Money exchange Usbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran
 

Hi,

Not long to go and we will had off to Central Asia towards Iran.

For Kirgizstan and Kazakhstan exchange is clear. Plenty of ATM’s or Forex offices. Thanks to an old Guidebook last time we wasted some money in Uzbekistan using a bank. The question is now, what are the actual (black) market rates in:

Uzbekistan
Turkmenistan
Iran

Anybody recently travelled can help?

Kind regards
Bernd

Bring cash. Dollars or Euros will do. Debit or credit cards won't work, nor will Paypal or other payment systems that have any presence in the US. (*)

Use small forex shops, not banks. The banks use government rates which are a lot worse than the real international rates. Forex shop rates are closer.

If you don't want to carry a lot of cash all the time, some Iranian banks like Meli bank offer short term accounts with tourist bank cards.

(*) in a pickle you can get cash using common credit cards like Visa or Mastercard or Paypal but not through official channels. Some carpet shops in tourist hotspots offer it as a service but at a considerable administration cost. Some forex shops in Theran also offer it but not at the shop itself. Look for shops with small Visa or Mastercard logo somewhere inconspicuous. They will provide you with an address to an anonymous flat filled with computers on a permanent VPN connection to the rest of the world. You do a transfer to a foreign account (usually in Germany) and get cash in return. administration fee can be up to 10%.

The rates are hard to say, they change sometimes very quick.

I would just change a small amount at the border in UZ and then ask about the rate, and later in a city ask at a hotel.

In Turkmenistan last year it was not allowed to change with private persons.
When we did it, they really checked if someone can see it, rate was a bit better than officially.

In Iran just ask, when we came from Turkmenistan the rate directly by private persons in the border area was good, and after the border at a bank they told us to get privat ones.

At this time the difference was for 100USD: 4.500.000 at the bank, and 10.000.000 private, so 2,5 times as much

How much do you need to carry? What is relative daily burn rate comparing to Europe?

It's hard to answer that question because it can vary a lot depending on your travel preferences. And the economical situation in Iran has changed dramatically since I was last there in 2016. Better ask someone who was there in the last few months.

I was there Aug 2018

I changed 200 USD at the Turkmen border and hat a little bit left at the Turkish border.

But just 5 days, and 2 days very good hotel **** in Teheran and a fixed shock in a repair shop in Teheran

I had a similar question for Tajikistan as well

Do you guys normally bring cash all the way from home or is there a place to get it perhaps Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan?

The way I do it:

I have cash in USD for the journey, maybe 2-3000 USD ( depends on where I go.... )

and i have that stored on different places for emergency and when I get no money from ATM in some countries.

Usually I bring a lot back home.

But as withdrawals are limited and you need a bigger amount ( maybe fix something etc ) you have cash

There are ATM in Kasachstan and Kirgistan, but I already had the problem that not everyone was working or accepting the card

From what I've heard Master Card doesn't work more often than Visa be it Central Asia or Latin America. Friend of mine had issue with MC in Mexico and after we spent an hour+ on phone trying to sort it out (he has hearing loss so I had to mediate it) ended up taking advance cash off Visa. In his case money actually left his account but never arrived got timed out somewhere en route.

Do gas stations accept credit cards or cash only? Or credit in big cities only?

Big gas stations in Kasachstan and Russia accept credit cards.

Never tried in Kirgistan.

I am carefull, that is why I usually pay with cash and us cc only in Hotels or ATM

Some Halyk Bank ATMs in KZ (major shopping locations in the cities mainly) dispense USD and EUR as well as local Tenge, but in any case Visa cards should work as normal.

In Tajikistan you could use ATMs in cities when you have Visa. When going onto the pamir highway, don't expect any ATMs anymore.

Back to the question.
Uzbekistan: black market is history. We got Oanda mean rates at the banks and changed the Euro for 9600 Som
Turkmenistan: 17 to 18 Manat for the Dollar
Iran: massiv drop of the exchange rate within the last days 127500 Rial for the Euro

Except Turkmenistan Dollar and Euro rates are equally to their ratio.

According locals you can withdraw Dollar from the ATM in Uzbekistan, we never tried.

Regards
Bernd

I was able to take dollars from ATM's in Samarkand two months ago using my Visa Debit card. I had to try a couple till finding one that worked.

In general Visa seems to be more popular than MC in that part of the world.

I brought some dollars with me (1k) but most of the time I was using my Visa on ATM (I didn't visit Turkmenistan or Iran).