We are heading to Vietnam, Cambodia then Thailand in April/May. I’m wondering should we take Canadian money with us to exchange there, or just bring our debit card and withdraw money from the ATM’s when needed? Thanks!
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In Cambodja USD is what they accept even locals use usd and all prices are in dollars.
We do similar trips from Australia and find it best to take a reasonable amount of cash, and card for backup. Obviously security of the cash is more of a concern as you are travelling quite a bit. Our fear is of a machine swallowing our card lol.
We brought a few USD for Cambodia. Then we used atms. Our money card like Wise etc was is pretty useless, as hotels charge to use it up to 4%.
Get yourself a Wise card. Put as much as you want on it and then you can use it as you would an credit card but you arent charged a conversion fee everytime. Weve been traveling for 7 months and have used it in 10 countries.
Many people will tell you that these countries are cash only as they seem happy to spend quite a lot of time regularly hiking from gold shop to money changer in the hope of getting a tenth of a cent better exchange rate, or having less than perfect notes accepted. Personally, I would rather use my WISE card in an ATM to get cash if I need it, and enjoy not having to safely store ,carry and use thick wads of cash.
My bank card only works at certain banks in Vietnam. It’s a pain to keep trying different ATMs until one finally works. I didn’t hear about the Wise card until it was to late to recieve one. So definitely get a Wise card.
Wealth simple is the best new card for Canadians to get. We used Wise last year, but wealth simple actually refunds any foreign atm fees! We used it in Thailand and Vietnam the last month with no issues. Just be sure to leave yourself 7 business days for the transfer into your wealth simple account to clear before needing to use at atm.
Just an atm card
Pump your Wise card, and also bring any of the two major credit cards. It’s so easy to withdraw Vietnamese Dong. Amounts for one withdrawal at a time are commonly five million VND.
Get a WISE card