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Hard currency in Money
Hard currency in Money
In many poorer countries with inflationary, unstable, and/or inconvertible currencies, a foreign hard currency may prove more useful than the local currency. Although its value fluctuates, the "gold standard" for currencies remains the U.S. dollar. It may be accepted as payment directly by locals, though not necessarily at a good exchange rate. In fact several countries in the Caribbean, the Americas and Southeast Asia use it as their de facto ? or even official ? currency. The euro is also increasingly well accepted, at least in regions with many European visitors, and small countries with economically powerful neighbours may also accept regional hard currencies (such as the
Thai baht in Laos and Cambodia, the Australian dollar, or sometimes the New Zealand dollar in much of Oceania).
You can use hard currency when haggling with locals by offering hard instead of local currency. Use the conversion rate to your advantage and make an offer in hard currency. Showing a few U.S. dollars in the process might help but be sure to show only what you are willing to pay. Also, if you plan on haggling, be sure to have small notes available so you don't need much change back, especially if you just haggled a price much lower. You don't want to be giving a vendor 50 for an item worth 5; you'll be inviting the vendor to try to sell you more things or, even worse, let nearby pickpockets know how much you have.
It is wise to carry an emergency stash of hard currency separated from all your other belongings and valuables. Some businesses that deal with a large number of foreign tourists may also accept foreign money but almost always at an inferior exchange rate to allow for the inconvenience.
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Money Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.