Currency to take to Vietnam

[mrfill]

I was there 3 weeks ago. The hotel took my Credit Card as dollars total (I'm from UK).

I was told by old hands to "strictly take dollars" although the ATMs at the airport were fine with my normal cards. The bureau de C at the airport was fine about changing baht or dollars. I was getting a standard rate from ATMs with a UK bank card. Personally, I think one could survive with no dollars there, although a lot of lip service is paid to the dollar. I met one Indian guy who wanted to get my dollars for Dong, but he was a bit shifty.

I had bought 300 dollars at the SCB bank in BKK, so with the poor rates now, I'm not sure if I won on the roundabouts or the swings. The biggest headache was the high value of the VietDong in terms of zeros. A bowl of soup can cost 16,000 dong. Some days I had 2 million dong in my pocket, but that's less than 100 pounds (I think!). I came away more confused than when I arrived. The normal 7-11s and supermarkets display prices in Dong. What is the big fuss about taking a bagful of dollars, especially if you buy them at dismal rates in Silom.

Eddy

Dollars are only any use for the visa on arrival. Everything else is VND. Rate is actually around 32000 to GBP and 2m works out at £62.50. Most ATMs I found allowed 6mVND withdrawals.

You were lucky to find a soup for 16000 - most Pho Ga or Pho Bo is around the 30k mark.

I'd take $100 or so for emergencies but its likely to stay in your wallet

[nithisa78]

Forget the exchange rate and live it up. Nobody can fool numbers.

[MyFriend You]

Definately USD you change your USD in the Jewlery Gold Shops - get a better rate than the bank - I just changed $5000 for 22,000 per $ Official rate is 21,700. It is efectly legal, the shops need USD to buy gold. The Banks give you less than the official rate from what I have experienced 14+ years of coming here, and their rate canges twice a day.

[mizztraveller]

We've been to Vietnam several times and never even considering using anything except the dong as that's the currency in Vietnam! Why use dollars?

[martin81]

Even though it is against the law many hotels will quote you a room price in USD in stead of VND.

I once had no USD left and had to pay in dong. In that case the hotel computed the dong amount using a poor rate for me.

Bot otherwise I think it is better to just use dong. The commonwealth bank ATM's do not charge a fee for withdrawal and you can use any Visa or Mastercard there. But of course your own bank may charge a fee and surcharge for ATM wd. So cash may be a cheaper choice in USD or Euro or GBP. Even baht and many other currencies can be exch to dong but the rates may be worse for many smaller currencies.

Edited August 17, 2015 by martin81

[meltingpot2015]

If you are in Saigon, there is a popular Money Exchange place near the Saigon Opera House (Kinda Opposite the opera House). Can exchange all currencies, including thai bhat, gives good rates. Actually identical to the xe.com rate.

The tourist info centre just down the road also has money exchange (only open during certain hours), but their rate is slightly lower. Same as the money exchange place inside Parkson shopping mall. The other day Thai Bhat rate at both these places was 1 THB = 560 VND. The place by the Opera house it was 1 THB = 627 VND.

[meltingpot2015]

Heads-up on using VietcomBank ATM's. Beware, there is a fee of 50,000 VND. Yes, it's only a couple of USD. But take note I was only able to withdraw 1 Million Dong in a single transaction. Even that was totally unexpected, because the ATM threw me a curv ball right at the end of the transaction and asked "Do you agree to 50,000 VND fee"". I said "NO", the ATM still dispensed the money!.

To pull 10M dong, it would cost 500k Dong (around 23 USD). No thanks...

Agribank has a higher pull amount, 3M dong and only charges 22k dong.

By the way, there are reports that BIDV bank charges 165k for a 5Million dong pull, and no mention about a fee until the money is dispensed!!. I think there is a BIDV ATM at Hanoi airport, Beware!.

[smokie36]

Use the ATM and Dong.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Heads-up on using VietcomBank ATM's. Beware, there is a fee of 50,000 VND. Yes, it's only a couple of USD. But take note I was only able to withdraw 1 Million Dong in a single transaction. Even that was totally unexpected, because the ATM threw me a curv ball right at the end of the transaction and asked "Do you agree to 50,000 VND fee"". I said "NO", the ATM still dispensed the money!.

To pull 10M dong, it would cost 500k Dong (around 23 USD). No thanks...

Agribank has a higher pull amount, 3M dong and only charges 22k dong.

By the way, there are reports that BIDV bank charges 165k for a 5Million dong pull, and no mention about a fee until the money is dispensed!!. I think there is a BIDV ATM at Hanoi airport, Beware!.

Techcombank(red ATM) two million, no fee.

[meltingpot2015]

Heads-up on using VietcomBank ATM's. Beware, there is a fee of 50,000 VND. Yes, it's only a couple of USD. But take note I was only able to withdraw 1 Million Dong in a single transaction. Even that was totally unexpected, because the ATM threw me a curv ball right at the end of the transaction and asked "Do you agree to 50,000 VND fee"". I said "NO", the ATM still dispensed the money!.

To pull 10M dong, it would cost 500k Dong (around 23 USD). No thanks...

Agribank has a higher pull amount, 3M dong and only charges 22k dong.

By the way, there are reports that BIDV bank charges 165k for a 5Million dong pull, and no mention about a fee until the money is dispensed!!. I think there is a BIDV ATM at Hanoi airport, Beware!.

Techcombank(red ATM) two million, no fee.

When did you do the last ATM pull?

Found some reports that Techcom bank ATM's do not charge a fee, but the reports are from 2012 (3 years ago):

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g293921-i8432-k5852915-ATMS_in_Vietnam-Vietnam.html

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/asia-south-east-asia-mainland/topics/report-vietnam-atm-no-limit-no-fees

Edited December 8, 2015 by meltingpot2015

[meltingpot2015]

Heads-up on using VietcomBank ATM's. Beware, there is a fee of 50,000 VND. Yes, it's only a couple of USD. But take note I was only able to withdraw 1 Million Dong in a single transaction. Even that was totally unexpected, because the ATM threw me a curv ball right at the end of the transaction and asked "Do you agree to 50,000 VND fee"". I said "NO", the ATM still dispensed the money!.

To pull 10M dong, it would cost 500k Dong (around 23 USD). No thanks...

Agribank has a higher pull amount, 3M dong and only charges 22k dong.

By the way, there are reports that BIDV bank charges 165k for a 5Million dong pull, and no mention about a fee until the money is dispensed!!. I think there is a BIDV ATM at Hanoi airport, Beware!.

Techcombank(red ATM) two million, no fee.

Incorrect. Techcombank ATM fee is 54890 VND per transaction. two million Dong limit per transaction is correct.

[IMA_FARANG]

The last time I was in Ho Chi Minh City (November 2014) I found it best to take U.S.Dollars and leave the Thai Baht behind.

However, if you do have a Bangkok Bank ATM card there are ATMs in HCMC that you can get Vietnamese Dong form at a reasonable rate. They are ATMs f rom the VIetBank. (government bank)

I found it very hard to change Thai Baht even in the airport at HCMC, as often they had no Thai Baht

So I often found that when traveling to Vietnam, it is often best to stick to the "Big Three" currencies to try to change into Vietnamese Dong ..... that is British Pounds, U.S. dollars, or Euros.

This is why I always change Baht to one of those currencies first.

[lamyai3]

Agree with the previous post, always got a good rate on UK pounds in Vietnam.

Incidentally, I'm due to go there in week or so for a three day trip. I understand the visa on arrival fee is presently waived for UK passport holders... Does this mean I can just fly in without doing anything other than completing the landing card they give on the plane? None of the usual pre-application stuff necessary?

[JoePai]

But why not just change once into Dong ? To change into USD/EURO/GBP then into Dong when you get there is (A) more trouble and ( two exchange fees/costs ?

[meltingpot2015]

The last time I was in Ho Chi Minh City (November 2014) I found it best to take U.S.Dollars and leave the Thai Baht behind.

However, if you do have a Bangkok Bank ATM card there are ATMs in HCMC that you can get Vietnamese Dong form at a reasonable rate. They are ATMs f rom the VIetBank. (government bank)

I found it very hard to change Thai Baht even in the airport at HCMC, as often they had no Thai Baht

So I often found that when traveling to Vietnam, it is often best to stick to the "Big Three" currencies to try to change into Vietnamese Dong ..... that is British Pounds, U.S. dollars, or Euros.

This is why I always change Baht to one of those currencies first.

rather than change all thai bhat to USD, if you have Thai bank account, could leave some Bhat there. Will come in handy if (when) you return to Thailand. Probably work out easier to use your thai bank account ATM at Swampi (thai airport) to withdraw Bhat than convert USD, GBP or EUR to pay for Taxi (from Airport) to wherever you are going within Thailand.

If someone is just visiting Thailand for 1 month or so, best not to exchange all USD/GBP/EUR to Bhat, to start with. I always exchange money in spells (enough for one or two weeks). So don't end-up having to convert to and from repeatedly. converting USD/GBP/EUR to bhat then back to USD you could end up paying the price. i.e. there is a noticeable difference in the USD buying and selling rate.

Also, notice that if you bought THai bhat using USD in April this year, you would have bought, 1 USD = 32 THB, now to exchange THB to USD, you pay around 36 THB = 1 USD.

Edited December 12, 2015 by meltingpot2015

[Kilowatt]

Can I take baht gold and exchange?