Paying Bills

[Thomaso276]

It appears they may take a debit card, not credit card. Easiest to pay in pesos

[El Perro]

Made my initial effort to pay some local bills today and visited two Rapi-Pago places. Neither would take a credit card, wanting pesos. Does anyone know if this is SOP, or was I just unlucky?

Dog

[Gandolf50]

I am not in Argentina as often as I would like, and as a result had to find a way to pay some of my bills. Electric and phone can be paid over the net with a debit card. My gas is bottled, so I just buy in advance. Everything else, including my taxes I pay when I can. There is a 1% late charge per month on property taxes, almost nothing!

[Spassmusssein]

Of BsAs/Arg you will seldomly have to pay bills.

Usual bills (CableTV, gas, electricity, cell-phone) for "long-term lovers" of BsAs you can pay in cash at "pago-facil" or "rapi-pago", some supermarkets are also offering this service at the cashiers desk.

Having a company you have to pay some of your taxes (ingressos brutos, IVA, taxes for employees at "banco ciudad") or if your company has an account, your bank will do the transfers (it's hard paperwork getting an account for a "stranger's" caompany).

[Jackson]

The difference between Pago Facil and Rapi-Pago

For many months after I moved here I paied my bills at the Pago Facil counter at my local candy kiosk, but I was continually frustrated by odd service hours and their inability to accept payment for any bill that was past it's due date, which in Argentina is usually just a couple of weeks after your eceive the bill. On those ocassions I was compelled to visit the utility's office and pay the bill directly, which is a complete waste of time.

Although I was accustomed to using Pago Facil, I had certainly seen the Rapi-Pago stores throughout the city, but I assumed that they were similar in operation to the Pago Facil, until one day I was forced to go to a Rapi-Pago store to pay a MovieStar bill. What a difference.

At the Rapi-Pago office on Callo they were able to lookup myu account, asscertain my current total balance, including any late fees, and otherwise allow me to pay off the current balance of any bill.

The difference: Pago Facil operations are located within selected pharmacies, locotorios, candy kiosks, etc. and are operated as adjunct services to some other principal operations. They are rally more more than glorified cash registers, and they can scan a bill and accept payment for that bill only in the exact amount on the bill, take it or leave it.

Rapi-Pago operations are located in seperate, stand-alone store fronts. Accepting payments as agents for their utility customers is all they do. For many types of accounts, they have the capability to lookup your account online as you wait, and for others they will call on the telephone and ascertain or verify your balance.

After using Rapi-Pago, I now think of Pago Facil as "Pago Duro".

Thanks,

Jackson