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How to get paid abroad and use Argentine Pesos (ARS) in Argentina

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(at the time of writing this note) In Argentina the use of foreign currency is restricted, whether it is to deposit money in dollars or to withdraw money in dollars is something that must be done properly in order not to lose purchasing power, that is, that the money you have can be used to buy as many things as possible.

The reasons for these internal restrictions on the use of foreign currency are many, depending on the political ideology of the person explaining, the reasons are one or the other. In all cases the current situation is that there are restrictions on the entry of foreign currency, although it is totally feasible to make a transfer from abroad to an account in Argentina, the money you receive ends up being worth less through official channels than through unofficial ones (note that being unofficial does not mean that they are illegal, they are not).

The fastest way to receive money that is abroad in Argentina (available in a local bank account) is through cryptocurrencies. In any exchange you can buy crypto (whatever you want, make sure it is a stable currency) and then connect with another exchange (Let’s bit, Ripio or Satoshitango for example) a local bank account (Galicia, Santander, etc.). First you exchange USD for crypto and then you exchange the crypto for ARS and transfer them directly to your account in Argentine pesos. Of course you have to have an account in a local bank and you can only get it in person at a bank (sooner or later they will ask you to go to a branch). If your expenses are only going to be through MercadoPago you can connect to an account on this site and not go anywhere in person.

Keep in mind that cryptocurrencies are very volatile, so leaving your money in these currencies is risky. Of course, in each step you lose one or two percentage points, the exchanges charge you, these values and commissions change over time so it is advisable to explore different possibilities.

This operation is legal and is done a lot since cryptocurrencies are a way to speculate financially (it would be like buying a share of a company or buying gold).

There are other ways to do the same and it is through financial companies, there are all kinds, caves and large companies that are handled with a lot of transparency. What the companies do is to receive your USD (you have to effectively transfer the dollars) and buy government bonds, then sell them and get ARS (Argentine pesos) at a different exchange rate than the official one. There are several companies that do this type of operation, I recommend doing this search on google and ask. They have platforms to do it yourself and they usually assign you a person to help you make the changes if you need.

There are more ways, especially if you have a company, but they require meeting people, signing things, making contracts, etc…

You end up receiving the money in ARS at a better exchange rate than the official exchange rate and therefore you have more Argentine pesos to spend in the country.