Hi Guys,

My brother and I will be coming to Rio on March 7th, 2006 from Toronto, Canada. In terms of money, should we bring Canadian currency or should we exchange it into US dollars before we leave Canada. Also, would there be a difference in exchange rates if we bring travellers cheques instead of cash?

Thanks

Plenty of threads on this topic, but basically, US dollars do you no real use in Brasil. They have their own currency, right?

Carry loonies if you want and convert at cambios or preferably, just use ATMs. Do not bring travelers checks, that's a tremendous waste of time and and a lot of money. Only use credit cards at your hotel, at stores at the malls and at termas (small extra charge at termas and some require the garota portion in cash), don't use credit cards at restaurants.

I'd say credit cards / ATM cards are the way to go for getting cash...

But I disagree with Catacony on one point - you can go around and exchange USD for reals lots of places - I doubt you would have the same luck with Canadian $s...

Credit cards and ATM cards - No travelers checks at all. - Hemp

So, you would recommend exchanging loonies for US dollars and letting the bank take the percentage on that transaction, and then do it again to get reals?

And yes, you can exchange dollars at a lot of places, and sometimes you get a better rate than an ATM machine. But, a lot of places take a hefty chunk out of the exchange, like 4x4 and the restaurants.

Oh, I forgot to mention - my first thought on Roby's post was "he must think he's going to Tijuana or something" where dollars are used everywhere. Brasil is certainly not like that at all.

My two cents: In Brazil you often can get much more favorable rates with U.S. currency than other countries'. I don't know the extent to which this applies to Canadian currency, but it is quite possible one would do better to pay a commission in Canada to convert to greenbacks, and then another one in Brazil to convert to reais.

The last time I as at Solarium, they were giving VERY favorable conversion rates on U.S. dollars, much better than one could get at a bank or ATM; this applied only to dollars you used to pay your bill there. I don't know about the other termas, or whether one week they give good rates, another lousy, etc. I doubt they would even accept Canadian money, let alone give a favorable rate on it.

Unlike in some other countries where travelers checks get better conversion rates than cash, travelers checks get the worst conversion rates in Brazil. The only reason to bring them to Brazil would be if you are extremely paranoid about carrying cash, and don't have credit cards and ATM cards.

ATM cards used to be the way to go as the base conversion rates tend to be fair. However, many now add on an international currency exchange fee (hidden in the conversion rate) that runs from 1 percent to 3 percent, the latter not being uncommon. Also, most of the ATMs in Brazil that take international ATM cards, add a $6 real convenience fee, unless the card was issued by the bank owning the ATM (e.g., Citibank, or HSBC).

I haven't done so, but I understand HELP is another place you can get good rates exchanging U.S. cash for reais.

And don't forget to tell your credit card companies you will be in Brazil; otherwise they may put a security hold on your account and/or ATM card.

I've never had a problem using credit cards in Brazil despite using them extensively here, but had a major problem with a fraudulent transaction put on my credit card in Buenos Aires. But, fraud does happen (although I would be interested in what others experiences have been in Brazil in this regard). If you do use credit cards and have web access to your account activity, it's not a bad idea to check it out now and then while here (although I suppose there is a risk in doing so from an interent cafe).

If I were a canuck, which I am since I root for team Cananda in hockey, well I'd just bring credit cards and cash in canadian dollars. Why get ripped off twice, exchanging into dollars then into reais, does not make sense to me. Correct you wont be able to get reais inside of Help, but cambios give good exchange rate.
Go Oilers.

Thanks Guys for all the advice, I hope to meet some of you in Rio next week.

By the way Athos, its GO LEAFS, LOL.