Discussions of the best strategies for obtaining cash and paying during our stays in Brazil have popped up on a number of threads. The purpose of this thread is to consolidate those topics. Items to discuss include: Best credit cards, debit cards and pre-paid cash cards to use Currency exchange strategies Avoiding fraud
Reposting on the right thread: Rule-of-thumb with ATMs here: inside a bank? Good. Inside a store? Well, if I don't have any other option. On any public place, like airports, bus stations, the street? Avoid as possible.
Maybe some locals in Brasil would be interested in trading some currency. Both parties win, no fees for anybody. I received a PM from a Brasilian wanting to do that. If you can set it up while there, that would be a great way to exchange. Otherwise, I will be avoiding ATMs at the airport, and looking for one in a bank. Only problem is I get dinged from my bank here for withdrawing. I think it was $5USD each time. Also, if you want some reais on hand before going, try and call your bank and see if they can order it. Unfortunately, my bank only does the major currency players, and Brasil isn't included.
I already bought a bunch of Reias that I will bring with me in Brazil - got them at my local Chase Bank for the market exchange rate. I've been to Brazil before and from my experience all of the exchanges ("Cambios" - look for them, they are around all city centers and in most banks) will charge a bit of a fee or give you a worse exchange rate than what you could probably get right now. Plus, I expect the rate to creep up once the Cup begins and demand for Reais takes off due to the influx of international tourists. So hopefully by buying my Reais in advance I will have created some money out of thin air. You never know with exchange rates, though.
Why is inside of an airport bad? Is it a safety thing or a ATM fee thing? When traveling that's the only place usually where I take out money
Depends on how good you want the beer to be. Anything from 3 reais to 30 reais. By the way, we don't measure in pint. The closest you get is the bigger can (which is actually a pint), and 600ml bottles.
With beer available at less than a quid, I believe quality will not be an important factor in the decision making of most England fans, especially after the first two or three. Personally I intend to find good beer, at least on occasion.
Dirty-cheap beers, yeah. Itaipava, Devassa and so forth. Best selling beers here cost from 4 (on supermarkets) to 8 (on restaurants). They're worse than regular British largers, however. These are the likes of Brahma, Skol, and such. A bit more expensive (2 reais more) and better, you can find Bohemia, Antarctica Original, Heineken. But things really start getting good with Eisenbahn and the like. But that's already ~14 reais in a supermarket for 2 small bottles (around a pint).
Mate. Have you seen England fans en masse at away games? You could sell them piss for six quid a pint (that's what they do at Wembley) and they would still buy it. So if someone is selling piss for a quid, there'll be a queue.
But what about good beer bars in Sao Paulo. I see you're going to games there. I have heard good things about Cerevejaria d'Ofio. Any good? Where else? I am staying at the Ibis in Jardins, so a stumble home to there would be good.
I don't have even near enough knowledge of São Paulo to recommend anything, sorry. You better refer to the guys in the São Paulo thread, they've discussed that quite a bit.
My plan is to use citibank services: https://www.citibank.com.br/english/foreign_exchange.html https://www.citibank.com.br/english/cash_withdrawal.html
Having been to Brazil last year, my recommendation would be to have a couple of cards, at both a Mastercard/VISA. A lot of ATMs were temperamental and would only take certain cards so you don't want to be caught out. PS if you're going to Argentina before hand, bring A LOT of USD.
I'll be travelling through Argentina for two weeks before the WC kick off. I appreciate if you share the reasons as to why I need to bring a lot of USD to Argentina. I had considered to bring a few hundreds USD in hand as I plan to primarily use my CC and withdraw cash from ATM with my debit card. I learnt that Argentina has recently altered restrictions on buying USD. http://rt.com/business/argentina-dollar-purchase-limits-295/ Thank you for sharing any learnings/experience regarding USD and getting Argentina pesos. Thank you
i will be definitely doing the same. will go to a local chase, got a friend who works there as well + no fees.
I would exchange some reais for dollars without fees for sure. I am based in Sao Paulo. If anyone is interested please PM me.
There are pages of this discussion on moneysupermarket in the UK (http://www.moneysupermarket.com/travel-money/). I went for the FairFX prepaid card. Low transaction fees, great exchange rate, and gives you a flexible balance, as you can top up online. Have used the US$ and € versions previously without any sort of a hitch. http://www.fairfx.com/cardselection
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/jan/24/argentina-peso-devaluation-blue-dollar-tourism this gives you a pretty good run down of the state of play in Argentina - not saying you use the market if you don't want but we had a lot of USD on us and many places accepted USD. At the end of the day, you don't want to be stuck with a currency that not a lot of people are going to take, pay in USD (As it's readily accepted) and even if you're stuck with excess, you'll be able to change for Reals in Brazil. When I went there, I'd transferred at the official rate for Pesos before hand and had a tour booked in advance so didn't take advantage of it.
i will exchange some money with my bank before leaving too probably so i have like R$200 on the time i arrive well i have a maestro debit card and a mastercard credit card i hope to find atm's that accept my debit card if i believe the atm map by mastercard apparently the nearest bank to where i stay that is suppised to take either card is a bradesco branch if i remember correctly 24horas atm's should work as well as citybank (those only seem to exist in the bigger cities though probably the hostcities all count as bigger cities though). I read that banco do brasil will always take visa even in the smallest village that has a banco do brasil you can go in there with a foreign visa and will be able to get money idk if it is true just what i read won't work with non-visa however. It all probably also depends on the card provider but looking wether the atm has the symbol you need eg maestro seems key
This was posted in the other thread that we were discussing this stuff in that we shouldn't have been Never quite made it to the store today before it closed but looking at it this may well be worth looking at My Bank were offering $AUD 100 >> BR$179 + the fees for foreign conversion which would be the 3% So basically for AUD$103 I would get BR$179 According to the STA website where there is a box in the bottom corner on the right side there offer appears to be $AUD 100 >> BR$194 and no fees for foreign conversion other than 1% to load on So basically for AUD$101 I would get BR$194 I may be missing something here so don't jump the gun yet but the thing does appear to be quite promising and requires further research just to clarify that rate is actually right