She Couldn't Open MercadoPago. Until She Didn't Need To.
Kamila is English, living in Buenos Aires, working as a freelancer across various jobs.
Kamila is English, living in Buenos Aires, working as a freelancer across various jobs. She doesn't have an Argentine DNI, which means she couldn't open a MercadoPago account, couldn't access the QR payment system that locals use for everything, and was stuck paying with her foreign card at exchange rates that ate into her freelance income. Now she deposits into Peanut from her freelance earnings and pays like any porteña.
The Setup
Freelancing in Buenos Aires has a lot going for it: the cost of living, the culture, the food. But the financial infrastructure wasn't built for foreigners. Kamila earns from multiple freelance gigs, receiving payments in pounds and dollars. Spending that money locally should be simple. It wasn't.
Without a DNI (Documento Nacional de Identidad), she was locked out of the financial system that 90% of Argentine commerce runs on. MercadoPago has over 1,000,000 merchants across Argentina: supermarkets, restaurants, cafes, kiosks, pharmacies. When the person behind you in line scans a QR code and walks out, and you're fumbling with a foreign Visa card that may or may not work, the gap is hard to ignore.
The Problem
The DNI barrier isn't just inconvenient, it's expensive. Without MercadoPago, Kamila's options were limited to her foreign card (which converts at the MEP rate, 5-8% worse than the cripto dólar rate) or cash (which means finding an exchange house and carrying pesos around). Neither is great for someone trying to stretch freelance income in a new city.
Every grocery run, every coffee, every utility payment, all at a worse rate than what any Argentine with a phone gets automatically.
How She Uses Peanut
Kamila deposits regularly from her freelance jobs into Peanut. It's become part of her financial routine: money comes in from clients, she moves what she needs for local spending into Peanut, and she pays via MercadoPago QR at merchants across Buenos Aires.
No DNI required. No local bank account. Just her passport for verification, and she's in the same payment system as everyone else.
The Difference
The savings are significant. QR payments through Peanut convert at the cripto dólar rate, meaningfully better than what her card was giving her. For a freelancer managing variable income across multiple gigs, that margin matters. It's the difference between Buenos Aires being affordable and Buenos Aires being expensive.
But it's not just about money. It's about not being a financial outsider in the city she lives in. She can split bills, pay at the corner kiosk, settle up at restaurants, the same way her Argentine friends and neighbors do.
In Her Words
"Huge savings on QR code spend compared to what I was paying before."
"I don't have a DNI. I couldn't use MercadoPago before Peanut. Now I can pay like a local."
Kamila, Freelancer, Buenos Aires