I’ve used CUP quite a bit in the last many years, and it’s often easier to use in the smaller bodegas. While you aren’t supposed to use it, you can. Having it was handy in very rural areas where CUP was the only thing they usually see. And when the menu at a restaurant is in CUP, using them ensured that you didn’t get ripped off on the exchange. But, as you note, it’s hard to exchange back. It just takes planning.
And, as you note, it’s gone now. It created a two-tier economic system that was very hard for the government to control.
One thing to be aware of is in some countries, you’ll get an option during the transaction to accept that bank’s exchange rate. Do not do this. Decline their rate and let your bank handle the exchange transaction. Often financial institutions will hold onto your transaction to process it and others when there is a slightly more favorable rate for the dollar.
In my country there are whole towns set up to rip the tourists off with things like boat trips and bungy jumping.
You would amazed how much they’ll pay to go skiing.
The best currency exchanges I’ve encountered are the street kiosks in Seoul. They usually take just 1% and they never try to scam you. In Japan, they take more like 3~5% (depending on what currency you are carrying).
One time, in Bali, I exchanged 10,000 JPY for 1.3M Rupiah. Only the guy counted out ten 100,000 Rupiah notes and then six 5,000 Rupiah notes, hoping that I wouldn’t notice. I said, “I only want 100,000 bills” and he took back the 5,000 notes and counted out another three 100,000 notes without mentioning or touching on what he had tried to do.
For me, navigating currency exchange is one of the fun parts of traveling, so I hate to just use credit or debit cards or ATMs, even if it’s safer.
I remember the first time I traveled to France in 1989. There was a nice young man aggressively offering me help with the pay phone at the Gare du Nord. I looked him straight in the eye and told him that he must be one of the super helpful Parisians that one often hears about. He totally got the sarcasm and quickly skeddaddled.
I subscribe to his channel and I’ve seen him get into quite a few scrapes. He genuinely seems very committed to making his home city of Prague a more pleasant and welcoming place for tourists to come and enjoy safely. I think that he understands the danger and is willing to live with it.
I got scammed by a taxi in Greece in the '90’s. The 5000 drachma note (about $20) looked similar to the 500 drachma note. The bill would come to say 4000 dm, you hand over a 5000 note, then they’d pull a switcheroo and say you gave them a 500 note, so you hand over another 5000 dm note. If you made a stink they’d call over a cop who was in on the scam.
Luckily the public transport is so thorough in Prague, I think we might have used a cab once in 2 weeks there. Between the buses, streetcars, and subway, it’s thorough.
And one of the things that makes this all so confusing is that there are countries where you do actually want to pay the person who you think might be scamming for parking money, because they are actually the person watching the cars to keep them from getting broken into or stolen.
Why would you bring dollars to Europe anyway? Why not exchange before leaving, or just use an ATM when you’re there? Or just pay with your card? Is it because of the ridiculously high card fees I’ve heard Americans have?
Exchanging dollars to other currencies within the US is exorbitantly expensive (the buy/sell spread can be up to 40%), and people can never be sure if their card will work at any ATM they may encounter overseas until they try it (also, banks will sometimes flag overseas usage of cards as suspicious unless you tell them that you are going in advance).
In Italy we noticed that the majority of local bank ATMs did not interact with international ATM systems or allow cash dispersal; that was interesting. Also that lots of places advertising ATMs were actually just bank HQs, or stores that took debit cards as payment. Luckily we were able to find Deutsche Bank ATMs dispersing actual cash that had a reasonable usage fee (few bucks) so we had cash on hand for little transactions and tips. Hotels wanted local taxes in cash (interesting) and cash tips were HIGHLY appreciated, as you’d expect.
Panhandling: there was plenty, but fairly soft push. A polite “Non sono interessato” (not interested) and wave would send them off. With Covid in play, nobody moved close enough to ever pick a pocket, and we were on alert anyway. The off-season combined with Covid rules had several upsides.
I would definitely recommend that Americans who are abroad should use bank ATMs (not private ATMs) for cash withdrawals and a no-interational-fee mastercard or visa instead of cash whenever possible. You definitely have to do some research on whether that’ll be possible with your bank, your cards, and where you are traveling, though.
It depends upon where you’re headed. I’ve been in Mexico for almost seven years, and you definitely get a better rate if you exchange before you cross the border at Tijuana. Same concept for pesos to dollars on the way back.
Also, it should be pointed out for folks that despite what it might be like in Prague, there are still many areas of the world where local businesses only deal in cash.
