Halifax Clarity Card (Vietnam)

sophieboo

Hello

I am going to Vietnam soon and want to use my Halifax Clarity card to pay for some things. However, I can't find the exchange rate to Vietnamese Dong on the Mastercard Website (where I believe the rate comes from).

Can anyone help me out?

Thanks

Voyager2002

Anything less than a million dong is not worth worrying about.

Doshwaster

I've just got back 2 weeks in Vietnam and had a fantastic time. I used Clarity exclusively for withdrawing cash. According to my statements I was getting about 34200 to the pound, though this varied slightly each time.

A few of things to watch
- most machines change 50,000 Dong withdrawal - about £1.50
- most machines have a maximum withdrawal of of 2 million Dong which is about £60. However I was finding that easily enough the live on for 2 days (it helps when you can get a beer for 15p!)
- If you get 500,000 Dong notes then change them at a bank as they can be hard to use for small transactions.

The money may look strange to start with but you soon get used to it. Just ignore the last 3 zeros and multiply by 3 to get the price in pence.

Have a great time.

Doshwaster

Edit: couldn't find the Mastercard rate but this is the interbank history and MC should be very close to that

http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=VND&view=1M

As you can see, it has been around 34200 for the past few weeks which is what I was charged. I wouldn't worry about small daily changes as it is only going to be pennies of difference.

sophieboo

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply - really useful information. Thanks :-)

NiftyDigits

Doshwaster wrote: »

I've just got back 2 weeks in Vietnam and had a fantastic time. I used Clarity exclusively for withdrawing cash. According to my statements I was getting about 34200 to the pound, though this varied slightly each time.

A few of things to watch
- most machines change 50,000 Dong withdrawal - about £1.50
- most machines have a maximum withdrawal of of 2 million Dong which is about £60. However I was finding that easily enough the live on for 2 days (it helps when you can get a beer for 15p!)
- If you get 500,000 Dong notes then change them at a bank as they can be hard to use for small transactions.

The money may look strange to start with but you soon get used to it. Just ignore the last 3 zeros and multiply by 3 to get the price in pence.

Have a great time.

Next time.... use Techcombank ATMs. No ATM withdrawal fee.

Doshwaster

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Next time.... use Techcombank ATMs. No ATM withdrawal fee.

Thanks. I'll bear that in mind for next time - and I had so much fun then there is sure to be a next time. If I could save £1.50 then that would be enough to pay for 10 Bia Hoi beers