SUBE - Argentina’s Universal Bus Card

One of the first things we were told to get when we arrived in Buenos Aires was a SUBE.  This is the card you use for riding a bus and the subway.  Nothing too remarkable - they have these cards in cities across the US and elsewhere in the world.

But there are a couple of things that are special about the SUBE which took us a while to find out.

1.  You can spend more than you have on the card.
When I added 200 pesos the first time, the receipt showed I now had only about 165 on my card.  I asked and he said that I had a 35 peso debit.  So, you don’t get kicked off  the bus if you don’t have enough money on your card.  Someone later pointed out that the card costs 90 pesos, so in a sense, you have that investment still in the card.

2.  You can use card all over Argentina!
We didn’t ride the bus in Mendoza because we knew we needed cards and it never occurred to us that the one we bought in Buenos Aires would be good in Mendoza.  But in San Juan I asked again.  And showed my Buenos Aires card as an example.  Oh yes, that’s the card you need, I was told.  And, indeed, the SUBE card from Buenos Aires worked in San Juan.

For anyone who travels in the US, having to get a card for Seattle, San Francisco, LA, etc.  is a pain.  Those places still take money, but for how long?  It would be nice if there was a universal card you could use in all those places, and everywhere else.


 

3.  You can top off your SUBE card at any shop with a SUBE sign and they are all over.  Here’s one of at least two shops at the bus station in San Juan this morning where you can put more money in your SUBE.

I’m sure you can do it online as well, but I haven’t advanced that far.


I’d note that San Juan, on the second day after the eclipse, was almost completely covered with clouds.