The A$ being so strong against the US$ I went to my local Amex today and bought some US$ travellers cheques for our August trip. To my amazement I got into a negotiaton on the rate and was able to push it up 28 points on the basis that the rate of a rival, which the teller checked on the net, was higher. Even an old dog can learn new tricks. Then I was offered dong cash. Seems the rules have changed since last September. The rate was terrible 11,100 per A$.
I checked the Vietcom Bank website and learnt that changing US cash into dong still does not attract commission but changing travellers cheques into dong costs 0.5% which, by international standards, is very cheap. My recollection of last year was that there was no charge for changing US$ travellers cheques into dong. Can anyone confirm this. I'm just interested at 'progress' in VN.
Cheers
Pajos
In life most things ARE negotiable.I negotiated with my dentist for a lower fee.I have been a salesman for most of my life and my price was not written in stone but I certainly did NOT offer the discount if I feel the deal could be made without it,also in some situations different people are given different prices depending on what the salesman feels he can earn from you.I'm sure you have seen that in your Asia travels,a local pays less then a tourist
Usually the exchange rate on the TT are slidly higher then what the cash is, so even they charge you some fee chance are you with come out even. ( they been charge fee for TT about 3 years now in VN).
Most places charge commission (hotels always do). In addition to #3 there is also a different rate for different USD notes. From memory small notes (10 & 20's) were slightly less than say a $100 note. ATM's are easy to find but for some reason I couldn't use my normal savings eftpos card (even though the bank said I should have been able to) but had no probs with accessing my savings with my visa card (linked account)
I was in VietNam in Oct I got 16,000 dong for USD EVERYWHERE hotels, bars, coffee on the side of the road, beer on the road to Kum Tum in Nha Tran I was given $10 off the bargained price for jade when they saw I had USD. Posted today on VietNam News
16,019 dong 1 USD
So many fees are involved in ATMs, but they're obviously convenient for unexpected needs - the fee per transaction from your home bank(which is only a withdrawal of about $100 per go), the conversion fee back home plus the local bank's cut of 20000VND per transaction - ends up losing you close to 10% of your cash in fees alone. Buying TC gets a better rate than cash and the same applies for selling. Some of the banks in Viet offer fee free on American Xpress TC only - Agribank or some other money factory starting with Ag or something similar. Sorry, just trying to remember but someone will know what I mean. In Hanoi there is a branch down near the lake and there's one in Hoi An. I found that Amex were well recieved in terms of fees EVERYWHERE in SE Asia.
Best rates for cash to dong were in Hanoi at the jewellery stores, particulaly one or two just next to the Prince 79 Hotel in the Old 1/4.
Also some banks waive the fees on buying TC if you have a certain level of membership / account with them, such as the ANZ in Aus (fee free American Express TC purchases.
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