Money & Paying

I've been fascinated to see the practices around money and shopping in Argentina. Here are some tidbits I wanted to share:

• cost of a subway ticket: 1 peso; cost of admission to most museums: also 1 peso. This equates to 25 cents! Relative to what other things cost, this is very cheap, and I assume the government must provide significant subsidies. When I mentioned this to my Argentinian friend, she rolled her eyes and said - well in the case of the subway, they just don't put any money into it! It's true that the subway system and even many of the subway cars that are still in use were literally built in the 1910s & 20s. Like many of the buildings in this country, they are lovely, full of character, and gradually falling apart.
• It's common to pay for groceries on an installment plan. "Cuotas" or installments was one of the first words I learned after I arrived here, because the cashiers in the grocery store routinely asked if I wanted to "pagar todo o pagar en cuotas."
• Also routine are credit card promotions: if you pay with a certain card on a certain day, you get X% off your purchase. The concept may not be that foreign, but the number of offers is. The picture below is from my neighborhood grocery, and the very tall sign in the background shows the current bank card offers. Look how many there are! You can't even see them all in this picture.

• Businesses here are typically small & often family-run. Because they aren't operating with alot of cash on hand, it's somewhat gauche if you pay them with a big (or even medium) bill: in giving you change, they will be clearing out their register. This is so problematic that businesses sometimes just refuse to accept a payment with a large bill. I have a vivid memory of once waiting in line to pay for a tango class. The Argentine woman in front of me tried to pay with a relatively large bill and was denied. After she had left the store, the cashier rolled her eyes and said in effect "Hm! She thought she could get away with that!" That's how big (or biggish) bills are viewed here - as an imposition and practically a scam. It probably doesn't help that fake 100 peso bills are in routine circulation, leading people to reflexively hold your large bill up to the light to verify its authenticity.
• As you can imagine, the big bill conundrum often arises in taxis. Once I had to pay a taxi driver with a 100 peso note (equivalent of $25). Because he couldn't change it, we drove to a gas station that his friend owned and his friend made the change as a favor. In a case like this, dishonest "taxistas" will apparently tell you to provide a smaller bill or they're going to keep your 100. Thankfully this has never happened to me and I'm quite careful not to test my luck. Anyway, part of my morning routine is to scan my wallet to make sure I have small bills on hand. If I don't, I make a trip to the grocery store and get change by paying with a 100. Because the grocery is part of a national chain, they are equipped to break a larger bill.