Send Money to Argentina from Italy: Cheapest Ways Compared (2026)

You live in Italy and someone in Argentina needs pesos from you. A parent in Rosario, a sibling in Córdoba, a nonna who spends the winter in Mar del Plata, the landlord of the apartment you rented for December, a freelancer in Buenos Aires who invoices you in pesos. Italy and Argentina share more family ties than almost any other pair of countries, and the money still flows the old way: a bank wire that takes days, a remittance app that sets its own rate, or a cousin who carries cash. This guide compares what each option actually delivers on a €450 transfer, in September 2026, and shows how to send pesos straight to an alias, CVU or CBU. Everything here applies to any SEPA country, so it works the same from Spain, Germany or France.

The short answer: the method that delivers the most pesos per euro is the one that converts at the crypto dollar rate instead of the official one, and the fastest is a local transfer on Argentina's instant system. CacaoCash does both, at approximately 824,000 pesos for €450 versus roughly 766,000 with Wise and as little as 612,000 by SWIFT. For the general picture across all countries, read the complete guide to sending money to Argentina from abroad. This one is about the euro corridor specifically.

What it costs to send €450 to Argentina from Italy (September 2026)

Assumptions: Wise deducts its fee from the €450 before converting; Remitly, PayPal and the Italian bank charge their fee on top, so the full €450 is converted; intermediary and Argentine receiving fees on a SWIFT wire are deducted from the amount in transit. Euro amounts are converted to US$ at the mid-market implied by Wise (approx. 1.149 US$/€, so €450 ≈ US$517). Rates move daily; these are a mid-September 2026 snapshot, rounded to the nearest 1,000 pesos.

Wise is honest about its fee, and its "mid-market" rate is real. The problem is that for the Argentine peso the mid-market rate is the official rate. Wise pays out to a CBU in pesos, so your euros are converted at roughly the wholesale rate that banks use, and that is about 4% below what the same money is worth inside Argentina. Read more in Does Wise work in Argentina in 2026?, and the same applies to Revolut.

Remitly looks best among the traditional options on this snapshot: a €2.49 fee and a displayed rate of 1,757.53 ARS/€, which was slightly above Wise's mid-market at the time we checked. Rates like that are set by the provider and change often, so always compare the final peso figure on the day, not the fee.

Western Union waives the fee on your first online transfer, then charges a standard fee that depends on how you pay and how the recipient collects. Its margin is in the exchange rate. The 760,000 above is an estimate. See Western Union vs crypto for Argentina. MoneyGram also pays into Argentine bank accounts and wallets, but not in cash.

PayPal is the option people reach for because they already have it, and it is one of the worst: a 5% payment fee (capped at US$4.99 on this amount), a 3-4% conversion spread, ARS 75 charged to the recipient, and the recipient needs an Argentine PayPal account and can only withdraw to a bank in pesos.

A SWIFT wire is the worst by a wide margin. Intesa Sanpaolo charges €12 plus 0.22% of the amount to send. A correspondent bank takes US$15-35 out of the amount in transit. Then the Argentine bank charges to receive (Banco Galicia lists US$10 for wires of US$251-500; Banco Nación charges a flat US$70) and converts what is left at its buying rate, about 1,485 ARS/US$. It takes 2-5 business days and the recipient often has to justify the origin of the funds before the pesos are released. On €450 you can lose up to a quarter of the money.

How the crypto dollar changes the math

Argentina has several exchange rates at the same time. In mid-September 2026, Banco Nación bought dollars at 1,485 and sold at 1,535, the wholesale (mayorista) rate was 1,514.5, and the dólar cripto, the rate at which dollars actually change hands on exchanges and wallets inside the country, was 1,594. Banks, Wise and remittance apps convert at the official or wholesale side. That gap is about 4%, and the provider's fee and rate margin come on top of it.

Sending at the crypto dollar rate means your euros are worth what dollars are worth in Argentina, not what a bank pays for them. On €450 the difference between the SWIFT outcome and the crypto dollar outcome is over 90,000 pesos. The card dollar vs crypto dollar guide explains where the rates come from, and you can check today's dollar rate in Argentina before you send.

How to send pesos from Italy with CacaoCash

1. Download the app for iOS or Android.
2. Sign up with your email, Google or Apple account.
3. Verify your identity with your passport or national ID (an Italian carta d'identità works) through Persona. No Argentine DNI, CUIT or bank account is required.
4. Fund your balance with a SEPA transfer from any euro account, including a euro balance in Wise or Revolut. Bank and crypto funding carry no CacaoCash fee; SEPA usually arrives the same day. You can also use a debit or credit card (with a card processing fee) or crypto (USDC and other major assets).
5. Enter the recipient's alias, CVU or CBU. A WhatsApp message is enough to get it. If you are not sure what these are, read the alias, CVU and CBU explainer.
6. Check the rate and the peso amount shown in the app. Conversion is at the crypto dollar rate (reference 1,594 ARS per US$ in September 2026; the exact rate is shown in the app before you confirm).
7. Confirm. The pesos arrive in seconds as a normal local transfer on Transferencias 3.0, 24/7, weekends and holidays included. The recipient needs nothing but their existing bank or Mercado Pago account.

Italy-specific things to know

• SEPA is the cheapest way in. Any Italian bank account (Intesa, UniCredit, Poste, Fineco, a Revolut or Wise euro balance) can fund CacaoCash by SEPA with no CacaoCash fee, usually the same day. There is no reason to pay for a SWIFT wire or a card fee if you have a euro account.
• No remittance tax. As of September 2026, Italy does not apply a specific tax on personal transfers abroad. A SEPA transfer to fund your own wallet is treated like any other transfer from your account.
• Your bank may ask for a reason (causale) on international wires. That is one more friction of the SWIFT route; a SEPA transfer within the euro area does not have that problem.
• Your euros are held as US$. CacaoCash balances are in dollars, so the euro-to-dollar conversion of your funding depends on your bank or card, and the peso figure above assumes approx. 1.149 US$/€. The app shows the exact peso amount before you confirm.
• Timing. Fund by SEPA during Italian business hours and the balance is usually ready the same day. The peso transfer itself is instant at any hour, so a transfer sent from Milan at 11 pm arrives in Buenos Aires at 6 pm local time, immediately.
• Same from Spain, Germany or France. Every figure in this guide is in euros and every rail is SEPA, so nothing changes if you are sending from Madrid, Berlin or Paris.

Who uses this from Italy

• Family support. Italian citizens and dual nationals with parents, siblings or grandparents in Argentina who send a fixed peso amount every month for groceries, medicine or prepaga.
• Pensioners and part-year residents. People who split the year between Italy and Argentina and need to top up their Argentine account or pay expensas while they are in Italy.
• Rent and deposits. Renting an apartment in Buenos Aires for a season and the owner wants the seña by transfer to their alias. See paying rent in Buenos Aires as a foreigner.
• Freelancers and small businesses. Italian companies paying Argentine developers, designers or translators in pesos, directly to their account, instead of a PayPal balance they struggle to use.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the cheapest way to send money from Italy to Argentina?

On a €450 transfer in September 2026, converting at the crypto dollar rate with CacaoCash delivers approximately 824,000 pesos, against roughly 766,000 to 791,000 with Wise or Remitly and 612,000 to 731,000 by SWIFT. The full comparison for every country is in the guide to sending money to Argentina from abroad.

Can I send euros directly, or do I need dollars?

You fund CacaoCash in euros by SEPA (or card or crypto); the balance is held in US$ and converted to pesos at the crypto dollar rate when you send. You never need to buy dollars yourself.

Does the recipient in Argentina need to do anything?

No. They receive a normal peso transfer into their bank, Mercado Pago or any wallet with a CVU or CBU. No app, no sign-up, no paperwork.

Does Wise work from Italy to Argentina?

Yes, Wise pays out in pesos to a CBU, with a €9.56 fee on €450 and conversion at the mid-market rate, which for the peso is effectively the official rate. That is why it delivers fewer pesos than a transfer at the crypto dollar rate.

Does this work from Spain or Germany too?

Yes. The rails are SEPA and the amounts are in euros, so the process and the numbers are the same from any eurozone country.