Vietnam
VietnamMoney
Reading the notes, avoiding ATM fees, and where cards actually work.
Do you need cash in Vietnam?
Yes. Hotels and malls take cards, but street food, markets and short rides all run on cash — and the notes are easy to confuse.
Where can I get cash with a foreign card?
ATMs are everywhere and international cards work at more than 20,000 of them — but local-bank machines cap each withdrawal low, so the machine you choose decides your fees.
Can you haggle over prices?
In markets and casual shops, yes — the tourism board's own word for it is gentle negotiation. Ask a few vendors first so you know what the number should be.
How do I avoid mixing up the banknotes?
Go by length, not colour. Each polymer note is 4 mm longer than the one below it — 132 mm at 10,000 dong, 152 mm at 500,000 — and that ladder holds where colour fails. The tourism board warns in its own words that the 20,000 and the 500,000 are similar shades of blue, and they are twenty-five times apart.