Family of 4 coming from Canada and wondering what travellers from Canada do for currency. We have ordered and received Wise cards but see there are withdrawal limits for bank machines. We would rather not get US cash out here to exchange there but will if needed. We can not get VND from our Royal Bank here in Canada and worry our RBC bank card won’t work there. Any suggestions? Thanks!
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we just visited 7 weeks in Vietnam from Alberta, booked most things online, brought cash (CAD) to spend on food and other things. We exchanged $200 at the airport to spend on the first 1-2 days, then went to the gold store to exchange for better rates. In Hanoi, there is a gold street named Ha Trung in old quarter. I dont know about other cities.
I been here for over 2 wks and been using my RBC card at the VP atm machines. No fees but I can only withdraw 5,000,000 each time. I also exchange the CDN with no issues, just need to show them your passport photo. It’s not necessary to bring the actual passport
We got VND from currency exchange in Canada
Omg I just assumed I could get VND from BMO… thats stressful!
Tourist places use cards,  local and mom & pop shops use cash.
Just use bank machine
Canadian here right now. You don’t need US cash here. They would rather have their own currency. We ordered through CIBC before we came. I wish I brought more that being said our CIBC bank cards work in the ATM no problem with small fee (cost of doing business is how I look at it). Maybe open a CIBC bank account solely for the purpose of buying the money ahead of time and using the bank card here. You can easily etransfer yourself from RBC to CIBC that eay you can just move over $1000 at a time or whatever you’re comfortable with. I find easier to land with money rather than that’s the first thing I have to go search out- it all takes time. We have wise as well, I’m still learning the benefits of it. But when they do accept cards in some places we just use it (I have the virtual one) businesses will charge a fee to use but that fee is cheaper than bank machine withdrawal usually. Also set up your Grab account with multiple credit cards before you come in case one gets compromised you can change the payment method same if you’re using Expedia or other platforms. If your getting eSIM make sure to set up getting credit card notifications by email not text message. RBC loves to use that two factor authentication thing but I don’t have my email linked so everytime I go to purchase something online I can’t get the code – thankfully and randomly my husband does have his email linked. Anyways, let me know if you have any other questions, happy to help.
I prefer to use VP Bank ATM but I also got a better rate than I expected when exchanging $100 bills at a gold shop. Whatever you do, do NOT buy Vietnamese dong in Canada.
I took cash and exchange it at a gold shop
I have used wise card exclusively for cash withdrawal and had no issues. There is bank fee but most often less than a dollar. Although in Cambodia it was about the equivalent of $7.00 CAD.