Currency for Brazil

Dr_Crypto

Planning a holiday to Rio de Janeiro and I’m wondering about travel money. We usually just use credit card and withdraw a bit of local dosh from an airport or hotel ATM, but I’m entirely unfamiliar with South America and have read a bit about fraud etc being common. Am I better ordering currency before travel or taking USD to change over there? 

Also is uber reliable out there? 

Cheers! 

eDicky

The currency of Brasil Is the real. Unless you already have some spare dollars to use up, it would be unnecessary expense and hassle to buy them. You can easily exchange cash pounds directly to real in country.

You can pay by card (keeping it within sight) whenever possible and draw cash from ATMs in the usual way, best using a fee-free card (see the MSE articles) of course.

In general maintain good awareness and you'll be ok - don't display excess cash or carry all your cards or keep your wallet in a vulnerable back pocket etc...

The Starling Bank debit card is fee-free overseas and can be selectively controlled in the app to switch off ATM use, online transactions etc when not being used, to reduce the chance of fraud.

Dr_Crypto

Thank you. Very useful advice! 

benjus

I would not in general recommend taking cash pounds to South America, but maybe Brazil is an exception. In other countries in the region, you can exchange pounds but you'll find it much easier to exchange dollars and you won't get a great rate for pounds - I generally recommend taking cash dollars to Argentina, for example. However, for Brazil I've just used my card to withdraw cash and/or pay for things directly, so I've never actually tried to exchange pounds or dollars.

Keep a close eye on your account and take at least one backup card, as card cloning seems to be a problem in Brazil. As eDicky says, if your bank allows it keep the card deactivated except when you're actually using it.

TheRightOne

You may need to shop around for an ATM that doesn't charge a withdrawal fee.

Ballard

I went to Brazil way back in 2005 and was initially confused with the way that ATMs work over there. It may have changed since then but the machine spat the card out early on in the process. I had assumed that the card was being rejected the first few times but it turned out that that was normal. This was a worry at the time because the only cash that I had was a few Argentinian Pesos.

You will find that many ATMs are inside phone box type constructions for safety. I never had any issue when I was there but always be aware of your surroundings.

I don't speak any language other than English but it's worth noting that Real is pronounced He-ale and the plural is something like He-ayshe.

Dr_Crypto

Very useful thanks all. We have a selection of cards so will take those and monitor activity at least daily if not more often. Cheers. 

TheRightOne

TheRightOne said:

You may need to shop around for an ATM that doesn't charge a withdrawal fee.

Though I may be mixing up Peru with Brazil(embarrassed).
At the airport, go to the Banco do Brasil bank to withdraw cash there.