His Visa Kept Declining, So He Found a Better Way to Pay
Arsenii Pechenkin is a Developer Advocate based in Lisbon.
Arsenii Pechenkin is a Developer Advocate based in Lisbon. When he came to Buenos Aires as a digital nomad, he ran into the same wall every foreigner hits: his Visa card didn't always work at local merchants, and when it did, the exchange rate was painful. Now he deposits from Revolut and N26 into Peanut and pays via MercadoPago QR, getting a better rate and never worrying about a declined card.
The Setup
Arsenii has spent over a decade in tech, working across FinTech and DeFi. He's an Alchemist Accelerator alum, a hackathon veteran, and a lecturer. He's the kind of person who understands financial infrastructure deeply, which made the inefficiency of paying with a foreign card in Argentina especially frustrating.
Like most digital nomads in Buenos Aires, he kept his financial life in European neobanks (Revolut and N26 for international banking, Visa for day-to-day payments). The setup works fine in Europe. In Argentina, it breaks down.
The Problem
Argentina's exchange rate landscape is uniquely complex. Cards convert at the MEP rate, which gives you significantly fewer pesos per dollar than the cripto dólar rate that locals and savvy foreigners use. On top of that, Arsenii's Visa card would sometimes just stop working at merchants, declined for no clear reason, leaving him stuck at the register.
The rate gap alone costs card-paying foreigners 5-8% on every transaction. Over a month of normal spending, that adds up fast.
How He Uses Peanut
Arsenii keeps using Revolut and N26 for what they're good at: holding euros, international transfers, managing his banking. When he needs to spend in Buenos Aires, he deposits into Peanut from those accounts. Then he pulls out his phone and scans MercadoPago QR codes at merchants, just like any Argentine.
The deposit process, he says, is easy. No friction, no delays. And once the money is in Peanut, spending it is instant: scan, confirm, done.
But Arsenii isn't just a QR user. He also uses Peanut for on/offramp and international transfers, making it a central piece of his cross-border financial stack rather than just a local spending tool.
The Difference
The exchange rate is what he notices most. Compared to what his card gives him, Peanut's cripto dólar rate means meaningfully more pesos per dollar on every payment. And unlike his Visa, Peanut's QR payments work every time. No mysterious declines, no awkward moments at merchants.
For someone who understands the financial plumbing behind these systems, the efficiency isn't just convenient. It makes sense.
In His Words
"Amazing exchange rate for local payments, much better than paying directly with a card."
"Really working with local payment system. Sometimes my Visa isn't even working at merchants."
"Easy deposit process."
Arsenii Pechenkin, Developer Advocate, Buenos Aires