PayPal is preparing to ban Argentinian account holders from sending and receiving domestic payments.
From 09 October, an amendment to the eBay unit's user agreement states: "Argentina Resident PayPal Users may only send and receive international payments. Domestic payments between two Argentina Resident PayPal Users is unavailable."
According to the BBC, the change comes after Argentinians began using PayPal as a way of circumventing government restrictions on the purchase of US dollars. These rules were introduced last year to stop savings leaving the country as soaring inflation and a general lack of confidence in the peso resulted in Argentinians putting their money into dollars.
PayPal has been used as a cheaper alternative to the black market for obtaining US currency, says the BBC, with people setting up two accounts, using different e-mail addresses, and transferring money between them, exchanging local pesos for dollars in the process.
The user agreement change comes soon after the introduction of a 15% tax on all purchases made abroad, affecting credit cards, PayPal and purchases made on e-commerce sites such as Amazon.
Paypal suspends domestic transactions in Argentina - BBC