Transferring Money to and from Argentina

[El Aleman]

Moore,

What Saint says is true - it is backed by stories I got told by my B:A. Lawyer, who does a lot of real estate things. He told me that it is not unusual to have bags full of cash on the table of his conference room when papers are signed.

This leads to 2 advices:

- small amounts - and $USD are small in this context - just bring in from the States in cash.

- larger amounts (real estate transactions) - a trustworthy person might be your lawyer. I did it this way once, and there was no commision, on the other hand he did all the contract work and thus got a good fee.

Probably the only persons accepting checks or bank-to-bank transfers in Argentina are businesses who do regular export business, first, because they are forced to do so by regulation, and second because their foreign export customers just won't do it any other way. And these businesses don't only maintain accounts in Argentina.

2 centavos.

El Alemán

[Saint]

Gandolf's information is inaccurate. "Any one who is legit will accept a cashiers check." That is totally wrong. Most people here will not take a cashier's check or a check, money order, traveler's checks, etc. There are exceptions to the rule but take it from me. I deal with real estate transactions every single day. Cash is king here. A few weeks ago I bought a house for around u$s 500,000. Guess what? They only would accept cash (as usual) and they sat and counted every single bill. They will give you back bills that have a rip in it or even if there is a pen mark on the bill.

I am buying on average 1-2 apartments per week. Out of all the millions of dollars worth of apartments I have purchased, many owners had an account in the USA/UK/Europe/Uruguay and they still wanted the cash. Only 1 deal out of dozens they allowed to do it via a wire transfer. The rest wanted cash. In this system of getting cheated, conned and lied to by their government and even the banks, few locals trust anything but cold hard cash. Also, there is a cost of bringing u$s here and they would rather you pay the fee. The 1 time where they allowed a wire transfer it was an American that owned the apartment and an American that was buying the apartment.

There are many money transfer firms throughout town. Just make sure you use a reputable company. I have heard horror stories first hand from people. Even reputable banks here have sometimes taken weeks to get the money. They are playing with the "float" and making the money on the interest. KNOW who you are dealing with. Your u$s 8,000 is relatively a small transaction but still a lot of money to lose if you're using someone that isn't dependable. Most of these money transfer firms charge a set fee like $25 or so plus a % (usually 1% - 1.5%)

There are a lot of bit players in this market. Again, make sure you know who you are dealing with. Do they have an office? Many just are private people arranging these transactions. You are wiring your money to their account in the USA, UK, Switzerland or Frankfurt. Then they will deliver you the cash. Remember in this business, past performance is no guarantee of future results. I know of some people that used a person/company because their local friend told them it was safe and they got burned. You are wiring money into their account and once you do it's a done deal. No cancelling it. You are putting a lot of faith in this person/company so make sure you use a company that is legit and has an office and not just operates with homemade business cards and their cellphone.

Many private banks now won't do business with you unless you come from a referral from one of their clients. The government here is keeping a closer eye on money flowing into the country.

Good luck.

Saint

[ComeOnDown]

If your future landlord will not accept cashier's check then you can do what I did. I transferred US$ 8,000 to the account of my foreign exchange agent and got the money in cash after 24 hours.

Here is how it works. I transferred the money from my US bank account to their account with Bank of America in New York. After they have verified that the money was indeed transferred I went to their Buenos Aires office and received the money minus their commission. They charge 1% commission - so for the US$ 8,000 that I transferred I was only charged US$ 80, not bad compared to Western Union's exorbitant commission charge.

The name of the foreign exchange office is:

FOREXCAMBIO S. A.

Telephone no.: 4010-2000

Address: M. T. De Alvear 540

C1058AAF Capital Federal

[Gandolf50]

There are many threads related to money on the board but I have not found any information regarding transferring money into the country (please advise if I have missed posts on this topic) I am about to lease an apartment and will most likely have to pay 2 years advance rent, which is over US$10k. Surely other guys have needed funds like this as the rent prepayment is very common. How does one get the funds into the country, other than carrying the money in an envelope from the US? ATM cards work fine here but with a $300/ day limit I'd need over a month to withdrawl that amount of cash. Western Union % fees are ridiculous. Even with a local bank account, you must initiate the transfer in person from the US, and I have no immediate plans to be there. Advice?

Do the same thing you would in the states, give them a cashiers check. This is guarenteed funds and you have a receipt. I paid a large sum in cash once (in BsAs) and they wanted to record the serial number of every bill in case any were returned to them as counterfiet! What a pain in the ass, Any one who is legit will accept a cashiers check.

[Moore]

There are many threads related to money on the board but I have not found any information regarding transferring money into the country (please advise if I have missed posts on this topic). I am about to lease an apartment and will most likely have to pay 2 years advance rent, which is over US$10k. Surely other guys have needed funds like this as the rent prepayment is very common. How does one get the funds into the country, other than carrying the money in an envelope from the US? ATM cards work fine here but with a $300/ day limit I'd need over a month to withdrawl that amount of cash. Western Union % fees are ridiculous. Even with a local bank account, you must initiate the transfer in person from the US, and I have no immediate plans to be there. Advice?

[Admin]

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