Monedas

Ok I'm going to post again since I've gotten such a late start with my blog. One big difference between here and the US is the issue with currency. Cash is king here... you always need it, but it's something you always have to be on top of. A lot of the ATM's here have limits on the amount of cash you can take out in a day and it's fairly low- like $100. So if you want to pay your rent of $500, you'd have to take out $100 each day for 5 days and pay ATM fees for each transaction. Thankfully, I opened a Citibank account before I left so I can avoid ATM fees since they have branches here. With the Citibank ATM's I haven't seen a cap yet- I've taken out as much as $700 in one day. I still have to pay fees for exchanging dollars into pesos though. It adds up to about $30/month. NOT COOL.

There is a serious shortage of currency and coins (monedas) in Argentina. Grocery stores and stores are always asking me if I have a different bill or another coin to help make the exchange more even or so they don't have to give up what little change they have. Taxi drivers and small stores have a hard time breaking a big bill (50 or 100). Since the ATM's normally give you 100 bills, you can see the delimma. I'm so glad that my Citibank ATM gives me the last 100 in small bills--- 1- 50 bill and 5- 10 peso bills. It just makes life easier. Yes, this is a commercial for Citibank. It just makes sense to have an account with Citibank here if you are an American. You cannot open an account with a local bank here unless you have a residency status.

It pays to keep your change. Sometimes when I see homeless people, I think I'd like to help them out but I don't want to give up any of my coins. I use the buses (colectivos) here a lot and they only take coins. When I'm out of coins and I need to get change for 2 peso or 5 peso bill, it's always a pain in the ass to go around the the kiosks or stores to get change because half the time they don't have it or they simply don't want to make change for you.

Chau for now...