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Money in Vietnam: cash, cards, QR payments and banknotes

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Change money only at official exchange counters, and learn the two blue notes before you pay with cash. If you want to scan Vietnam’s QR codes, check your card or wallet first: only some foreign options work.

Where are you paying?

Getting cash

  • Change money only at official exchange counters that clearly display their status. Changing elsewhere is illegal, and you risk losing your money.GOV.UK (opens in a new tab)gov.uk
  • Using ATMs? Check your bank’s foreign withdrawal fees before you fly. Vietnamese banks add their own fee too: see ATM fees.

ATM fees

Use a TPBank ATM. With a Visa card, take out just under 5,000,000 VND at a time: the flat 55,000 VND fee is about 1.1%. With a JCB card, BIDV and Agribank charge nothing.

These are the fees each bank charges cards issued outside Vietnam, from its published fee schedule. Your own bank’s fees come on top.BIDV (opens in a new tab)bidv.com.vn

What do the notes look like?

Vietnam’s polymer notes are all printed with the same portrait, so tell them apart by size and colour:State Bank of Vietnam (opens in a new tab)sbv.gov.vn

  • 20,000 VND: dark blue, the smaller of the two blues (136 mm long). The back shows the Pagoda Bridge in Hoi An.
  • 500,000 VND: blue and bluish purple, the longest note in the set (152 mm). The back shows Ho Chi Minh’s house in Kim Lien.
  • 100,000 VND: dark green, with the Temple of Literature on the back.
  • 10,000 VND: dark brown on greenish yellow, with oil rigs on the back, and the smallest note (132 mm).
  • Colour is the weakest clue for the two blues. Check the size and the back of the note before you hand it over.

If it doesn’t go to plan

  • Handed the wrong note? Check the denomination before you let go of it, since the 500,000 VND note is 25 times the 20,000 VND note.
  • Card or QR won’t work? Pay cash, and change more at an official counter.