August 14, 2022 - Blue Dollar AKA Dólar Blue or Unofficial Dollar is parallel dollar rate of USD in Argentina. This is the cost of buying and selling a physical dollar bill in a cueva, or clandestine financial house in Buenos Aires.
Dólar BlueorBlueDollar is the cost of buying and selling US Dollar in a cueva, or clandestine financial house in Argentina. Best price if you are buying or selling physical US dollar with no involvement of any government-sanctioned or licensed entity
I'm going to Buenos Aires and was wondering if it's like a couple years ago where USD cash had a rate ~2x the official rate. Can people pay with their foreign cards now? Appreciate any info.
The blue rate is the unofficial exchange rate for the Argentine peso for exchanges made on the street through a street exchanger (known as an "arbolito"). Although considered illegal, the Argentine blue rate is widely used by locals and tourists ...
April 23, 2025 - Argentina’s infamous “blue chip” or black market dollar exchange rate – known locally as “dólar blue” has served as a fear gauge over the past few decades.
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Blue dollar Argentina
It’s all the same currency. Blue dollar just refers to the exchange rate. More on reddit.com
r/travel
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September 18, 2024
Is the blue rate still better than official rate in Argentina?
Use Western Union, here just now and you get nearly 1500 for 1 GBP. I'm only getting around 1300 on card payments (using Revolut), and haven't experienced any of the issues I read about online via western unions, such as long queues, and them not having enough cash available, I've been here about 2 weeks. Cash discounts are still a thing, but don't seem to be as commonplace as when I was here a year ago. Be aware though that prices for everything (except accommodation, it seems) have gone up drastically in the last 12 months, especially down south, so pretty much all the prices I saw quoted in Youtube videos were outdated, sometimes they had more than doubled. Patagonia is incredible btw, I'm just back from Ushuaia myself and it was truly like nowhere else I have been, definitely planning on going back soon. Hope you enjoy your trip! More on reddit.com
r/Patagonia
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February 12, 2025
Changing money in Argentina for dummies
My wife and I were in Argentina a few months ago, when there was a bigger gap between the "Blue Peso" rate and the official rate. (At the time the blue rate was around 950 pesos, the official rate was around 350 pesos per dollar.) (1) Most places take credit cards. If your credit card is with a bank outside Argentina, you will get the 'Tourist Rate', which closely tracks the blue rate. So use credit cards where you can and you should be fine. (2) Throughout Argentina there are places you can informally exchange either US dollars or Euros for Argentinan Pesos. In tourist locations the exchange rate is often worse than the 'blue rate' published on various web sites, simply because the demand for pesos are higher in those areas. I highly recommend just going with the flow and not worrying if you only get 1,000 pesos when the published blue rate is 1,100 pesos. (Things are so remarkably cheap in Argentina that +/- 10% doesn't matter much.) (3) A problem I ran into is that the most commonly circulated bill is the 1,000 pesos bill, and most informal exchanges only want to exchange for $100 bills or for single 100 Euro bills. This means you wind up with a thick stack of pesos; your best bet is to have a separate small bag to hold those bills. (I have zippered cargo pants, and I kept the bag full of bills in one of those zippered pockets.) And note that people are picky about the quality of the bills that get exchanged. Even the most microscopic tears along the edge of the bill may be rejected. (So go to the bank and get 'clean' bills.) By the way, there are no ATMs that I found, so you will wind up bringing a bunch of cash with you. (When we traveled to Argentina I brought 10 USD $100 bills with me, and exchanged them for spending cash. I honestly wish I brought more with me.) (4) I found on average, because my wife and I would use cash to buy bottled water or small things at informal stands, that we were going through about 30,000 pesos a day, give or take. YMMV. (We were with a tour group and used some of the cash I brought for tips for the various tour guides.) (5) We had a funny experience where we went to an official exchange center in a town--I needed cash to pay for a taxi and had no pesos--and the kind lady refused to exchange cash. Instead, she referred me to various stores who exchanged cash "under the counter." (Yes, she worked for the government.) Also, we found that some of the hotels we stayed at would also exchange for Pesos. (The rates we got were far worse, but still acceptable to me: one hotel we stayed at when the published "blue rate" was 950 only gave 850 pesos per dollar.) Because most of our transactions used credit cards, I didn't worry too much about the exchange rate we got at our hotel. (6) Taxis often advertise that they take credit cards. Don't believe them. I never took a single taxi that advertised they took credit cards that actually had a working credit card reader. (7) Watch out for pick-pockets. If you have zippered pants, keep your money in the zippered pocket. If you have a purse, make sure it zips up, wear the strap cross-body, and keep track of it at all times. (It's highly unlikely anyone will forcibly take your stuff--but if your purse open and the wallet is on top, the wallet is likely to go for a walk without you.) Edit to add: the only currency accepted in Argentina is the Argentinian peso For the most part this is true. There are some stores, however, who accept US dollars and Euros--however, they're rare, and every one I've been in which accepted US dollars or Euros also accepted credit cards. Will they ONLY accept dollars or euros as well? I am Italian so I would have to exchange euros into dollars and then again dollars into Argentinian pesos. We traveled from the United States so I had US Dollars. However, in a most tourist spots it appeared they also accepted Euros. As I noted above, they want USD$100 bills or 100 Euro bills; most places will not accept smaller bills. Remember: the blue exchange rate is an informal rate; basically private citizens (small companies, hotels) are exchanging pesos for dollars or euros--and may not want euros. I'm sure there are 'scams' out there, but I never encountered any--even if the whole process feels a bit 'shady.' More on reddit.com
r/travel
50
39
April 3, 2024
Argentina “blue dollar”
Hey there, was just there last week. The current blue dollar rate is about 950 ARS:1 USD. We couldn’t get any banks in the US to sell us ARS prior to our trip so we brought a bunch of USD with us in varying bill sizes. Brand new $100 will get you the best rate at around 950. New bills in denominations less than $100 will result in a 2% cut. We didn’t bother with looking for cuevas or black market exchange locations. Every hotel we stayed at (4+ star) was able to exchange the money for us at reception as long as the banks were open that day. Also when paying with my credit card, the Visa exchange rate was pretty good at around 850 ARS:1 USD. More on reddit.com
1 month ago - At the end of 2011, exchange control measures were implemented, which managed to reduce capital flight by 85%. One consequence of these measures was the appearance of multiple exchange rates and a parallel market (colloquially called the "blue ...
August 13, 2022 - Dólar Blue or Blue Dollar is the cost of buying and selling US Dollar in a cueva, or clandestine financial house in Argentina. Best price if you are buying or selling physical US dollar with no involvement of any government-sanctioned or licensed ...
November 13, 2024 - This started as a cash-only system, but now hotels and even credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard now offer blue dollar rates. Details below. Argentina has two exchange rates because the Argentine government maintains a fixed exchange rate for the peso against the US dollar, instead of allowing it to float freely with market demand.
1 week ago - To get the black market exchange rate (or Blue dollar rate), you can either: You’ll hear people walk by whispering “cambio, cambio”) to go to a cueva (an unmarked business location, restaurant, shopping mall, or apartment) where you privately exchange money for pesos cash. Keep Reading: The 25 Best Places to Visit in Argentina: For Hikers, Sightseers and Wildlife-Lovers Alike
March 11, 2023 - While in Buenos Aires, the capital, I learned of a system of multiple exchange rates for Argentine pesos. The "blue dollar" exchange rate set by the black market will extend U.S. tourists' money twice as far as the officially quoted rate.
June 29, 2023 - Argentinians have experienced their bank accounts worth go up and down on a financial roller coaster and the weakness of the peso in global markets has led Argentinians to value the American dollar over the Argentinian peso. Bottom line: people want U.S. dollars! The instability of the Argentinian peso has produced a mistrust of banks and cash is now king in Argentina.
March 7, 2023 - Yet in Argentina these operators – known as "arbolitos" ("little trees"), owing to the colour of their preferred US currency and stationary positions – are not only reliable, they are your window to the country's semi-official "blue dollar" exchange rate, where acquiring cash locally doubles your money compared to the official rate.
October 1, 2025 - The dólar blue is Argentina’s unofficial exchange rate for the U.S. dollar and euros. It exists because the government maintains a fixed official dollar rate that keeps the peso artificially strong.
The exchange rate of blue on base is decreasing. The current value of 1 $BLUE is ARS 0.000022 ARS. In other words, to buy 5 blue on base, it would cost you ARS 0.000111 ARS.
October 27, 2022 - U.S. authorities were concerned that the “blue dollar peso exchange” facilitates the movement of funds between the United States and Argentina without the use of international wire transfers, making it difficult to track and to monitor for ...
So I’m travelling soon to Argentina and after taking the time to read and understand the economic situation and the plus value of the blue dollar, a question remains: how does this blue dollar looking compared to the official ARS?
I want to make sure I can recognize the bills in case I exchange in the black market and they try to trick me with other/fake bills.
Can someone detail the physical differences between the blue dollar bills and the official ARS bills? Much appreciated.
October 28, 2024 - Here’s an idea of other daily costs from shopping trips in my home town (with the value in US$ at the blue rate to make it easy to understand): 47 cents for six eggs, a dollar each for a kilo of bread and a litre of milk, US$8 for a kilo of the best meat for a barbecue. The meat prices seem pretty steep, and is perhaps why cow consumption has fallen to its lowest level in 26 years. On holiday in Italy in June, we paid 2 euros for six eggs and the same for a litre of milk (I didn’t buy any steak!) What this means for those of you who planning a holiday in Argentina is that it’s still good value.
Hi, we are leaving for Patagonia tomorrow. Is there still a better deal to bring $100 US cash to exchange in stores, rather than swipe credit cards? i.e. Does the blue rate still exist?