Dollar card or MEP: how to pay expenses abroad on these vacations

However, currently, the dollar card has become the most expensive exchange rate on the exchange market, what makes paying by card not be the best alternative.

This situation derives from the devaluation carried out by the Government’s economic team, which led the card dollar to exceed $1,300. becoming the highest price on the market.

Currently, the card dollar is trading around $1,320, almost 40% higher than financial dollars (around $950) and more than 30% than the blue dollar ($1,000). This means that those who make payments with cards could be paying between 30% and 40% more for your purchases abroad. Despite this, there are alternatives to save on these expenses.

Vacation 2024: how to pay expenses abroad

For example, if you use the card and the statement expires in 20 days, you can choose different strategies depending on the price of the MEP dollar ($950.24).

If at the time the summary expires, the MEP dollar is still less than the card dollar, the dollars acquired in the stock market can be used to cancel the summary, thus avoiding the PAIS tax and perceptions.

On the other hand, if the MEP dollar exceeds the card dollar, the MEP dollars can be sold and With the pesos obtained pay the credit card balancebenefiting from the increase in the MEP dollar.

These options are available for both debit and credit card purchases, although in the latter case there are certain aspects to consider. For those who do not wish to carry out these operations, an alternative is to spend cash and buy MEP dollars in Argentina.

In summary, for every US$1,000 spent, savers could pay around $950,000 if they bought the MEP dollar and paid from their account in dollars, while if consumption is debited from an account in pesos, they could pay around $1,317,600, that is, about $367,600 more.