Freddo´s at the corner. This place is a gem.

Rate today was 6.15. Very smooth, I just walked in (no other customers) and went to the window and was done in 5 minutes.

[Mpexy]

Thanks@Mpexy. Excellent Report.

I am glad you did the visa run rather than overstaying yr visa.

Meanwhile, intrigued, what was your exact time frame. Leaving your house and getting back to yr house? 6 hrs? 8 hrs?

Thanks

Complete door to door I'd have to estimate because after I came back I went to visit an AP friend, not return to my place. And I had the incredibly bad luck of returning just when power outages were sweeping all over bsas, including centro where subways were out, huge lines for cabs and buses.

Left my apartment via cab 11:00am. You can squeeze it tighter but recommended arrival is 1hr before boat leaves to go through immigration. In my case arrived at Puerto Madero just before 11:30am and had plenty of time after immigration to wait for my 12:30pm boat. Returned on first available boat after I arrived to Colonia, which is the 5:30pm that lands in Puerto Madero 6:45pm.

If power outages had not been a factor and I directly return to my apartment, would likely have arrived back about 7:20pm.

So call it end-to-end, door-to-door about 8 to 8. 5 hours.

If you take the morning boat, you end up needing to kill 6+ hours in Colonia so I always take the afternoon one.

[Member #3320]

Thanks@Mpexy. Excellent Report.

I am glad you did the visa run rather than overstaying yr visa.

Meanwhile, intrigued, what was your exact time frame. Leaving your house and getting back to yr house? 6 hrs? 8 hrs?

Thanks

[Mpexy]

Going to say this twice so the wolves don't derail my post with the 'it's cheaper to get dollars using method XYZ" replies.

I did not go to Colonia to get dollars.

I did NOT go to Colonia to get dollars.

I went to Colonia to do a visa run, in a place I genuinely like to visit, and via a means. Buquebus. That I enjoy. Something about being on the water every now and then is nice. While I was there waiting for my return boat, figured I might as well trying drawing dollars out.

Boat trip. Unless on a tight budget, paying for the primera especial is well worth it imo. Upper deck seating in quad-arranged full leather reclining chairs arranged around a private table for that quad. Given how few people upgrade, basically you have the entire quad to yourself. Not an exact count but there's something like 120-132 seating around these quad-chair-tables and on outbound trip there was exactly me + 4 other people. On return, about 20. Oddly, going into Buquebus store on Posadas got a promo 709p rate vs the promo online rate of about 920p. Go figure. In Argentina the human labor staffed promo is cheaper than eccomerce sale.

Timed my run to take the 12:30pm boat out. 1hr 15min trip, arrive 2:45pm Uruguay time which is 1hr ahead of bsas at the moment. Bit under 2 hours to kill in Colonia since you want to be back at the port going through reverse immigration 45-60min before boat leaves at 5:30pm.

Taking taxi is useless. Walked out of new / rebuilt port (last I did this in 2008 it was a temp floating dock that was hot as hell in warm weather) , up first street out of port gates. Rivadiva. 3 blocks or so to the main street running down old town Colonia, Gral Flores.

Turn left onto Gral Flores, not much going to the right, and walk 4-5 blocks, maybe 6. Near corner of Gral Flores and Suarez on the left side is a Banco Colonia. Two atms inside that dispenses USD in $300 increments max, but allows multiple withdrawals. Not sure if there is a max cap to number of withdrawals or if it will let you keep doing until you hit your own bank's daily atm withdrawal cap. Mine is pretty high so I didn't test that and this wasn't a dollar run per se, so just did 3x withdrawals of $300 on one account, another 3 on other account and took out $1800 in 2-3 min. Pretty easy. Nice crisp USD $100 bills, almost all of them in exact sequential series numbers.

Across the street about near this corner is a bank called Discount Bank, green vertical sign in front. I mention these landmarks because besides these two banks, couple others were hard as hell to spot, and the one really easy one, Santander Rio bank didn't withdraw in USD, only in Uruguayan pesos. So it seems only Uruguayan based banks do dollars. I can confirm that both the Banco Colonia (pretty sure that was name but it's the one right before the corner of Gral Flores and Suarez, and it's right before the locally famous ice cream store on that corner) and Discount Bank withdraws in USD. Both were pegged to $300 max per transaction.

It was about 4pm local time when I did these so apparently they hadn't run out of USD like some posts talk about. I decided to also post exact street corner address because on the baexpat board, every post I read was sadly vague about where a USD equipped atm was. Just guys saying 'oh yea, I took out $2400 in 8 operations. Woot. ' But no info.

The exchange rate for dollars to uruguayan pesos was 1 to 19. The exchange rate for arg pesos to uruguayan pesos was horrible. I worked out that the equivalent 1 USD getting you 19 uruguayan pesos, was that if you took that same 1 USD, converted at blue dollar exchange rate of about 6 pesos to a dollar, and then used those 6 pesos to exchange for Uruguayan pesos, you got about 15. So even if you brought arg pesos at blue dollar rates, you're only getting about 15 Uruguyan pesos for "$1 USD worth of blue dollar arg pesos" vs. Actual real $1 USD = 19 Uru pesos.

Since I was there so short a time I just used some small change US currency, like $5 to buy an ice cream.

Weather. Hotter and more humid than buenos aires. I was dripping all over walking around colonia.

Cell phone. Don't remember doing this last time, but my phone got some sort of push signal I figure since it didn't do that returning on the argie side, but entering Colonia airwaves, I got a message on my phone telling me new local roaming rates and that since it detected me in Uruguay would I like my time changed to be 1 hour ahead. Coming back to Puerto Madero, no message and no auto ask to reset time back. Was able to send / receive texts on boat up to about 10min offshore point, and then in Colonia via roaming which for prepagos is apparently about 3x the cost.

[Gauntlet77]

Yes, they are open on Saturdays.

Like many BsAs businesses, they close early on Saturday, in this case, at 13:30.