Martin Grosz
05/14/2021 6:01 AM
Clarín.com
Services
Updated 05/14/2021 7:00 AM
The credit card statement reaches the customer with various expenses in foreign currency.
They add up, for example, to about
$ 500
.
In the traditional way, due to the exchange rate, the bank would debit
$ 82 thousand
to pay off that debt.
But there is a trick that not many know that would allow you to pay
$ 5,000 less
.
The pandemic largely halted travel abroad, with the exception of growing vaccine tourism to the United States.
But Argentines still make many payments with their plastics to foreign companies.
Consumptions that, the following month, take their toll
in dollars
.
Sometimes they are purchases in foreign online stores that send the products to Argentina.
Subscriptions for streaming
, apps, video games, software licenses and storage space
are also usually paid in dollars
in "the cloud", among other services.
People buy with a card on foreign websites that send the products by mail to Argentina.
Photo Emmanuel Fernández
Whatever the case, knowing the available payment options and being aware of how each of the
dollar types
(official, blue, Stock, crypto ...) is listed will be key each month to pay as little as possible, avoiding
overpricing
.
But how should it be done today?
Here is a guide with everything you need to know to make the best decision.
How can the expenses in dollars for each month be paid?
The consumer can choose each month between two ways to pay the consumption in dollars of the summary:
-
With dollars
.
Using foreign currency that the client already had saved, or with green bills that he acquires before maturity to cancel this debt.
-
With pesos
.
The conversion is made at the official selling exchange rate of the day, but adding a
30%
"PAIS tax" and another
35%
tax advance.
In total, in this last way, for
every dollar
that has been spent abroad with the card, they currently end up paying about
$ 164
.
That is the value that is usually called "card dollar", "tourist dollar" or "solidarity dollar".
To pay the consumptions in dollars you can use dollars, or pesos but with a heavy surcharge.
Photo Bloomberg
How can you pay less pesos for every dollar spent with the card?
Currently there are various strategies to achieve this.
And the great cause is that the "dollar card" remains
the most expensive on
the market.
It is true that the
35%
that the bank retains as an advance on Profits or Personal Assets can eventually be recovered -if a procedure is carried out-, but that will only be possible in the second quarter of 2021 (and without adjustment for inflation).
For the current reality of the pocket, what counts is that paying the
$ 164
of each "dollar card" is quite
expensive
.
It is expensive compared to the option of getting those same dollars in
alternative markets
, where today they can be obtained without limits at
$ 154 or $ 151
.
That is,
6% or 8%
cheaper.
The "dollar card" is currently the most expensive on the market.
Photo Shutterstock
With which, when paying the card summary, the
trick
to avoid that kind of "surcharge" that today carries the "solidarity" price will consist of doing the following:
1 °) See in the summary what is the
amount in dollars
that must be paid for the sum of all the payments of the previous month to foreign companies.
2 °) Make sure that the bank
does not debit the pesified amount
on the expiration date of the summary (below in this note it is explained how).
3 °)
Buy the
necessary
dollars
outside the bank
, in the alternative markets, at a price lower than the "solidarity" one.
4 °)
Pay with dollars
the part of the summary settled in that currency.
In which markets can you get cheaper dollars than the "solidarity" to pay the summary?
Buying dollars for
home banking
for this would not make sense since, in case of having the option enabled (many were blocked), the dollars will also be bought at
$ 164
, and with a
ceiling of less than US $ 200
.
In search of cheaper dollars, today you can resort to these alternative markets:
1)
Dollar Stock Market or MEP
.
It is
legal
and, with a series of online operations, it allowed this Thursday to get
unlimited
dollars by
paying
$ 154
for each one.
The procedure is detailed step by step in this note, below.
2)
Dollar Bitcoin or crypto
.
Also 100% legal, it allows converting pesos to "digital currency" and this to dollars at values that today may be somewhat lower than "solidarity", although higher than the MEP dollar.
You pay at least
$ 160
per dollar.
This article explains how it works.
Using cryptocurrencies you can get dollars a little cheaper.
Photo Bloomberg
3)
Dollar blue
.
It is the one of the "caves", the "little trees" or the informal transactions ("WhatsApp dollar").
In this market, which
is not legal
but is widely used, this Thursday dollars were obtained for
$ 151
.
What, then, will be the gain of getting the dollars in these alternative ways, instead of letting the bank pesify the dollar balance of the summary?
At current prices, for
every US $ 100
consumed with a card, buying the
MEP
dollar
allowed this week to pay off the debt by spending
$ 1,000 less
;
and with blue dollars, about
$ 1,300 less
.
Step by step, how do you buy the "Dollar Bag"?
Although the word "Stock Market" may scare the common savers, the operation to get dollars without a cap in the capital market is
simpler and safer
than many imagine.
You do not need to be a financial expert.
But you have to follow a series of steps:
1 °) Open an
investment account
.
The procedure is fast, free and
100% online
.
It can be done at the bank itself or at a stockbroker (called ALYC) such as InvertirOnline, Puente, Rava or Bull Market, among others.
2 °)
Transfer
to the investment account (from the bank account itself) the pesos to be converted into dollars.
3 °) Enter the investment account on the website of the bank or the stockbroker, and use the already credited pesos to order a
bond purchase
.
The bonds that are most used today for this purpose are the
AL30
.
There is an option for the acquisition to be immediate, always within the hours in which the market operates (
11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
).
4 °) Wait
one business day
, which is known as the "
parking
" period.
By current regulation, if you try to take the next step earlier, the system will prevent it.
The dollar exchange operation allows access to dollars legally and without limit.
Photo Xinhua
5 °) Sell the bonds acquired choosing to
receive dollars
in exchange, at the current market price.
The "greens" will appear instantly in the investment account.
6 °)
Transfer
the dollars from the investment account to the own savings account in dollars, where they can already be used to make the
payment of the card
.
All of this maneuvering currently results in a dollar of roughly
$ 154.
"Undoubtedly, one of the most convenient ways to acquire dollars
without limits
through the Stock Market is with the MEP dollar or Stock Exchange dollar operation,"
Maximiliano Donzelli, economist and head of Research at InvertirOnline.com
, assured
Clarín.
"One of its main advantages is that it
does not have a monthly quota
. This will allow us to meet the expenses that we have on the card regardless of the amount. Another advantage is
the price
: currently the MEP is trading
$ 10 below
the 'solidarity' dollar" " , he analyzed.
Of course, to take into account: whoever has bought "solidarity dollar" through home banking must wait
90 days
to start buying the Stock Exchange dollar or MEP.
Credit cards make it possible to shop around the world;
the following month, the bill arrives.
Photo Bloomberg
Would the one who already had dollars in the account or "the mattress" use them to pay for the card?
According to Nicolás Litvinoff, an expert in personal finance and founder of estudioinero.org, that will depend on
the plans that
the person has for saving in foreign currency.
"If you have dollars and you are
thinking of selling them
, it would be convenient for you to pay the card's dollar consumption in that same currency," he said.
Currently those who want to sell dollars get paid
$ 93
for each in a bank,
$ 146
in the blue market and
$ 154
in the MEP.
"Now, if you're not thinking of selling dollars,
it is immaterial
that the use or not to pay card", opposed Litvinoff.
Because then the person should still replace the "greens" at an exchange rate similar to that used by the bank to pesify the balance.
The cheapest alternative dollars can be obtained with a series of operations over the Internet.
Photo Martín Bonetto
What happens in cases where the bank usually automatically debits the total balance of the statement on the due date?
In those cases, if the client
does nothing
, the balance in dollars will be pesified at the "
solidarity
"
exchange rate of
the day.
That is, the most expensive on the market.
So that this does not happen, and for the bank to accept without problems a payment in dollars bought "outside" at a lower price, the client must do the following:
Ask the bank for a "stop debit"
.
In other words, that month the automatic debit of the card balance does not apply.
In many cases it can be requested by phone or by home banking.
Make the payment in dollars
of the consumptions in foreign currency.
Make the payment in pesos
of what was spent in the country.
To avoid duplicate charges that create headaches, it is best that all payments are made at least
72 business hours before
the due date.
MG
Look also
Dollars with "small face": why they cause arguments in the banks and the keys to make them worth 100%
"Bitcoin Dollar", the 100% legal trick to buy more than US $ 200 per month at blue value