The Cuban peso is available at between 20-25 to the Convertible Peso (CUC) from the Cadecas but to all intents and purposes is worthless for tourists. The hotels only deal in Convertible Pesos (CUCs), the only shops which have something worth buying conduct all their transactions in CUCs, all the local bars and music venues will expect tourists to pay in CUCs and will refuse you admission if you try to argue otherwise and the locals know how worthless it is to you and won't thank you for tipping them in local pesos unless you give them at least 25. And the Cadecas will refuse to change them back for you if you have any left over at the end of your stay.

You just have to accept that there is a dual economy in Cuba and clause No1 in the job description for 'foreign visitor in Cuba' is that you will pay far more than the locals do for anything and everything. If you have a problem with this you'll have a problem with being a tourist in Cuba. Given that even the cheapest of packages to Cuba will have cost more than what most locals earn in a year (even most docters only earn the equivalent of about 100CUCs per month) then I think that the Cubans are justified in assuming that you can afford to pay a lot more than locals do. If we knew that the vast majority of visitors to Britain where paying anything remotely approaching the average annual wage in the UK in order to spend a fortnight here then no doubt we'd do the same.

That said I do usually get just a few pounds worth of local pesos because they are handy for buying fruit from street sellers, it's worth going into the non-CUC shops just to see why the locals are so desperate to get hold of CUCs and not have to shop in them and if you want to risk life and limb on taking a ride on the converted 3 ton army trucks that are used as local buses then you need local pesos for your fare. But you're not likely to have any other use for them. Any I have left - and I always do even though I change less on each visit - I simply give away to someone local, making it clear that it isn't a tip just a way of me getting rid of something useless to me that does have some value to them. Anybody that I am going to tip I always do so in CUCs or in kind or on most occasions both.

SM

thanks for that, my question fully answered.
we've been to cuba 3 times before but then they took american dollars.
BOB

Hi Bobthebus,

Just one final point I forgot - most locals will still refer to the CUCs as 'dollars' in order to distinguish them from local pesos and the $ sign is still used for the CUC. Until recently the exchange rate for the CUC was roughly pegged to the value of the US dollar but now that the US dollar is slipping aginst other hard currencies it tends to follow the Euro exchange rate. You'll find that if you have any leftover Euros from a European trip then you'll have no problems getting them changed into CUCs at roughly the rate of 1 for 1. This is why sometimes you'll find people being advised to take Euro travellers cheques as a substitute for US dollar cheques but there's no point in doing this unless you live in the Euro Zone. They'll happily take Sterling in either cash or TCs but only in Bank of England notes (ie no Scottish or NI notes) though I have heard that the new version of the £20 note has caused a few raised eyebrows but you shouldn't have problems at the Banks or the offical Cadecas.

SM

thanks SM your very thorough.
BOB

Can anyone tell me if GM Mastercard is widely accepted in Cuba,with GM(Vauxhall) but known as General Motors(USA Company)we wondered if mastercard was accepted regardless of the card?

Cards should have no affiliation to American Banks or Companies, Mastercard is accepted but I doubt yours will be because of the link with General motors. Barclaycard, Egg, Tesco, Royal Bank of scotland, Natwest, Halifax are all ok, or any cards issued in association. MBNA is def not accepted.

Can anyone tell me if I can use my Abbey Visa Debit card in Cuba, I know that the Credit cards arent accepted because they are outsourced to MBNA. I tried phoning Abbey but I was told you can use a Visa card anywhere in the world I did try explaining cuba didnt accepted cards backed by a US bank but he assured me it would be fine. As I'm posting on here you can probably guess I have no faith in them lol.
I'm leaving on Thursday so hope someone can tell me before then
Many Thanks

Will they take $$$ ?

No they won't take $$

I heard in some news that you should have a currency exchange before you even land on the place. Apparently, this has been the target of most scams for tourists.

I don't understand the point the above poster is trying to make but the CUC is not available outside Cuba and can't be obtained in advance of arrival. There are currency exchange desks at Havana and Holguin airports immediately after Immigration and Passport Control and it's easy enough to change your money whilst waiting for the luggage to come through.

SM

Am guessing I can use my Mint c/card as Mint is a 'Business name' of Royal Bank of Scotland?

Hi there Mr Naive here, my wife and i travel to Cuba in 2weeks(YIPPEE!!!!) and we're going to take a credit card so i just wondered whether anybody knew if a Lloyds Mastercard was ok to take as i've heard they are quite fussy that there is no American connection to the credit cards they accept? Also we will be taking travellers cheques for the first time and we're a bit unsure how we use them so any help on that front would be gratefully received.Thanks in advance, Mr Wet nose!!!!!!

You definitely can't use American Express Travellers Cheques and you might struggle to get hold of any other brand, or to get them changed. Cash is best, just make sure you keep it safe.

I have been everywhere to try and get Travellers Cheques that are not American Express.Am very dubious about taking cash.We are off to Havana in the middle of our holiday.Do I leave my cash in the safe at my main hotel or do I carry it with me to Havana?
Do not want to take cash if I can help it.
How can these Travel Agents sell you these holidays but can't help with some sort of currency?

I was dubious about it as well - I did manage to get some Thomas Cook Travellers cheques at Gatwick, but even the staff member there advised me that they would be hard to exchange. We took mainly cash and kept our money in a safe when we could.

In the end, cash is the easiest option for Cuba. Even if you can get non-American Express TCs, unless your signature is absolutely identical cashiers will often refuse to take them. they seem reaaly cautious and concerned that they won't be honoured otherwise. You will be able to draw money as a cash advance against your credit card but will pay over the odds for it. In Havana you will probably be able to track down ATMs that will pay out against your debit card but a lot of the 'banks' in Cuba are really Credit Unions and their ATMs can only be used by members.

On the other hand my exprience is that the risks of carrying cash are lower in Cuba. Obviously, don't ever carry on your person any more than you need at a time but it reaaly isn't worth any chambermaids while to even think of stealing from guests. The police in Cuba are very hot on ensuring that toruists aren't victims of crime and any allegation of theft would be taken very seriously. Cuban citizens are required to carry their identity cards and papers at all times and the police can not only require them to be produced without reason at any time but can literally mark someone's card for committing an offence which means that any subsequent police officer inspecting their card would know that they had been investigated. Even if the allegation proves unfounded and an entry is subsequently cancelled the fact that the allegation was made would still be there. No chambermaid or anybody else with access to your room is going to want to put themselves in the position of running the risk of a tourist even making an allegation against them much less having it proved to be true. Jobs in the tourist industry are much too precious.

SM

Hi, we are going to Varadero, in a couple of weeks for a fortnight.

It all sounds a bit complicated

We thought we had better take mostly cash with a debit card as back up so - couple of questions.

Will my Nationwide card be accepted here? we usually always use this for travelling due to the free card use abroad but Cuba is a tad different to most places I think

Also, if we book any trips with the reps, would they accept debit cards as payment as the tour operators are English (if you see what I mean?)

And (slightly off topic) How much is the norm for tipping for drinks etc?

Thanks VM

Hi all just wondered £££££££`s or euro`s??????????

is there much difference in exchange rate??