First modification:
Last Friday, the Argentine government announced the implementation of a measure to encourage the use of cards among foreign tourists in the hope that more dollars will enter their reserves. However, so far, many of those who used the plastics denounce that the stimulus is not working.
On Thursday, November 3, through an official communication, the Central Bank formalized the announcement by the Ministry of Economy that all expenses made in Argentina with credit, debit and prepaid cards issued outside the country would be converted, no longer at the official exchange rate, but at a more advantageous financial one, as of November 4.
While the official value is about 160 pesos per unit, the exchange rate called MEP (Electronic Payment Market) offers about 300 pesos for each dollar, very similar to the exchange that tourists receive in the informal market for the dollars that They bring the country in cash.
However, apparently, the measure remained in the vagueness of the announcement. Complaints abound on social networks from those who, after paying by card on dates after the measure came into force, detected that their consumption was converted at the official exchange rate, not at the MEP.
Confirmed, the movement was authorized to the official change.
– Caro ???? (@caroTano_pdd) November 8, 2022
France 24 in Spanish collected several more testimonials, both on social networks and outside of them, and in all cases the experience was the same. In other words, the regulations came into effect, but —at least as far as these users are concerned— it has not been implemented. The reason that explains what happened is not clear.
I just paid again, buy at McDonald’s with Itaú Uruguay Visa Debit. Conversion with official dollar, not MEP. The measure is still not applied.
— Fer Bernini (@unbernini) November 7, 2022
Asked by France 24 about the situation, the Central Bank succinctly replied that the system is operational and transferred the responsibility for the query to the card and payment processing companies.
In principle, everything indicates that these companies, which are the ones that must implement the measure, were not in a position to do so immediately and are working on it. There was no formal response from them to this medium.
The striking thing is that none of the actors involved in the measure has come out to clarify that, beyond the fact that the regulations are published, that does not imply that it is actually operational, as confirmed by more than a dozen users with whom France 24 spoke. .
This is the third attempt to stop tourists from resorting to the informal circuit. In the past, they wanted to offer special accounts for visitors (no one used the system, because it was very cumbersome) and later banks and exchange houses were authorized to offer visitors an exchange rate close to the MEP, but also it was very wasteful and adoption was low.
