From today, Visa joins the tourist dollar for foreigners and allows them to settle their expenses in the country at a price similar to that of the Euro-deputy dollar, now in $324. The kick was given by Mastercard, which had already started with this system.
“As of December 15, 2022, to comply with the provisions of the Central Bank of the Republic of Argentina, and after collaborating with the BCRA, issuers, buyers, processors and the financial ecosystem, it has been possible to implement the solution that benefits the foreign tourists using VISA cards, which will allow you to apply the corresponding exchange rate at the time of the transaction without having to wait several days to receive a refund,” they indicated by the credit card company.
Until yesterday, Visa had delayed rolling out the dollar for foreigners on the grounds that while they were ready, other members of the financial ecosystem weren’t yet.
The differential dollar for foreigners was announced several weeks ago and has been slow to implement. With this mechanism, holders of credit and debit cards issued outside Argentina have access to an exchange rate similar to that of the MEP dollar, now in $324.
With this mechanism, the Central Bank intends that foreigners stop using the blue dollar to pay their expenses in the country. Before this system came into effect, it was cheaper for tourists to change tickets to blue –today at $322-´rather than paying with your cards and getting an exchange rate of $179.
Official estimates indicate that foreign tourists have spent over the past year $2.5 billion in the country. But in the official market, visitors sold only a few 350 million dollars. For this reason, with this mechanism, the Central searches bring the monthly $30 million to close to $100 million.
“Our interim solution has started to work from 6 December for transactions processed as of Friday, December 2,” said Federico Cofman, Mastercard Country Manager for Argentina and Uruguay.
“For this temporary solution, which has allowed us to meet the implementation expectations, we have decided to keep the official exchange rate in our systems and refund the exchange difference to all Credit Mastercard, Debit Mastercard and Prepaid Mastercard cards issued at ‘foreign than making payments in our country,” explained Cofman.
“The value we use to calculate this refund is an alternative exchange rate that we receive daily from the Chamber of Credit Cards, ATACYC. It is a more competitive exchange rate for foreigners, close to the MEP, known as the equity dollar,” she said.
Mastercard’s is a “temporary solution” because the company is working on “a superior alternative with improvements in terms of implementation and that works as a definitive solution. This requires more development time,” they reported.
After the incorporation of Visa into the system, all that remains is to be part of American Express, a company of which there is no news yet.
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Source: Clarin
