Please, Help ME Out Here - Taking MOney to vietnam
Replies: 29 - Last Post: May 12, 2012 2:58 AM Last Post By: westwood
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You only need to change around $50 at the airport as you will get a better rate in town. There are a couple of places there after you come through customs and before you leave the terminal.I use a money belt and bring a combination of US and Aussie dollars. I dont have any trouble changing my Aussie dollars at the banks or any moneychangers in Vietnam.
How long are you going to be in Vietnam for? It is cheap to eat and drink etc so why not just bring cash with you?
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Captain.I have only seen d found ANZ ATM machines in Hanoi & HCMC....not saying they are not elsewhere, but haven't seen them.
I have used my BNZ Debit Card to withdrawer 10 Mil Dong from ANZ ATM's more than once....the fee for me was $7.50 Kiwi dollars.
TechcomBank allows 5 mil Dong per Transaction, again the fee for me using my BNZ (Bank of New Zealand) debit card was $7.50....for this reason, I withdrawer the max amount each time and recommend you do the same.
Agree with Norm..I changed some USD at the Banks in town. They all have their rates listed and there is very little difference between them. I use Visa to pay for my accommodation and most of that is booked and paid online (Agoda). The rest of the time I use Dong for everything else.
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Eximbank at the airport has an exchange counter and offer good rates. USD is around the 20,800-21,000 mark. Your travellex is a dud one. ANZ has a bank and plenty of ATMs in District 1 HCMC. They are in the Asiana centre and also near the river a block away from Majestic Hotel.AUD at the moment is about same as USD but lately has been higher so good idea to bring some AUD. You can bring $9,999 out of Aus without declaring to gov.
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Hint: When using a credit card to make purchases other than hotels, keep your receiptsand even write yourself a note reminding what, where, when the purchase was made.
The descriptions the merchants give your credit card issuer to put on your statement
can be absolutely baffling to sort out after you're home for a while and your statement
arrives in the mail.
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Mooslie, where in hcmc is the ANZ bank? I've found 3 atm's around the area I'll be staying (Pham Ngu Lao) and what I think is a bank at 11 Me Linh Square not far from the ferry terminal. How far would that be from PNL? And an ATM at the airport in the arrival hall.Westwood - thanks for the link.
As hanoi is my last stop, can I exchange any leftover dong there?
Norm, I'll be in vietnam 3 weeks.
Working on the basis of 20,000 dong per dollar, 100,000 would be only $5 so a million would be only $50! So 5 mil is $250 and 10 is $500. Most of the places I'm staying say cash only.
Many thanks to the great info and tips - If I take $500 cash, with $300 of that in us dollars I should be alright then?
Ha, now all I have to do is find out about money/cash in china. I'll toddle over to there now.
Thanks guys and gals, you've come up trumps again.
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There's a bank of ATMs just right of the Saigon international terminal exit. There's an ANZ machine that usually dispences 4 million dong (about $200 Aussie dollars ). Everywhere else you are better off using agribank ( $5 million dong) or dong Ba bank ( even more) without paying more than a $1 at their end. Some places charge 3% to use a credit card.21
CC ANZ has moved from the old building it was in to the hotel on the corner a couple of mins away in Me Linh Sq. Forgot the name of the hotel-should know, passed it umpteen times. It's about a 5 min walk from ferry. Opposite ferry is Majestic hotel and a cafe on opposite cnr. Go past cafe away from ferry to Me Linh Sq. Hang a sharp left as soon as you hit sq. ANZ hangs out there. ferry is about a 15min walk from PNL.23
Hi Captain CourageousWe took $100 notes, actually $2000 worth and exchanged as we needed. You can easily exchange cash at the airport but they do charge a commission. A couple of weeks ago it was 4% so we only changed $20 cash at the airport and did the rest behind Ben Thanh as above (posting 2). We had a credit card but didn't use it.
Maybe check out my posting on HCMC by doing a search on my user name. Not sure where you are staying whilst in HCMC but if going to D1 it is really easy to get a bus from the airport to there. The info is in my posting.
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I can't remember any on the ATMs we used in Vietnam having an option to withdraw from a cheque account - however they all offered an option for 'default' or 'current', and that worked ok - ie the money came out of my cheque account. However, at one ATM in Sapa choosing the 'default' option resulted in the money being a cash advance from my VISA credit account. (My card is linked to both my cheque and VISA accounts)Every couple of days I had a look at my transaction record online to see where the cash was coming from. I just sucked up the fees - very small compared to overall cost of the trip.
Don't forget your $US25 for the Visa on Arrival - the officials did not look like they would be understanding if you don't have it.
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Kiwi, you speak of "we", I'm travelling alone and wouldn't feel comfortable carrying around $2,000. I'd rather fork out the fee(s) for withdrawing cash than risk having it walk.NVG, I'm so glad you posted - I thought it was only $20 for the visa. I'll make sure I have the exact amount in case they don't have change!
What is this option for 'default' or 'current'? With my new cards, they offer cheque, savings or credit. I have to choose either cheque or credit and have been told it's better to choose credit as it doesn't count as a transaction. You said you checked your transaction record online - you mean internet banking? My daughter warned me about using online banking overseas - she said it isn't safe because passwords etc could be collected and used by others. Did you use internet cafes or have your own pc?
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Cap'n the options 'current' or 'default' are the words on the screen of the ATM for account choices - along with 'credit', 'savings' etc. I never saw one that said 'cheque' which is what I use here in Oz.We could not get the ATMs on PNL to work for us until we tried one at the CBA branch near the Post Office, and a helpful staff member showed us how to use the 'current' or 'default' options. Some ATMs take a while to wake up, which is a bit disconcerting at first.
I took a netbook - one of those small laptops with a 10" screen. (also good to back up camera cards every couple of days) As long as your anti-virus software is working you should not have to worry about passwords. Since my credit card was copied in USA a couple of years ago I now get my bank (NAB) to txt me my cheque and VISA balances every day so I can keep a watch for unexpected changes. There are no fees for this service and no charges to receive txts.
re the Visa on Arrival - do you have the approval letter as well? See here
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It'll come up as Current for the main account and if you have any other accounts linked off it, they are the default regardless of types of account. Does here at home on some ATMs as well.I have done internet banking over the years from internet cafes and its been okay. Apart from Thailand, I only do it when I really have to. In Thailand, I use net cafes at places where we're staying. Once in Hanoi, the speed was so slow in a netcafe while I was logging onto my bank I went and did shopping while I waited for the pages to load. The only time I panicked was in Bangkok and I was using my netbook on an unknown, unsecured web site. I just changed my password. But if someone wanted to clean out our bank account, they're not going to get much.
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Thank you NVG, I don't have a laptop, so would be using internet either in accommodation places or an internet cafe. I need to pay two bills by bpay when I'm away.Yes for the approval letter.
Westwood, I'll keep the online banking to a minimum - apart from transferring money for bpay, it was more a matter of seeing how much was in the account and to keep a check on withdrawals.
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