Vietnamese currency 

"How to change money?" is always an important question that every tourist concern before they travel to a new place. In this article, we comes up with the most useful tips about how money exchanged in Vietnam, with the aim to helpe you avoid being cheated. 

1. Types of currency in Vietnam
Unlike many countries in the world, Vietnam uses paper money as a major replacement for coins. 

Photo of denominations in Vietnam: 500 VND – 500,000 VND

Vietnam's money is made from polymer material, with denominations of 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000,200,000,30000,50000,100000,200000,500000. Since the value of money carries digits of 0, even Vietnamese people sometimes feel awkwardness with these zeroes. Besides, foreign money such as Euro & USD are also used in Vietnam, especially in shops, restaurants, hotels in major cities (Hanoi, Saigon, Da Nang, Hue, Hoi An ...). Use to convert to Vietnamese dong at banks or money changers.

♦ Notes 
Tourists should pay attention to differentiate in order to avoid confusion between the following face value:
+ 10,000 and 200,000VND 
+ 20,000 and 500,000 VND
Their colors are the same, but differentiates in term of size

♦ Advice for you
- You would better keep some changes with the value under 50, 000 VND in case you want to pay for some cheap stuff such as a bottle of water, a pack of chip, a bowl of rice noodle or taxi fee. 
- Money with a face value of more than 100,000 or more should be placed separately to pay for larger value items such as clothes, souvenirs, sightseeing tickets, hotel room rentals, motorcycle rentals, etc.
- To exchange money, you should refer to the exchange rate first, the following link refer to the state bank VIETCOMBANK: https://www.vietcombank.com.vn/ExchangeRates/

Rates vary by day. For example, the exchange rate of 10.05.2018:
  1 EU = 27.132.01VND
  1 USD = 22,805.00 VND

2. Payment methods in Vietnam
The cards which are commonly used in Vietnam can be knowns as Visa, Mastercard, American express. Besides, you should keep in mind that a pay by card but you will have to pay a card fee of 2 to 3%. In the situation of cash withdraw, you can come across many ATMs on the streets. By using this, you will receive money with the exchange value depending on the bank rate of the day you withdraw.
 

♦ Notes Do not use a check as they are not common in Vietnam.

3. Tips money in Vietnam
In this article, I would like to emphasize to you that Tipping is not required in Vietnam, depending on the satisfaction that the service brings to you. Therefore, you should pay Tips only for the following situation: 
- Usually in Vietnam, when traveling, people often tip for guidance, driver , carriage, transporter
- For guidance, usually 10-20 euros / day / group. If your group is composed of more than 6 people, you can tip from 3 to 4 per day.
- For drivers, the tip is usually 5-10 Euros / day / group.
- For carriers on Ha Long, Cat Ba ... then you can provide them 1eu / person.
- For service staff at restaurants, hotels, depending on the quality of service you can also tip them 1-2euros.

>>> Read about Travelling tips in Vietnam 

Hope the above information may be useful for you to answer questions before traveling to Vietnam.

Have a nice trip!