Guide to Using the ATM in Argentina – And Should You?

I did something today that I haven’t done in over 4 years… I used the ATM in Argentina to withdraw money from my US bank account.

Argentina Money Transfer Services Require CUILThat’s right, with Macri’s new government recently eliminating restrictions on buying dollars and devaluing the peso, the gap between the blue dollar rate and the official rate has dropped to only about 5-10% from a high of almost 60%. You can once again use your foreign debit card or credit card in Argentina without having to worry about losing a lot of money.

So, what do you need to know about using the ATM in Argentina?

First, get ready for a whopping ARS $79.80 (U$S 6) fee per transaction regardless of the amount you withdraw. To help offset this, we recommend using a debit card that refunds your ATM fees (like Charles Schwab Bank) or, if you have a Citibank debit card, using a Citibank ATM with no fee.

Because of this hefty fee, it makes sense to withdraw as much money as possible at one time. Unfortunately, the maximum amount you can withdraw per ATM transaction is ARS $2400 (some people report $2500, but in our tests Supervielle and Galicia are both $2400). You may make multiple transactions (up to the daily withdrawal limit imposed by your bank), but you’ll pay the U$S 6 fee each time.

The exchange rate you get at the ATM is based on the previous day’s rate as calculated by Visa. You can find this rate on the Visa Exchange Rate Calculator website. For my withdrawal today, I got a rate of $12.90. If I would have had to pay the ATM fee, the effective rate drops to $12.49.

Also, make sure your bank does not charge additional debit card fees for foreign currency transactions or using another bank’s ATM. Bank of America has some crazy fees – U$S 5 – U$S 10 for using a non-Bank of America ATM plus a 3% international transaction fee. Paying these additional fees is going to lower your exchange rate as well.

So, how much did I lose by using the ATM versus exchanging dollars at the blue rate?

Since cuevas were offering a blue rate of $13.90 today, I lost about 8%. (U$S 13.39 on my ARS $2400 withdrawal.)

How does this compare to using Xoom?

If I had used Xoom to transfer the same amount of money (U$S 186), I would have gotten a rate of $12.53. Xoom beats the ATM if you have to pay the transaction fee ($12.53 v $12.49). Xoom also works better for larger amounts of money, paying up to $12.80 today for bigger sums and not requiring you to make multiple transactions.

So, what’s the best thing to do?

If you have have dollars, exchanging on the blue market is still the way to go. In my example from today, I would have made 8% more on my money. While I still have USD, I’ll keep exchanging on the blue market, but it’s nice to know that I can use the ATM again in an emergency.

If you don’t have USD and need larger sums of money, Xoom is the way to go. If you transfer the maximum U$S 2999, you’ll get a rate of $12.80. It would take seventeen separate ATM transactions over a couple of days to get this same amount of pesos.

Of course, the blue market fluctuates daily so we’ll have to see if it differs more than the five to ten percent it has been. One just never knows in this country…

UPDATE
Here are some recent transactions to compare the ATM to the blue rate:

1/15/16: ATM, $13.23 / Blue, $14.10 / 6.37% difference
1/29/16, ATM, $13.76 / Blue, $14.05 / 2.09% difference

2/22/16: Traveling outside of Buenos Aires (Mar del Plata) I was only able to withdraw $1,000 pesos at a time and had to pay a $91.20 peso fee. Thankfully Schwab refunds that!

33 thoughts on “Guide to Using the ATM in Argentina – And Should You?”

  1. I wanted to withdraw money on Friday, but I couldn’t. I stand in line waiting for my turn to withdraw money from an ATM at Banco Citi, person in front of me, she was a foreigner too, she couldn’t withdraw either. I tried at the Galicia and at the Patagonia, but without success.

  2. I have a Chase Debit Card, and I couldn’t extract money from a Banelco ATM. Is there a particular ATM I should use? Thanks!

  3. Hey, been trying to extract from my Bank of America debit card on Citi, BBVA, HSBC and Galicia with no luck, each time I got the message that the ATM couldn’t process my card. Any ideas?

      • No problem with them. The strangest bit is that I was able to use an ATM here a few weeks back and encountered no problems. Now, I’ve tried four different banks and get the same results.

  4. I used my schwab card last night to pay for dinner, and received 14.139, not much difference from the blue rate. Time to start earning miles again by using cc’s here.

  5. Hey Guys!!! I got mine from Henry. My blank ATM card can withdraw €2,000 daily. I got it from him last week Wednesday and now I have €7,000 for free. The card withdraws money from any ATM machines and there is no name on it, it is not traceable and now i have money for bussiness and enough money for me and my 4 kids. I am really happy i met Henry because i met two people before him and they took my money not knowing that they were scams. But am happy now. Henry sent the card through DHL and i got it in two days. Get one from him now. he is giving it out to help people even if it is illegal but it helps a lot and no one ever gets caught. The card works in all countries except Philippines, Mali and Nigeria. Henry’s email address is [email protected]

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  12. Is there a way to withdraw USD from the Argentine ATMs? I think I read somewhere that the citi was offering USD ATMs, but I wonder if this is still true

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