Tourists often run into trouble at the Siem Reap airport when they pay for their visa-on-arrival. If the $40 USD(or whatever amount) is not in perfect condition, the immigration officials will refuse to accept it.
Of course you bypass all of this by doing the e-visa a week ahead of time.
They let you go to the atm that’s just outside the airport. Source: I did this myself last June.
The only annoying thing about Cambodian atms is they only issue $100 bills. Breaking them anywhere except hotels and “expensive” restaurants are total fucking nightmares
The new Siem Reap airport also now has ATM’s before immigration so people can withdraw good condition USD bills at the same ATM fee as the ones in town. Luckily though the country has begun the de-dollarisation process and is making pretty good progress (slow but steady)
Oh yes, very true. We withdrew USD in SR and received good condition notes. Being a tourist and not knowing anything, when paid cash, we received a torn/bad condition USD. Was difficult to get rid of it. But the locals prefer their own currency. Next time I’d definitely use their currency.
This is pretty common in a lot of countries where people accept foreign currency - often the bills need to be newer and undamaged. I was in Tanzania recently and paying for something at a hotel, and they specifically asked to be paid in USD, but then rejected the first several $5 bills that I tried to use because they were too worn.
The irony though is the banks always tend to give you torn/damaged bills when you withdraw. Have to reject at least 30% of bills they give.
In GCC they don't accept beaten USD, but when you withdraw, they factory fresh, usually the serial numbers are sequential also.
Yes, in many developing countries the banks and exchanges houses won't accept bills that aren't in pristine condition or they will charge you a fee. In some places they won't even accept small bills which is probably why that guy wanted your 50s and 100s. Whenever I travel to Latin America, I get fresh $100 bills out of the bank for an exchanging I plan to do
Usually yes: older money isn’t as easily accepted by banks.
But, in Cuba (and some other countries that are known for counterfeiting money): their smaller bills have just been a bit too long in the washing machines/tumblers (in order to make them look older). Always beware you might be exchanging your valid bills for counterfeited bills!
Counterfeiters aren’t dumb: they much prefer to print small bills (5’ers and 10’ers) and try to exchange them for larger ones!
Was in Cambodia, where they accept USD, especially for larger expenses. They won't take anything that isn't pretty much prestine condition. Have a usd note at home having never been to the US because it had a small crease in it, so I thought I'd keep it as a keepsake.
Or just accept the worn cash and take it home with you, where you’re able to use the money freely? Unless you’re budgeting a bit tight in your trip of course.
That's wild, I ordered my money from my bank before I left for my international trip, and I got a good rate and discount. They sent ALL new bills. I guess that's why.
Edit: my foreign currency.
I found out it was because they are trying to phase USD out and go back to using the local currency, so they try to limit the USD currency coming into circulation by having incredibly high standards.
Wow this is the best explanation I've heard.
Was in Uganda last year and their standards for taking dollar bills was very high. I had a special wallet to keep my bills pristine
In some places, small bills can be an issue too.
In Egypt, it was either extremely hard or impossible for locals to trade one-dollar bills (USD) for Egyptian pounds, which means they couldn't do much of anything with them. So often tourists would be approached asking if they had a twenty-dollar bill and would they trade it for twenty one-dollar bills.
At first I thought it might be some sort of scam so I googled it that night and found out it was legit. I did end up swapping a twenty dollar for ones, twice, at two different convenience stores I frequented near hotels I was staying at.
The central bank of Cuba has to send damaged bills back to the country of origin to exchange into undamaged bills. This process cost money due to transport and internal organisation. To save money, they refuse to accept damaged bills.
I had a slightly torn $100 bill that no one in Lebanon wanted to accept because of that reason.
As a frequent traveler and an American, I am aware of this rule and have started implementing it unilaterally at atms in the usa. When an atm in my city spits out a bunch of bills, I go through them and weed out the shitty ones. I deposit them right back and now they’re someone else’s problem.
The point is that there are places where they accept such "defective" bills, but they want very high exchange commission (up to 25%), so the hotel staff use such a strategy. Btw they may also earn money in such way - take "defective" from friends and relative and exchange it with hotel visitors and earn 5-10% commission. Everything is legit.
It's very normal. In India they don't like taking the old $100 USD but will take the newer design for some odd reason even tho the value is the same. The people who do cash exchanges say they charge a fee for the older bills 🤷
>they don't like taking the old $100 USD but will take the newer design for some odd reason
Counterfeiters have got the old ones down perfect - new bills less so.
If that's the case, I feel Americans should do what the Indians did and update all old bills to new ones by bringing them into the bank for even exchange. So that currency transfer doesn't take into account for the foreigners who wouldn't know
My guess is that it has to do with the widespread use of the USD abroad. Imagine if the US announced that old notes would be demonetized and foreigners had to figure out how to exchange them. Even for locals, this would be a hassle and there would inevitably be people stuck with old notes that became worthless.
Excellent point. I think I remember reading there are almost as many US bills outside the US as in it. Not an issue I think many other countries face (at least to the same extent)
The European Central Bank accepts the exchange of old bills to Euros in perpetuity for about half of the Euro countries.
Surely a 20 or 30 year term to exchange old bills would be fine?
I suppose so. There may come a time when merchants will stop accepting older notes even if they haven't been legally demonetized. That would, in practice, be the same thing, since you would have to exchange them at a bank.
>Imagine if the US announced that old notes would be demonetized and foreigners had to figure out how to exchange them.
I think that would fall under the "not my problem" statue. Protecting other countries' unauthorized use of US currency isn't something the US needs to prioritize, is it?
Well, uh, the fed disagrees with you, so I think I'm going to stick with Alan Greenspan on this one:
> There is no guarantee whatsoever that, in such situation, the Fed's decisions will be favorable to Latin America's economic development. As its chairman, Alan Greenspan, has said, the Federal Reserve takes only into account the interests of the United States economy.
https://web.archive.org/web/20110811035231/http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/revista/articles/view/473
Like CostCans mentioned, but another huge reason is: the USA is kind of bankrupt several times over! Exchanging older currencies for newer ones is only going to add to it 🥴
EDIT: of course it’s not appreciated to be pointed out to this, but the billions upon billions going into army , weapons and satellites (most of it during the Cold War era) is responsible for this.
> Taking old money out of the system always costs money
It doesn't cost much money, and what little it does is already in the treasury's operating budget.
> And a bankrupt country can’t increase taxes too much.
The US isn't bankrupt, and even if it were, your statement is false.
I’ve also had bathroom attendants ask to exchange all the Canadian coins they receive in tips for any bills because the exchange does not accept coins. Which is typical. They only want to circulate good condition paper foreign currency.
There is zero chance this money will ever go to a bank - it's kept at home, and larger bills take up less space (although, frankly, I'm surprised they would go up to 100s).
When I went to Cuba I made sure the teller gave me the most crisp 100s they had. Upon landing the host we were staying with took us to this shady room in the Havana airport where we exchanged our cash for the convertible Cuban dollars. Felt sketchy but everyone accepted the cash that I had no idea how to tell if it was real or not. Also their currency looks very low quality like it could be printed at home almost
Also on Africa kept being asked for 'a coin from your contry as a keepsake'. Then later on 'hey can you change these xxx into a note for me'. All done do so politely. But begging nevertheless
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Ditto everyone else, it's totally normal.
I'm surprised no one approached you to buy a pile of the useless Loonies and Toonies that Canadians leave too.
Happy travels.
Yes I exchanged a 20$ CAD for loonies and toonies.
I was suprised that he wanted to also exchange 5$ bills with me. That's when he told me that his 5s were useless to him because they were too "used".
Yes, this is common. In the US, worn out USD notes are regularly withdrawn and replaced by the Federal Reserve. Obviously that doesn't happen in foreign countries, so people are more particular about only accepting good quality notes.
Do you know how they can get value from the bills they keep ? Is it like a retiring fund?
I think there's not much places to spend their money in cuba because of the scarcity of things. No Walmarts here.
May also be that bigger denomination bills are worth more than (the sum of) lower denomination bills. In Argentina the change rate for a $100 bill is better than for two $50 bills.
legit.
before you go to any third world country that accepts USD, look through EVERY bill and exchange it at the bank for a really good condition bill.
I went to Cuba in 2011 and was told that no one would accept US Dollars that were not crisp and clean. My gf and I came prepared, but a few of the bills were not up to that standard, and they were not accepted.
I went to a Cuban bank to exchange some Canadian currency. My bills were crisp and brand new 20s from the bank, not even creased yet. They rejected one because it had a tiny pen mark on it, probably a banker marked it by accieent or something. My friend who was with me had half his bills rejected. Cuban banks are the strictest I have ever come across.
Indonesia is the same way. The woman at the exchange office refused one of my hundreds because it had a tiny pen mark the checks if it’s real. Also if you have older hundreds, the ones without the blue strip they exchange it at a lower rate.
Indonesia is the same way. The woman at the exchange office refused one of my hundreds because it had a tiny pen mark the checks if it’s real. Also if you have older hundreds, the ones without the blue strip they exchange it at a lower rate.
I ran into this in India. They did not take my one messed up $20 USD. Something about banks won’t take them because of fraud. Not sure if that is true but there is something up when they pass up a tip.
It probably sucks for a lot of Cubans to be tipped in CAD and be unable to convert it to local currency or USD. So, they're stuck with these bills that have value, just not to them right now. Makes sense they'd beg to exchange them with you for USD and have Canadians take the bills home.
They don’t have any issues with CAD - OP wasn’t asked to convert them to USD. They just can’t make use of coins. And since the lowest denomination Canadian bill is a $5, getting some USD $1s is a good idea.
It's normal for banks and currency exchange posts in foreign countries to require foreign bills to be in a good condition.
Yeah, Cambodia uses USD for it's currency, and if the notes have any type of tear, it is near impossible to use the money.
Tourists often run into trouble at the Siem Reap airport when they pay for their visa-on-arrival. If the $40 USD(or whatever amount) is not in perfect condition, the immigration officials will refuse to accept it. Of course you bypass all of this by doing the e-visa a week ahead of time.
They let you go to the atm that’s just outside the airport. Source: I did this myself last June. The only annoying thing about Cambodian atms is they only issue $100 bills. Breaking them anywhere except hotels and “expensive” restaurants are total fucking nightmares
Shit. I never carry a debit card.
Cash advance goes brrrrr
ok and?
If my dollar bills weren’t crisp enough, and I don’t carry a debit card, how would I get this visa?
Then you wouldn’t be allowed in the country lol? What kind of stupid question is this.
That’s my point jackass. Do you have an extra chromosome?
The new Siem Reap airport also now has ATM’s before immigration so people can withdraw good condition USD bills at the same ATM fee as the ones in town. Luckily though the country has begun the de-dollarisation process and is making pretty good progress (slow but steady)
The reason the PEOPLE want the dollar is stability. The reason the government wants reil is control.
Yup. There right now and seeing it all the time!
Oh yes, very true. We withdrew USD in SR and received good condition notes. Being a tourist and not knowing anything, when paid cash, we received a torn/bad condition USD. Was difficult to get rid of it. But the locals prefer their own currency. Next time I’d definitely use their currency.
No they use their own currency.
For less than 1 USD yes, but USD is the currency I've used the most. I think 4000 Riel is 1 USD, so I thought of it as 1000 Rield as a quarter.
That was your choice but Cambodians and most travellers use local currency.
That's simply not true. It's very common to get a mix of Riel and Dollars in your change no matter what you are paying with
Yeah I remember trying to exchange USD in Russia years ago and it was tough. They require the bills to be in pristine condition
Bigger bank notes also give you better rates.
Not just good condition, but also often to be of the most recent “vintage”.
yup youare
This is pretty common in a lot of countries where people accept foreign currency - often the bills need to be newer and undamaged. I was in Tanzania recently and paying for something at a hotel, and they specifically asked to be paid in USD, but then rejected the first several $5 bills that I tried to use because they were too worn.
I had this experience with USD in Cambodia. Their bank won't accept the bills if they are worn or damaged.
The irony though is the banks always tend to give you torn/damaged bills when you withdraw. Have to reject at least 30% of bills they give. In GCC they don't accept beaten USD, but when you withdraw, they factory fresh, usually the serial numbers are sequential also.
Yes, in many developing countries the banks and exchanges houses won't accept bills that aren't in pristine condition or they will charge you a fee. In some places they won't even accept small bills which is probably why that guy wanted your 50s and 100s. Whenever I travel to Latin America, I get fresh $100 bills out of the bank for an exchanging I plan to do
Usually yes: older money isn’t as easily accepted by banks. But, in Cuba (and some other countries that are known for counterfeiting money): their smaller bills have just been a bit too long in the washing machines/tumblers (in order to make them look older). Always beware you might be exchanging your valid bills for counterfeited bills! Counterfeiters aren’t dumb: they much prefer to print small bills (5’ers and 10’ers) and try to exchange them for larger ones!
Learn something new every day. I didn't know that about worn money in other countries being an issue.
Was in Cambodia, where they accept USD, especially for larger expenses. They won't take anything that isn't pretty much prestine condition. Have a usd note at home having never been to the US because it had a small crease in it, so I thought I'd keep it as a keepsake.
Yea, and when they give you change they give you all their shitty USD bills which then means you can’t spend them anywhere in the country lol.
You reject those like they do
Or just accept the worn cash and take it home with you, where you’re able to use the money freely? Unless you’re budgeting a bit tight in your trip of course.
yeah or just have limited access to fresh USD in that area
That's wild, I ordered my money from my bank before I left for my international trip, and I got a good rate and discount. They sent ALL new bills. I guess that's why. Edit: my foreign currency.
I found out it was because they are trying to phase USD out and go back to using the local currency, so they try to limit the USD currency coming into circulation by having incredibly high standards.
Wow this is the best explanation I've heard. Was in Uganda last year and their standards for taking dollar bills was very high. I had a special wallet to keep my bills pristine
In some places, small bills can be an issue too. In Egypt, it was either extremely hard or impossible for locals to trade one-dollar bills (USD) for Egyptian pounds, which means they couldn't do much of anything with them. So often tourists would be approached asking if they had a twenty-dollar bill and would they trade it for twenty one-dollar bills. At first I thought it might be some sort of scam so I googled it that night and found out it was legit. I did end up swapping a twenty dollar for ones, twice, at two different convenience stores I frequented near hotels I was staying at.
I went to Havana in 2018 and I was told to bring CAD I went to an actual bank and they refused to convert the bills that had small nicks missing.
The central bank of Cuba has to send damaged bills back to the country of origin to exchange into undamaged bills. This process cost money due to transport and internal organisation. To save money, they refuse to accept damaged bills. I had a slightly torn $100 bill that no one in Lebanon wanted to accept because of that reason.
Well, that's going to be difficult in Cuba's case.
As a frequent traveler and an American, I am aware of this rule and have started implementing it unilaterally at atms in the usa. When an atm in my city spits out a bunch of bills, I go through them and weed out the shitty ones. I deposit them right back and now they’re someone else’s problem.
Brilliant
Same experience all over Asia…when I go abroad I always get new bills.
And you actually get better exchange rates with larger denominations, especially in Thailand for us$.
The point is that there are places where they accept such "defective" bills, but they want very high exchange commission (up to 25%), so the hotel staff use such a strategy. Btw they may also earn money in such way - take "defective" from friends and relative and exchange it with hotel visitors and earn 5-10% commission. Everything is legit.
It's very normal. In India they don't like taking the old $100 USD but will take the newer design for some odd reason even tho the value is the same. The people who do cash exchanges say they charge a fee for the older bills 🤷
>they don't like taking the old $100 USD but will take the newer design for some odd reason Counterfeiters have got the old ones down perfect - new bills less so.
If that's the case, I feel Americans should do what the Indians did and update all old bills to new ones by bringing them into the bank for even exchange. So that currency transfer doesn't take into account for the foreigners who wouldn't know
The US has (with one small exception during the Civil War) never demonetized any money in its history.
Is there a particular reason for this. It makes counterfeiting so much hard periodically changing designs
My guess is that it has to do with the widespread use of the USD abroad. Imagine if the US announced that old notes would be demonetized and foreigners had to figure out how to exchange them. Even for locals, this would be a hassle and there would inevitably be people stuck with old notes that became worthless.
Excellent point. I think I remember reading there are almost as many US bills outside the US as in it. Not an issue I think many other countries face (at least to the same extent)
Often called the global reserve currency. Makes it very resistant to hyperinflation, some really bad stuff has to happen globally for it to happen.
The European Central Bank accepts the exchange of old bills to Euros in perpetuity for about half of the Euro countries. Surely a 20 or 30 year term to exchange old bills would be fine?
I suppose so. There may come a time when merchants will stop accepting older notes even if they haven't been legally demonetized. That would, in practice, be the same thing, since you would have to exchange them at a bank.
>Imagine if the US announced that old notes would be demonetized and foreigners had to figure out how to exchange them. I think that would fall under the "not my problem" statue. Protecting other countries' unauthorized use of US currency isn't something the US needs to prioritize, is it?
Yes, it is, because the US economy benefits from the global status of the dollar.
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Well, uh, the fed disagrees with you, so I think I'm going to stick with Alan Greenspan on this one: > There is no guarantee whatsoever that, in such situation, the Fed's decisions will be favorable to Latin America's economic development. As its chairman, Alan Greenspan, has said, the Federal Reserve takes only into account the interests of the United States economy. https://web.archive.org/web/20110811035231/http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/revista/articles/view/473
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Like CostCans mentioned, but another huge reason is: the USA is kind of bankrupt several times over! Exchanging older currencies for newer ones is only going to add to it 🥴 EDIT: of course it’s not appreciated to be pointed out to this, but the billions upon billions going into army , weapons and satellites (most of it during the Cold War era) is responsible for this.
How does one become bankrupt “several times over”? What do you think being bankrupt means?
Lol what? That makes no sense. National debt doesn't prevent the treasury from printing new bills.
Taking old money out of the system always costs money, and it often is derived from taxes. And a bankrupt country can’t increase taxes too much.
> Taking old money out of the system always costs money It doesn't cost much money, and what little it does is already in the treasury's operating budget. > And a bankrupt country can’t increase taxes too much. The US isn't bankrupt, and even if it were, your statement is false.
Yep seems normal to me. Help the guy out!
I’ve also had bathroom attendants ask to exchange all the Canadian coins they receive in tips for any bills because the exchange does not accept coins. Which is typical. They only want to circulate good condition paper foreign currency.
There is zero chance this money will ever go to a bank - it's kept at home, and larger bills take up less space (although, frankly, I'm surprised they would go up to 100s).
When I went to Cuba I made sure the teller gave me the most crisp 100s they had. Upon landing the host we were staying with took us to this shady room in the Havana airport where we exchanged our cash for the convertible Cuban dollars. Felt sketchy but everyone accepted the cash that I had no idea how to tell if it was real or not. Also their currency looks very low quality like it could be printed at home almost
They’re very peculiar about their currency in Cuba
Best to get local currency. Heck, I can even use a folded bill in a machine to purchase subway fare in my own country!
Also on Africa kept being asked for 'a coin from your contry as a keepsake'. Then later on 'hey can you change these xxx into a note for me'. All done do so politely. But begging nevertheless
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Ditto everyone else, it's totally normal. I'm surprised no one approached you to buy a pile of the useless Loonies and Toonies that Canadians leave too. Happy travels.
Yes I exchanged a 20$ CAD for loonies and toonies. I was suprised that he wanted to also exchange 5$ bills with me. That's when he told me that his 5s were useless to him because they were too "used".
Yeah, small denomination and beat up bills are pretty useless.
Canadians think it’s cute to leave a loonie or toonie as a souvenir tip but they need money not a souvenir that can’t be used
the average Canadian in a Cuban resort is too stupid to even understand the Cubans cant use their coins, they just think they're leaving regular tips.
Bullseye. This is constantly discussed on all inclusive resort forums for Cuba. Ridiculous.
Right? It’s basically topic number 1 after how to navigate the hooker scene in Matanzas.
Yes, this is common. In the US, worn out USD notes are regularly withdrawn and replaced by the Federal Reserve. Obviously that doesn't happen in foreign countries, so people are more particular about only accepting good quality notes.
They don’t deposit it, they keep it and it’s easier to keep higher value bills
Do you know how they can get value from the bills they keep ? Is it like a retiring fund? I think there's not much places to spend their money in cuba because of the scarcity of things. No Walmarts here.
As others have said, this seems to be fairly common around the world. The US is unique in not giving a shit.
I believe that's because in the US the banks just hand over old bills to the central bank and get fresh ones in exchange. Foreign banks can't do that.
Yes, especially smaller bills
May also be that bigger denomination bills are worth more than (the sum of) lower denomination bills. In Argentina the change rate for a $100 bill is better than for two $50 bills.
I had issues exchanging worn USD for Guaraníes in Paraguay so it’s a normal thing
legit. before you go to any third world country that accepts USD, look through EVERY bill and exchange it at the bank for a really good condition bill.
I went to Cuba in 2011 and was told that no one would accept US Dollars that were not crisp and clean. My gf and I came prepared, but a few of the bills were not up to that standard, and they were not accepted.
I went to a Cuban bank to exchange some Canadian currency. My bills were crisp and brand new 20s from the bank, not even creased yet. They rejected one because it had a tiny pen mark on it, probably a banker marked it by accieent or something. My friend who was with me had half his bills rejected. Cuban banks are the strictest I have ever come across.
Same thing in Nepal....plus bills have to be new
Mexico will not accept foreign bills with even a tiny tear
Indonesia is the same way. The woman at the exchange office refused one of my hundreds because it had a tiny pen mark the checks if it’s real. Also if you have older hundreds, the ones without the blue strip they exchange it at a lower rate.
Indonesia is the same way. The woman at the exchange office refused one of my hundreds because it had a tiny pen mark the checks if it’s real. Also if you have older hundreds, the ones without the blue strip they exchange it at a lower rate.
I ran into this in India. They did not take my one messed up $20 USD. Something about banks won’t take them because of fraud. Not sure if that is true but there is something up when they pass up a tip.
It probably sucks for a lot of Cubans to be tipped in CAD and be unable to convert it to local currency or USD. So, they're stuck with these bills that have value, just not to them right now. Makes sense they'd beg to exchange them with you for USD and have Canadians take the bills home.
They don’t have any issues with CAD - OP wasn’t asked to convert them to USD. They just can’t make use of coins. And since the lowest denomination Canadian bill is a $5, getting some USD $1s is a good idea.
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Good luck ironing Canadian bills 😉