[Tango-L] ATM Issues in Buenos Aires

[Huck Kennedy]

Rick Jones writes:
> Someone on BANewcomers stated that BANELCO, the force
> behind the ATMs, I guess, has instituted this in the
> name of protecting tourists in case their credit cards
> get stolen.

     First of all, if you lose your bank card, a thief
can't get cash out of an ATM without a PIN number
anyway, and second, tourists are already protected under
their own bank's policies, where in most cases you can
get your money back if you notify your bank of the loss
in a timely manner.

     Are you sure BANELCO is claiming this is in the
name of protecting tourists?  Because if they are,
it's a total CROCK, and they are bald-faced liars.

> What I do know is this: I still get charged $2.64 USD
> (total) for each ATM  transaction here.  If I can only
> withdraw $100 pesos (about $32 or $33 USD), I am
> losing close to 9% of my currency.

     So this little protection racket amounts to
a 9% additional tourist tax on anything one spends
in Argentina using cash.

     Unless our banks (meaning US, European, Asian,
etc.) are somehow back-charging BANELCO for excessive
tourist ATM loss (which I doubt--like I said, unless
you hold a gun to someone's head and force them to
withdraw cash from an ATM and then steal it, a thief
cannot get cash from an ATM by himself, so just how
much ATM theft can there be?), then this is clearly
out and out theft on the part of BANELCO, a pure
tourist ripoff.  The fact that they would lie about
it and portend to be saints "protecting" tourists
makes it all the more disgusting, about on the par
with mafia thugs coming around to small shop owners
to offer their "protection" (extortion).

Huck