Malditas monedas... and breaking change.

So it has been a while since I've posted, and this is due to the lack of a TON of events to comment on, but today I thought I'd write about something that seems to be one of the hardest things to get used to here in Argentina, not only for me, but for every exchange student that finds them self this way below the equator. What I'm going to talk about is the "Coin shortage" in Argentina and the need for one to always have coins on them.

 

the ash tray in my room that I use to save my coins

Monedas (Spanish for coins) are not really hard to come by even though there is supposedly a shortage of them, you get them for change all the time (I'll discuss change in a minute). The only problem is, that the easy form of public transport, the Colectivos (local word used for buses), only accept coins as a form of payment. And this payment varies depending on how far you are traveling, you pay either $1.10, $1.20, or $1.25 (pesos of course, think around $.30-$.40 cents US). If you don't have coins, you can't take the bus, you have to resort to the Subte (name in Buenos Aires for the Subway or Metro system), the Subte can make change for bills yet the lines tend to be long, personally I've missed the train and had to wait for the next because someone had to get change or bought a ton of tickets at once. Also the ride on the Subte is a lot less pleasurable, you're underground, its hot, its a less extensive network, there's a ton of people and you have to watch all of your pockets and bags and belongings. (Not that you don't have to watch your stuff on the Colectivos too, they just tend to be less crowded). 

Recently the public transport system has gotten better and on most (but not all) of the Colectivos and on the Subte you can use a new card called a Monedero (literally translates as coin-purse) which is a card you can load money onto and swipe it to get into the trains or the buses instead of worrying about having coins. The only problem with these is that they're hard to come by. Supposedly they can be purchased at the ticket stands inside the Subte, they're even advertised at these ticket stands. However, for the last month, every time I've asked to purchase one, they don't have any left. (At this point I just deal with the lines and search for coins, because I don't think I'll find a Monedero any time soon.)

Breaking Change is SUCH a hassle here in Buenos Aires and in all of Argentina in reality. For one thing, the ATMs only dispense bills in denominations of $100pesos (I've found one that gave me 50s but have yet to come across another one). $100 Argentine pesos is about the equivalent to $25 US dollars. However, if you attempt to purchase anything with a 100 bill, you will always, and I mean ALWAYS get the question "¿no tenés algo más chico?"  ("Don't you have anything smaller?") And many times, you may find yourself getting $75pesos back in change in all 5 peso bills, OR you just can't purchase whatever it is you want, plain and simple, because they can't make change. For example if you want to purchase something like 3 empanadas for lunch, which would be about $12 pesos ($3 dollars US), and only have a 100peso bill, you might as well pretend you have no cash in your pocket.

You might ask, "Why don't you just use your debit card?" That would be a good solution, the only thing is the charge for using your card at most, if not all, businesses is about 30% of the purchase. Which is kind of a deterrent for wanting to use your card... However this is one thing you have to get used to here in Argentina. It is for sure teaching me to be more patient about such things.