Money's too tight to mention - cash in Argentina

Renting an apartment in Buenos Aires for a short let is very simple. There are an array of companies and websites, with hundreds of flats available. What's not so simple is paying for it.

Spending any time in Argentina you quickly become aware of the extent of the cash crisis, with the crisis being there isn't enough cash. Most shops, restaurants (and apparently short term letting agents) don't take credit or debit cards. Those large companies that do, require your passport and often much form filling before you can use a card, and even then card machines often don't work when it's raining. Yes you read correctly - when it's raining.

So you have to pay in cash which is where the real problem emerges, as there simply isn't enough cash. A result of the economic depression that hit Argentina at the start of the decade, whilst the economy is now on the up, it's still not unusual for cash points to run out of cash, and on weekends you can't get cash out for love nor, well, money.

As there is actually not enough cash to go round regions and banks are allocated certain amounts of cash each week, cash points are then filled accordingly and once it's gone, it's literally gone. This is a particular problem on weekends as cash points are filled on a Friday and are often out of cash by Saturday morning. Generally in Buenos Aires you'll find an international bank with cash - you may have to try three or four, and queue for a while, but you'll find one eventually. If you aren't in a city, you have to wait until Monday. In smaller towns cash points are only filled once or twice a week.

En route to Buenos Aires, still needing some money for our apartment, we arrived in Mercedes one Tuesday morning at about 10:30am to find two out of the three banks had already run out of money for the day. So we queued with an array of locals (who clearly have to do this every week) at the last remaining bank, for over two hours - fearing that at anyone time, it might run out of money. Just to ensure everyone gets a chance you can only withdraw 600 pesos (under £100) on anyone day, so if your trying to put a months rent together you'll need to go back every day for a week.

Queue for the cash point

The shortage is at it's worst with small change and particularly coins. If you try to pay for anything costing less than 94 pesos with a 100 note, then you will be asked if you have anything smaller. Shops display signs such as “Customers, respect your compadres and share your change. Please pay with the smallest note you have,” “Wanted: coins, $2 notes, $5 notes and $10 notes!”and “Help your community use the correct change.”

It is the shortage of coins, though, that's most bizarre. Buses only take coins. As one porteno explained you can get on with a $100 note and say “I don't want change, just keep it,” and they still won't let you on the bus. This leads to very weird responses when you try and buy something with a note. Needing change for the bus one morning, having been laughed at by several shopworkers and a bank, for asking for change - I went to a series of shops and tried to buy something, hoping to force them to give me coins. The first over changed me so he could give me a note, the second point blank refused to serve me and the third actually gave me the hairband I was trying to buy rather than part with coins. On other occasions shopkeepers gave us sweets or pastries instead of change.

Following this, during our month in Buenos Aires we started acting like the locals and refused to spend any coins unless we absolutely had to. After nearly two months in Argentina we had accumulated over 60 pesos in coins, which we actually ha to spend. On our very last night in Argentina we were able to buy two beers and six empanadas entirely with coins. And as I counted out the cents, apologising and stacking the money up on the counter, the guy behind the till grinned and said in Spanish “this is the best!” As we walked out we I saw him rushing out of the shop to tell his friend about this magical moment.

Our top tips:
1. Never spend coins unless you have to, save them for public transport.
2. Always take some cash out before you go to a new town or before the weekend.
3. In small towns check with the hostel your staying in when they fill the cash points.

Posted by Louise