Paying with USD in Third World Countries
 

Has anyone had any problems paying with the new colorful twenties (or now, perhaps the old ones)in lesser developed countries that normally accept USD as payment?

No the information about the new bills was world wide news.

I was just in Sri Lanka, no problems.

One word of warning, always carry NEW bills, they won't accept torn or really old bills.

Regards,
Robert

Was in West Africa last week and used the new $20 notes. Had no problems at all- though they checked each note under UV light.
Almost all these places are fully aware of the new notes.

Brazil, Peru, Boliva and Argy this month. No issues.

ALWAYS take clean bills to places like Peru and Bolivia or they will NOT take them. No red marks, no purple marks, no writing on them etc.

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~ Glen ~ sipping bubbly from a UA 747-400 exit row 15 near you SOON!

Oh, and NEVER take old style $50 or $100 bills. Never!

Funny how the third world is more in tune with our new money than the clerk at the local Ralphs. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

I've carried $2 bills as a novelty for years. Usually have a 90-95% acceptance rate in the USA. Some folks think they're not real, or are bad luck!

Overseas, in developed countries if they would take dollars, they sure didn't want to take $2 bills. In less-developed countries I found it very easy to spend $2 bills. They were often valued at MORE than $2.

I was in Albania about 5 years ago, just as the larger faces of the presidents began appearing on the bills.

My contact told me, "Bring Big Heads"!

I was in Cambodia a week ago and I had no problems with US$ (all notes). Also no problems with old ones, because you often get dirty money back form local dealer. Only, if the note is torn, it will not be accepted any more by dealer (but you can change at a bank)

A slight caveat to the above post on Cambodia. I've been living here for a couple of years, and have seen that torn bills (especially of larger denominations) are NOT always accepted by the banks. Sometimes they'll take them, sometimes not.

The new $20 bills are indeed no problem, though.

- Michael

You were not there with Biden's son were you?

This is because the US Government spends millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars on worldwide education of changes to our currency.

I have done this twice and have had no problems; but I am not living there ...

Series 1996 $100s (the big heads) seem to be no-gos in many places in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. As do any of the small heads.

In Russia, absolutely everyone is well aware of every intricate detail of the bills, and there is no problem with acceptance at banks or exchange points. The days are gone when you would pay in a restaurant with greenbacks: the rule is Roubles only, but businesses get around this by setting their prices in 'Conditional Units', where 1 C.U. = $1. When the time comes to pay, they just multiply the bill by that day's official exchange rate, add a (large) pad to cover themselves for the exchange rate risk, and take Roubles cash. If you pay by credit card, same thing - you sign a chit denominated in Roubles, which then goes through the regular channels. If you do the latter, you are being whacked twice (and in the case of Amex, three times if your card is not denominated in US$) on the exchange rate!

As for torn or defaced notes, most banks in Russia will accept them, but again, they will charge you a premium for this - generally in the form of an exchange rate 10% - 15% worse than normal.