Bitrefill offers gift cards and other purchases on-line that you can pay with crypto! I gave it a try as recommended by @thedesertlynx
I was anxious to try it because it can be a pain to meet people, count cash and send coins at a cafe or restaurant.
You can buy these anonymously or accumulate points by registering.
The instructions promised that a code and would be sent along with how-to apply it. I looked at some appliances. There is a 35,000 peso maximum for the gift card - so an air conditioner was out of the question - cheapest was $40k.
I decided on a washing machine for Ars $29,000.00
I purchased the card, and received it in an email. There was an error clicking a button to "unseal " the gift card. I could not see the card, but the "Print PDF " button inside the email allowed it to be read.
I had the entire purchase all set to buy on the Fravega website, but there was no way to apply a gift card. There was only payment with Visa or Mastercard offered - debit cards were also okay. That is not a problem with Bitrefill, but the fault of the appliance store.
It turned out that we had to go to the shopping mall the next day, where they were able to apply the gift card on the store's system. Delivery was made yesterday. All good related to the product and shipping.
The main problem I had with the purchase was the exchange rate.
There is the government's imaginary rate. It is there so you will not blame them for hyperinflation of the currency...
$90 per US dollar
2.064 LTC @ $170 x 90 = Ars 31,580.00 -or- u$s 350.00
You cannot buy a dollar bill for Ars $90 - therefore this rate does not exist. *
Then there is the real dollar/peso value which is around...
$150 per US dollar.
2.064 LTC @ $170 x 150 = Ars 52,630.00 -or- u$s 350.00
So I basically paid over twenty thousand too much.
If I had sold the Litecoin to a crypto enthusiast or sold it to SatoshiTango.com (Cash delivered to my door), I could have purchased the same appliance, but I would have had an extra $21,000 to blow on six or seven sushi dinners for the whole family.
If I had purchased a virtual Mastercard on Satoshi Tango, I would have credited that card with 1.176 Litecoin and purchased the same washing machine on the Fravega website at a cost of under $200 dollars.
I will not be using bitrefill.com for local purchases unless the company gets a grasp on how things work in places like Venezuela, Paraguay, Zimbabwe and Argentina.
SatoshiTango.com gets it and settles all transactions at the real dollar/peso value. (this is not a recommendation of SatoshiTango - their fees are enormous)
I will use bitrefill.com again for gaming credit for my kids or anything else that is charged directly in dollars, but anything that is sold via fancy colored funny munny will be paid in cash. You people who live in the USA have a lot less math to do in order to see if you are getting a fair deal!
I did the laundry today. So there is one less outside service that I need to use!
* Yes. You can go to a government bank and purchase a small amount of dollars for ar$90 each, but they will ask you tons of questions about what, where, who, how, and why you need it. They will document that you have those dollars and possibly charge with a crime related to 'capital flight' if those dollars end up outside the country. If it were possible, don't you think everyone would buy 100 dollars for 9,000 pesos and then sell them for 15,000 over and over, all day long, every day? They don't because they can't. Fun with hyperinflation. Go paper bricks!
