Dollar card: how to make the “roll” that can be done to pay almost 19% less for purchases abroad

Tourism overseas competes in the use of dollars with the supplies that industry and countryside need to continue generating jobs and growth, Economy Minister Silvina Batakis told TN on Wednesday evening. the red lights went on in travel agencies, despite the fact that the official ensured that no restrictive measures would be taken.

But the truth is that the combination of the traps, the delay of the official dollar and the rise of the alternative dollars, that widened the exchange gap after the ministerial changeover weekend a “hedgehog” is reborn That encourages card spending abroad.

The rally in alternative dollars has begun a difference do a modest difference. The MEP or Bolsa dollar trades at $ 270 and the paper dollar or savings dollar at $ 217.

This means that the dollar expenses with the credit card are regulated, in pesos, at 217 dollars, so that those who have dollars in their possession can exchange them on the stock exchange for 270 dollars (the 200 dollars allowed for the month bought today with 43,400 dollars ) and reach a saving of almost 19% as consumption costs in dollars that have been paid for by credit card.

The same can be done without paying for the card: you buy the 200 American dollars of the solidarity dollar and then sell those dollars to the MEP, with a profit of 19% or $ 11,000.

Consumption abroad is growing strongly. According to information from the Central Bank, the item “Travel and other payments by card and passenger transport” in May spent 616 million dollars.

Y, in just five months, $ 2.625 million left the reserves this way, up from $ 731 million last year, in the midst of a pandemic. That amount may seem low in the context of the needs of the entire economy, but not at a time when the government is trying to shut off all the taps through which the accounts can pass.

For example, the US $ 2.625 million that crossed this route during the year is little more than what is owed to the Paris Club ($ 2,000 million) and agreed to defer until 2024, and is similar to the accumulation of gross reserves in the first quarter ($ 2,344 million) that was explained, almost entirely, by the IMF loan income.

This year, in addition to the lifting of the restrictions, there have been greater incentives to travel and consume abroad due to the misalignment of economic variables. In 2021 the private salary grew by 56%, more than double the retail price in dollars (22%), i.e. the official / solidarity dollar has become cheaper.

Indeed, for many analysts, what is really behind the acceleration of these spending in tourism is more the exchange delay compared to the effect of the comparison with the exit from the pandemic.