From the 9th October, PayPal will be disallowing users in Argentina from sending and receiving domestic payments. This is to prevent Argentinians gaming PayPal’s favourable exchange rates. International payments will still be permitted.
The situation arose late last year when the Argentinian government limited the exchange of the local Peso for the US Dollar. This was in attempt to stop US Dollar savings being moved overseas and to make the Argentine economy less dependent on the Dollar. The Argentinian economy is in poor shape with inflation at 24%. In 2001, the Peso was devalued.
These trading restrictions have seen an increase in black market exchange activity. PayPal, which offers a better deal on Dollar to Peso exchange rates than the black market, soon became the home of an exchange scam. In essence Argentinians were setting up two PayPal accounts and making the currency exchange between the two accounts.
PayPal have made a statement: “Argentina is a very important market to us as we expand our global footprint, and we are currently very focused on providing Argentine merchants and consumers the best possible service. Paypal customers in Argentina are still able to utilise Paypal for international transactions with 190 markets around the world,”
